Sound Card(s) | the less discussed and valued component these days?!

[penguin1]

I have to admit I am wayyy out of touch on the Sound Card department. Currently I am using the onboard sound on my latest Set-up.


Think is, I am beginning to think its not quite good enough for me. At the beginning, I was quite impressed and satisfied with what it had to offer, but now I just miss the top-notch sound quality that the onboard chip just couldn't muster.. you know, that extra oomph in intense situations in movies and games, and the pure clarity of dialogues and production of those little finer sounds in the backgrounds from various source and distances..


From my (very limited) understanding, the lower end/grade sound cards are not quite worth their $$ that you pay for them. Is this true? And also that the good ones that are even worth your time cost cost an arm and a leg, they are also designed to be optimized more for games. Unfortunately I tend to watch more HD movies than game now these days .



Nevertheless, I am hell-bent on -hopefully finding- a suitable PCI-E x1 sound card around my budget of about $50-$120.


A little backgound!

I used to own a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Gold (rather badass back in the day) and later upgraded to a X-Fi Platinum 7.1, this card then went thru 2 system updates/changes with me.

Those were the Golden era of Creative and Sound Cards.. and I also remembered when ASUS first came out with their XONAR sound cards and shook up the industy. When I was building my PC back then, Creative was already slowly on their decline and losing their mojo, I considered the XONAR but there were only 2 or 3 models to choose from at their release and they were well over $200 a card even for the cheapest one. That was how I decided to go onboard and hold off for a better cost-value sound card, but Creative continued to disappoint... and so till today, I still haven't got anything new yet.. until now perhaps? haha



Are Creative and ASUS still the only major Sound Card players these days?

Once again, I am looking for a relatively new and the most bang-for-buck all around the $100ish price point for a PCI-E x1 soundcard. What would you recommend me? : )



I appreciate your sharing and inputs. & also hope this might turn up an interesting discussion with lots of nostalgia too, haha!

THANK YOU!

 

[n0ns3ns3]

you can always connect the computer to external amplifier/receiver using digital interface - that will be the only "true" improvement

 

[Isokolon]

I'd say so too
If you got a halfway decent mainboard any sound card below 100$ won't bring any improvement

And external equipment beats internal DACs by far usually

Creative DACs do have a nice sound but driver issues are still present
The top sonar cards by Asus are nice but don't justify the price.

 

[penguin1]

you can always connect the computer to external amplifier/receiver using digital interface - that will be the only "true" improvement

Hi n0ns3ns3, thanks for your reply. As I am no audiophile and new to the whole DAC thing, may I ask if these external DAC connect via the normal 3.5 jack or USB? if its the formal would it suffice? wouldn't it need some form of external power source? Or do they usually require both.


Do you have any good ones to recommend for my budget of $50-$120?

 

[penguin1]

.. external equipment beats internal DACs by far usually

Hey Isokolon! I have also read about the interference of the other components (in the PC) that may affect the soundcard if I went the PCIE route. That said, it seems using an external amplifier is really the way to go.

Would I need to get anything else other than the DAC itself ? or is this external amp basically functioning exactly as the sound card would (just that its external, and live outside the 'box') ?

Creative DACs do have a nice sound but driver issues are still present
The top sonar cards by Asus are nice but don't justify the price.

hm.. I don't really like the current line up of DACs that Creative have to offer right now either.. they seem so 'Gamer-Centric' and I watch lots of HD movies. My usage is relative simple and I have a average set-up. I just want better, cleaner sound !

What other brands or model(s) would you recommend me to have a look? ( :

really appreciate your suggestions!

 

[Isokolon]

I'm by no means an expert.

From what I know, there are simple amplifiers that just amplify the signal of the 3.5mm out of your sound chip (amplifying the already analogue signal)
And then there are DAC+amp that connect via usb or S/PDIF (converting the digital signal to an analogue themselves)

From what you've said so far it seems you're needing the ladder, or, an internal card with an external amp (usually internal cards have improved a lot concerning interference. But rather the more expensive ones like the Asus sonar STX)

As for gaming centered:
Usually you can devide it into gaming Vs. Hi-Fi from what I've seen that partially also meaning plugging in standard 3.5mm headphones Vs. A complex analogue sound system
Usually those gaming centered products is what you're looking at if you don't wanna spend 100s of €.

Of course a JDS Labs DAC is nice but they start at 140$

 

[the nerd 389]

Currently, the best performance for the money is either onboard sound, or the O2/ODAC from JDS or Mayflower. The O2/ODAC is for headphones only. If you plan to run speakers, then onboard sound is actually pretty good.

If you limit the discussion to measurable differences, you won't see a notable signal quality improvement until you get to the $80+ range, and even then, the options available tend to achieve these improvements at the expense of other metrics.

Regarding lower end cards, an external device is almost always a better pick. Cheaper PCIe cards generally are not particularly resilient to power fluctuations that occur on the PCIe bus. I have used cheaper options in only a handful of cases, and it normally involved the onboard sound failing.

If you must get a PCIe card, the options in the $200+ range with auxiliary power connections are the only ones I've observed to be able to maintain decent performance when a GPU is also present on the PCIe bus.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

DAC thing is digital to analog converter.
3.5 is analog, so whatever you place past that can only be amplified.
digital connection is optical, HDMI and whatever else that takes the original data and converts it to the analog signal that goes to speakers/headphones.
Since you are mostly interested in movies, you are going to need HDMI. Optical is limited to relatively low bitrate at 5.1 channels. HDMI can handle things like DTS-HD and Dolby-MA.