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ALRIGHT!!! Lets have it out right here about onboard sound! Its not that bad....

K

KDOG

Diamond Member
Honestly, I haven't noticed any sound quality difference between the onboard sound I'm using now, and the SB Live! Value I had before....
And really, how much CPU power is it using, anyway? 5%? If that? And with CPUs' as powerful as they are these days, does it matter? I just see alot of badmouthing of it in reviews of motherboards and such... I'm wondering if thats justified in the fact that your ears most likely can't tell the difference. It seems that speaker quality is more of an issue there.
 
what sort of speaker system do you have?
no offence but it can't really be a first class one if you can't hear or feel the difference between the two! 😕
 
play some midi files on that onboard audio and compare that to some midi playback with a good soundfont(bare minimum is the 8mb default one provided by EMU with the SBLive) on the SB Live.
 
bacillus: I have Cambridge Soundworks PCWorks speaker set 2+sub. Its a good set. Definetly clear enough to tell the difference between sound devices.
 
for people on a budget, on board sound is actually not bad. But like Vinny_N said, break out the midi and you'll see a difference 🙂
 
Try playing EverQuest or a game which uses the onboard sound's midi capabilities, then try another soundcard such as the Acoustics Edge or a Yamaha based chipset sound card. The Sb Live! is not the best comparison to begin with but you're not really offering an equal comparison board here. Try different sound cards than just one to yield better test results. If you're building a budget PC strictly, then the on board sound is probably more than sufficient especially for most multimedia speaker setups.

dm
 
i used onboard sound for about a year, mostly on an msi6309 and then on my gigabyte ga7zm. there is more hiss i'd say and the bass isn't as good. but its close to say a sb64pci or a yamaha pci clone card. Which is why i used it for so long. I have a live xgamer now on the digital connection and its better, but onboard sound is definitely not bad
 
onboard sounds is no worse than an icepick through ur hand..... [/que] ice pick actually going through hand[/end] no the onboard is worse, the pain from the icepick goes away with the numbing and greening effect on my hand however i am still reeling from the sound produced from that onboard crapola.. hehe 🙂 $.02
 
I don't think it is so bad, I may get a sound card for it one of these days, but its not a big priority for me.
 
I don't understand some of your comments. If I played a MP3 file thru onboard audio and then thru even a good sound card, and didn't tell you which is which, you wouldn't know the difference. Now a good sound card has more features but not necessarily better quality.
 


<< If I played a MP3 file thru onboard audio and then thru even a good sound card, and didn't tell you which is which, you wouldn't know the difference. Now a good sound card has more features but not necessarily better quality. >>


What are you on about son?
 
Well Kdog, I agree with you...to a point. If you're just playing wav or mp3's, I agree that there's not much quality difference, at least not enough that both my Cambridge PCworks or Microsoft System 80 speakers pick up. I'm comparing my SB Live with the VIA AC 97 onboard sound in my MSI 6309. The difference really comes into play when playing games. Even without using EAX extensions, the Live sounds much better in games that have &quot;3d sound&quot;. With EAX, it's obviously a whole different ballgame. I would imagine midi is the same way.

 
It depends on what chipset the onboard sound is using. Some have really bad sound quality due to a notoriously high THD and low SNR. Frequency response is also very uneven thoughout the audible range(20-20KHz), in fact, some can't even reproduce the entire audible range.
 
pshh, who listens to midi anyways? 🙂

i have to agree that a soundcard makes a difference if you're playing games that use eax or whatever. mp3s shouldnt be all that huge of a difference because they dont need the 3d sound, which is where the main benefit of the sblive and vortex chipsets come into play.
 
Well, I suppose you can't really tell the difference in sound quality with crappy computer speakers anyway...
 
On board sound is great for business pcs -- cheap, integrated and well suited to business needs(voice recognition aside). All my builds for work include on board sound. For gaming on the other hand....
 
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