Sound card - Is it worth it? (also new speaker suggestions)

[Hellfire]

Hi Guys,

So I am planning my new PC build, it's going to be a full build from scratch, in the past I've always ignored audio and gone with on board, I think I haven't bothered with Sound cards since the days of Soundblaster Live/Audigy

Are Sound cards worth it? do they offer better audio than onboard? I'm happy spending a few hundred on a sound card if I will provide better audio

Secondly, new speakers? I need some with my new build so suggestions on the best to get would be appreciative.

Budget is £400 for the combined speaker/sound card? can stretch to more if needed.

Thanks friends. (PS. it is used for both gaming and music but I do not consider myself an audiophile)

 

[btarunr]

As someone who's owned legendary sound cards such as the Auzentech X-Meridian, SB XFi Xtreme Music, AudigyZ, etc., among several others throughout the 90s and 00s, I must admit that today's high-end motherboards have really caught up with ~£100-150 sound cards. Among motherboard vendors, GIGABYTE takes its onboard audio solutions most seriously. See if you can spend the extra £100 on a high-end GIGABYTE motherboard over what you originally planned, which comes with ESS Sabre DACs driving the main front channel, ALC1220VB pulling the other channels, user-replaceable OPAMPs, and pretty decent WIMA capacitors, EMI shielding, etc. I've built a machine with one of those boards, and they sound seriously good.

 

[GlacierNine]

I wouldn't bother with an internal soundcard in 2018. An external USB DAC will be much better.

 

[MyTechAddiction]

Get the good speakers first, if you are pleased by the sound stop right there.Warning : there is a serious risk that you might become an " audiophile " somebody who constantly searches for the next hit, a new rush, splurging money on huge speakers, gold plated HDMI cable, 99.99% pure silver cables and 24 bit, 192 Khz Hi-definition sound.

 

[GlacierNine]

Get the good speakers first, if you are pleased by the sound stop right there.Warning : there is a serious risk that you might become an " audiophile " somebody who constantly searches for the next hit, a new rush, splurging money on huge speakers, gold plated HDMI cable, 99.99% pure silver cables and 24 bit, 192 Khz Hi-definition sound.

To be fair, there is an opposite extreme to this.

Don't become someone that sees no value in well built and designed equipment solely because they're unable to tell the difference between quality and snakeoil. Of course PWB Electronics, Machina Dynamica and Black Ravioli are scams - But that doesn't mean a Schiit headphone amp or a set of nice Yamaha HS50's is a waste of money - or even extremely high end speakers, like Definitive Technology Mythos

To OP - BTW, What kind of room is this going in? If you have a lot of soft furnishings and a big space then you're pretty good for using speakers, but if you have hardwood floors, lots of reflective surfaces etc, then you'll likely find that speakers end up hamstrung, no matter how good they are, because of the amount of sound bouncing off of the rest of the room and fucking with you. If that's the case, I'd suggest that headphones are a much better idea than speakers

 

[jboydgolfer]

I wouldn't bother with any sound cards. It's a waste of cash that could go elsewhere

 

[Frizz]

From what I understand;

- If you're purely gaming then focus on gear that will give you the best soundstage for better positional and more immersive atmospheric audio, this is where "gaming" sound cards may come in handy for virtual surround features and gaming specific features like the ASUS Sonic Radar Pro

- If you love to listen to music and just want good sound quality in general without a care for surround then External DAC (so that you don't ever have to buy one again) + Decent set of cans.

 

[rtwjunkie]

It’s a subjective answer you are getting from whichever side as to whether soundcards are worth it.

I think high end sound cards are worth it and still hold the edge, and always use them. Just like some people say they can see the difference in frame rates and some can’t, the same thing applies to the richness and fidelity and boost levels of sound for some people hearing the difference.

Ultimately only you can decide if they are worth it.

