Hardware & Technical If you don't use a discrete audio card, you should!

FoxTwo

FoxTwo
Man, was I blown away. Like many other people, I've always thought that the built-in audio on the motherboard would be more than sufficient for gaming and home entertainment usage. After all it supports the usual stuff - DTS, 5.1, etc etc. Why bother?

Well, recently the audio jacks seem to be acting up, randomly popping up "unplugged" and "plugged in" messages even though nothing had been done to them. So I disabled the on-board sound chip and got an Asus Xonar DSX (kinda mid-range I guess) PCIe sound card. Basically I just wanted to stop the annoying pop-ups and the sound skips when that happens, be it whether I am in a game or watching a movie. And I also wanted it to detect when I plug in a headset to the front jacks on the case.. The Asus card has connector pins for front case panel jacks.

When I started the PC up and test-played a couple of music MP3s and a game or 2, the difference was astounding... amazing....so clear, so rich... bass so deep... and the settings were all left at "default". I hadn't even started messing with them yet!

Now, I'm not recommending specifically getting the Asus board, but I'm just saying that maybe a discrete sound card should be on the shopping list. I know that I will keep using this card in my next PC and the one after etc etc until it dies (or a better one comes out and I get that one :D )
 
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Insomnia

Insomnia
I have a basic set of Logitech PC speakers for 20 bucks lol. My built in audio component does the job.

But I believe you. Truly. Sounds can be equally important as the monitor to enhance the experience. I would love to get me a pair of awesome hi fi speakers with a decent soundcard though. :)
 

shadragon

shadragon
Round the ear style headphones are my solution. You don't have to worry about room acoustics or the surrounding environment and you don't bother others nearby.

7.1 surround and immersive as heck.
 

Gunnet

G
Indeed. Onboard sound has gotten better over the years, but it's still the equivalent of onboard video.

My original GPU setup in this PC didn't leave space for a soundcard. So I went with an external DAC/headphone amp, which has served me well.
 

FoxTwo

FoxTwo
Yup, I actually ended up spending a good part of the day re-listening to familiar songs I always play, and finding that I'm enjoying them in a different light (sound?)... :D

I don't normally wear a headset for gaming, only when the neighbour's really loud (*wink*). I think the Asus DGX is geared more towards headset users. I picked the DSX because I don't use a headset.

Maybe my next step is to get better speakers to see if the quality of the sound gets "further upgraded" too...

ps: I could be imagining it ...but it seemed to me that my Python boost sound feels more "powerful" now... maybe slightly deeper bass or something.... but the rest of the audio in ED is largely the same (almost no difference) except that I can hear a couple of extra sounds now in the cockpit that I never noticed before..
 
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Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
I have a built-in sound chip to my Asus motherboard. This is a SupremeFX. It is connected to an Akai 2 * 80 watt amplifier (40 years old) and small 100-watt compact speakers, of Boston brand (10 years old). With this material I am satisfied with my high fidelity

9490929.jpg


9462257.jpg


:)
 
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Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
Onboard audio: because putting sensitive analogue electronics built to the cheapest price possible inside a noisy environment without any shielding is a good idea.

My solution is a Behringer UCA-222; just disable the recording part and it's just about the best bang per currency unit one can IMAO get for "consumer audio" purposes. No dumb 3rd party drivers trying to crash your system, just plug it in and it works.
 

bitstorm

bitstorm
Shadowdancer said:
Onboard audio: because putting sensitive analogue electronics built to the cheapest price possible inside a noisy environment without any shielding is a good idea.

My solution is a Behringer UCA-222; just disable the recording part and it's just about the best bang per currency unit one can IMAO get for "consumer audio" purposes. No dumb 3rd party drivers trying to crash your system, just plug it in and it works.
Click to expand...

Sound things always confuse me.

You just plug this into USB and it's a high quality (for the money) soundcard?

Looks like it's only 2 channel but if that's all you want that's fine?

So can plug this in, disable onboard sound card and you are good to go, with hopefully an improvement in sound quality if your onboard one wasn't so great?
 
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Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
bitstorm said:
You just plug this into USB and it's a high quality (for the money) soundcard?

Looks like it's only 2 channel but if that's all you want that's fine?

So can plug this in, disable onboard sound card and you are good to go, with hopefully an improvement in sound quality if your onboard one wasn't so great?
Click to expand...
Yeah, if you want just a stereo output pair for little money, that thing is my definite go-to. I bought it with a bit of a doubt because Behringer have a certain reputation (I guess that's why the box becomes a buzzing nightmare if anything enables its recording path…), but as far as any consumer requirements go, the output is clean. With onboard, I always had interference buzzing through, but I can crank that USB box up all the way and it's still almost dead silent. That plus the "no drivers" (thanks to USB standard interfaces) part are pretty darn enjoyable.

All in all, if you want to pump game audio or just listen to music on a non-audiophile level, it's really something worth looking at; however, it doesn't have a microphone input and I don't know how good the headphone out is though, so if you need those, there may be other products that give you better value.

