do i need a sound card

[chased13]

heres my current sound setup- i use my mobos stero sound which i have hooked up via a mini plug to two rca plugs into a decent pioneer stereo with 2 decent floor speakers.
this setup current OWNS any comptuer speaker setup for listening to music.

Would a sound card improve my stereo listening expericence (i do game but dont really have room for a surround setup- possibly in the future i will rearrange my room for surround)

i listen to music alot and am willing to spend some money if i will notice a difference

 

[michaelahess]

Not really, unless you want a couple more fps's out of your games. Suround sound is MUCH better with a "real" sound card, but since you don't need it, use what ya got.

 

[choirbass]

hmm, i guess first off, really just about any current add on sound card would be better than integrated sound, integrated sound can be decent, but seeing as you dont seem to have any complaints yourself, but almost rest assured, it wont sound nearly as good as a high quality add on sound card (though that is entirely subjective, from person to person)... ...for simply listening to music, over just a 2 channel analog connection (2 channel analog stereo listening is usually best for music)... ...i would say what to go for would be a an add on sound card with a low THD level, low signal to noise ratio, high quality D/A converters, high quality operational amplifiers(?)... im sure someone else could be more specific in what you should look for

surround is abit of a different story (though you would still want high quality sound nonetheless)... for surround, which is more tailored to movies and gaming, but still excellent for music... ...the first thing you would need though, and the most important component, are the additional speakers, preferrably with almost identical matching components, construction, specifics and such, so they dont sound too different from one another (one speaker sounds brighter and shallow, and another sounds more dull and bass heavy, ones loud, ones quiet, etc)... all in one 5.1 speaker sets are good places to start... so you could right away have a 7.1 set up, instead of purchasing speakers individually, if you add your current speakers as front channels or so (you might be able to go to a local retailer and 'test out' a few speaker sets they have set up, to see if you like how they sound or not, and if theyre within your budget)... ...also to check how many channels your amplifier supports... and then purchase the amount of additional speakers based on that...

also: as far as quality balancing between your amplifier and speakers, in regards to overall bright, dull, harsh, soft, etc sounds from your speakers... and i dont know if you could find this out without searching online, but lets say for instance, that your receiver naturally outputs more of a 'soft' or 'dull' sound... you would then want speakers that can counterbalance that, for them to be naturally more 'harsh' or 'bright' sounding, so your overall sound quality ends up being more balanced...

i know i keep recommending this, and other people will say an x-fi sound card for gaming... but for surround, ill opt to say any card that can re encode the sound to DD or DTS in realtime... THAT, i think will make for one of the biggest changes to your overall surround sound...

...heres a personal review i wrote earlier today, as a request from another member on here (its towards the bottom of the page):

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/FL-FR-channels-ftopict190526.html

just like Michaelahess said though, he beat me to it, lol... if only to completely retract what i said, and to agree really... ...if you dont have any problems or inconveniences with what you already have, and are happy... then theres really no reason to change anything.

 

[sirheck]

choirbass is right in the better signal you get to your receiver
the better the sound, or the cleaner the signal.

audio signals from the onboard sound or from an add in card
are sent to the receiver and it < the receiver does all the decoding>

you will probably get better sound if you had a digital output
digital coaxial or fiber optic

 

[dougie_boy]

what a seperate sound card will give you is a much higher SNR. most onboard sound has a SNR of about 95dB where a Audigy card will pump out about 108-9dB. if the stero is good quality you will hear the difference in music and DVD playback.

and 14 dB is not a small amount of noise.

do it.

http://aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=19694

£30 - the cost of a night out at the pub.

 

[halcyon]

I agree with Choirbass, Sirheck, & Dougie. The info they've given appears pretty thorough. The fact that you have a HiFi system that you obviously care about and care for seems like it deserves the same quality of input you'd give to any of your other components when considering PC sound. Would you prefer a $16 CD player or a high-quality CD/DVD/SACD solution?

As stated there's a pretty big difference in sound quality coming from a Realtek or SoundMax onboard K-mart grade audio chip as compared to a quality M-Audio, Turtle Beach, Terratec, SoundBlaster, etc audio board. Just so you know, too, you can get a high quality external USB solution as well that will flatten that onboard sound you're enjoying now. Compare dedicated audio solutions, loosely, to onboard Intel video vs. an nVidia 6K/7K series board...no comparison.

 

[mesarectifier]

Compare dedicated audio solutions, loosely, to onboard Intel video vs. an nVidia 6K/7K series board...no comparison.

Now there's a statement people can relate to. I think people don't bother too much about sound cards (i.e. it'll either be onboard, or if you've got a budget the most expensive X-Fi you can find) because they're not obviously better or worse - most of the time.

That was a great statement IMO - hopefully people can relate what they know (graphics cards) to what they don't.