Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, JustAnEngineer
moresmarterthanspock wrote:There isn't much to say about onboard audio. It doesn't have a clean signal path, and the quality of the DAC can really crap things up as far as sound quality goes. But if your not looking for sound quality, the only thing that matters is stable drivers. I myself use an ASUS Xonar Essence ST. Some people say it's overkill, but the card is shielded, grounded, and has a decent Burr-Brown DAC. There is a difference, and switching back and forth between onboard and the seperate card is like night and day. The Xonar Essence uses a c-media chipset, but the quality is more in the DAC, not really in the chipset. I always try to push people to get a seperate high-quality sound card, but that is only because I know it is worth the investment, as long as the speakers are of decent quality as well.
blitzy wrote:I have my computer connected to my HDTV through HDMI and that's all I use for audio. Sometimes I connect my headphones to the TV. I am just mainly checking in case people said "stay away from X brand they suck!". From what I can tell there's not a lot of difference between the two.
Flying Fox wrote:moresmarterthanspock wrote:There isn't much to say about onboard audio. It doesn't have a clean signal path, and the quality of the DAC can really crap things up as far as sound quality goes. But if your not looking for sound quality, the only thing that matters is stable drivers. I myself use an ASUS Xonar Essence ST. Some people say it's overkill, but the card is shielded, grounded, and has a decent Burr-Brown DAC. There is a difference, and switching back and forth between onboard and the seperate card is like night and day. The Xonar Essence uses a c-media chipset, but the quality is more in the DAC, not really in the chipset. I always try to push people to get a seperate high-quality sound card, but that is only because I know it is worth the investment, as long as the speakers are of decent quality as well.
But if you maintain fully digital until after the signal leaves the chassis, do you really still need good DAC's on the sound card? I believe the answer is no.
Coulda wrote:blitzy wrote:I have my computer connected to my HDTV through HDMI and that's all I use for audio. Sometimes I connect my headphones to the TV. I am just mainly checking in case people said "stay away from X brand they suck!". From what I can tell there's not a lot of difference between the two.
Then sound card is not used, HDMI audio bypasses it. Your TV's DAC is sound card as it translates digital signal carried through HDMI to analogue.
Don't buy sound card. If nothing wrong with onboard, use it! Sound card is snake oil. waste of money.
Do not use default windows driver for onboard sound, it will give you terrible noisy sound.
moresmarterthanspock wrote:Flying Fox wrote:moresmarterthanspock wrote:There isn't much to say about onboard audio. It doesn't have a clean signal path, and the quality of the DAC can really crap things up as far as sound quality goes. But if your not looking for sound quality, the only thing that matters is stable drivers. I myself use an ASUS Xonar Essence ST. Some people say it's overkill, but the card is shielded, grounded, and has a decent Burr-Brown DAC. There is a difference, and switching back and forth between onboard and the seperate card is like night and day. The Xonar Essence uses a c-media chipset, but the quality is more in the DAC, not really in the chipset. I always try to push people to get a seperate high-quality sound card, but that is only because I know it is worth the investment, as long as the speakers are of decent quality as well.
But if you maintain fully digital until after the signal leaves the chassis, do you really still need good DAC's on the sound card? I believe the answer is no.
The DAC is what makes the most difference. That is where the digital signal is converted to analog. It then needs to be amplified somewhat before it leaves the 1/8" jack on the back of the computer, where it can pick up interference. The DAC is the most crucial point for sound quality.
ShadowEyez wrote:Like most here, the general advise is to only get a sound card if you're really into recording audio or making music, as the quality and features are important. If your mostly into playback (movies, games, music/itunes, web surfing play back) the integrated stuff on modern mobos is good enough. IMO, if you have the money and want to upgrade your audio, the component to upgrade is your speakers.
blitzy wrote:Hi guys,
I'm looking at a cheap Ivy build and am not too sure which integrated audio is preferable. Here's the motherboards I'm looking at, cheap m-ATX boards but should suffice for an i5-3750k. The ASUS has a Realtek ALC887, the Gigabyte has VIA VT2021.
<SNIP>
Cheers for any feedback
AbRASiON wrote:blitzy wrote:Hi guys,
I'm looking at a cheap Ivy build and am not too sure which integrated audio is preferable. Here's the motherboards I'm looking at, cheap m-ATX boards but should suffice for an i5-3750k. The ASUS has a Realtek ALC887, the Gigabyte has VIA VT2021.
<SNIP>
Cheers for any feedback
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
SPEAKERS
There's my feedback - this is THE NUMBER 1 PRIORITY before anything else if you give a damn about audio.
The soundcard is virtually irrelivant nowadays unless you have absoloute decent gear.
I 'only' have 4 of these at precisely the same distance from my head.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Tannoy+ ... 4&bih=1233
Hooked up to a Yamaha RX-540 home threatre receiver.
That's a cheap, simple system - your sound card is utterly irrelivant as long as you're using headphones or "PC speakers" (ugh)
EDIT: and you frontpagers can't bloody downvote me here, with your bodgy 300$ Logitech setups thinking you need a 200$ soundcard and accusing me of being wrong.
The laws of diminishing returns says you need to throw money at speakers WELL WELL before a soundcard.
Flying Fox wrote:But if you maintain fully digital until after the signal leaves the chassis, do you really still need good DAC's on the sound card? I believe the answer is no.
AbRASiON wrote:EDIT: and you frontpagers can't bloody downvote me here, with your bodgy 300$ Logitech setups thinking you need a 200$ soundcard and accusing me of being wrong.
bthylafh wrote:AbRASiON wrote:EDIT: and you frontpagers can't bloody downvote me here, with your bodgy 300$ Logitech setups thinking you need a 200$ soundcard and accusing me of being wrong.
I suspect you'll find that you get downvoted because of your assburgers and other personality defects, not for being "wrong", which in the scenario you give you're not.
It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
bthylafh wrote:Someone who's only considering a $30 sound card at the most is probably not going to have a digital receiver.
blitzy wrote:I have my computer connected to my HDTV through HDMI and that's all I use for audio.
Krogoth wrote:Care to enlightenment me?
ShadowEyez wrote:Like most here, the general advise is to only get a sound card if you're really into recording audio or making music, as the quality and features are important. If your mostly into playback (movies, games, music/itunes, web surfing play back) the integrated stuff on modern mobos is good enough. IMO, if you have the money and want to upgrade your audio, the component to upgrade is your speakers.
moresmarterthanspock wrote:I'm sorry, I just can't help myself, I need to rant about something. Audio does not belong on a video card. But then again, they've been doing this since the 80's. Joystick port on a sound card. Printer port on a video card(Hercules was guilty of this). My rant to the tech industry, keep components seperate, please. It's just a much cleaner way of doing things.
moresmarterthanspock wrote:I'm sorry, I just can't help myself, I need to rant about something. Audio does not belong on a video card. But then again, they've been doing this since the 80's. Joystick port on a sound card. Printer port on a video card(Hercules was guilty of this). My rant to the tech industry, keep components seperate, please. It's just a much cleaner way of doing things.
moresmarterthanspock wrote:I'm sorry, I just can't help myself, I need to rant about something. Audio does not belong on a video card.