Is an audio card really worth it...

the majority of the onboards cant push the same amount of power like any sound card
even a fucking xfi from 10 years ago will still be better than any onboard

I just upgraded my rig, had a cheap Asrock H87 board from my last build. It was shitty in every way, it was the one component I cheaped out on.
This time I decided I would splurge and buy a "premium" motherboard for a change.
Its an Asus Strix H570 board that has some sort of "premium audio" marketing mumbo jumbo on it.

I have a Class D amplifier and small studio speakers that I plug into my PC.
I noticed right away that my new motherboard sounded a LOT better than my old one.
Not placebo effect because I hadnt paid any mind to the audio marketing for it, it wasnt even a consideration since I assumed they were all the same anyways.

Take that FWIW, I cant imagine an audio card being much better than a premium motherboards onboard. But itd probably be better than bargain bin motherboards with shitty audio.

Music producer here. I'd only recommend one if you make music or just really want to have fancy things. The only soundcard worth buying is a Scarlett Solo or Scarlett 2i2. Never buy a PCI-E sound card because your audio equipment needs to star far away from your computer. Your PC will mess up the signal somehow and you might even hear some radio frequencies.

Other than that, you might want headphone amplifiers if you buy high end headphones. Personally, I prefer beyerdynamic DT 990s for my headphones. Regardless of what brand you go with, buy open back headphones, they give a better sound stage. Unless you're rich, don't spend more than $300 on headphones. Tbh, the DT 990s are already at peak audio and they're only between $100-$200 depending on where you get them. People lie about sound quality to justify their purchases so don't feel inclined to buy anything super nice. Especially because the people making the music aren't even using equipment that spectacular most of the time anyways.

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>the majority of the onboards cant push the same amount of power like any sound card

Why not?
They just cram the same OP amps and capacitors onto the motherboard instead of throwing it on a separate card now.

is there cheap modern usb interfaces with at least one spdif in? i have to use 20yr old sound blaster until i found something useful. most of sound boards doesn't even have one sdpif input.

>Is the sound really going to be that much better than the stock audio on my mother board?
One flaw with motherboard audio you should be aware of is the typically not isolated cheap cable running from your motherboard to your cases front audio output ports. A dedicated sound card may sound better because you're forced to plug into it on the back. You can do that with your motherboards audio too, it's not not as convenient.

Those dedicated DAC/AMP solutions actually have something to them because you get a digital signal to a box which is away from your case and you plug into that box. It's more practical than plugging into the back of a case. That's basically the only advantage.

In general, though: If you want better audio there's cheap surround amplifiers to be had these days. The older ones can not do 4k pass through so people are replacing fully working ones and selling their old units. This is a better solution than any sound card. The audio is sent digitally to it with HDMI and the headphone amplifiers in them are superior to any PC sound card. That's what I use as an audio solution, I never use my motherboards sound card ever. I wouldn't have noticed if it didn't have one. There is of course the practical issue of a surround receiver taking up a whole lot of space so it's not for you if you have a small room.

>a fashion piece instead of steinberg

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Would a Scarlett Solo and a cheap sure Cardioid mic be better than a Blue Yeti?
I read something about that, but had already bought a Yeti at a brick and mortar store.

Oh for sure. Personally, I use an sm58 with the solo. The sm58 is a dynamic mic so it's better for vocals than the yeti and if you want to hear yourself speak, there is virtually no latency. That being said, it's not like you're missing out on a lot unless you are making music so I wouldn't blame you for sticking with the yeti if it's just for discord or podcasts and whatnot.

>have cheap H110 asrock
>plug headphones in
>no hiss
>have Presonus audiobox USB
>plug headphones in
>hiss and crackle

Please tell me a DAC for pc, nothing too loud, just fairly louder, max $70. It doesn't have to be portable

In the days when integrated audio was shit, or not there they were great. These days, integrated is great.

>The only soundcard worth buying is a Scarlett Solo or Scarlett 2i2. Never buy a PCI-E sound card
*if you're a poorfag bedroom "producer"

High quality stuff is either PCIe or Thunderbolt.

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Not in 2019
Get a DAC if you really need it

what's a good DAC?

Talking about Sound Blaster, Creative just released Win10 1903 drivers for my 2005 X-Fi card so yeah I guess I'm gonna enjoy it until I upgrade to a PC that no longer has a PCI slot. And even then I could use some PCIe to PCI bridge, but that would be overdoing it.

Nice going, Creative.

Realtek makes some great DACs, especially considering how cheap they are.

