Soundcards, Can you get ones that get you better audio quality?

[SE14man]

What's a good soundcard make and modelk for really good quality sound?
Or does it not matter what soundcard you have sound will always soundthe same?

Cheers!

[Sartori]

Creative make fairly good ones - juggling price with features , my Audigy is great allowing "record what u hear" without add on software . When you record with the soundcard it is the quality of the analogue to digital (ADC) convertor that dictates the quality to a great extent (ie its accuracy in converting) ..... But after saying that - Ive just converted an LP to CD using my laptop with an inbuilt soundcard and the results are fine . (The major disadvantage to inbuilt soundcards being their cpu usage , external (pci type) would use their own ).

Whichever one you settle on , I`d recommend doing a websearch for the soundcard/your motherboard to see if there any incompatabilities between them .

[yoda313]

I have a creative live 5.1 usb add on. Got it for $50 a year and half ago or so. The thing rocks! The nice thing about the soundcards is their amplification. Onboard sound can be decent enough but having a dedicated device for sound is often optimal.

Besides for the internal cards you can get an official Creative card for under $30 if you look hard.

However internal sound can be satisfactory for most applications if you're not too picky. But I've just grown accustomed to Creative since my first 8bit mono soundcard on my old 386.

[dwill123]

Checkoput Aureon 7.1 Universe. I have one and I'm extremely satisfied with it. Recently though Terratec is hard to find in the U.S. You might have to Google it to find a distributor. I think you'll have much better luck in the UK.

[waheed]

Ive had a Creative Audigy 2 Platinum 6.1 Sound card for almost 3 years now (cost me £150 back then) and its definitely an improvement over onboard (integrated) audio, even by todays standard.

Coupled with my Megaworks 6.1 650D speakers, the sound is amazing for gaming, music and DVDs.

The latest creative do is their X-Fi range.

The true potential of any sound card is also determined by the quality of speakers you have. If you are using just standard 2 speakers, you wont notice much of a difference between sound cards, even onboard audio.

If you have decent multi speakers setup then you'll notice a greater difference between sound cards over onboard audio.

[SingSing]

The most prominent parts of your soud setup is your speakers and the room.

If you have a surround amp/speaker in place, then you can use a sound card with coax/optical output, and use the existing sound setup.

My imprssion is PC sound is still gear more towards gaming.

[yoda313]

My imprssion is PC sound is still gear more towards gaming.

Why is that? I have a 5.1 logitech speaker set hooked up to my creative 5.1. Works equally as well for dvd movies, concert dvds, or plain old stereo cds/mp3's.

[sacajaweeda]

The onboard sound on my PCs mobo is as good as any soundcard.

[Sartori]

PC sound is geared more towards gaming with home cinema requirements (surround) being mostly standard as well , where this differentiates is that they are not generally for top end musician output quality ........ unless you pay top end musician prices , ie not for musicians but music lovers . Audigys and other brand counterparts are good soundcards at that budget point for good gaming audio quality and good audio (music/home cinema) quality) but theyre not for musicians that require the best output quality , which is my original point of "juggling price with features" .

Onboard sound can suffer if the pc is doing something else at the same time , my laptop will record sound fine but it struggles with dvd playback & my main PCs mobo soundcard made my pc go tits up with its sound going out of sync and the clocks not locking when I was digitising video (which is a well known problem with them) .

[yoda313]

But what about soundcards with digital outputs?? My usb creative live 5.1 addon has a fiberoptic output and a SPIDF output. I can hook it up to a full blown digital amp if I want. The sound would be even better.

I don't think you have to pay top dollar to get really good sound. Now for the purist audiophiles sure nothing but the best will be good for them. But these days the majority of midgrade soundcards are more than strong enough for music, movies, AND games.

[Sartori]

Im referring to Musicians (pop groups etc) soundcards (to record and playback) for higher price (top end) soundcards , not soundcards for music , movies and games - soundcards like mine and yours (Audigy and Live 5.1) are fine and perfect for that purpose to a very high degree . I mention top end musicians soundcards purely because the original poster doesnt say what use he wants to put the card to .

