Onboard Sound Quality

[WDakhane]

Hi,
I would be soon building a Extreme Performance PC with the following Motherboard
1]ASUS P8Z77-V Premium

And would be buying Logitech Speaker System Z906 to use with it.

I want to know whether onboard audio on the specified MOBO would be descent enough for a very good/high quality sound from the Z906 as the the MOBO has DTS Connect and DTS UltraPC II Technologies built in,which as per I read on the internet, are pretty good competitors to Dolby Digial.

Else I was considering buying ASUS XONAR DX 7.1ch sound card to use with it since it has Dolby Digital Technologies and ASUS AV100 Sound Processor.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[inzone]

It used to be that onboard sound was not very good and you had to use a sound card. Today that's changed , the MBs now has HD sound and some of the more expensive boards actually have a Creative Sound Blaster chip right on the board or some other high quality chip that will produce DD , DTS or THX. Most have 7.1 channel sound.
So what you can do is go with the MB sound and if you don't like it add a sound card later. This way your not buying a sound card for no reason.

 

[knightdog56]

I don't think you will be able to tell the difference between the two, the Xonar only has 6dB better SNR than that of the motherboard. ASUS put a pretty good chip (ALC898) from Realtek on the board.

 

[pezonator]

Well from my experience the difference is very big. My mobo has the ALC892 and after a couple days hearing bad sound through my Z5500's, back in went the old X-Fi and my ears were in heaven again. Gaming and music is much better through the sound card.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Well from my experience the difference is very big. My mobo has the ALC892 and after a couple days hearing bad sound through my Z5500's, back in went the old X-Fi and my ears were in heaven again. Gaming and music is much better through the sound card.

agree.......... never heard on board sound that was as good a quaility an add in card.

 

[knightdog56]

I would think this person is not an audiophile or the question would not even be posted!

 

[inzone]

The problem is that when your dealing with a computer you mostly have computer speakers and they are just not the same as the speakers you would get for your home theater. Even those that buy the surround speakers are still buying computer speakers and for that the intergrated chip is good enough.
For those who get better quality speakers because they want better quality sound are going to want the seperate sound card.
I haven't bought a sound card in 7 or 8 years because the headphones come with a built in sound device and Bose has a built in sound device plus high end motherboards have the actual sound chip from Sound Blaster and other high quality sound chip manufacturers built into the motherboard to give Dolby Digital and THX.

 

[WDakhane]

Well I'm not an audiophile else I would not have posted such query, its that simple.
I'm building an Extreme Performance PC for the first time so how would I know about sound quality before posting, hence the forum!!!!!

Anywasy,it seems, I think I should go with the ASUS XONAR DX 7.1ch sound card,
my previous choice was ASUS XONAR D2X.

 

[inzone]

Since your building an extreme performance pc what motherboard are you getting?

 

[tinnitus]

if you use spdif a xonar ds is ok, dts and dolby will be decoded by Z906.

 

[WDakhane]

1]ASUS P8Z77-V Premium
2]Intel Core-i7 3770K

Don't know about the S/PDIF connection but I don't want to purchase extra set of cables, I'd want to use the supplied cables with Z906 with ASUS XONAR DX 7.1ch sound card if the sound quality is excellent compared to the onboard one.

 

[WDakhane]

Best answer selected by WDakhane.