I would have to wonder how a 15 y.o sound card compares to ALC1220...
Well, my dad for some weird reason prefers using an Audigy 2 PCI instead of his on-board ALC1150 which should be about the same, though spec wise the on-board might have the lead. He has a 7.1 Creative Inspire system, most of the speakers have been replaced with old speakers that were top quality for their time and now 1 unit could cost as much as a pair of quality studio speakers.
I guess he does like the Creative software much more over what Realtek offers, I've seen him adjust the loudness/equalization a lot because of distance the speakers are placed at and the sound the individual speakers produce. Creative software just has a lot more customization options.
Myself, I've never used anything other than on-board sound, the price just doesn't seem to justify the purchase unless you can get a used one and find drivers that won't blue screen.
I did contemplate getting a Xonar DX, some people like it and some say it's complete garbage. I don't know what to believe. Until I heard it myself, I just don't want to invest in something that
is likely to be not much an improvement over on-board for me personally.
I prefer listening on earphones, they're light and seem enough combined with on-board sound, though I do find myself tuning the equalizer for individual styles of music, A LOT. I can't seem to find a medium which fits everything.
With speakers I have a problem, the subwoofer of the budget CT Inspire kit does it's job. But the satellites that come with it are lackluster, and most of the good sound seems to either not come out them or most of the sound is being absorbed by the furniture. Or maybe my hearing has gone to sh*t from listening on headphones at high volume.
My own personal experience with sound goes only as far as getting the most of speaker placement and the equalizer.
I just don't have the money to experiment if it is my hearing, the DAC or the speakers/headphones that is impeding the experience.
It seems like the only way to get a good budget audio setup is to dive blindly and decide for yourself if everything is worth the money.
I've tried searching for good upgrades, but reviews only do so much, and people's opinions range wildly. With everything combined, it seems extremely difficult to decide.
There are a few used SB X-Fi cards floating for 50 euros. But that's as much for a whole budget motherboard or an SSD. And I'm not sure about it being worth that.
I've also tried listening to the audio through HDMI from my monitor and tried comparing that. It seemed like there is no difference.
I
do have access to an SB Live! and SB Live! 5.1 and an older PC that has some PCI slots. Maybe I'll try that, but I don't think it's gonna make a difference to something like ALC 889 or 892. It does state in the wiki these cards have design flaws and are really old.
This pretty much should sum up old pre-Audigy era cards.
https://hardforum.com/threads/the-truth-and-my-view-onboard-sound-vs-sb-live-5-1.1396019/
Have always been using onboard. (Realtek)
