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Does a sound card make much difference?

lilrayray69

lilrayray69

Senior member
Hey, I've wondered for a while if sound cards really make much of a difference.

It started with me reading that some people apparently hear a world of difference in music between 120kbps, 320kbps, and FLAC. I honestly can tell little to no difference. Then I read how speakers/headphones and the right sound card make a world of difference. Well I got a pair of Sennheiser HD 202 headphones which I really do like, and music does sound better with them.

I then also got an ASUS Xonar DG sound card I think has a built in headphone amp (though small I'm sure). But I really can't hear any noticeable difference between the Xonar and my on-board Realtek using the headphones, whether in games or music...

So do they really make much of a difference or would you need a high end sound card with high speakers/headphones to truly notice anything?
 
Yes, yes the do. But like you said you would need high end speakers or headphones to notice it.

The only thing you need to concern yourself with is taking the signal out of the computer as a digital signal, and do the D/A conversion outside.

A sound card sort of achieves this by taking the digital signal and performing the D/A on the card, which is generally better shielded than a motherboard's circuitry (although nowadays integrated audio circuitry has gotten a lot better). But an external DAC is still the best.

Anything else is generally just marketing BS. Especially those OP-AMP ratings. You will not tell the difference between 95db and 100db SNR, or between 0.01% THD and 0.001% THD. These are minute differences that don't play any role unless your goal is to go deaf.
 
Ah I've heard of DACs, never used one though. The only thing I like better about the Xonar is you can change the setting based on the ohms of the headphones, boosting the volume. Other than that I don't really notice a difference.

Maybe I'll get a DAC if I get a higher quality set of headphones.
 
When I went from on-board audio to a DAC the music opened up and got far better stereo imaging. So if want really good sound, it's highly recommended. But the sound will not get better than the weakest link.
 
lilrayray69 said:
Ah I've heard of DACs, never used one though. The only thing I like better about the Xonar is you can change the setting based on the ohms of the headphones, boosting the volume. Other than that I don't really notice a difference.

Maybe I'll get a DAC if I get a higher quality set of headphones.
Click to expand...

The xonar has better dacs than the onboard ones...oh, just read you have a DG, not Essence 🙂

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/sound-cards/asus-xonar-dg-717199/review
 
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I know having the right driver can make a world of difference. I always thought the sound sucked on my Toshiba Lappy till I updated the driver. Wow what a difference. I have also heard some 320kbps encodings that sound horrible and some 128kbps that sound just like the CD.
 
The last soundcard worth buying was the Diamond Monster Sound MX300. It's really been that long since they were worthwhile. If you want better than integrated audio then connect your digital out to an external DAC.

Positional 3D audio hasn't advanced since 2000 when Creative Labs murdered Aureal with patent trolling lawsuits and then bought the remains of the company and buried the technology so that no one else could use it to make competing sound cards and yes I'm still mad.
 
You can think of audio as trying to look at a painting behind many panes of glass. The end picture will only look as good as the weakest link. A sound card is like a clear pane of glass compared to a slightly blurry on board audio jack, but if your headphones or speakers aren't clear, then it doesn't matter.
 
Eureka said:
You can think of audio as trying to look at a painting behind many panes of glass. The end picture will only look as good as the weakest link. A sound card is like a clear pane of glass compared to a slightly blurry on board audio jack, but if your headphones or speakers aren't clear, then it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

What you mean to say is "A sound card is at best like a slightly less blurry pane of glass compared to a slightly blurry on board audio jack".
 
I see we have another audio professional with unorthodox opinions he ain't afraid to tell the world amongst us.
 
I need a sound card for 5.1 surround sound. Nothing fancy just a Creative Audigy 2 ZS using the Creative alternative drivers.
 
I think sound card does make a noticeable difference in sound. When I used my steelseries siberia V2 with on-board audio, they sound lame and after adding up xonar dg, they really started sound. Now you get some feel, while firing those bullets and grenades.
 
In my HTPC I have everything set to passthrough mode so the receiver does all the conversion. Other than that I don't use my PCs for audio.
 
well, if you are using digital sound, a sound card shouldnt really matter, unless you it comes with an encoder you want (dts connect, dolby digital live).

Otherwise, it's more about the features than outright sound quality. High end motherboards have good enough sound for most, but if you want things like dolby headphone for gaming, or ASIO support, you will likely need a sound card.
 
Don't forget all those fine features that games have like DTS, etc if your sound card doesn't support that then you won't have the features.
 
NutBucket said:
Isn't all that decoding done in software? The only difference between hardware is the quality of DAC itself.
Click to expand...

Also the quality of the outs, especially the analog. My receiver is from 1998 when s-video was the standard. My sound card, an x-fi platinum, is a little better than my onboard (I have an MSI Sandy Bridge. I run analog out for pretty, much everything to my receiver and regular speakers. The X-Fi was ranked slightly higher than my onboard and I definitely noticed a difference when I tried both.

At work our main machine was put together by IT. I brought in some $12 Logitech speakers in and run an external HDD with mostly flac through vlc. We had a PC go out and I bought a cheap Dell cause we didn't need much. The Dell has a Realtek card and the best sound quality. One guy at work is s former DJ and said it made a big difference.
 
I have a receiver that does DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1, either with digital coaxial in or optical in...

Currently using onboard via optical to the receiver.

Would I benefit from a sound card or DAC?
 
BassBomb said:
I have a receiver that does DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1, either with digital coaxial in or optical in...

Currently using onboard via optical to the receiver.

Would I benefit from a sound card or DAC?
Click to expand...

You use the DAC in your reciever, so you would need to get a DAC that is better than the one in the reciever. But most DAC's are aimed at stereo and not surround. So if you use 5.1, I wouldn't get a dac, but rather get a xonar essence STX.
 
biostud said:
You use the DAC in your reciever, so you would need to get a DAC that is better than the one in the reciever. But most DAC's are aimed at stereo and not surround. So if you use 5.1, I wouldn't get a dac, but rather get a xonar essence STX.
Click to expand...

So you're saying use the STX and run analog cable to the receiver?

I can't say which DAC is better. Its an old JVC RX-8000V from the 90s
 
John Connor said:
Don't forget all those fine features that games have like DTS, etc if your sound card doesn't support that then you won't have the features.
Click to expand...
DTS encoding etc. is just a software workaround for what HDMI to the receiver handles automatically.
 
BassBomb said:
So you're saying use the STX and run analog cable to the receiver?

I can't say which DAC is better. Its an old JVC RX-8000V from the 90s
Click to expand...

Actually I'm not entirely sure, so instead of speaking nonsense, I'll just lets experts reply 🙂
 
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