Hey audiophiles out there

[Fruban]

Just got a Soundblaster Zx since my old x-fi fatal1ty were too legacy for my newest rig, and so far I'm hearing and liking the improved sound quality over the onboard audio of my z87-g45 GAMING mobo (ALC 1150 chip). Even though the SNR is rated 115 vs 116 on the sound card, everything sounds more dynamic now, defined somehow.

Anyway, I kept reading many posts lately about how people doubt they'll hear a difference, or that their speakers aren't good enough to reflect any sound card improvements... moreover in professional reviews they only seem to test high end headphones and never high end 5.1 systems. Why is that? Are good 5.1 computer speakers that hard to find or so rare that they're not worth attention? One poster seemed to think that at least nowadays you'd have to spend over a thousand dollars on 5.1 computer speakers for the same level of quality found on high end 2.1 systems such as klipsch promedia 2.1 to make use of the features or qualities of a sounblaster z series card,

I use Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultras (which seemed to be a short lived run and discontinued relatively quickly) and I was wondering if these are still good enough to demonstrate the high fidelity of a dedicated sound card like the Soundblaster Zx I just got? I can hear a difference, but maybe it could still be improved still with newer speakers that I'm not aware of or do they continue to stack up against any current high end 5.1 systems for computers? Or am I sitting on a gem that was high end for a great price back when klipsch tried to fill a niche that never took off?

 

[guanyu210379]

Sound quality depends (let say around 90 points from 100) more on end-amplifier (power amp) and end driver (speakers/headphones), assuming you have already the good quality recording and sources too, e.g. not just some mp3 with low bit-rate.
The sound card gives only max 10 points <-- not everyone can tell the difference too.
The onboard one should be very sufficient if you have good end-amp and good speakers.

 

[Fruban]

Yeah I was testing out the differences with a variety of FLAC audio files. Oddly, with on board audio I had to raise my speaker volume on the speakers themselves to 50/80 to get the same or similar volume as I do at 40/50 when using the card. Does that mean my speakers are drawing more power and working harder to get the same volume output when using on board versus using the dedicated card? What causes this? Plus, if I get more volume from the card at a lower volume setting on the speakers, there should be less background hiss, however low, interfering with sound quality furthering the improvement overall in using a dedicated card.


Also I noticed that there were differences in quality right off the bat, but I couldn't pin point the differences until I switched back and forth. I could understand how most people wouldn't tell a difference if only casually listening to the two chips. Using the Crystalizer software that came with the on board audio and the Crystalizer software that came with the card (to try and keep it a fair comparison) I noticed that the sound blaster z sounded a little warmer, and the layers of sound and musical instruments was more defined, the bass sounded a little punchier and accurate and the highs a little more crisp.

I also noticed on one track there was some musical bells playing, and theybwere aloud to keep ringing. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but the way the sound waves created by the bells oscillated sounded more realistic and defined on the sound blaster vs the on board audio.