This is the year 2000+19. If your motherboard isn't some chink garbage, you're likely to have Realtek which is fine for most users. And internal sound card won't really improve. External, that can be a different story if you're a hardcore audiophile.

rme adi-2 pro

>This is the year 2000+19. If your motherboard isn't some chink garbage, you're likely to have Realtek which is fine for most users.
Yeeeeah though even if the ICs are decent nowadays, mobo makers still cheap out on passive components...

hi welcome to 1996, here's your sound blaster 16

in all honesty, no, most motherboards have decent on board audio, you should be fine

> you would not be able to tell the difference in blind testing and this has been proven again and again
Trust me, if you have IEMs or do any recording, you'll notice. The static, squeaks and clicks from interference is annoying as fuck. You can't fix those problems with just any sound card though.

Any DAC can be good really, it's all in implementation
Even the most pleb tier DAC can be made ok with someone competent putting it together
On the flip side a good codac or DAC on a motherboard for example can be utterly ruined by the PCB layout monkey

don't buy any of the memes mentioned in this thread, they're money waste. if you want better sound quality buy expensive headphones instead.

Had similar experience with my Behringer interface. The noise levels of its DAC, while still okay, were higher than the built in soundcard of the mobo.

soundcards are a shit meme
dacs are sometimes a meme
audio interfaces are what you want

Buy an audio interface with XLR instead

Depends. It's better if you're playing (old) games that have openAL, and EAX support granted that the sound card has hardware acceleration that is.
Nothing beats real positional audio like it used to be.

>expensive headphones
These are a fucking pleb audio meme if there ever was one.

>headphones and mic take up the audio i/o in the back
>have to use the front audio to use speakers
would a splitter fix the issue?

I bought a sound card and the sound from its optical output is much better than my mobo's
:)

A splitter lowers the volume and probably degrades sound quality too, but you can try it.

Audio engineer here.

It doesnt really matter, you arent mastering music for fuck sake. You probably are only going to use it for background music and vidya, so stick with the onboard i/o. If it matters that much to you, get an audio interface.

>trust me, im smart
shut the fuck up boomer

Imagine being this stupid

Here's the trap.

Spending 100-200 bucks on an audio card and a decent pair of speakers/headphones is going to sound infinitely better than integrated audio and 20 bucks worth of speakers.

Spending 500 dollars on entry level audiophile grade speakers and another 500 on a receiver will sound a lot better than that 100 dollar set up. But you're getting in to the point of diminishing returns. Where you're past volume and in to sound staging.

Spending 2000+ gets you beyond Soundstage and in to granularity of the timbre of the instruments as well as first class sound staging and shitty production values start to impinge on the audio quality.

Just stick to a budget that plays clean audio at any volume.

Your argument is much more compelling, tell me more

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>If you plan on just using the 3.5mm audio jack then no, a new sound card is probably not even going to make a difference
compared to onboard sound? it's a dramatic difference. far less to non-existent noise for starters on a lot of models. do any of you fucking faggots know anything about audio cards for computers?
>so stick with the onboard i/o
sure, perfectly fine if you're using digital out. if you have to use line out then that's a different story altogether. so many motherboards out there that have unacceptable levels of background noise and interference via line out. an external dac or dedicated card is helpful.
pro-tip: audio engineers are not geniuses. they're dumb as fuck.
user is right, shut the fuck up, retard.

>Realtek
>making anything great
my fucking sides. truly remarkable.

If you want a good headphone output, it does make sense to have a USB DAC with a quality headphone amp. It looks like you can get a Fiio E10 for 50 bucks on ebay nowadays. In comparison to generic motherboard audio, you will have no hiss or other such isolation problems, and you also increase volume much further which is very helpful for headphones with a higher impedance.

Also, a USB DAC is nice because you can take it with you on holiday if you need too because your laptop output is shite. You can't do that with a sound card.

Get external dac amp
Internal is meme

no, no, yes

unless you can actually come up with a reason why you need a sound card beyond 'but the marketing says it will sound better' then you probably don't need a sound card

motherboard integrated audio is good enough, and that is fully acknowledging it is flawed, but most people can't tell the difference between 128k and 320k mp3s.

look at this nigga with an actual sense of discretion. look at him. how pathetic. my $15000 audio setup sounds way better than what you have and i don't care that it means that it makes it more obvious that nobody has bothered to properly master an album in the last 25 years, it means that my metaphorical dick is bigger than yours

>nobody has bothered to properly master an album in the last 25 years
Damn near every artist except the absolute beginners either personally masters their tracks or hires a mastering agent to do it for them.

Just adding to this that this is a retarded myth. The idea that "tracks aren't mixed properly" and "tracks aren't mastered properly" is complete bullshit. Mastering software is unquestionably multitudes better at analyzing audio and providing feedback to engineers than it was a few decades ago. Even hobbyists have better tools at their disposal than professionals did in the past.

I take this post back. Onboard + windows spatial sonic for headphones is good enough.

Boomer tech

I've been in two camps;
Bought into the sound card men thinking I'd get better sound but the card picked up all sorts of interference from my HDD activity and wireless mouse so I got an external dac connected and have been happy since and has given me the same audio chain as my PC has changed over time.
On the other hand, I have my turntable connected to my media PC via optical and had to buy a soundcard as its near impossible to find a device that takes 24/96 optical in these days without spending boatloads.

