Why buy a nice soundcard... when all i do is use headphones for gaming?

[Tbirdkid]

I dont understand why most people spend all this money on a sound card, then only use their pc for gaming... why not just use the decent onboard like nforce2 soundstorm or the realtek?
Is there that much of a difference? I havent ever had a good sound card... other than the old sound blaster live...
I dont really listen to music through my pc... so should i spend the money to get a good one? Right now, im using the sound from a sound blaster live instead of my audio from my lanparty. The only reason why i dont use the onboard is because of the all in one drivers suck.

 

[Tiamat]

Not everybody uses solely headphones.

Using onboard sound takes up resources that can be used to process the game.

I have headphones that have a 1/4" end and its just easier to use a platinum creative card.

To me, the reasons for upgrading off of onboard is:
1.) Use less system resources
2.) Features, features, and features!

 

[sniperruff]

because you can especially hear the difference between some crap sound solution and a good one when you use headphones.

but IMO the SB live is sufficient. you don't need a 7.1 or a 15.3 sound card for your headphones. invest in a good pair of headphones.

 

[remagavon]

Sennheiser = good sound card needed here (And a headphone amp for that matter).

 

[Gannon]

If you can't tell the difference between onboard audio and a soundcard you must be deaf or do not listen to very much music on the PC.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Gannon
If you can't tell the difference between onboard audio and a soundcard you must be deaf or do not listen to very much music on the PC.

I notice little or no difference, but possibly sometimes there are small differences..... either way not that much. Ever since my AV-710 crapped out, I've just been using the onboard, works OK for me. (I use headphones too)

 

[Gannon]

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: Gannon
If you can't tell the difference between onboard audio and a soundcard you must be deaf or do not listen to very much music on the PC.

I notice little or no difference, but possibly sometimes there are small differences..... either way not that much. Ever since my AV-710 crapped out, I've just been using the onboard, works OK for me. (I use headphones too)

I can easily hear the difference between my onboard audio and my Sb audigy, also the things I can do with my audigy (Tweaking the Eq, effects, minimizing distortion, etc) run rings around onboard audio solutions. If you are serious about audio there's no point in going with onboard chips. When listening to music it's very easy to notice that the sampling on the onboard chips is inferior and you can easily hear pops, crackles and hisses, and especially distortion while playing back digital songs that you would never hear on an audigy. I use headphones exclusively and not the cheap ones either, and even on cheap headphones you can tell the difference as well.

Maybe its because you don't have anything to compare to but when I flip through the environments and eq settings on the audigy control panel, having that experience listening to how sound is effected, its easy to tell the difference between a good sound card and onboard audio.

 

[The J]

The biggest difference I heard from moving to my Audigy 2 ZS from an ALC650 codec was that the bass was much clearer and less boomy on my speaker set. This is when I had the Creative Inspire T5400s, which are not bad but aren't great either (I now have the MegaWorks 550). There's also the increase in framerate in games, but that wasn't very large.

I heard a difference. If you didn't, then perhaps you could consider yourself lucky that you don't want to buy better sound equipment.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
why not just use the decent onboard like nforce2 soundstorm?

because we've all moved on from socket A. there's no point to downgrading.

 

[Raduque]

Headphones, meh. I use speakers. Big ones. I also use onboard Realtek sound on my nForce2 Ultra400 (not everybody has moved on from socket A, Mik3y) and it sounds 10x better then my SBLive card, and 5x better then my SBAudigy. For some reason, both those PCI cards pick up tons more noise then my onboard does With the creative cards, I can hear my HDs access, CDs spin up, and mouse move in my speakers. Can't hear that with my onboard sound. I use it for both games and music, mostly music.

I have an AV710 in my HTPC, but only for the optical-out; DD/DTS passthrough to my reciever.

Myself, I won't spend the money on another soundcard till I actually decide to bite the bullet and retire my 1974 Sansui amp and replace it with a DD-capable amp/surround speakers and an HDA X-Mystique 7.1 or other DDLive card.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Raduque
Headphones, meh. I use speakers. Big ones. I also use onboard Realtek sound on my nForce2 Ultra400 (not everybody has moved on from socket A, Mik3y) and it sounds 10x better then my SBLive card, and 5x better then my SBAudigy. For some reason, both those PCI cards pick up tons more noise then my onboard does With the creative cards, I can hear my HDs access, CDs spin up, and mouse move in my speakers. Can't hear that with my onboard sound. I use it for both games and music, mostly music.

I have an AV710 in my HTPC, but only for the optical-out; DD/DTS passthrough to my reciever.

Myself, I won't spend the money on another soundcard till I actually decide to bite the bullet and retire my 1974 Sansui amp and replace it with a DD-capable amp/surround speakers and an HDA X-Mystique 7.1 or other DDLive card.

I just replaced my AV-710 with an X-Mystique and it's working great. The drivers the I downloaded when I bought the card were a little crappy, but the latest ones seem to have cleared up all my problems :thumbsup:

 

[MobiusPizza]

Audigy has a headphone present for sound
Also onboard sound can't get you features like EAX