Even though some may cry bloody murder, I'd really like to see one of those small "podcast mixers" with support for PC headsets, that would just make so much sense for gaming.
 

Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
Patrick_68000 said:
I have a built-in sound chip to my Asus motherboard. This is a SupremeFX. It is connected to an Akai 2 * 80 watt amplifier (40 years old) and small 100-watt compact speakers, of Boston brand (10 years old). With this material I am satisfied with my high fidelity

http://savepic.net/9490929.jpg

http://savepic.net/9462257.jpg

:)
Click to expand...

I like that one :)
I have the same board and the sound is great if i connect the right speakers / headset :) but for the surround homecinema i need to be alone at home which is barely the case :D
 

bitstorm

bitstorm
Shadowdancer said:
Yeah, if you want just a stereo output pair for little money, that thing is my definite go-to. I bought it with a bit of a doubt because Behringer have a certain reputation (I guess that's why the box becomes a buzzing nightmare if anything enables its recording path…), but as far as any consumer requirements go, the output is clean. With onboard, I always had interference buzzing through, but I can crank that USB box up all the way and it's still almost dead silent. That plus the "no drivers" (thanks to USB standard interfaces) part are pretty darn enjoyable.

All in all, if you want to pump game audio or just listen to music on a non-audiophile level, it's really something worth looking at; however, it doesn't have a microphone input and I don't know how good the headphone out is though, so if you need those, there may be other products that give you better value.

Even though some may cry bloody murder, I'd really like to see one of those small "podcast mixers" with support for PC headsets, that would just make so much sense for gaming.
Click to expand...

I really like this solution.

I code so spend most of the day at work with headphones on, this is an ideal solution for my work computer where you can't really go dismantling things, just plug it into a usb port. :)

I will give it a go, cheers!
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
I am quite happy with the audio outputs (5.1) from my Asus Maximus VIII Hero - they feed this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004MY4PU6/


wXbGbl5.jpg



I never had small speakers before (my home audio is all Missions) but am impressed with it's performance - for the PC I totally recommend it, great sound, great price - mah immershun!


EDIT - P.S. In ye olde days I used to always fit Soundblaster cards to my PCs - I can't believe how much money I spent on stuff like that.
 
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winterknight

W
I agree with the OP.
I run a 7 channel DAC pre-amplifier with incorporated stereo headphone amplifier, which has switched optical, co-ax and USB inputs. With a oldish 50 watt amp and bookcase speakers to which I've added a Yamaha sub-woofer. I might add rear speakers later if funds allow.
 

Morbad

Morbad
FoxTwo said:
After all it supports the usual stuff - DTS, 5.1, etc etc.
Click to expand...

The only thing that really matters is the quality of the DACs and how isolated the output is from noise from the rest of the board.

FoxTwo said:
So I disabled the on-board sound chip and got an Asus Xonar DSX (kinda mid-range I guess) PCIe sound card. Basically I just wanted to stop the annoying pop-ups and the sound skips when that happens, be it whether I am in a game or watching a movie. And I also wanted it to detect when I plug in a headset to the front jacks on the case.. The Asus card has connector pins for front case panel jacks.

When I started the PC up and test-played a couple of music MP3s and a game or 2, the difference was astounding... amazing....so clear, so rich... bass so deep... and the settings were all left at "default". I hadn't even started messing with them yet!

Now, I'm not recommending specifically getting the Asus board, but I'm just saying that maybe a discrete sound card should be on the shopping list. I know that I will keep using this card in my next PC and the one after etc etc until it dies (or a better one comes out and I get that one :D )
Click to expand...

Quality motherboards will have solid audio.

I actually have a Xonar DSX (among other cards) and with my modest M-Audio AV-40's it's indistinguishable from the onboard on my best five motherboards. I'd need much better speakers and better dampening in my room to be able to really notice any differences.

Shadowdancer said:
Onboard audio: because putting sensitive analogue electronics built to the cheapest price possible inside a noisy environment without any shielding is a good idea.
Click to expand...

Many modern boards isolate the entire audio section from the rest of the PCB and have a metal shielding cap over the CODEC and DACs.
 

StiTch

StiTch
Gonna be the oddball here.

As a musician and part-time audiophile, provided your motherboard has the actual connections required and can cope with the setup you intend to implement, I didn't really notice a difference implementing the discrete sound card.

Might be a particularly good mobo, or a particularly bog standard sound card, but the difference was minimal and possibly even placebo. Certainly not something I'd have dropped £80 just for the sound improvement.
 

Smykes

Smykes
CPUs are much faster nowadays and can cope with multitasking.
But adding a dedicated sound card to a system will reduce the amount of work the CPU has to deal with.
CPU delegates all the sound stuff to the card, instead of doing it all itself.
Same as running a dedicated GPU, instead of onboard graphix.

My old SB XF-fi has MIDI inputs that I still use .. I play keyboard
 
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Roybe

Roybe
There's a couple of options for sound that are superior to the onboard 'card'

Either a seperate card, by Turtle Beach, Creative, etc. and better than good speakers

Or, for those that do not mind wearing (and buying!) real headsets a well made headphone amplifier.
 
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