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Search Tech-Forums - link takes you to our Forum's search page. Note: The following is only a text archive! To view the actual forum discussion, please visit our website at http://www.tech-forums.net Pages:1 does a sound card make a difference?(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)Posted by: NewCents05 I'm debating whether or not i should get a sound card? I mainly listen to rap and bass is an important part to my listening experience. I dont really see what a sound card can do for me that the onboard sound card can not do. Can somebody give me some insight on what would drive me to get a sound card? I was thinking it would provide less distortion than the onboard sound which would be good for my subwoofers. right now my system connected to my desktop are 2 athena as-b2s, 2 rockford fosgate 5.25in FRC4205 speakers, 2 rockford fosgate 5.25 RFP-1405 and the subs are 2 12in fi audio ssds on a 1000 watt dayton amp Posted by: K M A N Ok to be honest just looking at this system its not your average pc speaker setup is it now... A sound card would no doubt be a huge improvement though. Your subs will be less prone to be bottoming out at low frequencies. All over sound will be produced with a lot more clarity aswell. With that system you will certainly get a gain from a sound card. But i would wait to see what EricB has to say about this, im unsure of how and if you could connect all this up to a soundcard. Thanks. Posted by: NewCents05 same way i have it hooked up now basically its just plugged into the onboard sound via rca to 1/8th headphone wire. Posted by: molsen yes, get a new soundcard. onboard sound has a limitied frequency range and lots of noise. get a new soundcard, please. your music will be clearer, more accurate, less distorted, and will thank you for proper reproduction. Posted by: jonny_uk As above, it will sound better basically, especially in games you will hear sounds you never even knew were there! and everything is just better sounding, plus if you get a good enough card it you can turn on X-Fi in certain games that can make use of it, i.e battlefield games. Also after getting my X-Fi Xtreme audio it has made my sub seem more alive and much more bass. Definatly get one ;) Posted by: Deathawk They make a difference, but the difference may not be 60+ dollars worth. That's for you to decide, methinks. Are you content with average sound? Posted by: Crysalis this thread actually happened???!!! oh my Posted by: Ste [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Crysalis [/i] [B]this thread actually happened???!!! oh my [/B][/QUOTE] Just another day at tech forums... There are ALOT of threads that should NOT happen, but they do, they do... :rolleyes: Posted by: NewCents05 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Crysalis [/i] [B]this thread actually happened???!!! oh my [/B][/QUOTE] lol well i dunno i cant really see how it could sound clearer with a sound card the onboard sound card is half decent i dont mind it at all and i dont really hear any noise either but now another question how much of a difference will i hear from an external sound card and an internal. cause i can get a pretty good deal for an audigy 2 nx, but its external so im not sure if itll be better or worse... Posted by: Ste Internal Is much Better then External. Posted by: EricB If you can afford it, get m-audio 192 audiophile. it has 4 volt output, 113 signal to noise ratio (a-weighted) all at a disrtion ratio of .00006 percent. a decent regular onboard sound spec might fall along this line. 60db s/n, 500 millivolts output (half a volt) at 1 (even 10percent) percent distortion go the creative route if you can't afford m-audio. everybody else seemed to cover the other reasons to upgrade to a outboard sound card. Posted by: NewCents05 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by EricB [/i] [B]If you can afford it, get m-audio 192 audiophile. it has 4 volt output, 113 signal to noise ratio (a-weighted) all at a disrtion ratio of .00006 percent. a decent regular onboard sound spec might fall along this line. 60db s/n, 500 millivolts output (half a volt) at 1 (even 10percent) percent distortion go the creative route if you can't afford m-audio. everybody else seemed to cover the other reasons to upgrade to a outboard sound card. [/B][/QUOTE] eh im not really looking into spending much on a sound card probably 100 tops so internal sound card is alot better than external? **** it lol oh btw i think this may make a difference but the computer is sending audio to my reciever (harman/kardon avr3400? i forget the number) and then going to my speakers so is the sound getting processed by the reciever or no? Posted by: 003 Get an Electrocompaniet ECD1. Posted by: EricB I meant pci card when I said outboard. anything is better than onboard. if the receiver accept digital inputs, then that is the best route to go Posted by: NewCents05 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by EricB [/i] [B]I meant pci card when I said outboard. anything is better than onboard. if the receiver accept digital inputs, then that is the best route to go [/B][/QUOTE] i believe it does Posted by: K M A N Lol EricB you were going onabout noise ratio and distortion ratio.... remember this guy doesnt even know wether sound cards are better :). (No Offence) Posted by: NewCents05 well you dont know my history with audio either i mean i know jack **** about sound cards and what they do but i know a good thing about home theater applications and car audio so i understood what ericb was talking about. but im a total noob when it comes to sound cards im not gonna lie Posted by: EricB NewCents05 is into good sound, so he going in the right direction. we all have started from somewhere. if you are into good sound, you can only go up Posted by: 003 If you are looking for gaming features, hardware acceleration and widespread support, creative is almost the only way to go. If you are looking for good sound quality, steer away if possible, especially the Audigy line. M-Audio and E-MU make great sound cards in terms of sound quality. If you need more features, the Auzentech cards are not bad. Posted by: NewCents05 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by 003 [/i] [B]If you are looking for gaming features, hardware acceleration and widespread support, creative is almost the only way to go. If you are looking for good sound quality, steer away if possible, especially the Audigy line. M-Audio and E-MU make great sound cards in terms of sound quality. If you need more features, the Auzentech cards are not bad. [/B][/QUOTE] well i heard somewhere that hardware acceleration for sound cards on vista isnt capable or something? or am i mistaken? Posted by: 003 I've never touched vista. Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by 003 [/i] [B]If you are looking for gaming features, hardware acceleration and widespread support, creative is almost the only way to go. If you are looking for good sound quality, steer away if possible, especially the Audigy line. M-Audio and E-MU make great sound cards in terms of sound quality. If you need more features, the Auzentech cards are not bad. [/B][/QUOTE] not again. please don't start this mess back up. in your opinion, soundblaster audigy isn't good for for sound quality. you were right about one thing. about m-audio sounding better, but not all m-audio products. I had 2 m- audio products (the pre usb and the firewire solo) that sounded just as good as the audigy card. but the m-audio audiophile 192 card blew all three cards out of the water as did the presonus firebox. the reasons had nothing to do with what you were talking about either . the latter 2 card were better because they had better signal to noise ratios, they didn't clip at max volume (the audigy clips at 75 to 90 percent of it max volume ) and they had more output voltage they both had 4 volts opposed to maybe 1 volt for the audigy. this is most likely the difference that you heard, if you did hear any difference. to almost everybody in the the world "louder is better" even if you couldn't tell the differences when everything set at equal volumes my thing is all of that extra voltage is good for turning your amp volume (gain) lower which will always improve system noise and headroom so yes there are cards that sound better than the SB audigy (I'll give you that one. I can admit when I'm wrong). but by the same token you can't say that the audigy is a bad sounding card Newcents05, Yes vista isn't suppose to support hardware accelaration which is bullship Posted by: 003 I know not ALL m-audio cards. When I say M-Audio and E-MU I really mean the Audiophile 192, the E-MU 0404 and E-MU 1212M. I'm not saying the creative cards are plain BAD, because they're not. They are the best you can get for games and compatibility and hardware acceleration, etc... The reason I so dislike the Audigy line is because the dsp always resamples everything to 48khz, so unless you are listening to material that was already recorded at 48khz, you can never get bit perfect output, which is very annoying to me because I use an external DAC. The x-fi does not do this which is why I give it the nod. Posted by: NewCents05 well since vista doesnt support hardware acceleration that takes down the creative argument Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by NewCents05 [/i] [B]well since vista doesnt support hardware acceleration that takes down the creative argument [/B][/QUOTE] I don't expect that to last long. too many people will complain about that Posted by: 003 Then again, how many people just blindly buy vista and thats not even counting the fact it will come pre installed on every new computer. I'm sticking with XP. Posted by: NewCents05 i had a bad disc of xp so i couldnt justify spending the same amount of money buying xp when i could get vista its not that bad really i like some of the features it has but on the other hand i have to update some of the drivers cause vista crashes with the xp drivers Posted by: K M A N About good sounding cards and bad sounding cards. It just depends what your used to. If youve been stuck with Mobo SOund for a while a SB Live card will sound brilliant, but if youve previosuly had an X-Fi Extreme something or other its gona sound terrible. You dont have good and bad sound cards, its just personal preference from what your used to. I think the SB Live card is brilliant, simply because i havnt herd audio off a better sound card for pc's. vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2003, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. PPC Management vB Easy Archive Final - Created by Xenon |