Would getting a sound card improve my system's sound quality?

[Siddhartha]

Background:
Because of drunken 3:00 am ebay craziness I own a pair of POLK LSi 15 tower speakers. These speakers tend to go below 4 ohms so I bought an ONKYO TX RN 906 receiver to safely drive the speakers.

The receiver has 7.1 capability. Right now I using it in a 5.0, no subwoofer, formation. I am going to get another pair of speakers and an amplifier for the 12 inch subwoofer I have to use the receiver's 7.1 capability.

All my music is in mp3 and FLAC formats stored on hard drives played through the motherboard onboard circuit. I use my sound system for watching TV, DVD, Bluray, etc too Would it be worth it in terms of improving the sound quality of my system to upgrade to a sound card. What sound cards should I consider?


thanks

Siddhartha.

 

[giantpandaman2]

Yes, a sound card will improve your system's sound quality IF you're running analog speaker connections from your card to your receiver. Whether it's worth it is debatable. If you're doing a digital connection the sound card won't make much of a difference.

I have a dedicated sound card running through an old receiver and some Jamo's. Not nearly as nice as my home theater system, but definitely better than a typical computer system.

Going from 5.1 to 7.1 generally isn't worth it. I have 7.2. If I could do it again I'd probably not get the extra 2 speakers. Definitely get a subwoofer, though.

I have a Sound Blaster ZxR, and I'm very happy with it. A bit expensive. I've heard good things about the Asus Xonar series but I've never listened to them personally on any system where differences would be discernible. Again, the key is whether you're using your sound card for the digital-analog conversion or your Onkyo. The nice thing about the ZxR is that it uses Burr-Brown DAC's. I'm not familiar with what DAC the Onkyo 906 uses.

 

[Siddhartha]

Yes, a sound card will improve your system's sound quality IF you're running analog speaker connections from your card to your receiver. Whether it's worth it is debatable. If you're doing a digital connection the sound card won't make much of a difference.

I have a dedicated sound card running through an old receiver and some Jamo's. Not nearly as nice as my home theater system, but definitely better than a typical computer system.

Going from 5.1 to 7.1 generally isn't worth it. I have 7.2. If I could do it again I'd probably not get the extra 2 speakers. Definitely get a subwoofer, though.

I have a Sound Blaster ZxR, and I'm very happy with it. A bit expensive. I've heard good things about the Asus Xonar series but I've never listened to them personally on any system where differences would be discernible. Again, the key is whether you're using your sound card for the digital-analog conversion or your Onkyo. The nice thing about the ZxR is that it uses Burr-Brown DAC's. I'm not familiar with what DAC the Onkyo 906 uses.

My desktop computer is connected to the receiver using a HDMI cable. Though my current laptop is connected using analog.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My desktop computer is connected to the receiver using a HDMI cable. Though my current laptop is connected using analog.

HDMI = Digital. So no benefit from a new sound card.

The laptop doesn't have HDMI output?

 

[Siddhartha]

HDMI = Digital. So no benefit from a new sound card.

The laptop doesn't have HDMI output?

It is an old Thinkpad.

 

[giantpandaman2]

My desktop computer is connected to the receiver using a HDMI cable. Though my current laptop is connected using analog.

Sound card won't affect the laptop. Desktop connected via HDMI means the sound hardware is doing almost nothing. All the heavy lifting is being done by the receiver.

So no benefit from getting a new sound card.

 

[Siddhartha]

Sound card won't affect the laptop. Desktop connected via HDMI means the sound hardware is doing almost nothing. All the heavy lifting is being done by the receiver.

So no benefit from getting a new sound card.

Thanks guys. You have saved me money and the possible head ache of getting a sound card to work properly.