Sound Card Help

[Kembokient]

Hey guys I am currently investing in a new sound card. At the moment it is the ROG Xonar Phoebus, but their is a problem... where does the sound card go and will it go with my build?

Yer I know I sound like a noob.

 

My PC build:

 

CPU: i7 3820

OS: Windows 8

RAM: 16GB Hyper X Ram

Cooling: CORSAIR H55

Motherboard: ASUS RAMPAGE IV FORMULA

HDD: 2TB

SSD: KINGSTON 240GB SSD

GRAPHICS: ASUS GTX 680

PSU: Huntkey X7 900W PSU

ODD: LG BLURAY COMBO

MOUSE: RAZER NAGA EXPERT MMO GAMING MOUSE

KEYBOARD: RAZER BLACKWIDOW ELITE 2013

MONITER: ASUS VS247H

 

LOL forgot to add my headphones, I currently have the Razer Kraken 7.1.

[Quest]

What do you mean "Where does it go?"
Like. Physically?

What audio stuff will you be doing?

[CoolBeans]

It will go on your motherboard. You don't need a soundcard. If you want louder get a DAC/AMP

[Guest]

lol you gave us every spec but the most important one: the headphones/headset you own.

 

Regardless; you do not need a soundcard.

[Rorgash]

What they have said

[SeanBond]

You need to invest in pretty fantastic headphone before thinking about getting a sound card. Onboard is fine for most things. You need very serious headphones before you need a dedicated sound card.

[mythicalbeast]

It goes in a PCI slot. But as a owner of a ASUS Xonar Essence STX, I can tell you this: Onboard audio is just as good.

[Kembokient]

What do you mean "Where does it go?"

Like. Physically?

What audio stuff will you be doing?

I mean physically 

[MUSTANG651]

and ATH-AD500X is good enough to feel the difference?

[mythicalbeast]

I mean physically 

Well thank you for seing that allready have answered that...

[EmoRarity]

and ATH-AD500X is good enough to feel the difference?

Its not a matter of "good" or "bad" impedance, and all but a few headphones are below the impedance at which a sound card or replacement solution in general makes sense.

[MUSTANG651]

Its not a matter of "good" or "bad" impedance, and all but a few headphones are below the impedance at which a sound card or replacement solution in general makes sense.

what headphones for example?

[NannerBeans]

what headphones for example?

Usually it's headphones over 80 ohms and are not able to drive loud enough on onboard that will benefit from a sound card. But even then a Fiio E6 is usually a better solution. 

[EmoRarity]

what headphones for example?

Dt's

 

Usually it's headphones over 80 ohms and are not able to drive loud enough on onboard that will benefit from a sound card. But even then a Fiio E6 is usually a better solution. 

150Ω*

[NannerBeans]

Dt's

 

150Ω*

Isn't it 8x the output impedance which is usually 10 ohms?

[EmoRarity]

Isn't it 8x the output impedance which is usually 10 ohms?

But why spend money when onboard can still drive headphones up to 150Ω, with disregard to damping factor. 

[NannerBeans]

But why spend money when onboard can still drive headphones up to 150Ω, with disregard to damping factor. 

Which is why I said over 80 ohms and can't be driven loud enough by onboard. 150 ohms just seems like you're pulling a number out of thing air

[ShearMe]

Which is why I said over 80 ohms and can't be driven loud enough by onboard. 150 ohms just seems like you're pulling a number out of thing air

 

And you're not?

[EmoRarity]

Which is why I said over 80 ohms and can't be driven loud enough by onboard. 150 ohms just seems like you're pulling a number out of thing air

Its an average of what most Realtek based boards can push.

[MUSTANG651]

so it's all about impedance and amplifier?

[EmoRarity]

so it's all about impedance and amplifier?

Yeah, in a nutshell.

[MUSTANG651]

Yeah, in a nutshell.

very interesting. and what about other components of the sound card? DAC and everything

[EmoRarity]

very interesting. and what about other components of the sound card? DAC and everything

DACs do nothing more then turn data into an analog sine wave. Now one DAC can't make a better sine wave then another* its more dependent one the file. And since machines struggle to hear the difference between a 256kbps 16 bit file and a 320kbps file, you can't tell a difference either. And other things like caps don't change sound, and the only emi shield short of a Faraday cage is distance.

*older DACs will not be as accurate, but that was 10 years ago....

[Guest]

Sensitivity of the headphone is at least as important as impedance. Saying that most motherboards can push X ohms is an oversimplification at best. For one thing, it doesn't account for low impedance, low sensitivity headphones that require a lot of voltage to drive.

[MUSTANG651]

Then why people bying ASUS Xonar D1/DX? Why they are so popular? The placebo effect?