[muzikk]

Why don't you receive your motherboard first, install it and enjoy it for a couple weeks. Then you could maybe share your opinion and experiences with us, after that if your ears feel dissatisfied, that there is something missing or have the urge for an upgrade anyone here will be more than happy to advice you.
It is your ears and personal opinion that matters, if you can enjoy the music with your MB I am glad for you if not Sorry for your wallet then.

 

[Pm@c]

Onboard has its advantages. I go to work to listen to onboard, and it sucks so much that when I go home to my soundcard I appreciate music that much more.

 

[pompon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darwin's Eye /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is it really worth buying a soundcard, instead of just using its onboard sound? I listen to MP3s (V0, 256VBR or 320) with a pair of midrange stereo headphones ($140 Sennheisers).

If you get a good soundcard (X-Meridian 7.1 for example), it's HAND DOWN better.

The best 150$ you will spend in audio.

Forgot cheap one ... think big or stay on-board.

If you want upgrade later, just upgrade the OpAmp with LM4562 (they are on socket) ... for cheap price, you can get even better.

 

[Cid]

I'm sorry. I'll disagree with this. A decent soundcard doesn't increase the quality enough to warrant the cash. Seriously. I went from a realtek onboard audio to a M-Audio Revo 5.1 and didn't even notice a difference in sound quality.

 

[shoenberg3]

It seems like my soundMAX is not a bad card. Indeed, it sounded pretty good to me also.

 

[lini]

DE: Hard to answer without knowing what additional features you might want/need and what quality level you desire, but in general AD's SoundMAX codecs belong to the more well-implemented AC'97 & HDA solutions (compared to Realtek and C-Media). I.e., it still depends on the individual implementation, but usually you can already expect fairly good sound quality from SoundMAX onboard sound (probably AD1986A or AD1988A in that case).

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[nghiasays]

Has anyone moved from onboard digital out to a soundcard using digital out and felt a difference? I'm using the onboard audio for digital out from a MSI P965 mobo using a Realtek HD Audio chip. I think it sounds great right now so I probably won't buy a new card but I would like to hear about other's experience when switching. Thanks.

 

[keiith]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dougwx12 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'll second (or third or fourth) the chaintech av710. Cheap as all heck. and sounds good to me. Follow the instructions elsewhere in this forum to use the secondary line outs (which use the Wolfson DAC) for ever better sound.

Where can I get more info on this? Wolfson DAC? Is the sound comparably better?

 

[jpitzo]

I just went from linux to windows and could finally use my xfi again and the difference was insane...especially at higher volumes. Definitely worth it, IMO.

 

[Olorin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpitzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just went from linux to windows and could finally use my xfi again and the difference was insane...especially at higher volumes. Definitely worth it, IMO.

You make a good point there mate. An integrated soundchip will most likely not be able to power high impedance (for instance) headphones sufficiently. You could experience static, glitches, and gaps. Also, since the chip draws power from your motherboard, part of your system resources will always be devoted to the chip. As opposed to having a chip on a soundcard performing all those tasks. This may have a negative impact on the performance of your system. Especially when decoding EAX2, for instance.

My take is: get a proper soundcard. Not something insane ($200) unless you are something of an audio engineer, but anything in the $50-$100 range will most likely yield a considerable difference.

 

[GrindSonic]

There may not be a huge sound difference depending on your components, but a dedicated sound card will tke stress off your processor and ram when listening to large files. I had a lower end computer and the sound would have a slight delay from the video when watching dvds. When I went from onboard to an Audigy 2 i noticed that a there was no lag when watching dvds in 5.1 sound.