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How often do you buy a sound card?
I have the Razer Barracuda ac-1 sound card. below is a link. My question is it time to throw it out and get something new, or is sound just sound and not like upgrading a video card as far as noticing the difference. I have to Klipsch speakers and subwoofer.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829153003
Comments
Onboard.
If your doing recording get a digital interface -> Usb.
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I picked up an Asus Xonar about 3 or 4 years ago now (cant remember the exact model) and have not needed to change it.. its still a great card and still sounds awesome.
The last sound card I bought was the Auszentech Prelude 7.1 back in 2007... and I haven't used it at all in several years. MB on-board audio chips have improved tremendously to the point that, IMHO, sound cards only make sense now if you have some special audio requirements (like maybe you do your own mixing.)
But as far as listening quality and CPU usage (which used to be a real consideration 15 years ago) a separate sound card is unnecessary.
You might want to have a look at this tom's Hardware subjective listening tests from a few months back: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
This is the bottom line from that :
"I sank $2000 of my own money into the DAC2 HGC last December, so I subjectively wanted it to sound better than everything else. Tests have shown that it doesn't. "
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I didnt even know they still sold sound cards outside of professional audio engineer type of stuff.
I used to buy audyysey's all the time, but, nowadays, processing power is way beyond any possible need for a sound card to do it hardware instead of software.
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I think I last bought a SoundBlaster back in ... 2002? And then they tried to charge me extra for a Windows XP driver upgrade.
Apart from audio professionals and extreme audiophiles, the inclusion of sound on nearly every motherboard as a basic feature has pretty much dwindled the add-on sound card market to nearly nothing.
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use your onboard soundcard, unless you realy care for audio quality and have headphones/speakers that can provide such quality then you should consider a better sound card or even a DAC + AMP. There are loads of options when sound quality is concerned.
I
Agreed sound cards are IMO a waste of space now unless special requirements.
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haha presto!
Yeah, it's barebones, but how much has sound card technology really advanced in the past... 10-15 years?
Everything has Surround 7.1 now, and supports pretty much any acoustical effect you could want. The only real differences are in I/O and in amp/DAC quality.
Build-in motherboard sound are pretty much going to give you one, maybe two options for I/O (one mic port, one analog line in, one analog stereo line out, and maybe some basic way to hook up 5.1 or a digital line out) -- because most people are hooking up maybe a mic, one set of speakers, and maybe a set of headphones out the front and that's about it.
Amp quality only applies on analog outputs. DAC affects a lot, but it's only noticable if you have some really hi-fi equipment to be able to hear it on, or are doing original source material (ie studio recording).
I won't say it isn't worth it - some audiophiles are willing and able to put their money where their mouth is. But for most people with a set of computer speakers from Best Buy, you'd not be able to notice.
I'm usually watching tv, listening to voice chat or my own music.
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probably not, the last soundcard i bought was an Audigy, great at the time, but this is several years ago, and since then i've been using the onboard mobo for it. I think to really improve on modern mobo's basic onboard soundcards, you'd probably have to spend quite a bit more on a professional device, for games, its probably not worth bothering, unless you have that well trained an ear and its important enough to you