Soundcards are only needed these days to add features or technical abilities you're current setup doesn't support.
Sound quality for the most part is fine across the board

you can hear VRM / PCIe under some circumstances.
only option is some external card.

They used to be important but these days stock mb audio is fine

>you would not be able to tell the difference in blind testing

Absolutely wrong. There's blind testing youtube videos where they can distinguish a sound card vs on board.

If you are not convinced, get one off Amazon and return it within 4 weeks if not satisfied.

wtf is that

Do not replace your audio card unless your current audio ports are broken or incompatible with your audio devices.
If you wish to upgrade your audio buy a DAC. If you suspect that you will also be buying an amplifier or speakers in the future, buy an audio receiver instead, they have a DAC built in.

DACs don't make things louder

Does modern onboard audio have hardware based tone controls like my audigy 2 zs has?

I build a machine once just for Audio.. used a Gigabyte H-55 USB3 MB, Intel i3 540, Seasonic 650 x gold PS and got an M Audio AP 192 SC.

later I got a 64 bit laptop and bought a $25 Chinese outboard USB>Coax sound-card on ebay and it sounds no different... i even thought at first it sounded better, more open..

t. justifying your purchase of a soundcard

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that's really nice desu

>get an external dac instead of a soundcard
What will that give me?

>(((berg)))

You could always get a PCIe to PCI Adapter

Isolation from electrical noise.

If you need more I/O yes. But not for the sound quality.

Until onboard sound can do pic related there will always be a need for a quality sound card.

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Why do people think USB soundcards (or "DACs") are magically immune from interference? I get noise on mine every time I scroll a webpage.
The only way to completely isolate it from the PC is to get an actual dedicated DAC with optical input, not fucking USB.

>digital

a sound card literally will make no difference compared to a mobo digital out

Where the fuck have you been for the last 15 years?
Windows even has built in effects API, so you can install 3rd party effects with any sound device.

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Where's the hardware based bass and treble boost? I just see an equaliser.

>There's blind testing youtube videos
>youtube videos
Not sure if bait...

>hardware based
Why does that matter? Software can do better DSP.

>1) If your motherboards built in sound card has any problems, like scratchy audio, then you may as well get a new sound card
external dac is a better idea since if your motherboard has a sound issue it's likely due to interference from the psu or powered interface devices introducing electrical feedback

Just buy a good sound card and continue using it in every new computer you get, I've been using my Xonar Essence STX for the past 8 years in 3 different computers.

>{random faggot} here
First sign of autism
Your post is pure bullshit, neck yourself

the chip itself is a low powered one they cant just pass 40 to 60 watts on a onboard sound chip

>40 to 60 watts
wut

a simple xfi from 200s something eats up 43 watts
a gamer one goes up to 45 watts

why you think you can drive a 5.1 with crystalization without having white noise all over the place with sound cards?

>grounding audio through polluted ground path full of switching electronics

investing in a good headphone makes much more difference

I thought those 5.1 speakers all had their own power supplies.
I'm pretty sure most do, anyway.

not every 5.1 has amplifiers user

This. Get decent headphones or speakers, and if you still want better cleaner sound look into dacs/sound cards.

We're in 2019, and the onboard integrated Raeltek chips are slowly catching up to a fucking 10~15 year old dedicated sound cards. Realtek alc1150 and higher are decent, means you might not notice a huge difference when using dac/soundcard, although most people still do. everything depends on how good is your hearing.

t. doesn't understand decoupling

just buy a motherboard with good dac and audio connectors

The point of a soundcard for general use was being able to have more than 2 channels and dedicated processing. back them the cpu and memory could have a tool in it and you could end up having terrible loss if the samples where too much for the system.
Nowadays you only need it for recording and production, for reproduction a simple onboard alreadly has everything you need.

I needed extra outputs and could not figure how to split integrated audio outputs on linux (as in play different streams on 3.5 and optical out for example). So I bought extra card. Cheap one. I do not believe it has any advantages over integrated one.

Noob question here, I guess: Back in the days there was a considerable performance difference comparing onboard sound vs. a setup with a dedicated sfx card in games. Is this still true? So in generalization of this question: Is a solid dedicated sfx card bringing you anything performance speaking?

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see

No, or maybe 1% CPU usage. Windows vista, HDMI audio, and general improvement of onboard kind of killed pcie sound cards, and windows 10 has a decent binaural algorithm for directional gaming now, so paying for an extra add on makes even less sense to the average person.

I have the same card and have been doing the same thing. Just put it into my new Ryzen system.
I dislike having to put another something on my desk so it works for me.

Also, can I just say, the audible click it makes when switching from headphone to speakers is satisfying.

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