Sound Cards Why do I need one when my onboard sounds good?

[LunarG]

It's not trolling mate.

It's my damn opinion.

And one replicated by many others.

You want to see "Trolling" by Bob, head over to one of the Palit threads I have "Contributed" to.

Actually, it is trolling, from the simple reason, that you cannot accept that other people might disagree with you. You are after "winning". It appears you are after getting the OP to tell "yes, you're right, there is no difference in sound, I'm just trying to trick people out of their money".
Personally, I think you're very much the one going by psychological phenomena here. You've made yourself believe there is no difference between cheap sound systems and expencive ones (although the expencive ones aren't always better, but might only offer superior design or features), to the point where you wouldn't acknowledge it even if you heard it.


Off-topic:
On the subject of graphics. Good graphics alone doesn't make a good computer game. With the development of better and better graphics cards, more advanced graphics engines and generally faster computers, graphics in games have improved by leaps and bounds. Has it improved computer games in general? My opinion is that is hasn't. Not in any way. Yes, it can serve as fancy eye-candy for a short while, but if gameplay and storyline and so on, doesn't meet a certain standard, the game will not be fun to play. I think games companies are struggling to not get lost in the world of realistic graphics and advanced physics these days. They're having trouble remembering the essence of what makes a good game. Hence all the poor quality releases, such as endless amounts of mindless first person shooters and "import tuner" driving games and so forth.

I apologize to the OP for the off-topic bit.

 

[mosox]

http://mp3ornot.com/

 

[arcenite]

On the topic of the wines, you bring up a good point.

But wine and sound are fundamentally diffrent is sound and graohics are to, soif my anonlgy doesn't fly, yours doesn't either.

I've already stated as per what I said, that they are two completely different things and should not be compared directly with each other, thus I agree that both of our analogies does not 'fly'. However, the objective of my statements were to reinforce the fact that you're trying to compare two entirely different things which completely don't relate to each other. As such, is unrelated and unnecessary to this thread. Please post elsewhere instead of filling this thread with your pointless attempts of comparing things which are no where near the scope of this thread.

 

[arcenite]

Those are the USB version, which obviously comes with a built-in USB soundcard. They are more expencive than the "plain" version. How the sound compares, I don't really know, but I would expect they are probably quite similar.

I see, so if I were to get a sound card, I should not need to purchase the more expensive one yes ?

Which sound card would you recommend to pair with those speakers ? The op was saying the D2 is sufficient. What about the essence ? Also, for these speakers, would the DX sound the same ? Judging from your experience based on your setup.

 

[LunarG]

I see, so if I were to get a sound card, I should not need to purchase the more expensive one yes ?

Which sound card would you recommend to pair with those speakers ? The op was saying the D2 is sufficient. What about the essence ? Also, for these speakers, would the DX sound the same ? Judging from your experience based on your setup.

With these, there's no need for an extra internal soundcard, seeing as they don't hook up to the jack or phono outputs from the soundcard, but directly to the USB. The ones I got, have only jack inputs (the full size jack as used for most musical instruments and such).

 

[arcenite]

With these, there's no need for an extra internal soundcard, seeing as they don't hook up to the jack or phono outputs from the soundcard, but directly to the USB. The ones I got, have only jack inputs (the full size jack as used for most musical instruments and such).

I see, I might consider these instead of obtaining both a sound card and speakers. But then again, I might consider getting the cheaper speakers to couple with a sound card, just in case I wish to upgrade speakers in the future.

Thanks for your input !

 

[elel]

Since nobody else seems to be doing it, here is a thread made especially for the 'is high end sound worth it' discussion. Please keep it civil, but argue to your heart's content.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/56072-6-high-computer-audio-worth

 

[builderbobftw]

Alright, I moved the debate to thier.

i will no longer be posting here unless some moron like "MEgamer" falmes me and posts incorrcect garbage here.

 

[saaiello]

Regardless I'd like to get back on topic here. I've read some reviews on the ASUS D2 and they say that there's issues with the sound in gaming. Anybody know about that? And does anyone have any info on Auzen Tech X-Plosion cards? Well priced but the name alone sounds pretty gimicky.

