SOUND CARDS

SOUND CARDS

how much better can they sound compared to onboard?

like 10~30% or more?

is it worth the money?

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alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main#ALSA_SoundCard_Matrix
tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733.html
myredditvideos.com/
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

I've been wondering this myself.

Zero. If you cared about sound you'd have a dac box. Sound cards are for neckbeards who worship microcock

>worship microcock
Do sound cards only work on windows or something?

Those contain a chip that is worse than normal on board audio.

Yeah because people on macs are using real gear like apogee. Get an maudio box for cheap

Or if you want to pay schitz dac boxes

I always have a horrible whistling sound when I connect my microphone to onboard, so I use an external sound card.

Not much, too much interference, unless your on board ianjust aweful. Id go with the external dac if you feel the need to upgrade from onboard

depends on your onboard

cheap ass 30$ pcie 1x creative soundcard is 100x better than any onboard because of stuff like
all the onboard sound brags about SnR which means exactly shit when comparing 100db to 110db, the main problem is amplification both input and output which for some reason they cant do properly onboard.

>I always have a horrible whistling sound when I connect my microphone to onboard
I also have this shit and it makes the microphone unusable, will something like what OP posted help?

You are clueless though. There is no reason why sound card can't sound comparable or better than external dac/amp. As long as it's shielded, pcb is good, and components are good then there is no problem with it being internal.
Simple example, AIM SC808 compared to fiio e10x. Later is external but doesn't even come close to former in literally every way.
You are correct about soundcards being windows only, which sucks. Plus you need to give up 1 pcie slot for one, and it doesn't come with volume knob and Sup Forums creed.

Dedicated sound cards have far better highs/lows and less distortion than any onboard audio, but they re-route the headphone jack to the rear. If you spend a lot on speakers or headphones and don't want a desktop amp/dac then they're the way the go to get the most of your system

>microphone
wow i have this crap too i wonder if thats where it comes from? not my mic?

if you don't know why you need a sound card, you don't need a sound card.

total waste of money.
unless you are audiophile that just can't enjoy music unless hundreds of $ was wasted on sound

yes.

likely from electrical interference on your motherboard

>You are correct about soundcards being windows only

thats false as fuck tho I dont even use linux that much but every time i has the sound works right out of the gate unless your looking for meme effects like 3dCMSS
the only thing i had to do was mute the mic playback through alsa mixer

usb sound cards are DACs, though?

I use a hackintosh so my situation is slightly unusual.
* My onboard sound doesn't work reliably under macOS.
* I got Displayport audio to work and my monitor has a headphone port, but macOS couldn't control its volume, and even when set to max via the monitor the volume was quite low.
*If I connected speakers to my monitor and headphones to the speakers, it was loud enough but there was a very annoying hiss.

I ended up buying pic related. It's quite ugly, seems overpriced, is too bulky for what it does (albeit I only use a subset of its ports), and is only 16 bit which audiophiles tell me is a crime against humanity.

But it works perfectly, sounds great, it can provide very loud output, there's no hiss that I can notice, and macOS can provide a software volume control for it. Works fine under Windows too. Would recommend to anyone looking for a similar solution.

My ideal DAC would provide virtual surround (I currently use Razer Surround for that on Windows and nothing on macOS. A hardware version would be nice) and have a hardware volume control. I couldn't find such a product for a sane price, though.

One other thing, I think OP might not have been strictly referring to internal PCI/PCIe cards when he said "sound card". A lot of USB devices advertise themselves as "USB sound cards", for instance.

They are the same thing with different marketing.

right but you are relying on the USB to be noise free which is just as much as a crapshoot as onboard

Except it's not. I'm not saying your sound card will not work, just that drivers are almost universally windows only.
My soundcard has 1 6,3 jack out and 2 RCA outputs, which you can switch between. If I'm using Windows I can use driver to switch between outputs, on linux I'm out of luck and can only use generic driver.
But other than this 1 specific case you are not wrong, it doesn't make much difference since audio effects are unwanted and bit depth/bitrate is inaudible.
What the fuck. USB is digital, there is no noise in digital.

1.
alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main#ALSA_SoundCard_Matrix
works on my machine and many others without needing proprietary drivers.

