USB Soundcards

[thescreensavers]

Are there any Decent Sounds cards out? Any that would improve my sound quality? I currently am using my Laptop Toshiba A300 which has a realtek HD audio" Sound card. I think this is it Audio Codec:ALC268

I switched the Audio Format to 24bit 192,000 Hz but I have no idea if that's better then 96,000Hz or 48,000Hz or 44,100 Hz

I been using my Klipsch Pro-Media 5.1 Speakers with a 3.5mm Splitter on my laptop to get it to do F/R and C/Sub.

 

[Number1]

Any USB sound device that will output a true 5.1 signal would be an improvement over the splitters you are using now.

I think this is all you need
GWC USB 5.1 Channel Audo Adapter AA1500 5.1 Channels USB Interface Sound Card

or
GWC AA1570 7.1 Channels 48KHz USB Interface External USB 7.1 Channel Sound Bo


Or go with this:

Creative Sound Blaster X-FI surround 5.1 pro

Personally I would go with the Creative.

There might be better stuff out there but any of the items above would definitely improve your current set up.

 

[Tiamat]

what kind of problems are you hearing with your current setup? If you are not hearing audible problems, the difference is likely to be minimal between different soundcards. In my dell e1505, the system actually makes noise that is amplified through the soundcard that is emitted from the speakers. This is one major area where I found an external sound card to drastically improve the sound quality. The drastic improvement was that with the laptop onboard solution, I could hear all sorts of funky noises that were random and based on the load of the CPU. With the USB solution, I hear no unwanted noises.

In general, depending on the lack of acoustical fidelity you are experiencing, purchasing an external sound card may or may not help. If it is a system noise issue, it will help tremendously. If it is an imaging problem, adjusting the speaker positioning keeping them as far away from walls as possible will help. If the bass is muddy, relocating the subwoofer can help, as will changing the listening position.

Good luck!

 

[thescreensavers]

Any USB sound device that will output a true 5.1 signal would be an improvement over the splitters you are using now.

I think this is all you need
GWC USB 5.1 Channel Audo Adapter AA1500 5.1 Channels USB Interface Sound Card

or
GWC AA1570 7.1 Channels 48KHz USB Interface External USB 7.1 Channel Sound Bo


Or go with this:

Creative Sound Blaster X-FI surround 5.1 pro

Personally I would go with the Creative.

There might be better stuff out there but any of the items above would definitely improve your current set up.

For the first device it only supports 44.1 KHz, 16-bit., I am not any audio specialist but 24bit that my sound card gives out will sound much better right?

Not much info on the 7.1 system

The Creative one can be had for 50 bucks from amazon but many people say it has issues with stuttering and taking alot of CPU cycles away, My CPU is not crappy but its not new (T9300) so I am a bit weary of it

what kind of problems are you hearing with your current setup? If you are not hearing audible problems, the difference is likely to be minimal between different soundcards. In my dell e1505, the system actually makes noise that is amplified through the soundcard that is emitted from the speakers. This is one major area where I found an external sound card to drastically improve the sound quality. The drastic improvement was that with the laptop onboard solution, I could hear all sorts of funky noises that were random and based on the load of the CPU. With the USB solution, I hear no unwanted noises.

In general, depending on the lack of acoustical fidelity you are experiencing, purchasing an external sound card may or may not help. If it is a system noise issue, it will help tremendously. If it is an imaging problem, adjusting the speaker positioning keeping them as far away from walls as possible will help. If the bass is muddy, relocating the subwoofer can help, as will changing the listening position.

Good luck!

well I am hearing Stereo though my 3.1 set up , I don't have any issues with a hissing or buzzing sound on my laptop, I know exactly what you are talking about, since I have had that issue happen to me on another computer.

But I would love to split the channels up, and possibly have a better sound card then what I have in right now, but it seems the USB alternatives are not too good and worth my money lol,

 

[Tiamat]

Sound quality will only be as good as the source. Most CDs are 16bit with some 20bit cds out there (and maybe 24bit). The difference in quality is nothing to write home about. The real quality is determined by the recording engineer. A few extra bits is not going to help at all at this stage of the game (computer based setup in a compromised acoustical environment). Sound quality is determined by how competitively the acoustical/recording engineer made the source.

Upsampling the source isn't going to do squat. You can only get as good as what you put into the system.

Since you have 5.1 speakers, the main audio quality improvement you would obtain is when you get a real 5.1 sound card. This will benefit your 5.1 sources and may improve the sound quality of when you decide to upsample your stereo sources to 5.1. Since 5.1 is a very old 'standard' most sound cards should be competent in doing what you would need. I wouldn't get caught up on upsampling numbers at all for normal use.

 

[thescreensavers]

^ I listen to Flac stuff when ever I can. I also get 320+ Kbps or higher bit rate for my mp3's

So I am not sure if I would hear anything or not. But it seems there are no USB sound cards that are decent so meh.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Sound quality will only be as good as the source. Most CDs are 16bit with some 20bit cds out there (and maybe 24bit). The difference in quality is nothing to write home about. The real quality is determined by the recording engineer. A few extra bits is not going to help at all at this stage of the game (computer based setup in a compromised acoustical environment). Sound quality is determined by how competitively the acoustical/recording engineer made the source.

Upsampling the source isn't going to do squat. You can only get as good as what you put into the system.

Since you have 5.1 speakers, the main audio quality improvement you would obtain is when you get a real 5.1 sound card. This will benefit your 5.1 sources and may improve the sound quality of when you decide to upsample your stereo sources to 5.1. Since 5.1 is a very old 'standard' most sound cards should be competent in doing what you would need. I wouldn't get caught up on upsampling numbers at all for normal use.

I wouldn't entirely agree. Using a better quality source (and by source I mean DAC) will have an impact, and considering its one of the few aspects of quality sound that you can control, you might as well get a good one.

24-bit DACs should be able to handle 16-bit audio just fine, and if the DAC is good, it will make it sound very good as well. Just because its spec'ed up to 24-bit doesn't mean its oversampling either.

^ I listen to Flac stuff when ever I can. I also get 320+ Kbps or higher bit rate for my mp3's

So I am not sure if I would hear anything or not. But it seems there are no USB sound cards that are decent so meh.

For a PC surround speaker set, that's probably true (but there are a lot of great stereo USB sound devices out now).

Oh, I forgot, Zalman might have a couple of products that interest you. They updated their ZM-RSSC, and they also have another product that should work well for you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829101151

I'm not sure about the quality, but it might be sufficient for what you want.

 

[kornphlake]

The M-audio Transit is generally considered decent or better. I don't think anything better than 24bit would be audible since most music would be upconverted from less than 24 bit sources anyway. I'm sure there are some exceptions, some of the electronic music is recorded at high resolution and may sound better with a higher bitrate. You'd still have to use a splitter or toslink to get multi channel sound.

 

[s44]

Sound quality will only be as good as the source.

Disagree. Usually it will be much much worse. Particularly in any "computer speaker" setup, the limiting factor will be the poor speakers themselves. Unless you have an obvious issue like electrical interference, obsessing over source content and electronics is a giant waste of time and especially money.

 

[sdifox]

Disagree. Usually it will be much much worse. Particularly in any "computer speaker" setup, the limiting factor will be the poor speakers themselves. Unless you have an obvious issue like electrical interference, obsessing over source content and electronics is a giant waste of time and especially money.

You misunderstand...He meant the source is the upper limit.