Discrete Sound Cards; Is there really a difference?

Everyone's ears are different, no way to tell unless you try it yourself. It's easier to discern the difference with better equipment. A general rule with computer speakers is that the ratio should be about 1/5-1/10. So if you buy a $100 soundcard, your speaker system should cost $500-1000. Obviously the ratio is different with headphones, but you get the idea.

I have to say, modern onboard sound are generally pretty good if you don't have expensive equipments.

On my motherboard, at least, the Realtek ALC889A analog outputs were prone to noise whenever I moved the mouse or had disk activity going. Very obvious with headphones like the AD700s. Meanwhile, my X-Fi Prelude (and later, the X-Fi Forte) are immune to this.

That said, the other big reason for my use of X-Fi cards would be the gaming performance. Yes, I still play my fair share of older titles that use EAX, and CMSS-3D Headphone is a must for me no matter what game it is (but especially DirectSound3D or OpenAL titles so that I hear exactly where everything's coming from, even above and below). Performance may not be improved that much on a modern computer, but quality most certainly is improved.

Also, my HP 2730p has a headphone jack that is unusually free of buzz, hiss, or other undesirable artifacts. Not what I'd expect on a business-class notebook where sound tends to be an afterthought at most.

Quote:

Originally Posted by khaos974 

Yes and no.
A properly grounded and relatively well implemented onboard chip provides a good to very good performance, the difference with a discrete sound card may not be audible. On the other hand, a lot of on board chip were implemented as well as a dog play banjo, in that case, a discrete sound card is a major improvement.

 That´s the point, imho...Noise is the cancer of  computer audio.

Ideally you want to get the sound card out of the computer case completely to eliminate electrical and RF interference.  If you can electrically isolate it as well, through either an optical interface or a powered USB hub, that's even better.  But overall, dedicated devices are generally better for purely economic reasons.  If a product has to be sold on the merits of a single function rather than as one of a laundry list of features, it has to perform that function well to be successful.  (Either that or it has to be not very bad and also be a cool thing to have.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChipnDalebowl 

Generally speaking, there is no "glamorous" difference between a modern onboard chip and a usb sound card. I found that out when I put my new laptop to the test with its onboard chip and my Turtle Beach Micro usb card (about $25). The only real difference is loudness...the external Turtle Beach card can pump out volume the onboard cannot and this is big for my receiver and speakers. For headphones, either is plenty good enough for quality sound.
Don't spend a fortune on cards...spend money on the headphone or speaker as that will make a bigger difference than any card will.

To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if that "usb card" measured as bad as the motherboard.