[robertazimmerman]

Instead of listening to people who have little frame of reference, i.e., "I have an XYZ audio card and it's fantastic!", or "You won't hear the difference between 'A' and 'B' ", or "I use the Flidgit sound card and the recorded sound is indistinguishable from the original source....", go to a few audiophile sites and see what they recommend.

I recently was in the market for a good digital camera and after asking a number of people what they bought and why, I easily discovered that there were superior cameras available for similar money to the ones these so-called experts were recommending.

Trust the experts! I'd rather have the opinion of one expert than 20 opinions from the masses.

Just my humble opinion......

roberta

[SingSing]

But what about soundcards with digital outputs?? My usb creative live 5.1 addon has a fiberoptic output and a SPIDF output. I can hook it up to a full blown digital amp if I want. The sound would be even better.

The optical output from a sound card is just delivering the audio bit stream. Since your external digital amp can delivers better sound. Then, there is a different between what's on-board the sounbd card, vs a surround amp. The different is more appearance when the speakers and room is set up, and calibrated.

[MOVIEGEEK]

IMHO you are wasting money if you spend more than $50USD(39E) for a soundcard.Even onboard audio has come along way in the past few years,many motherboards have 5.1 coaxial output.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Instead of listening to people who have little frame of reference,
....
go to a few audiophile sites and see what they recommend
....
Trust the experts! I'd rather have the opinion of one expert than 20 opinions from the masses.

Just my humble opinion......

Many people on this forum have over 20 years of electronic experience and some that do this(audio/video transfer) for a living.I would rather have many opinions than one from a so-called expert.

[Sartori]

Instead of listening to people who have little frame of reference, i.e., "I have an XYZ audio card and it's fantastic!", or "You won't hear the difference between 'A' and 'B' ", or "I use the Flidgit sound card and the recorded sound is indistinguishable from the original source....", go to a few audiophile sites and see what they recommend.

I recently was in the market for a good digital camera and after asking a number of people what they bought and why, I easily discovered that there were superior cameras available for similar money to the ones these so-called experts were recommending.

Trust the experts! I'd rather have the opinion of one expert than 20 opinions from the masses.

Just my humble opinion......

roberta

The poster gave no frame of reference to what he wanted the card for or a budget , so all answers are correct . I`m a part time musician and bought my card for its low latency values , you won`t find about that on an audiophile site , its a musicians forum he would need (if he wanted the card for a musicians tool) - my point , there is no criteria , so your advice to send him to an audiophiles site is misguided , as Moviegeek says above this is a videoforum , with plenty of people able to give advice and/or experiences on soundcards in relation to video capturing , home cinema and games ....combinations of advice you probably won`t find on an audiophile site .

All of the posts above are valid answers , it is for the poster to seperate the chaff from the wheat , personally I`d use all brands mentioned as the start of seperate searches for which is best , for whatever is my criteria .

As you make a laboured point (ie your whole post) slagging off answers and the people who gave their time to answer (all of which are valid & correct for the posters question) , I can only presume you wanted to make a smug point - give yourself a high 5

[John]

ive tried a few over the years and always go back to creative labs, ive go it connected to my amp, and you can hear a difference in quality, or at least you used to, especially with on board sound.

[Dubber]

I'm a Turtle Beach fan since I got my first piece from them for analogue-to-digital converts a few years back. But I don't use the card to listen to the music, I got decent audio equipment for that.

here is the linky to theit site: http://www.turtlebeach.com

[sacajaweeda]

Onboard sound can suffer if the pc is doing something else at the same time , my laptop will record sound fine but it struggles with dvd playback & my main PCs mobo soundcard made my pc go tits up with its sound going out of sync and the clocks not locking when I was digitising video (which is a well known problem with them) .

Maybe I'm just lucky then. I've never had audio sync problems with video I've captured and created on my current PC.

Sounds fantastic through the speakers, too. As good as any sound card I've wasted money on in the past.

[BARCH]

I have had the creative audigy 2 soundcard but as I deal with forensic audio have found the M-Audio Audiophile 192 PCI Sound Card of much better quality for audio capture purposes.

