The Audio Board's Frequently Asked Questions, Pre-answered!

[rice guru]

On 11/21/2019 at 5:19 PM, ekyona said:

Hello, I couldn’t see an answer to this. I’m be asking a really dumb question. So does it matter where you plug in your headset? I recently bought a Asus board that comes with supremeFX. 
 

front of case or back on motherboard is a what I’m asking. 
 

oh and is I wanted speakers. Is optical better or your traditional green plug-in 
 

sorry for asking. Just trying to learn more. And I couldn’t really find an answer. 

you rmotherboard audio will usually be better as it will be better shielded and usually a lot cleaner whilce case manufaturers aren't great at naking their stuff shielded or sound great. they are more forcused on form over overall function generally.

 

for the gree plug output is analog and optical is digital. speakers and headphones are analog devices which means requires a DAC  to decode digital signals  into an analog signal.

[VCarmichael]

Hello everyone.

For year and half im proud owner of Sound Blaster Zx sound card, and thus far its been great, esspecially for my Audio Technica MTH-50. Recently i bought new set of speakers ( Logitech Z623 ) and i been running into problems. You see, whenever i wanna swap to either using headset or speakers i literally disconect 3.5mm jack on the back to plug in another device, wich is fine. My issue is whenever im in Sound Blaster Pro Studio control panel, under Speakers / Headphones tab i cannot switch from Headphones to Speakers (when speakers are connected to sound card). Whenever i try to do that, there is literally no sound whatsoever in Speakers mode, when i click Headphones - sound is back again. Now i would like to know why i cannot get that option in control panel to switch and why its always stuck just on headphones. If anyone haves ideas or any other advice it be greatly appreciated i tried googling issues - no luck whatsoever. Im also using latest drivers from official SB website, ty in advance for help.

[EmoRarity]

On 11/25/2019 at 12:59 PM, VCarmichael said:

*question*

I'd say it's a multichannel setting you don't need to worry about.

[Guest]

Chart for
"Tell me what to buy"
Speakers edition

 

PS:
 

Spoiler

 

[mao91]

On 3/31/2020 at 8:50 PM, fpo said:

Chart for
"Tell me what to buy"
Speakers edition

 

PS:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Are you asking?

[Guest]

6 hours ago, B.Toast said:

Are you asking?

Yes. 

[mao91]

6 hours ago, fpo said:

Yes. 

Ideally, if you have an $1100 budget, 2x Yamaha HS5 + HS8s sub, Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface, and price would include cables but not stands (stands can be acquired for about $30). 

But what IS your budget?

[Guest]

4 hours ago, B.Toast said:

Ideally, if you have an $1100 budget, 2x Yamaha HS5 + HS8s sub, Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface, and price would include cables but not stands (stands can be acquired for about $30). 

But what IS your budget?

I meant FAQ for commonly recommended price points. 

 

Like $200, $350, $600 $1000 and $3000. 

 

I don’t know price points really that won’t be wasting my money. 

 

Like if you’re building a PC, anything under $300 is likely a waste of money if buying new. Entry PCs are $400~$500. Mid range are $700~1000 high end are like $1200-$1500 and premium is $2000+

[mao91]

21 minutes ago, fpo said:

I meant FAQ for commonly recommended price points. 

 

Like $200, $350, $600 $1000 and $3000. 

 

I don’t know price points really that won’t be wasting my money. 

 

Like if you’re building a PC, anything under $300 is likely a waste of money if buying new. Entry PCs are $400~$500. Mid range are $700~1000 high end are like $1200-$1500 and premium is $2000+

It depends on what level of audio quality you're going for. Dollar for dollar, pure reference quality, Focusrite Scarlett Solo + 2x HS5 + HS8s + Sonarworks w/ full calibration and some basic room treatment + higher quality audio source (Tidal hifi or master is great for this) will give you the best listening experience available. 

Anything below that point won't get you proper reference, anything above it is purely snobby af imho (and I'm a professional audio engineer). Are there better speakers, AD/DA converters, preamps, etc? Absolutely. But they cost about 10-15x as much.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, B.Toast said:

It depends on what level of audio quality you're going for. Dollar for dollar, pure reference quality, 2x HS5 + HS8s + Sonarworks w/ full calibration and some basic room treatment + higher quality audio source (Tidal hifi or master is great for this) will give you the best listening experience available. 

