[Mkubota1]

We should try to keep this on topic and not get the thread closed, for the sake and benefit of the original poster.

 

[jackmccabe]

I say good for the op if he can't hear a difference, that means he can spend money on headphones where there is definitely a difference.
If the op is worried about his hearing I suggest he gets it checked.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I say good for the op if he can't hear a difference, that means he can spend money on headphones where there is definitely a difference.
If the op is worried about his hearing I suggest he gets it checked.

That I can agree with, on both things.

 

[steve1979]

 
Quote:

Can't hear a difference between sound cards and my onboard. 

 
 
Yes, I too have found this. I sold my Creative X-Fi Gamer soundcard because the onboard sound from my Asus motherboard sounded exactly the same.  My PC's connected to a good quality audio setup too (Yamaha RX-V667 receiver with Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 speaker package) so I should be able to hear a difference quite easily but the fact remains that the soundcard just doesn't sound any better than the motherboards onboard sound.
 
I now use the PC's onboard sound via the 3.5mm jacks when playing games and use the Yamaha's good quality DAC via an optical SPDIF cable when when listening to music.

 

[joe]

Thread cleaned up. Keep it on-topic and civil, guys.

 

[steve1979]

 
Quote:

 
 
Yes, I too have found this. I sold my Creative X-Fi Gamer soundcard because the onboard sound from my Asus motherboard sounded exactly the same.  My PC's connected to a good quality audio setup too (Yamaha RX-V667 receiver with Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 speaker package) so I should be able to hear a difference quite easily but the fact remains that the soundcard just doesn't sound any better than the motherboards onboard sound.
 
I now use the PC's onboard sound via the 3.5mm jacks when playing games and use the Yamaha's good quality DAC via an optical SPDIF cable when when listening to music.

I feel I should also add that I have only ever listened to this 1 soundcard so I have no idea how other soundcards would compare.  I've also found (in my limited experience) that expensive motherboards can have suprisingly good sound quality where some cheaper motherboards have noticably lower sound quality.
 
This comment is not based on anything scientific it's only my personal view based on what I have noticed over the least few years as a keen PC gamer.

 

[eriktheg]

Wait you guys are telling me you don't notice a difference between Titanium HD and ALC889?!?
Check this out, how about plug in a mic into your ALC889 on board and see what happens to the sound quality coming from your headphones... Ouch your sound quality will mess up big time.
plug in a mic into your Titanium HD and try to notice a change in SQ from your headphones as a mic is plugged in/not plugged in. NONE!
 
Simply put, if you only have 2 outgoing signals for your ALC889, you should be fine, as soon as you add a mic into the plug, everything just messes up. If you fill up all the jacks, you will probably notice an extreme defference as well..
 
Titanium HD = no such problems.

 

[WrxSTI]

All I can tell you is, while the ALC889 may have good sound quality, it picks up noise, AS HELL.
If I have the gain on my monitors set to -30 dB there is no noise, put it up to 0... you can hear the hiss. Move the mouse, voila, orchestra!
I had the CD drive spinning and I could hear the drive rev up through the tweeters...insane. The best is when the graphics card (which , when running 1000 FPS you can hear it squeal inside the case) then you can also hear this through the speakers...  Although, I've also had the same noise when using USB headphones, leads me to believe the power supply is contaminated (Corsair TX750) or the motherboard design is just rather bad, I don't know.
 
But I'll make sure to buy a DAC with a separate power supply and not USB powered.

 

[tom2011]

 
Quote:

 
 
 
Yes, I too have found this. I sold my Creative X-Fi Gamer soundcard because the onboard sound from my Asus motherboard sounded exactly the same.  My PC's connected to a good quality audio setup too (Yamaha RX-V667 receiver with Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 speaker package) so I should be able to hear a difference quite easily but the fact remains that the soundcard just doesn't sound any better than the motherboards onboard sound.
 
I now use the PC's onboard sound via the 3.5mm jacks when playing games and use the Yamaha's good quality DAC via an optical SPDIF cable when when listening to music.

 
of course if use digital you you will not hear any defrences between sound cards
because the output in migabit not analog

 

[pro555]

Just curious, I switch my old Xoner DS back on. I found its power is so weak. For my Bose ae2, the sound is not loud enough even I set the volume to 60%. In terms of sound quality, DS sounds even more natural than TS to me.

 

[steve1979]

Quote:

 

 
of course if use digital you you will not hear any defrences between sound cards
because the output in migabit not analog

Sorry I should have been clearer. I couldn't hear any differences when using the analog 3.5mm jacks on both the motherboard and soundcard.
 

 

[cuad]

Quote:

All I can tell you is, while the ALC889 may have good sound quality, it picks up noise, AS HELL.
If I have the gain on my monitors set to -30 dB there is no noise, put it up to 0... you can hear the hiss. Move the mouse, voila, orchestra!
I had the CD drive spinning and I could hear the drive rev up through the tweeters...insane. The best is when the graphics card (which , when running 1000 FPS you can hear it squeal inside the case) then you can also hear this through the speakers...  Although, I've also had the same noise when using USB headphones, leads me to believe the power supply is contaminated (Corsair TX750) or the motherboard design is just rather bad, I don't know.
 
But I'll make sure to buy a DAC with a separate power supply and not USB powered.

