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My onboard soundcard vs the usb soundcard

post #1 of 6
2/14/10 at 3:00pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys,

I'm currently trying out a Steelseries Siberia V2 that came with a USB soundcard and Ive been using it instead of my onboard soundcard.

The Siberia V2 sounds awsome, although it's very loud when you turn it all the way up and using the USB soundcard that came with it, however when I plug the headset into the soundcard in my pc, it sounds ok, but it's very low volume and the bass is no where near as hard as when I'm using the USB soundcard and deafening myself.

Can someone explain to me the reason behind that? is my onboard soundcard that low quality that a USB sc the size of a flashdrive does a better job or what?
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post #2 of 6
2/14/10 at 7:48pm
Yes. It would seem that your onboard doesn't have the proper power to drive the headset, and the USB soundcard gives it that extra bit of power.
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post #3 of 6
2/14/10 at 10:37pm
Thread Starter 
hey thanks for the reply.
since that's the case I got 2 more questions
1. why does it seem that alot of people dislike usb soundcards
2. is the auzentech forte the only soundcard worth upgrading to if you listen to music on your pc?
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post #4 of 6
2/14/10 at 10:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quakky View Post
hey thanks for the reply.
since that's the case I got 2 more questions
1. why does it seem that alot of people dislike usb soundcards
2. is the auzentech forte the only soundcard worth upgrading to if you listen to music on your pc?
People around here don't really use USB 'soundcards' because we don't need the Inputs, and they usually start being really expensive as you want to scale up quality. People do, though, use USB 'DACs', which are basically sound cards, but with only outputs.

All depends on your price range. If you want gaming enhancements aswell, the Forte is a good choice. If you just want music quality, and would prefer an internal card Asus has a nice line of cards (ST/STX). If you want superior musical quality, and can live without it being internal or having inputs, you can get a nice USB DAC for pretty well the same price.
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post #5 of 6
2/15/10 at 3:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quakky View Post
1. why does it seem that alot of people dislike usb soundcards
Soundcards serve different purposes and for some applications USB sound cards might not be perfect for technical or value reasons. Besides, historically, USB devices used to introduce more latency to signal compared with firewire or PCI devices. For any professional application I would still get a firewire or proper internal sound card using PCI or PCI-e bus. For getting nicer sound from your laptop you will be perfectly fine with a USB sound card - just pick something from a known manufacturer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quakky View Post
2. is the auzentech forte the only soundcard worth upgrading to if you listen to music on your pc?
No, there are more: Creative, Asus, Omega, M-Audio, Terratec... Google is your friend
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post #6 of 6
2/16/10 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
ya but my understanding is that the forte is the only soundcard that has an onboard headphone amp..ill check the other manufacturers.

also I live in canada where parts like soundcards are amps are not available anywhere near where I live..
thanks

Edit: well I guess the stx has what i need...ill look into it
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