Best bang for the buck in common price ranges. 

 

I really just don’t know anything really about audio equipment. 

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, fpo said:

I meant FAQ for commonly recommended price points. 

 

Like $200, $350, $600 $1000 and $3000. 

 

I don’t know price points really that won’t be wasting my money. 

 

Like if you’re building a PC, anything under $300 is likely a waste of money if buying new. Entry PCs are $400~$500. Mid range are $700~1000 high end are like $1200-$1500 and premium is $2000+

just like building pcs It depends entirely on your use case

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, rice guru said:

just like building pcs It depends entirely on your use case

I want an audio setup for my computer. 

General PC usage. 

[CsabyC]

Hi all,

 

Just a quick one here. I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX rev 2.0 motherboard, with a Realtek® ALC892 audio chip on it, having lots of advertised stuff on it like

- Absolute Pitch 192kHz/ 24-bit True BD Lossless Sound
- Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection 
- ASUS Noise Filter

and so on... For Speakers, I have a Logitech z906. What I want to really try is to benefit of the power of a separate sound card in my pc (or outside for that matter). So now I'm torn between these three:

 

Audigy FX, PCIE - Audigy RX, PCI-E - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro v3 (USB)

 

Which one would be recommendable?

[Entropy.]

On 10/19/2020 at 4:30 AM, CsabyC said:

Hi all,

 

Just a quick one here. I have an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX rev 2.0 motherboard, with a Realtek® ALC892 audio chip on it, having lots of advertised stuff on it like

- Absolute Pitch 192kHz/ 24-bit True BD Lossless Sound
- Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection 
- ASUS Noise Filter

and so on... For Speakers, I have a Logitech z906. What I want to really try is to benefit of the power of a separate sound card in my pc (or outside for that matter). So now I'm torn between these three:

 

Audigy FX, PCIE - Audigy RX, PCI-E - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro v3 (USB)

 

Which one would be recommendable?

I honestly wouldn't recommend anything, I doubt you'd benefit much with those speakers, disregarding the fact that soundcards these days are usually bad purchases- they're outperformed by external amps/dacs. As for the things your motherboard advertises, well, those are mostly buzzwords. 

[dimforest]

Dude, thanks for this.

[minervx]

Quote

Like $200, $350, $600 $1000 and $3000.   I don’t know price points really that won’t be wasting my money. Like if you’re building a PC, anything under $300 is likely a waste of money if buying new. Entry PCs are $400~$500. Mid range are $700~1000 high end are like $1200-$1500 and premium is $2000+

 

Late reply, but still very relevant question.  Returns diminish a lot sooner in audio than on PC parts. 

 

For headphones, microphones and audio interfaces, returns diminish past the $100-150 mark if that.  And there are great options in the sub $100 range that can produce professional sound quality.   

 

These are all dated technologies that were solved years ago.  There's nothing new and exotic that new releases do that older ones haven't done many decades ago, and technology has made it even easier to make those components at low prices.  

 

For speakers/studio monitors, that threshold is probably much higher, but keep in mind you need an optimal environment (room treatment and proper speaker placement), so it doesn't make sense for a beginner to buy a $2000 pair of speakers for their bedroom.

 

You may make the point why do studios use $3000 microphones if they can just use a $100 mics?  This is because they've already got the fundamentals down.  They have an ideal environment, and the knowledge/technique on how to use all their gear properly.   And if they have thousands of disposible income to buy expensive mics that their clients like, sure.   

 

But most consumers aren't at that that point; they have important things to spend their money on.

 

[CsabyC]

Hi all,

 

I've decided to ask my question here instead of creating a new topic.
I have a Logitech Z906 (I live in a studio apartment and it is convenient because I can connect a lot of things to it) and I was thinking about getting a separate sound card for my PC.

My reasoning would be is that, back in the day I never had the chance to experience some oldies but goldies that use EAX (Doom 3 or Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast) and I was looking for something that could be modern and also offer these features. Or should I just go for the old x-fi cards and switch between it and the one on my motherboard?

Also, I saw that Plouffe also uses a sound card and it looks like something to be from Creative but I've never figured out which model and I'm also curious as to why exactly?

BTW, right now I'm rocking an ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming motherboard.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.