Will a soundcard improve my sound/mic quality?

[hahnn]

Hello! As per thread title , I have a question to ask , will I get a boost in quality if I were to get , say a Xonar essence STX? I'll be using it with my Razer Carcharias (I know it's a sin to be using that with the soundcard) , fret not , of course I will be upgrading in the near future. Also , I've googled and couldn't find any samples of mic quality improving using the soundcard. 

 

Any audio samples and advice will be truly appreciated!

[FireFox]

I should hope so (audio quality at least) otherwise the whole concept of having a sound card is surely pointless but it would also depend on the speakers that you are using.

 

If you have a good sound card but shit speakers then it'll be pointless, I doubt you'll notice any difference.

[hahnn]

I should hope so (audio quality at least) otherwise the whole concept of having a sound card is surely pointless but it would also depend on the speakers that you are using.

 

If you have a good sound card but shit speakers then it'll be pointless, I doubt you'll notice any difference.

Hmm , but technically it should improve the audio quality right?  Compared to the onboard realtek ones. Need someone with an equal quality headphones and give some opinions here. Lol. 

[pspfreak]

Hmm , but technically it should improve the audio quality right?  Compared to the onboard realtek ones. Need someone with an equal quality headphones and give some opinions here. Lol. 

At leastt on my gigabyte board the realtek seems to be pretty good for audio recording. The most expensive sound equipment I have is my logitech z506 5.1 system... so that says a lot.

[FireFox]

Hmm , but technically it should improve the audio quality right?  Compared to the onboard realtek ones. Need someone with an equal quality headphones and give some opinions here. Lol. 

 

I would have thought so lol and that also would be a good idea.

 

I'm still rocking the onboard audio until I can get a litlte money together for a Xonar, I don't really need one because the onboard is pretty decent but I'd like one

[hahnn]

I would have thought so lol and that also would be a good idea.

 

I'm still rocking the onboard audio until I can get a litlte money together for a Xonar, I don't really need one because the onboard is pretty decent but I'd like one

Yea , true that. Quite a similar situation there , lol. But still need clarifications on whether it will improve quality on crappy "gaming" headphones.

[EmoRarity]

Soundcard in your case would be pointless, don't bother. 
Upgrade headphones first then don't get a soundcard. 

I should hope so (audio quality at least) otherwise the whole concept of having a sound card is surely pointless but it would also depend on the speakers that you are using.

 

If you have a good sound card but shit speakers then it'll be pointless, I doubt you'll notice any difference.

Thats want marketing would like you to think, and more so a soundcard worsens quality over onboard.
 

[hahnn]

Soundcard in your case would be pointless, don't bother. 

Upgrade headphones first then don't get a soundcard. 

Thats want marketing would like you to think, and more so a soundcard worsens quality over onboard.

 

Mind if you elaborate more on why does it worsen your quality over onboard? Pardon me , quite new into this kinda audio stuffs.

[EmoRarity]

Headphone advice, implying your budget is an average $150? 
Something like the SRH440s, HD380 Pro, or DT990 (With FiiO E10)
And a Blue Snowflake for a mic.

[ShearMe]

Mind if you elaborate more on why does it worsen your quality over onboard? Pardon me , quite new into this kinda audio stuffs.

 

read the FAQ

[EmoRarity]

Mind if you elaborate more on why does it worsen your quality over onboard? Pardon me , quite new into this kinda audio stuffs.

In audio simple is best, and onboard...is simple (electrically), while sound cards over complicate the matter. Mostly soundcards have a silly high output impedance which makes a debacle of fidelity. On top of drivers, which are gay, and a couple other things which I don't want to bother mentioning. 

[mr moose]

When it comes to driving speakers you'd be hard pushed to hear any difference. 

 

As far as improvements goes for mics, there maybe an improvement, but why spend $100+ dollars to slightly improve your mic at the expense of headphone SQ when you can just get a usb mic and have significantly better mic quality.

[cloud]

Headphone advice, implying your budget is an average $150?

Something like the SRH440s, HD380 Pro, or DT990 (With FiiO E10)

And a Blue Snowflake for a mic.

^ give this guy a prize. Although you're looking at 250-300 USD. This is the best advice on the thread if you want to seriously improve audio quality.

[cloud]

In audio simple is best, and onboard...is simple (electrically), while sound cards over complicate the matter. Mostly soundcards have a silly high output impedance which makes a debacle of fidelity. On top of drivers, which are gay, and a couple other things which I don't want to bother mentioning.

I completely disagree, a good sound card can greatly improve the audio quality. They support higher bit rates /depth. And don't have the noise problems you'd run into on an integrated soundcard. Increased quality means larger sound stage, cleaner audio, and can bring out qualities in your audio source that may have been previously suppressed by a built in sound card.

Keep in mind that all computers have some form of audio processor, and they require drivers. Some are automatically installed by Windows, some you have to install drivers (normally located on driver disk for mb).

[mr moose]

I completely disagree, a good sound card can greatly improve the audio quality. They support higher bit rates /depth. And don't have the noise problems you'd run into on an integrated soundcard. Increased quality means larger sound stage, cleaner audio, and can bring out qualities in your audio source that may have been previously suppressed by a built in sound card.

Keep in mind that all computers have some form of audio processor, and they require drivers. Some are automatically installed by Windows, some you have to install drivers (normally located on driver disk for mb).

I completely and strongly disagree,  soundcards do not have higher bitrates than onboard processors. In fact You will find very little difference between the DSP on a motherboard and the DSP on a soundcard.  Anything with a SNR above 93dB is as good as cd.  Yes some onboard solutions suffer interference, but 9 times out of 10 this is the result of component conflicts or poor installation.  Otherwise every onboard would suffer interference and they don't.  Sound stage is 99% the result of your headphones, not your source.

[ShearMe]

I completely disagree, a good sound card can greatly improve the audio quality. They support higher bit rates /depth. And don't have the noise problems you'd run into on an integrated soundcard. Increased quality means larger sound stage, cleaner audio, and can bring out qualities in your audio source that may have been previously suppressed by a built in sound card.

Keep in mind that all computers have some form of audio processor, and they require drivers. Some are automatically installed by Windows, some you have to install drivers (normally located on driver disk for mb).

 

That all might have been true in the past, but modern onboard is sufficient for most recordings, and soundcards are objectively worse for most headphones.

[Enstage]

As opposed to on board audio, slightly... But there are better options such as an external headphone amp if you are using those.