Sound Card v Onboard Sound?

[Team42]

Hi. Advice needed!

The mobo (Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R) for my new build has Realtek 7.1 onboard sound, whereas my current rig has a Creative Labs Audigy Soundblaster SE card. I love the Soundblaster. It sounds great in stereo for music, and the 5.1 surroundsound in FarCry makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at times (note to self and psychoanalyst: it's only a game!). The current set up includes a Labtec 5.1 speaker system and I can't fault it, especially when music is playued through Creative's Mediasource.

What I'm wondering is, without anything to go on, whether I should migrate the Soundblaster (with speaker system) to the new build, or stay with the (theoretically better) Realtek 7.1 (but running 5.1).

I don't want to buy another sound card. Actually, I do, but I can't. I haven't the money!

Does anyone have experience of the Realtek in terms of gaming and music?

Or a spare couple of hundred quid so I can buy a new sound card and speakers?

[s_kinton]

The difference between the Realtek and the Sb SE won't be noticeable and isn't werth changing over. The SE is a low end Creative card.

If you were talking about a high end card i.e. x-fi then it probably would be worth changing.

[dfour]

I went from the HD audio on my Asus A8r32-MVP to a creative X-FI Fatal1ty card and the difference with games was outstanding. Save your pennies and buy one.

Why not just move the rigs next to each other and try the speakers on both. I would have thought the newer on-board would sound better than the old SB card as the SE was an economy model anyway.

[Spud1]

Your not going to notice much difference between the two chipsets you mention - I would actually say that the realtek is better than your current soundblaster, AND any of creatives current cards (which are all a bit pap tbh) - especially when using a PC speaker system as opposed to a proper dedicated amp+speaker setup.

So save your cash and stick with what you have at the moment, you won't notice any real improvement by swtiching to a dedicated card, even with a high end auzentech or similar

[Team42]

Now that I have the system set up (in basic form) I'm impressed with the Realtek onboard chip. I'm playing my music with Windows Media Player 10 at the minute. WMP seems to perform better with the Realtek chip than it it did with the Soundblaster.

I won't migrate the Soundblaster, but I'm not keen on spending any more money at the minute so I'll stay with the Realtek.

Anyone know of anything better than WMP for playing music?

[TooNice]

I've been using Foobar2k for a few years now. It's kinda the opposite of most players, in that it can be tweaked visually in every single way - but there is quite a learning curve (though you can probably find skins). I used Winamp before that. Lots of people are quite happy with WMP and iTune, and I can't really fault them. I've not touched WMP for a long time, so I imagine that all players support ASIO or Kernel Steaming these days, so I don't think you'll find any difference playback wise.

So my suggestion is just to go with the player with UI you like most, and the most pluggins you'll use.

And I must completely disagree with Spud1's take on sound cards. I've never used the Audigy, so it is one I can not comment on. But I have used a bunch of onboard sound card (including the RealTek 7.1), the SB64 all the way to the X-Fi, and popular non Creative alternatives and tested some of them side by side. Multimedia speakers are somewhat more forgiving, but using upper end in-ear-monitors and headphones, limitations of onboard sound card become very much apparent even against an Audigy 2 quality wise (even the Live! up to the Audigy 2 are infamous for the poor resampling algorithms - something fixed on the X-Fi).

Basically, the analog output of current onboard card are better than the Live! but behind the Audigy 2.

On a side note, in regard to dfour's post, X-Fi's are all the same for music playback, except with the very pricey Elite Pro (better DAC and opamp) and the upcoming Azuentech version (swappable opamp). Something to keep in mind if you do eventually decide to upgrade.

[scottxxx]

I've got onboard Realtek 7.1 and its a long way from my previous card, an M-Audio Revolution 7.1. There's a lack of detail and crispness to the audio. Saving up to buy either an Auzentech X-Meridian with upgradable opamps or maybe the Asus card which is based on the same chipset.

You can definately tell the difference with the more expensive cards, although to an extent it depends on what you use to listen to your music on - headphones, PC speakers or an amp + speakers. With a cheaper card I don't imagine it would be worth changing from onboard as the difference probably won't be that big, so I'd stick with onboard unless you plan on getting a high-end card.

Oh, for playing back music there's only one program for me - J.River's Media Center (http://www.jrmediacenter.com/) Think iTunes but a lot more powerful.

[PenguinJim]

True, with cheap PC speakers (say, £100 or less) then the X-Fi can be a good choice. If you've got decent speakers that do DTS or Dolby Digital Live, then an Auzentech card is definitely the way to go. I'm loving my X-Plosion.

I've had my eye on that Auzentech Prelude with the X-Fi chip, but it looks like it won't be an immediate purchase for most audiophiles: "Unlike other Creative Labs X-Fi offerings, the X-Fi Prelude 7.1 will support Dolby Digital Live, DTS Interactive and DTS NEO: PC algorithms. However, Dolby Digital Live encoding support will not arrive until Q4 2007 with a driver update. DTS Interactive and DTS NEO: PC support will not arrive until Q1 2008."

[TooNice]

I love my music, but I have a much bigger collection of CDs than DVD-Audio. So I can't say I value DTS/DDL much (wouldn't mind it, but wouldn't woo me). 2.0 digital out suit me since fine it is all I need to connect to a good external headphone DAC.

Of course, there are much cheaper than cards I could buy if all I wanted is a digital transport for an external DAC - but I must say that I love CMSS feature on the X-Fi for movies. For music, I value fidelity, but for movies, I am less bothered. What I do however want is good positioning, and quite honestly, I find the 'real thing' (DDL/DTS setup with through a DAC+Speaker amp) no more immersive than what I get with my AKG K701 with CMSS turned on. And that's about 1/5th the cost of the speaker system I listened to...

[BenW]

I'd say use the card, it takes a bit of load off the processor. However i'm not sure i'd upgrade. I'm using logitech z2200 which are about £100 and are a 2.1 setup. I went from soundblaster live! 5.1 to an x-fi extreme music. There was an improvement in quality but not an improvement worth spending £80 or so on

[magneticman]

winamp + asio plugin + ozone isotope = wow

[Mithrandir]

I found my audigy LS has far superior sound than the onboard realtek AC-97.
Im considering picking up a cheapo audigy card because of that reason.