Reasons why a dedicated sound card is superior to onboard sound?

[MrCrazyJesus]

I have been having a debate with a friend as to why a dedicated sound card is better than onboard sound. The friend claims a sound card (any sound card) has no noticeable benefit over regular onboard. I however, disagree with him, but have never been able to prove him wrong. I was hoping that some of the forum members could provide me with inarguable facts as to why a sound card makes a difference.

[MicroApple911]

Make him watch a Linus video ;). Have you had him try a sound card, then after that on-board audio? Also dose he have a decent pair of headphone, as that may be the difference of he has tried a sound card before.

A sound card would have less interference (espialy the ASUS Xonar Essence STX with its bad ass shielding).

[h=3]The dynamic range of on-board leaves much to be desired.[/h]

There a couple I could think of

[Guest]

Does he own Beats?

[DrewZealot]

Sound cards are technologically superior to almost any onboard sound you can get, with the exception of some ultra high end motherboards.

Depending on the sound card, they can be better at different things. The Essence STX is good for headphones, because it can push impedance of up to 600 ohms. This means you are getting well over $1,000 headphone range before you can't run your headphone off of that sound card. With onbooard sound, they can generally only push around 32 - 80 ohms of impedance, which is what mid range headphones generally have.

Not to mention signal to noise ratio. The Essence STX (this is what I will use for my examples because it is the one I own and know the most about) has 124 dB SNR. Every 3 dB is a doubling of sound quality and crispness. I am not totally positive on the specification of most onboard audio for SNR, however I would assume it is in the 100-110 dB range. This means that sound quality difference between my STX and onboard is 4-8x better.

Not to mention the fact that usually onboard does not have input for things like 7.1 surround. It also does not usually come with the suite of software that people may like for their audio equipment, such as Dolby Headphone.

Now, if you have $50 headphones or some cheap speakers, will having a nice sound card make a difference? Probably not, because the bottleneck in that setup is probably your equipment, not the actual source of the sound. However, if you have really nice speakers or headphones, you would most certainly notice a difference between onboard and dedicated. Most notably would be the background static.

Also, just as an example, my Beyerdynamic DT770's have a technology in them that allows them to amplify lower noise signals, so I can pick up bass that would otherwise not be heard. If I were to plug these into onboard sound, the source of the sound itself will not pick up this low frequency, making that technology in my headphones useless.

tl;dr: Dedicated sound is better in every way, shape and form to onboard sound as long as your actual sound equipment is not the bottleneck.

[MrCrazyJesus]

No, I haven't been able to show him the difference, mainly because of the distance I would need to travel to show him (its quite far), and he also refuses to buy one. What I want is objective facts, and not a subjective opinion e.g. "I got one and I can hear the difference".

[gasho]

From my experience I can assure you it makes all the difference. I changed from on board audio to a 750 Euro stereo audio system. I was playing all my favorite games again because it was like a whole new experience with that system. You can have Ultra graphics but if the sound is mediocre you are loosing a lot. Same for movies of course.

Best prove was when I was playing and my roommate came to watch the game play because he heard the awesome audio and he was just loosin' it.

My system

Onkyo 9155 2x65W

Polestar Vanguard V-R1 Speakers

Pro-Ject USB audio box

[MrCrazyJesus]

Sound cards are technologically superior to almost any onboard sound you can get, with the exception of some ultra high end motherboards.

Depending on the sound card, they can be better at different things. The Essence STX is good for headphones, because it can push impedance of up to 600 ohms. This means you are getting well over $1,000 headphone range before you can't run your headphone off of that sound card. With onbooard sound, they can generally only push around 32 - 80 ohms of impedance, which is what mid range headphones generally have.

Not to mention signal to noise ratio. The Essence STX (this is what I will use for my examples because it is the one I own and know the most about) has 124 dB SNR. Every 3 dB is a doubling of sound quality and crispness. I am not totally positive on the specification of most onboard audio for SNR, however I would assume it is in the 100-110 dB range. This means that sound quality difference between my STX and onboard is 4-8x better.

Not to mention the fact that usually onboard does not have input for things like 7.1 surround. It also does not usually come with the suite of software that people may like for their audio equipment, such as Dolby Headphone.

Now, if you have $50 headphones or some cheap speakers, will having a nice sound card make a difference? Probably not, because the bottleneck in that setup is probably your equipment, not the actual source of the sound. However, if you have really nice speakers or headphones, you would most certainly notice a difference between onboard and dedicated. Most notably would be the background static.

Also, just as an example, my Beyerdynamic DT770's have a technology in them that allows them to amplify lower noise signals, so I can pick up bass that would otherwise not be heard. If I were to plug these into onboard sound, the source of the sound itself will not pick up this low frequency, making that technology in my headphones useless.

tl;dr: Dedicated sound is better in every way, shape and form to onboard sound as long as your actual sound equipment is not the bottleneck.