 

[eidairaman1]

As someone who's owned legendary sound cards such as the Auzentech X-Meridian, SB XFi Xtreme Music, AudigyZ, etc., among several others throughout the 90s and 00s, I must admit that today's high-end motherboards have really caught up with ~£100-150 sound cards. Among motherboard vendors, GIGABYTE takes its onboard audio solutions most seriously. See if you can spend the extra £100 on a high-end GIGABYTE motherboard over what you originally planned, which comes with ESS Sabre DACs driving the main front channel, ALC1220VB pulling the other channels, user-replaceable OPAMPs, and pretty decent WIMA capacitors, EMI shielding, etc. I've built a machine with one of those boards, and they sound seriously good.

That may do that but their bios sucks

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Providing you already have a good set of bookshelf speakers and headphones... get the Soundblaster X7. A lot of people down at headhifi praise this device

You can connect to it via USB like a USB soundcard and it can power speakers between 4-8ohms and you can even add a subwoofer to make it 2.1 if you wanted to.

On the other hand buy the cheapest Creative Sound blaster card you can with optical out that supports Dolby Digital Live and cruise ebay for AV Receivers that fit your within your price range. Yamaha, Pioneer, Dennon, Onkyo (though maybe not so much Onkyo) will bring movies and gaming to life - I already had a creative soundcard and bookshelf speakers so bought a pre-owned yamaha AVR for £100 a subwoofer for £160 though i bought that new from amazon as i couldnt be bothered to wait for good deals to pop up on ebay... Look to spending about £80 for a subwoofer... Factor in about £20-30 for cabling if you dont have it and youre golden.

^This is if you want to stick with 5.1 surround sound though... I already had 4 bookshelf speakers and the sound card so it wasnt a huge expense to go the route that i did. I used to have a set of Logitech Z5500s and my current setup totally destroys them.

2.1 is still good for movies and gaming though. or watch movies in 2.1 and game on headphones.


There are so many combinations to get your perfect setup

 

[Tatty_Two]

As someone who still uses a dedicated sound card, I see the value when doing a full system upgrade of paying that bit extra for a motherboard with a decent sound chip only today you don't really need to spend more. My first though a few years back would have been to buy what I needed in terms of a motherboard in the budget/mid price range that also has decent overclocking abilities and if it comes with a lower end sound chip like an ALC887 then what the hell, buy a reasonable dedicated sound card if I felt I needed to, however today, with what's available in just mid ranged boards in terms of sound it just no longer makes sense, there are so many decently priced boards out there now with good sound, I mean, in the UK you can get a £100 motherboard with Realtek's ALC1220 for both Intel and AMD sockets, it's a no lose situation unless of course you are an audiophile where possible sound is the number 1 reason for buying a particular board.

 

[GlacierNine]

Providing you already have a good set of bookshelf speakers and headphones... get the Soundblaster X7. A lot of people down at headhifi praise this device

Bear in mind that there are also people on Head-Fi that think they can hear the difference between WAV and FLAC, so maybe don't take their opinions too seriously.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Bear in mind that there are also people on Head-Fi that think they can hear the difference between WAV and FLAC, so maybe don't take their opinions too seriously.

external reviews are also very favorable

 

[GlacierNine]

external reviews are also very favorable

And I'm not saying these products are bad, just to be wary of audio reviews in general.

I listen to everything through a pair of Mordaunt Short Mezzo 2s, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and a Denon AVR3802. Headphones I have are AKG K550 and Grado SR80.

I've auditioned systems costing 5 or so times this much, into the ten figures. There's definitely an improvement to be had.

But when it comes to reviews of audio equipment there's definitely one key factor that people fail to take into account - of course it has good reviews. Because EVERYTHING has good reviews in audio. Magazines are bought and paid for by the industry to sell product, and forums are full to bursting with either shills or the outright deluded.

There's definitely better and worse gear out there, but buyer beware - always try your hardest to sift through the bullshit and compare multiple options.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

And I'm not saying these products are bad, just to be wary of audio reviews in general.