2.
I have literally had to unplug and replug my usb headset thousands of times over various usb ports/mb because it would shit out randomly
just because there is no noise in digital that wont stop flaky usb ports or devices from causing problems

on a side note the usb headset has been rewired to 3.5mm leads and sounds better than it ever did with its usb dongle

>alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main#ALSA_SoundCard_Matrix
works on my machine and many others without needing proprietary drivers.
I'm not sure what you are trying to prove. I know there are alternatives but that doesn't change anything I said.

>I have literally had to unplug and replug my usb headset thousands of times over various usb ports/mb because it would shit out randomly
Don't buy crap. Things not working have nothing in common with "noise". Digital signal literally can not have noise of any kind. There are 2 states digital can have, it either works or doesn't.

>on a side note the usb headset has been rewired to 3.5mm leads and sounds better than it ever did with its usb dongle
Because usb headsets are crap or usb anything, or headset anything for that matter. Obviously it sounds better since those things have built in dac which is 99% of the time complete crap. Your use case has basically nothing in common with external dac/amps.

>sound cards only work on windows
Sort of.
Linux doesn't really have proper soundcard drivers.

>USB is digital, there is no noise in digital.
USB is electrical. As such it's subject to noise and interference.
If USB was over optical cable you'd have a point.

>There are 2 states digital can have, it either works or doesn't.
then how do you explain the speakers working but the mic putting out garbage on my FP usb but not the rear ?

that is such a false argument many things can cause your digital 1's and 0's to be fucked up during transmission causing problems
Digital is not as rigid of an on off scenario people make it seem
if it was an unstable CPU overclock would just not work the second i hit the power button not boot all the way into windows and then crash an app hours later

in simple terms yes digital is either working on not but then you get into advanced signaling with error correction and all kinds of stuff and that simple on or off analogy don't hold water

I use a $20 24b/96khz usb soundcard for working HF digital modes with my amateur radio

That depends entirely on the sound card. It does have basic standard compliant drivers, at least for USB soundcards.
For PCI soundcards there probably isn't a standard driver as such, so it can be more tricky.

Something I always missed was low-pass filtering.
The Windows drivers always had this with a checkbox, while Linux always made my subwoofer scream.

It is if you do a lot of audio work, but internal sound cards are a meme. You can pick up a perfectly good sound card for like $70-$100 these days. There's virtually no application for it for gaming, unless you are an audiophile, or doesn't want their voice to sound like complete shit when talking to people online.

i am thinking about buying sound card for my future bulid so i can fill dat 1x pci line

get a 10gbe card instead

I bought €150+ headphones a few months ago but still haven't used them because soundcard/dac/amp memes plus autism.

>or doesn't want their voice to sound like complete shit when talking to people

this times 100x
I notice the audio quality but most plebs don't but they do instantly notice the difference in mic capture quality.


I'm not advocating everyone run out and buy a 300$ meme card but this lil guy right here is a sound investment for problem free quality sound especially if you use speakers.
I have the older PCI version and it just werks even in linux

you're fine
I use 499€ headphones straight from my phone

most phone dac's are significantly better than onboard sound idk how they do it while asus charges you +50$ for gold capacitors and an isolation loop in the pcb and it still sounds like shit

>I notice the audio quality but most plebs don't

Yeah man, it's one of my biggest triggers talking to people online, especially when they start fucking clipping.

>how much better
They are not better but it may appear that way because most of them force you to plug your headphones into the back of your computer. If you're going to do that then there's not much difference between the sound card and the motherboard audio.

>As long as it's shielded
And you're usually going to be using something that's not shielded. Every single computer case that I've seen has had the cheapest possible audio jack and cable going to the motherboard (or soundcard).

And this is why external AMP/DACs are a lot more convenient and better-sounding. Motherboard soundcards and internal soundcards mostly sound just fine as long as you're plugging into the back (directly into the motherboard or soundcard).

An external USB AMP/DAC is totally worth it just to avoid that.

>usb headsets are crap
I disagree, my Bluedio R's sound awesome. They are pretty nice over Bluetooth too, though. I know this will raise some objections here on Sup Forums but I don't care, they sound amazing. And they also work as a USB sound card (works fine on GNU/LInux) of you plug them into your computer. Don't work well with cellphones, though, because they will try to charge from the USB.

the onboard alc1220 on my aorus k7 is surprisingly solid, absolutely transparent implementation. I think we're getting there, at least with higher end boards manufacturers start to notice that shitty onboard needs to go away

but microsoft killed off hardware accelerated audio with vista

If the increase in high impedance headphones is finally forcing them to put some decent amplification circuitry behind the low SNR they have be clamoring about for a decade that would be a huge difference.
Hows the mic ?

yeah, the amp is weak, barely louder than my phone with low sensitivity cans. didn't test the mic in because I don't have a dynamic

>And you're usually going to be using something that's not shielded
Unless you buy something that is shielded?
Sound cards are not limited to cheap creative cards, if you didn't notice it by now. I can find you external dacs that will sound like complete shit and internal dacs that will be better than anything you owned.

tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733.html

>Anything Above $2 Buys More Features, Not Better Quality

I use a cheap $7 one and it removes all static noise that my motherboard is giving. Worth it.

