about sound cards

[KalC]

was thinking about getting one (total newbie to sound cards) but i just wanted to know how much difference would they really make to the music i listen to or the movies i watch?

ive got the logitech z680's (Amazon.co.uk: Logitech Z680 5.1 THX certified Home Theatre Speakers with 505 watts: Electronics & Photo) pretty much the same as the z-5500 and the sound i get from the satellites are amazing and the sub really does kick out some heavy bass...and all this is connected to the standard motherboard connections using the 6ch connectors. I mean to me, they sound good already (and thats not even using the digital outputs) so i didnt think there would be any need to get a sound card...how much better could they sound? right?...

[s_kinton]

Hard to say really, but with good quality speakers like those I would say a high end sound card would compliment them nicely.

[dangel]

I've got some logitechs too and I'd say my sound card sounds a LOT better than the onboard sound through them. I've currently got an X-FI but i'd consider the Asus Xonar if I were buying again (because creative have driver 'issues').
It's all personal choice tho - many people will be perfectly happy with onboard sound as it's easily 'good enough'.

[KalC]

I've got some logitechs too and I'd say my sound card sounds a LOT better than the onboard sound through them. I've currently got an X-FI but i'd consider the Asus Xonar if I were buying again (because creative have driver 'issues').
It's all personal choice tho - many people will be perfectly happy with onboard sound as it's easily 'good enough'.

yeah gonna stay away from creative..had a few bad experiences with them before. Logitech are far superior, i just thought maybe im limiting the speakers with the standard connections but i guess the only im gonna know that is if i spend a bit on a sound card...so in what way would u say that it sound a lot better? clarity? distortion?

[dangel]

The signal to noise ratio is usually far better - which basically means better sound all round IMHO. My onboard sound is 'muddy' by comparison if that makes any sense. I'm pretty picky sound wise.

[Timo]

I guess for one that the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) would stand to be much better on dedicated soundcards. In other words, a dedicated soundcard would have a much lower noise floor. I know that my onboard Azalia chip is noisy as hell when using it to record external sources. But for playback it's more than sufficient.

A dedicated soundcard would give you better DAC (digital-to-analogue convertors), so reproduction of the original audio (minimizing aliasing), or switching between playback frequencies (44.1KHz, 48KHz, etc.) may see an improvement. How much you'd actually notice this in actual real world values is anybody's guess, unless you're using a very high quality monitoring solution (studiophile pre-amps and speakers).

My 2 cents would say that onboard sound is great, UNLESS you want to start recording with it, or adding decent effects and stuff, or want more inputs/outputs.

[neonplanet40]

Auzentech Prelude 7.1

Its awesome. And i came from an X-Fi Fatality Champion series and can still notice the difference! Although mine is connected to an amp and £900 speakers.

But seriously dont scimp on sound.

Alot of people do and i dont see why.

[dangel]

Alot of people do and i dont see why.

Because it's a subjective thing - we don't have the same hearing for a start and people's tolerances for 'bad' audio vary wildly. The Auzentech is nice but it's still creative-drivers in there (and so that's my reservation - no offence i'm sure you're happy with it matey).

[neonplanet40]

Because it's a subjective thing - we don't have the same hearing for a start and people's tolerances for 'bad' audio vary wildly. The Auzentech is nice but it's still creative-drivers in there (and so that's my reservation - no offence i'm sure you're happy with it matey).

Its actually auzentechs own drivers with a bit of creatives and some of creatives hardware tweaked. But yea i get what your saying. However if your a gamer i dont see how onboard would even compare with a standalone card. Not the same surround support etc. Not only that but it would affect FPS as its using more cpu power.

But i stand as always to be corrected

Neon

[dangel]

Its actually auzentechs own drivers with a bit of creatives and some of creatives hardware tweaked. But yea i get what your saying. However if your a gamer i dont see how onboard would even compare with a standalone card. Not the same surround support etc. Not only that but it would affect FPS as its using more cpu power.

But i stand as always to be corrected

Neon

FPS isn't so much the issue now we have multi-core cpu's basically being under used anyway - and some game engines are software driven anyway (Crysis) so it doesn't make the difference you might think. Couple that with Vista's castration of EAX and.. I'd still have it for the quality of sound but I was amazed as to how much Asus' Xonar managed to 'get away with' with it's software solution - to the point where i'd seriously consider one.

[neonplanet40]

never have heard the asus donar tbh. Im not sure what persuaded me to pick the prelude over it but i guess it does what i want so thats what matters.

I dont use vista Lol in fact i refuse to use it

But maybe im just being stubborn!

[KalC]

ive never actually heard of auzentech mate gonna have a look on scan and give a sound card a go..esp as i got a 5.1 setup in my room and sometimes its a bit of a hassle to get everything workin/sounding the way i want it to (in vista)

but anyway i think this is what i want to do, save up for a decent spec card..and connect it using SPDIF, cos otherwise i think its just waste of good speakers??

[jbloggs]

was thinking about getting one (total newbie to sound cards) but i just wanted to know how much difference would they really make to the music i listen to or the movies i watch?

ive got the logitech z680's (Amazon.co.uk: Logitech Z680 5.1 THX certified Home Theatre Speakers with 505 watts: Electronics & Photo) pretty much the same as the z-5500 and the sound i get from the satellites are amazing and the sub really does kick out some heavy bass...and all this is connected to the standard motherboard connections using the 6ch connectors. I mean to me, they sound good already (and thats not even using the digital outputs) so i didnt think there would be any need to get a sound card...how much better could they sound? right?...

I have a set of the Z680s (for the last 5 years), have used it with different onboard (codecs) and PCI soundcards (Audigy 2ZS, X-Fi Xtreme Music, Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96). I found the X-fi Xtreme Music to be very good with them, I certainly wouldn't spend any more on a soundcard (ie. than £50-60) because the quality that you would get from it would not be realised throught the Z680s because they still afterall are not great quality speakers.

The bottom line is, moving from onboard to PCI soundcard will certainly give you a noticeable difference, but spending anymore than £50-60 on a soundcard is not necessary, the 680s go well with the X-Fi Xtreme Music (about £50).....or the Asus Xonar DX....

[cigbunt]

what do you want the card for..?

gaming or music production?

[KalC]

I have a set of the Z680s (for the last 5 years), have used it with different onboard (codecs) and PCI soundcards (Audigy 2ZS, X-Fi Xtreme Music, Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96). I found the X-fi Xtreme Music to be very good with them, I certainly wouldn't spend any more on a soundcard (ie. than £50-60) because the quality that you would get from it would not be realised throught the Z680s because they still afterall are not great quality speakers.

The bottom line is, moving from onboard to PCI soundcard will certainly give you a noticeable difference, but spending anymore than £50-60 on a soundcard is not necessary, the 680s go well with the X-Fi Xtreme Music (about £50).....or the Asus Xonar DX....

yea i dont wanna spend a crazy amount of money on a soundcard..unless its going to be a BIG improvement on what im hearing already, but i dont think that would be the case with 680's which card would be a good recommendation in a £50-£70 price bracket??

what do you want the card for..?

gaming or music production?

nah im not into music production like..play games occasionaly on the pc (got my ps3 for that tho) just listen to music and watch dvd's..im picky about how it sounds tho

[jbloggs]

You should find This interesting....

which card would be a good recommendation in a £50-£70 price bracket?

Either the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music (PCI inteface) or Asus Xonar DX (which is PCI-E)....