Sounds Cards

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These are the LEDs in question. They are very red and very bright.

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the msi krait gayman board that i have doesn't have pcie slots at the bottom of the board, which means this sound card will have to go in between my two gpus which are in sli and it might look a bit shit.

So if there is no real benefit to having this sound card in my system i might as well just sell it.

>>55048209
>1: Any of you use a sound card? Do you notice a difference between the sound card and the on-board motherboard audio?

no, sound card are useful only if you have +300 ohm headphone for a good amp and if you want more native feature like eq etc, the rest is pure placebo.

Most audiophile shit is memes, but onboard sound really is poor. Plus most setups I've used have had really loud USB interference so not using an external DAC isn't usually even an option for me.

just get a DAC

>>55048209
Not since the 90s ended.

>>55048209
1) Yes, I don't miss hearing the mouse clicks from the onboard. Only the highest end mobos get proper sound circuit routing and shielding.

2) Probably not a good idea.

>>55048209
>>55048267
>>55048269
Sounds cards are 1/10th the performance and 3X the price of a dedicated Amp/Dac. They are useless.

OP here

a quick search on amazon shows me
FiiO E10K USB DAC
with 300+ reviews
something like this will do a better job than Sound Blaster Z?

Asus xonar dgx. It's placebo though.

>>55048409

I have one and it kicks the dick out of my onboard sound so

>>55048209
I have an msi z97 gaming 5 mobo which is supposed to have shielding and high quality capacitors or some shit but the sound quality was really fucking tinny in my headphones. I bought an oem soundblaster z for like £45 and the sound quality difference is like night and day. It also has optical in and out which is a bonus. The virtual surround is fucking sick in games like cs:go. Pin point 360 degree sound accuracy.

>>55048368
>random numbers i pulled from my ass

Actually, there are good sound cards and some even have just as much power output as an average external amp.

I'd put my Audigy2 ZS up in a double-blind test against any external DAC/amp in it's price range any day of the week.

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>>55048209
I didn't really expect to, but I just upgraded and have no PCI slots for my Xonar DG. I assumed the ALC1150 with Gigabytes friggin' AMP-UP op amp would replace it fine.

With the op amp enabled it sounds overblown and retarded over 30% volume. I can also hear my mouse movements in my headphones. I can't find any grounding issues so it's just down to pure fucking garbage onboard.

Maybe I have to re-enable the god damn LED trace lighting for the "audio guard path" to take effect.

I got meme'd so hard.

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thank you for the input friends, I'll try this Z and if it isn't much different I'll try the dac i found on amazon and sell the Z I guess

>>55048805
Hilarious. Return that shit and get a cheaper motherboard so you have some money to pay for a DGX. The 'Killer' technology is shit too, so you got meme'd even harder.

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>>55048885
I never fall for that meme. The roommate and I use 10Gb fiber for our network.

>>55048368
So you don't plug a Dac into a soundcard? You know you're basically amplifying shit that that point, which voids any gains from the amp