Is a Soundcard worth it?

[Inrix]

PBTech's having a big sale and I'm getting a new computer... I'm considering getting a soundcard for my DT 990 Pro's but I dont know if its worth it to spend 100-200+ on something like that... I already have an external amp so would it really be worth it?

[TheRandomness]

Unless you're a uge audiophile and/or your motherboard's onboard sound is crappy, soundcards aren't really worth it. I mean, if you really want to you can get one, but chances are you wont notice the difference.

[toasty6776]

30 minutes ago, Inrix said:

PBTech's having a big sale and I'm getting a new computer... I'm considering getting a soundcard for my DT 990 Pro's but I dont know if its worth it to spend 100-200+ on something like that... I already have an external amp so would it really be worth it?

Soundcards generally only make sense if your onboard audio is shit or doesn't have enough power to drive your headphones. So if you have an amp and right now your audio's fine, you don't need a sound card

[CNY RMB]

Since you already have a amp I would rather recommend a dac,  as with a dac you will have even less em interference as it is outside the case. A sound card wouldn't make a huge difference and for the price a decent dac would be better.

[SSL]

What amp?

[Inrix]

16 minutes ago, SSL said:

What amp?

http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-kilimanjaro-2-e11k-portable-headphone-amplifier/reviews/14277

 

^

[Dackzy]

3 hours ago, Inrix said:

http://www.head-fi.org/products/fiio-kilimanjaro-2-e11k-portable-headphone-amplifier/reviews/14277

 

^

that one is basically just a decent onboard amp. It is not very powerful at all, I am 90% sure that my onboard amp is more powerful, so I would say that it is a waste of money.

[Inrix]

4 hours ago, Dackzy said:

that one is basically just a decent onboard amp. It is not very powerful at all, I am 90% sure that my onboard amp is more powerful, so I would say that it is a waste of money.

The 990's Dont need much power but I get what your saying  I got it more so I could use them portable than anything else as its actually surprisingly good at getting the headphones to deliver decent sound. I can def notice the difference between with and without it using a comp and IPod even with the volume maxed.

 

But I have already got it  Ill probably stick with on-board for now and see what happens in the future.

[System Error Message]

There are various reasons to get a soundcard. If your onboard audio is realtek than a soundcard with its own CPU will be a lot better. Other than that it depends on what features you use such as the ports and software. The creative zxr i have offloads some tasks onto the soundcard itself and does come with its own software. Its not the best soundcard for the choice but it does have high quality inputs even optical in and sounds a lot better than onboard realtek with higher quality headphones.

 

If you have an optical amp you dont need a soundcard to drive it as the sound quality and analogue part is done by it, only if you need to supplement it digitally such as IO and processing if it doesnt have what you need.

 

For sound quality you will not hear a difference between onboard and dedicated amp if the speaker is crap. If its a good speaker you will hear the difference and the ideal soundcard will have a flat response profile with high resolution audio with its own cpu rather than what beats does. People will say that audio is modified from the studio but you dont want to modify it again and ruin it, rather the soundcard should give you control over the audio profile.

 

Soundcards are everywhere mainly in dedicated amps. Any stage even a small one has a bunch of them for all the channels they need, to drive the speakers and to modify the audio as needed, all tuned manually. The speakers used need a lot of power to drive them and you cant do that with onboard sound.

 

So get yourself a soundcard/dedicated amp if you need the IO, or want to offload processing, modify audio and if you need to drive better speakers.

 

The other reason is drivers (such as for software audio routing). Something like virtual sound card but done on hardware instead of CPU. I dont think a creative soundcard supports this feature.

[lettuce head]

I almost never recommend a sound card in a pc build for 2 main reasons.

1.) inside a pc case is a very bad place for sound to be transmitted, even with shielding. It may not provide the experience you desire.

2.) more importantly, for the price of most (good) soundcards, it's worthwhile to invest in an external DAC. It has the shielding you need for optimal audio, supports much higher ohm ratings, and doesn't exist in the electronic battlefield of your pc so it won't have (nearly) any interference.

[SSL]

28 minutes ago, lettuce head said:

I almost never recommend a sound card in a pc build for 2 main reasons.

1.) inside a pc case is a very bad place for sound to be transmitted, even with shielding. It may not provide the experience you desire.

2.) more importantly, for the price of most (good) soundcards, it's worthwhile to invest in an external DAC. It has the shielding you need for optimal audio, supports much higher ohm ratings, and doesn't exist in the electronic battlefield of your pc so it won't have (nearly) any interference.

 

I think the whole notion of "interference" is overstated, at least with regards to external DACs being necessarily less susceptible. USB connections are plenty capable of picking up interference and dirty power from the system.

 

As for the second statement, external DACs do not support "high ohm ratings". Aside from this being a meaningless metric of load difficulty, you cannot drive a load directly from a standalone DAC.