Is a sound card worth getting or stick with on-board motherboard sound?

[Ghost_1080p]

Hello so Ive been using the Asrock H97M Pro4 motherbaord for about a year but the audio kind of sucked until i had to use the equalizer in Realtek it to make it sound right. But when I use headphones everything sounds bad. In some games like in Battlefield 1 the explosions from the bass sounds really bad like distortion. Not sure if its the on-board audio or my Logitech z313 speakers. So should i get a sound card or stick with the motherboard audio.

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157512

SoundCard #1
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Audigy-Performance-Headphone/dp/B00EO6X4XG/ref=cm_cd_al_qh_dp_t

SoundCard #2
https://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DGX-PCI-E-GX2-5-Engine/dp/B007TMZ1BK/ref=sr_1_9?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1484072729&sr=1-9&keywords=sound+card

 

[mcconkeymike]

I personally use the onboard audio unless it fails or goes all to crap. I had the audio on my Asrock Z97 Extreme3 crap out on me and I just got an inexpensive SoundBlaster pcie soundcard and it works great. It was only like $30.

 

[mcconkeymike]

That Creative one is probably the one I bought, can't remember the specific model though.

 

[SinxarKnights]

It is up to you. If you are happy with the onboard sound then stick with it.

I have an Asus Z97-E with the same Realtek chip (called "Crystal Sound 2" on this board and is an advertised "feature") and it is complete garbage. I picked the Sound Blaster Z as it has working official Windows 10 drivers. If you catch it on sale you can pick it up for about $60 USD. If you used your onboard sound for a long time and never had a good sound card, the difference is night and day. However, decent sound cards sound very similar across the board. It is my understanding the Xonar needs 3rd party drivers to work correctly (who else but Asus). Not sure how old that Audigy is but watch out for broken drivers as well. I have a Sound Blaster Xtremegamer as well and when they released the Windows 10 drivers they simply didn't work and they were never fixed.

Just looked up the Audigy and it isn't in the 'end of life' category yet so it should be fine and a significant upgrade over the Realtek you got now, assuming you aren't deaf of course.