I listen to everything through a pair of Mordaunt Short Mezzo 2s, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and a Denon AVR3802. Headphones I have are AKG K550 and Grado SR80.

I've auditioned systems costing 5 or so times this much, into the ten figures. There's definitely an improvement to be had.

But when it comes to reviews of audio equipment there's definitely one key factor that people fail to take into account - of course it has good reviews. Because EVERYTHING has good reviews in audio. Magazines are bought and paid for by the industry to sell product, and forums are full to bursting with either shills or the outright deluded.

There's definitely better and worse gear out there, but buyer beware - always try your hardest to sift through the bullshit and compare multiple options.

I never take their opinions to heart but i want to see how a review sites review matches up with peoples opinions on headhifi just to find out more about the device itself. Everyone's hearing is different and personal preference to audio are different and where else better in the internet to go then a forum full of audio snobs?

 

[GlacierNine]

I never take their opinions to heart but i want to see how a review sites review matches up with peoples opinions on headhifi just to find out more about the device itself. Everyone's hearing is different and personal preference to audio are different and where else better in the internet to go then a forum full of audio snobs?

I would argue "Almost anywhere else" because I find those people utterly insufferable - but in particular, the answer is "music production or musicians forums" - they still come with their share of hokum and witchcraft peddlers (just like tech forums do, despite the clear evidence tech sites provide for us to analyse) but there's definitely a much higher signal to noise ratio amongst people who are trying to produce music for other people to hear, than there is amongst people who are just trying to brag to each other about why their system is better, or justify whatever their latest purchase is.


Edit - there's also a much lower chance of people advising things based solely on their own preferences rather than your needs. On regular forums there are always those idiots who just want to hype the awful bass-heavy monster cans or subs they use to shake their house with trap beats. On a musicians forum, most people are after neutral sounding reference speakers or studio headphones that will help them translate their mix as accurately as possible over all possible speaker systems their audience might plat the music on. This invariably results in much less skewed and more realistic assessments of how things should sound in order to give the best reproduction of the original recordings a person is listening to.

 

[EarthDog]

So I am planning my new PC build, it's going to be a full build from scratch

We know.. this is like the 5th thread on your build. Didn't the staff already combine a couple of your threads here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/time-for-a-new-build-go-big-or-go-home.250119/

Didn't read anything but the first post....

Try out integrated audio before you go investing in anything else. In order to get the most out of any discrete sound card, you need solid speakers/cans as well.

 

[eidairaman1]

We know.. this is like the 5th thread on your build.

Didn't read anything but the first post....

Try out integrated audio before you go investing in anything else. In order to get the most out of any discrete sound card, you need solid speakers/cans as well.

I run game sound through a card and Headset com through isj

 

[EarthDog]

I run game sound through a card and Headset com through isj

???????????????

Cool. I don't understand your point, however.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

I have the ASUS Audigy DGX paired with Edifier 2000RB and the Logitech Z906 and I can say I am really happy with this combination, the integrated soundcard on my MB is trash

 

[natr0n]

A system isnt a system without a decent sound card.

I use a stereo receiver with 4 bookshelf speakers.

Sound card is an sb x-fi.

 

[GlacierNine]

A system isnt a system without a decent sound card.

I use a stereo receiver with 4 bookshelf speakers.

Sound card is an sb x-fi.

External DACs and audio interfaces would like a word with you.

 

[natr0n]

External DACs and audio interfaces would like a word with you.

DACs and such are external sound cards basically. I said decent not internal. So statement can still apply.

 

[Ferrum Master]

ASUS Audigy DGX

WHAT?

 

[sam_86314]

I currently have a 7.1 receiver connected to my PC over optical. I have some Yamaha speakers connected to that. So I guess that means I have an external DAC.

Before that, I only used onboard audio and some Bose MediaMate speakers. I think the Bose Companion series are pretty much identical to those.