The ASUS Xonar cards are not the best for gaming the sound quality is superb but in gaming they fall a little short if you want the best of both worlds go with an X-Fi Titanium.

I dont know much about the Auzen X-Plosion and I cant find any reviews on it but I would imagine its got great sound quality its built on a C-Media chipset which are know for pretty good sound quality but if I had to guess it would not be a good card for gaming but thats just a guess I will look around to see if I can find some reviews.

 

[builderbobftw]

How do I Un-Subsrcibe from a thread?

 

[elel]

Red flag with an X through it next to your profile box on the top of this page

 

[builderbobftw]

Thanks Mate!

 

[randomizer]

Thread cleaned of GPUs, monitors and wine.

 

[saaiello]

Thread cleaned of GPUs, monitors and wine.

LOL you the man thanks

 

[builderbobftw]

Thread cleaned of everything remotally intrseating

:lol:

JK mate.

And Yeh, I'll ge tout of this thread now.

 

[MEgamer]

Those B&W CM1's are 1500AUD rrp =(, I doubt a second hand one will be anything less than a thousand =/. I forgot to convert currencies when talking about my budget x_x. I meant about 200ish AUD hahaha.

But I have to agree with you a good set of speakers will last you a long time and I wish to obtain the one my current finances are able to purchase, because I'm still a student so financing these sort of things aren't easy =/. I wish to buy a set of speakers around 400$AUD, this translates to around 265 pounds I think (just increased my budget a little). I was looking at Audioengine 5s, but there are other speakers floating around that price range. So far I've rounded them up to

A5s
Razor Mako
Bose Companion 5

and pairing them with a DX, or maybe a D2X/Essence depending on the speakers I get ? Also, do I noticed that Audioengine also sells a sub, the S8 (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=567_895).

Do I need to get that along with the A5s for optimal sound ? Or are the A5s good enough for bass.

Btw, I play games but I wish for my music to sound really good too on my pc.

Edit: I wish to go for speakers cuz I kind of hate using headphones for long periods, my ears just can't take it.

accorgint o many user reviews, on amazon, they say that teh razer mako are better, not far better, but better then the BOSE. i have the Razer mako, and i have to say that the quality, is the best i have heard for MULTIMEDIA speaker. I do have a DENON bookeshelfs in my bedroom, and the razer mako, comes very close, the mako is louder, has more bass ( very tight), but the highs on teh are a little better and shine a bit mroe on the DENONs.

as for teh A%s i havent heard them, but according to what hi-fi they are very execptional speaker, for 2.0, and iguess if you wana a bit more bass, as well all do you of course pair it with a powered subwoofer. (handy if it had volume control, which msot do anyways)

 

[so1dier]

by the way the PC350, has high impedence, you may want to get a headphone amp. some cards have amps built in to there soundcards so u may want to research into that.

What does high impedence do and how does an amp fix that?

impedence is a measureof resistance in a AC circuit. (basically it changes according to the given frequency)

an amplifier , will be able to provide more power to the headphones, so that it will be able to play properly.

you willl notice more mids and bass with a headphone amp,

Dont bother buying the PC350, if u aint going to get the amp, as it sounds kinda crap, if u know what i mean.

I already bought the PC350, a little bit too late to go back, all I can try to do is make it sound the best it can.

So do you have any suggestions on what is good to buy? Should I just buy a sound card? or buy a sound card with an amp? or forget the sound card and just buy an amp?

Does this have an amp on it, or this cheaper one.

Will I need to spend $250 on an amp to get get good audio cause it seems like only the $200/$250 sound cards have amps. Should I have just gone with the Razer Carcharias because it has low and fast impedance which means without an amp I will get better sound and save money?

If you could link examples it would be much appreciated.

 

[MEgamer]

im looking at the sound cards and neither of them tells me, they have an OPamp

you should try looking into asus, since they are much more cheaper, but far better quality then any creative cards. (creative just about managed to be competetive with the flagship model)

 

[MEgamer]

if i were you, id buy a headphone amp first.