 
After I RMAd my graphics card the noise was no longer audible through my headphones. I can still hear it squealing inside the computer though, just barely. For what it's worth I think I have a pretty good mobo--the gigabyte x58a-ud3r. It certainly wasn't cheap and that may have something to do with it too.


Quote:

Wait you guys are telling me you don't notice a difference between Titanium HD and ALC889?!?
Check this out, how about plug in a mic into your ALC889 on board and see what happens to the sound quality coming from your headphones... Ouch your sound quality will mess up big time.
plug in a mic into your Titanium HD and try to notice a change in SQ from your headphones as a mic is plugged in/not plugged in. NONE!
 
Simply put, if you only have 2 outgoing signals for your ALC889, you should be fine, as soon as you add a mic into the plug, everything just messes up. If you fill up all the jacks, you will probably notice an extreme defference as well..
 
Titanium HD = no such problems.

I think there's something to your hypothesis about multiple outputs, but I couldn't hear a difference in sound quality with a mic plugged in. I did hear static popping noises whenever I brushed against the mic and that was annoying, but it happened with both cards.
 

 

[steve1979]

 
Quote:

All I can tell you is, while the ALC889 may have good sound quality, it picks up noise, AS HELL.
If I have the gain on my monitors set to -30 dB there is no noise, put it up to 0... you can hear the hiss. Move the mouse, voila, orchestra!
I had the CD drive spinning and I could hear the drive rev up through the tweeters...insane. The best is when the graphics card (which , when running 1000 FPS you can hear it squeal inside the case) then you can also hear this through the speakers...  Although, I've also had the same noise when using USB headphones, leads me to believe the power supply is contaminated (Corsair TX750) or the motherboard design is just rather bad, I don't know.
 
But I'll make sure to buy a DAC with a separate power supply and not USB powered.

I've also noticed similar noises when using the front headphone output on my computer.  When listening from the analog 3.5mm jack at the front of my PC the buzzing and clicking noises caused by the interfearance from the drives and processor are almost as loud as the audio making it practically unusable.  However when using the proper 3.5mm jacks at the back of my PC all of the interfearance dissapears even though it's coming from the same source.
 
I've no idea what my signal to noise ratios are, but considering its coming from inside a noisy PC enviroment it's impressively low when you consider that it's coming the motherboards onboard sound and not a sound card with an electro magnetic shield.  This makes me wonder if the interferance that people hear may actually be getting picked up as the low level analogue signal travels between the circuit board (soundcard or onboard sound) to the 3.5mm jacks.

 

[kalston]

 
Quote:

All I can tell you is, while the ALC889 may have good sound quality, it picks up noise, AS HELL.
If I have the gain on my monitors set to -30 dB there is no noise, put it up to 0... you can hear the hiss. Move the mouse, voila, orchestra!
I had the CD drive spinning and I could hear the drive rev up through the tweeters...insane. The best is when the graphics card (which , when running 1000 FPS you can hear it squeal inside the case) then you can also hear this through the speakers...  Although, I've also had the same noise when using USB headphones, leads me to believe the power supply is contaminated (Corsair TX750) or the motherboard design is just rather bad, I don't know.
 
But I'll make sure to buy a DAC with a separate power supply and not USB powered.

I'm pretty sure this has to do with using the front audio jack (and having a poorly shielded cable). Mine doesn't even have the issue though. Never picked up my GPU, PSU or mouse noise, only my laptop's onboard could do that. I rarely used the front audio jacks but even when I did it was 100% similar to the rear jacks. 


Quote:

Wait you guys are telling me you don't notice a difference between Titanium HD and ALC889?!?
Check this out, how about plug in a mic into your ALC889 on board and see what happens to the sound quality coming from your headphones... Ouch your sound quality will mess up big time.
plug in a mic into your Titanium HD and try to notice a change in SQ from your headphones as a mic is plugged in/not plugged in. NONE!
 
Simply put, if you only have 2 outgoing signals for your ALC889, you should be fine, as soon as you add a mic into the plug, everything just messes up. If you fill up all the jacks, you will probably notice an extreme defference as well..
 
Titanium HD = no such problems.

Did you check the Windows settings? there's this thing called microphone in the OUTPUT section that does send everything hitting your mic straight back to your speakers. Also the microphone boost setting creates a huge background noise (some people don't notice it but I find the effect to be really pronounced). Not sure if that's your problem though. I'm not even sure whether my Xonar is any different on that regard since I'm running the same settings pretty much. 
 
All in all the Realtek control panel has some pretty strange settings and I always turned it off and removed it because of this, letting Windows manage the sound instead (WDM drivers only)
My Realtek has a ridiculous amount of volume sliders (some hidden by default) both for the input and the output, and some of them did cause issues. My Xonar has a limited number of sliders, but they all make sense and I've not had any issue with them. 
 
Also, when my mic is plugged in but switched off, everything is fine as long as the MIC BOOST thing is off (it is audible even with no microphone at all) 
 

 

[pro555]

What kind of power supply you have? You may not believe me, but a good power supply can improve the sound noticeably. I used to use a general PS, after I switch to a Seasonic 80+ gold PS, the sound got clearer and more detailed. I also use an APC power bar with power filter ability. I can sure tell difference between ST and DS.