[Wile_E]

This has all been discussed numerous times on many forums on the internet. You will always get some people that think on-board is good enough, and some people that always buy an add-on card. I know people that think LP Records still sound better than full-range CD's. It really depends what you want out of your audio and what you need to do. Onboard audio usually doesn't have a software equalizer nor even treble/bass controls. So if your cheapy speakers don't have adjustments, you are stuck with muffled sound, instead of enjoying full-range, high-pitched crisp sound. CPU usage is usually more. Noise levels are definitely more than even the low-end Creative cards. I would definitely not use this for recording any audio project for professional use nor my own amateur use for archiving purposes. Nvidia soundstorm was good onboard gaming audio, but even it doesn't match an M-Audio. I for one, now have an M-Audio for recording and Creative X-Fi for gaming, hooked up to studio quality speakers.

There are also people that think there is no difference in think CD quality 16-bit/44KHz vs. a studio master at 24-bit/192KHz. These people have never had the opportunity to listen in a studio controlled setting with pro gear. The problem is people get used to things sounding a certain way. I had a friend that never adjusted his audio equalizer, and everything sounded flat, dull, and muffled. I adjusted it for him, and he thought everything sounded too crisp and too high-pitched. He adjusted it back to where it was all dull and muffled.


For music and audio recording - M-Audio or other professional gear.
For Gaming - Creative Audigy 2/X-Fi
For low usage - onboard

[robertazimmerman]

My point is not to belittle others' opinions, but to remind people that most of the opinions expressed in these parts are from people who likely have exposure to one piece of hardware and do not have a frame of reference. If you have tested a number of cards and have a preference, then certainly you have a frame of reference. But simply saying that a user has tried card "A" or card "B" and thinks it's great is meaningless (IMHO).

It's like looking thru films in Blockbuster and someone comes up to you and says, "That movie is great!". Does this person have good taste in movies? Are his/her tastes similar to mine? Does this person know anything about quality film-making? For all I know, his/her fave films are Gigli, Ishtar and Plan 9 From Outer Space. If I say that I love Pizza Pockets, does that make it good food? Of course not. It's my personal opinion. If you say that you have tried 15 brands of pizza in your town; that you happen to like sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, grilled field mushrooms and roasted red peppers on your pizzas and that you feel that Pizza Joint A makes the best combo of these ingredients, then I'd say your opinion is an informed one and I would value it. If you imply that the only pizza you have tried is Little Caesars and you think that it's wonderful........

I value the opinions of people who are informed and typically these people are recognized by their knowledge about a large number of options. That's why I listen to experts.

Sorry for the excessive nattering......

r

[Sartori]

He was asking for personal opinions , he didnt quantify what he wanted the card for and you are assuming what experience anyone has with soundcards , just becuase we`re on a videoforum doesnt mean we have no greater experience of soundcards .

You have missed my point on uses , he has no criteria mentioned for the soundcard and so your analogy about Pizza is slightly flawed , with no criteria , hes asking what is the best food (not specifically Pizza) - with everyone giving a different type of food and you`re telling him to go to a Pizza expert . The different types of food are analogyied (?) here as different uses of the card , so going to a Pizza expert will give him (perhaps) the best Pizza but not the best all round food or specific type of food - he might be after the best type of Pasta or Pasta that goes the best with Bread .

What you will find on an audiophile board is the same anywhere , even on the camera site , people are biased towards what they have if they are happy with it . On a camera site even more so as camera people have a tendency to brands even so called "experts" , what you need is someone with an objective opinion to them , be it cameras or soundcards , with so many cards mentioned here it is for the poster to do more research from the cards mentioned , that you find that those recommendations have "no frame of reference" isn`t the point as hes hardly just going to pick a random post and buy one . The people who get the most exposure (and hence frame of reference if you like) to soundcards are journalists (be it music , gaming , home cinema etc) , he`ll find online reviews of whatever cards are mentioned in this thread somewhere on the net , giving a bigger picture review to it but he would need some card names to mention for any Google search he does . (putting "soundcard review" into Google gives 12300 hits).