Thank you very much, this response is exactly what I was looking for.

[Aphexx]

what sound output is he using? headphones, speakers? what kind of headphones and speakers brand make model the sweetest of sound can only be as good as the speaker that it comes out of.

I wont appreciate the subtleties of a 40 year old scotch if I mix it with coke and.... milk.

will I truly enjoy a $100 plate of sushi if I cover it in ketchup and peanut butter

or I just finished watching a bunch of military movies. a squad is only as fast as its slowest soldier.

second note. what is each device doing.... a mother board is a busy device. tonnes of stuff is going on power is flowing around to the usb devices the processor is screaming to the left of it the graphics card is pounding out data. imagine that being a loud busy factory and look at where the onboard sound outputs from clustered in the back near all those I/O devices. all those electrons screaming around in there can cause interference and that can be picked up by your audio.

a sound card just does sound. it is isolated from all that possible interference from the motherboard the good cards even come covered with a good shroud to further isolate it.

if that doesn't help. don't let it bother you. some people just don't get it. I've let people I know listen to my headphones and I get mocked for how much I pay for them. after listening they say it just sounds like their earbuds that came bundled with their sound devices. in those cases just be glad that you have better ears than them and walk on.

... now I'm all hungry for peanut butter sushi and scotch and milk.

[Guest]

now I'm all hungry for peanut butter sushi and scotch and milk.

God help you.

[DrewZealot]

now I'm all hungry for peanut butter sushi and scotch and milk.

God help you.

That does sound like an interesting combination of food. I wonder if it's ever been done before?

[MrCrazyJesus]

what sound output is he using? headphones, speakers? what kind of headphones and speakers brand make model the sweetest of sound can only be as good as the speaker that it comes out of.

I wont appreciate the subtleties of a 40 year old scotch if I mix it with coke and.... milk.

will I truly enjoy a $100 plate of sushi if I cover it in ketchup and peanut butter

or I just finished watching a bunch of military movies. a squad is only as fast as its slowest soldier.

second note. what is each device doing.... a mother board is a busy device. tonnes of stuff is going on power is flowing around to the usb devices the processor is screaming to the left of it the graphics card is pounding out data. imagine that being a loud busy factory and look at where the onboard sound outputs from clustered in the back near all those I/O devices. all those electrons screaming around in there can cause interference and that can be picked up by your audio.

a sound card just does sound. it is isolated from all that possible interference from the motherboard the good cards even come covered with a good shroud to further isolate it.

if that doesn't help. don't let it bother you. some people just don't get it. I've let people I know listen to my headphones and I get mocked for how much I pay for them. after listening they say it just sounds like their earbuds that came bundled with their sound devices. in those cases just be glad that you have better ears than them and walk on.

... now I'm all hungry for peanut butter sushi and scotch and milk.

I believe that he is using a Razer 7.1 surround sound headset, but I cannot remember which model. He is also using the onboard sound on the Asus Rampage 4 extreme x79 motherboard.

[Aphexx]

now I'm all hungry for peanut butter sushi and scotch and milk.

God help you.

well.. I was initially typing out a bunch of gibberish food but come to think of it peanuts do well in vietnamese wraps, it wont work well with delicate fish but peanut butter might have a chance with an avocado roll or something avocado/crab roll? hmmm.

aint no way I'm wasting scotch to mix with milk though.

[Salmiakbal]

It depends. Maybe someone has shitty hearing, maybe someone has shitty headphones or maybe someone is to ignorant to notice the difference. A sound card is not for everyone. I like good sound, but my laptop's onboard sound in combination with Sennheiser HD 25-1-II is just fine. There's a lot of placebo in play and specs generally don't say a whole lot. A few days ago I tried €0.70 in ears with a supposed 12 to 22000 Hz signal response. Well I can tell you they sounded like true shit.

You can't convince them with showing specs and tests, they need to hear it for themselves. Whether they notice the difference or not is for them to decide.

But, since he's got a Razer 7.1 headset, a soundcard is probably nothing he would need.

[SimpleQuantumComputer]

Razer 7.1 headset? Must be USB. No benefit from an actual sound card since it's digital uhh... filth (I'm just the guy who says analog audio is the best because I know it - have made numerous serious stereo setups for people before).

But presume someone has proper headphones, say Sennheiser HD439's, the difference from Realtek onboard to say a Xonar Essence ST/STX the differences will be as follows:

1) Hardly audible at low volumes

2) Quite audible at higher volumes - you start to hear less distortion, headphones will have much more oomph to them and might have better soundstage.