>Of course, we also have to acknowledge our own shortcomings and the limits of these tests; neither is perfect. We are audio amateurs, not audio professionals.
Kill yourself for posting this crap again.

>tomshardware

i bet you toms wouldn't notice the difference between a satellite radio and OTA

satellite radio is awful by the way like 96k mp3 quality what a joke

I used to use my DAP as a usb sound card.

That's called Faraday Induction IIRC. It's the sound coming from the electromagnetic fields that come from plugs, electricity cables, etc.

U can look to audio jacks to see which one is balanced ((TRS)) (noise cancellation betwen the actual wave you're hearing and another one reversed inside the cable) and which one is the common cable (((TS)) that gets that electric fields.

The trick is TRS has 3 rings below the prepuce, TS has only 2 ..or 1 depends on how you look at it xd

Basically this... I get the idea of using a cheap external DAC to sidestep any potential issues with onboard, but I seriously cringe when I see people buying Schitt stacks for hundreds of dollars.

Because you are a retarded poorfag. DAC itself doesn't matter but certain headphones require more power to drive than onboard amps can provide. Certain headphones benefit from opamps or lamps (although former is audiophool territory). high quality soundcards and external dac/amps will always have less noise than shitty onborads (mind shitty part, some boards are just done well and good enough for easier to drive headphones)

Also this """test""" on tomshardware is a complete joke. They have no clue how to test audio gear, yet they decided to do it for some reason. Not that you would know, since you didn't read it, past the headline.

onboard is now better than $100-$300 DACs.
ALC1150 > some crap chink dac.

Even with the shittiest caps, this is still the case.

If the difference between two pieces of equipment is not only unnoticeable with a casual listen, but also unnoticeable with a serious effort at a semi-scientific double-blind test by unbiased technically proficient individuals, and only noticeable by professionals in the field using special test equipment and strict procedures... is it meaningful to say that they are actually different for the purposes of listening to music/movies/games at home?

And you are still a clueless retard. First of all you are wrong. Second of all, compare how much power can your onboard ALC1150 amp output compared to any external dac/amp. You can lookup fulla2 specs sheet for instance.
But keep telling that to yourself, poorfag. Gotta cope somehow with the fact you can't spend $100 on something you use daily for years.

>If the difference between two pieces of equipment is not only unnoticeable with a casual listen
What makes you think it isn't?
AKG k702 will sound like shit without good amp, due to complete lack of low frequencies. This is not rocket science, if headphones are hard to drive, meaning require more power than $10 shit you use, then you will not have a good time running them out of mobo out.
Do you use your PC with 100W power supply?

This is the difference between analog and digitally encoded data. Analog data carries information based entirely on the precise variations of the flow of current or the voltage levels. Digital is still an electrical signal, but it isn't dependent on exact values to be accurate, it depends on thresholds (e.g. above 3.3v is a '1' and below .5 is a '0') thus it is almost entirely immune from the small electrical interferences from surrounding circuits When it comes to accurately transmitting data. Of course that digital signal then needs to be converted into analog for it to be played through speakers, but that hardware is in the unit, away from the computer case, and is thus less likely to pick up that noise during the process.

Shit

The problems with USB audio are mostly related to the dirty power supply, not dirty audio data.
I can literally hear noise when I move my mouse through my USB headphones.

How well do high end motherboards compare to sound cards? Years ago I upgraded my cheap motherboards sound with a cheap Asus Xonar card, maybe $45. I'm not looking to upgrade, I use shitty USB headsets that wouldn't work with a sound card anyways, I'm just curious how things stack up. I've got an Asus Crosshair VI X370, would a $45 sound card sound better, or would I be looking at the $200 ones to have any realistic improvement?

Most sound cards are shit, there are few exceptions. Most of the time you are better off getting external dac/amp. And it's around $100 investment for good ones.