Likening this search to cameras is wrong imo , a camera takes pictures , thats it , thats all it does , whereas a soundcard is used for games , home cinema , musican uses , music listening , video capture -> an audiophile expert will know jack about most of these which is my main point from my last post .

[dphirschler]

The onboard sound on my PCs mobo is as good as any soundcard.

When I first got my E-MU 0404 I thought it didn't work because I put on the headphones and heard nothing - no "hiss" or anyhting, just silence. Then I played an audio file and discovered that it worked fine. I was used to hearing some hiss during silent parts with my old soundcards, aven little computer noises while the computer worked (some interference I suppose). This one is so clean that there is no hiss at all even if I crank it up.

I've since come to understand that the more expensive sound cards are more expensive for good reason. This one, aside from all the extra inputs and the quality D/A and A/D converter, is built with better components and has better shielding. And it really shows in the output.

So if you really care about audio quality, then get a good audio card. If you don't care, then use the onboard sound.


Darryl

[SingSing]

Technically, PC is not ideal as any Audio Platform. Good audio equipments need clean analog power supply, connectors, layout, and void of noise generators in audio spectrum.

Externally powered USB, firewire or other external enclosed audio boxes should be a better choice. It will interesting to know who are ahead in this class ?

A good home audio recording should be cleaner than compact disc from most music studio. I found out music studio mastered audio track went thru many processes of re-sampling, that introduce many types of signal aliasing in the final product. That is not a myth that vinyl record sounds better than CD.

[lordsmurf]

On-board cards have all sorts of problems, especially when it coming to timing. They are therefore worthless for most video work. Good enough for playing around, playing MP3s, playing games .... just not work.

For a good card, check out something from Creative (SoundBlaster) or Turtle Beach. The Audigy cards from SB are generally fancy for the sake of being fancy. That glut can also interfere with video cards, so be careful.

Things like hiss and buzzing and all are usually not the audio card, but interference from any number of sources inside or outside the computer card.

There are also people that think there is no difference in think CD quality 16-bit/44KHz vs. a studio master at 24-bit/192KHz. These people have never had the opportunity to listen in a studio controlled setting with pro gear. The problem is people get used to things sounding a certain way. I had a friend that never adjusted his audio equalizer, and everything sounded flat, dull, and muffled. I adjusted it for him, and he thought everything sounded too crisp and too high-pitched. He adjusted it back to where it was all dull and muffled.

That's an interesting concept. It really all depends on what the content of the music is. It's not so much about bit depth and all that.

I can play several brass instruments, and I've been in some pretty amazing concert halls in my life, sometimes to listen, sometimes to play. A recorded piece just cannot capture the life of some musical scores. I don't are what bit depth is being used, the recorded music lacks the rings and warmth of the piece.

On the other hand, when I crank up Pantera CDs, I don't necessarily want to here all kinds of trebly sounds. Their live stuff was not that way, it was closer to the CD. Sometimes live stuff was not as good the CDs.

More often than not, things like CD-R brand and bit depth are in the imagination of those that call themselves audiophiles or audio experts or whatever else. It ranges from the plausible to the ridiculous. Other times, it's artificial additions, not actually how something sounded or was supposed to sound. This happens with video and visual perception a lot too, especially with sharpness.

[Jester700]

I can play several brass instruments, and I've been in some pretty amazing concert halls in my life, sometimes to listen, sometimes to play. A recorded piece just cannot capture the life of some musical scores. I don't are what bit depth is being used, the recorded music lacks the rings and warmth of the piece.

On the other hand, when I crank up Pantera CDs, I don't necessarily want to here all kinds of trebly sounds. Their live stuff was not that way, it was closer to the CD. Sometimes live stuff was not as good the CDs.

A large part of this is the venue. Good halls are designed to sound good, and you can't recreate that in a living room with stereo output - but surround sound fans are trying. Actually, I dunno - maybe they've succeeded; I haven't checked that stuff out for a few years.

Pantera played over a PA, so you're already down to a flat stereo (or mono) mix in a poor (club) or outright bad (arena) environment, with a very high noise floor. Plus, classical CDs hold a good live performance in a good hall up as the gold standard; with rock it's usually the other way around - they try to replicate the studio trickery of the CD in a live setting.