 

[so1dier]

Do you have any links for suggestions? Or what does everyone else think?

 

[elel]

Hey, sold1er.
I wrote up a nice answer to your post, and then my network had some serious problems. I have it on my computer at home, and will post it when I get stuff going again. It is mostly correcting incorrect information on this thread.

 

[skbooth]

Probably 95% of the kids with "good discrete" sound cards are wasting it with speakers they think is the best thing since sliced bread because they've never walked into an audio shop or Magnolia in Best Buy.

whoawhoawhoa....best buy? magnolia? c'mon man, that (using your civic example) the civic can fit five people in a two-door model...until you go on a road trip.

i cannot stress enough the importance of how important the actual speakers are. sure, buying a high-end sound card may give depth and such in games, but how much more detail and frequencies can a $50 logitech speaker setup really reproduce?

additionally, i'd like to add that bose is not the way to go EVER. they use cheap cones and horns and have a very tinny tuning. while they (other manufacturers are guilty too) claim that their 2" cones can reproduce the same range of frequencies and detail that a pair of old floorstanders can.

as is the opposite in technology, older is very often (to the point where i have auditioned a few pairs of four-digit costing new bookshelf/floorstanders and turned them down) and continue to use my 25-30 year old klipsch KG-4's (which i may add does away with the need for a subwoofer when listening to music, save for the occasional metal/underground/hardcore band that overuses thier double-bass pedal...movies is still necessary to utilize the woofer).

i feel i've written far too much already, so i'll save my opions/research/facts about digital and anlouge audio for a different days (short version, music is sometimes better in 2.0 via analouge connection [tube amp necessary...what a beautiful piece of technology, tube amps], but gaming and blu-ray and the like is better digitally via optical connections and the like [duh]

happy days

skibs

 

[Computerrock1]

What a great guide, too bad a new sound card isn't within my budget...

 

[intellix]

http://mp3ornot.com/

Nobody noticed or replied to this post... But I think he summed everything up nicely.

Although I've never had both onboard AND dedicated sound card, I'm doubtful that there's much difference. You could play both to someone blindfolded and I doubt they'd be able to tell the difference.

To those people saying it gives an FPS boost... I bet 100 quid extra on a graphics card would give an even bigger boost.

If you made a comparison of 480p vs 1080p you would get it correct 100% of the time. As the mp3ornot website shows, you wouldn't get it correct 100% and that proves that 320kbps is a waste of time.

 

[Idonno]

Nobody noticed or replied to this post... But I think he summed everything up nicely.

Although I've never had both onboard AND dedicated sound card, I'm doubtful that there's much difference. You could play both to someone blindfolded and I doubt they'd be able to tell the difference.

To those people saying it gives an FPS boost... I bet 100 quid extra on a graphics card would give an even bigger boost.

If you made a comparison of 480p vs 1080p you would get it correct 100% of the time. As the mp3ornot website shows, you wouldn't get it correct 100% and that proves that 320kbps is a waste of time.

Are you serious? First that link (http://mp3ornot.com/) has nothing to do with "mp3ornot" ALL SELECTIONS WERE .mp3.

Secondly, maybe you missed it but that link is an advertisement for "Cambridge Audio DacMagic Digital-to-Analog Converter with USB, Silver" and a poor quality 128kbps mp3 can easily be enhanced to sound as good as a poor quality un-enhanced 320kbps mp3.

Then there is the source, both samples had clarity issues that wouldn't have been present with say a decent recording on a CD, so if the source was of poorer quality than your typical 128kbps mp3 just encoding it to 320kbps isn't going to offer much improvement (if any) over 128kbps and since no one in advertisement has ever been known to be even the slightest bit misleading it must be that 128kbps actually sounds better since I consistently (every time) picked the wrong one.

The funny thing is if I repeat the process in a blind test with mp3's encoded from one of my own CD's I consistently pick the 320kbps mp3 as the better of the two. Go figure!

By the way "SAAIELLO" nice post!