Tell me about audio

there are no differences

pc audio is a solved problem

Build in audio is completrly fine

Only people with autism will buy the high end equipment, because apparently they can somehow hear a 37000kHz frequency

>>55918520
Built-in*

>>55918451
Xonar DG
The cheapest descrete soundcard
Pros:
- no noise and clicking from MOBO, no annoying buzz in your headphones
- Amp powerful enogh for any headphones
- high quality sound
Cons:
none
Reasons to go for more expensive solutions :
None.

>>55918520
>Build in audio is completrly fine
Insufficent power for quality headphones
Noises from MOBO circuitry
iPhone tier sound quality

>DAC
digital to analog converter, basically an external soundcard, these are usually cheaper for same quality than internal soundcards. less interference.
>soundcard
better sound than your on board, less interference, most likely more powerful
>amp
it amplifies the signal, making it more controlled and louder
>receiver
a thing that does many things at once. amplify, convert digital to analogue, and other stuff

HDMI audio is also a digital signal, so it uses the DAC in your TV.

>>55918451
Built in audio is fine. If you're doing any sort of enthusiast music or sound-intensive video, you *can* benefit from better equipment, but not in the way you probably imagine.

External sound cards are shielded/isolated better with closer attention to the design of the power rails. They generally have better DACs (digital to analog converter). They also support higher bit rates and sample rates. These all work to reduce background noise; the noise is unnoticeably subtle but can eat up headroom in post processing.

An amp simply amplifies a signal.

Long story short, if you do a lot of recording and sound work, it's worth it. Otherwise, just use the jacks on the back of your motherboard (less noise) and you're good enough.

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It is worth it to get a cheapish sound card like pic related.

Replace the factory OP AMP with a LME49720 and you've got yourself a great affordable sound setup that will be noticeably better than onboard audio.

> On Board vs. PCI
On Board will generally have noisy analog outputs, as they pick up a ton of interference from PC internals. If you already have a headphone amp (that does NOT have a DAC) then you will want to get ether an external DAC or an PCIe soundcard. PCI soundcards tend to be better isolated from the noise of PCI internals, some going so far as to have a metal shield around the board.. If you have an external DAC that takes coax/optical spdif, then all you need is to on-board with a digital out.

>DAC vs. AMP
A DAC takes a coax/optical spdif feed and translates it into a 3.5mm plug style output. Enthusiasts by external DACs that connect through USB or spdif so they can be sure they're getting a quality DAC with no interference from the PC internals.

>HDMI
HDMI is fine as long as it's going to an A/V receiver connected to a quality speaker setup. It is capable of sending uncompressed, high-bitrate audio streams. The failing is usually in TV speakers or poorly configged output.

It goes without saying that if you're just sending all this crap to a pair of skullcandy headphones or something equally shit, onboard is fine. Enjoy your 48kbps Slipknot MP3s.

>>55918650
Pretty much this, unless you experience some issues. I could hear my fans PWM through my headphones, even tho the sound circuit was supposed to be "isolated". Realtek is just kind of shit in general.

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>>55918667
LME49720NA/NOPB to be precise

>>55918588
So as a theoretical question, if I were to plug my headphones into the 3.5mm jack on a monitor/tv, rather than directly in the PC, this wouldn't be using the PC's soundcard/integrated audio?

>>55918667
Yes.
The best 20$ of my life.
Loud clear and crisp sound.
I'm a headphone person and when i plugged it in i was so relieved to be rid of that subtle but omnipresent mobo noise and finally headpones finally delivered desired volume even on quiet songs.

>>55918706
What are the advantages of that OPAMP over the one that comes with?

>>55918734
If you're also plugging the TV into the same port on the computer that you would the headphones, then you'd get technically worse sound quality. It might be audibly worse. If you aren't adding extra stages with a specific purpose (like a quality amp), then you want to be as close to source as possible.

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I use this for gayming and it's good.

>>55918749
I've actually noticed that if I use the FP audio jack with my onboard, I don't get any noise in my MDR-V6s, whereas I do get noise on the back panel outputs.

>Soundcards are better than integrated audio

Would this also apply to ALC1150 solutions like Asus' Supremefx? And I'm talking about cheap sub £50 soundcards.

>>55918806
Shouldn't it be the other way around? Front port has a long unshielded cable going through the case.

>>55918776
It's just better. Clearer mids, punchier lows.

Companies try to get away with the cheapest possible parts. The OPAMP is a very easily replaceable part and good ones are only a few bucks.

For how cheap and easy to replace they are, it's a no brainer.

>>55918776
>if you're also plugging to TV into the same port on the computer that you would the headphones

I mean if you were connecting the TV/Monitor to the PC with a HDMI, and then connecting headphones into the TV/Monitor's 3.5mm jack.

>>55918734
if the audio is delivered via HDMI, then you would be using the audio interface on the tv.

however, this does not mean the quality is better, headphone out on tv's and screens is usually not shielded at all, and a lot of noise is hearable.

If you don't want to spend much (which in itself is always relative), then i can suggest getting an
AudioQuest DragonFly USB Digital to Analog Converter
or
FiiO E10K (my choice)

I use a FiiO X7 myself as DAC

>>55918854
It depends on the TV quality at that point, but you're still not going to get "artisan audio" from a TV in this day and age.

Whichever sounds better to you in that case is the correct option. It's the DAC on your on-board vs. the DAC on your TV.

What headphones are you using?

>>55918827
I would have thought so, but results don't lie.

>>55918881
the X7 appears to be a PMP and not a DAC.

>>55918451
hi.

i've been through alot.

basically, the more you pay, the more you learn

Information technology and audio fidelity are separate fields in their own right, that converge in the reproduction of frequencies translatable to an organic source. Energy, the entire universe, stimuli is one single spectrum of waves of varying elasticity. Energy is a key concept, since energy can be transformed into massive particles, and mass can be transformed into energy. When you give an environment, audio, a chance to exist in the highest level of gradual perceptible fidelity, you can have a glimpse of the infinite to go further and refine that world and your understanding within it, let it be into a dynamic larger than your own.

Electrical current is transduced in a center of stored information to reproduce, create, recreate from a content source the refinement of the energy in a purer form (DAC), transported (cables/ohm) to expand (amplifier) within an expression (speaker) in an environment (headphone/audio room) to collide with the listener in a spectrum to authenticate fidelity. That channel can be changed and the high can be chased, yet it's always a grasp of a unifying dynamic force within omnipotence and essentially your enjoyment in that realization.

I sound like a salesman

>>55918554
I have the dg and I can't stand the way they handle loudness equalization. If it is off it's a perfectly good sound card. If it's on it becomes a great sound card until the audio stops playing and then a hiss starts for 3-4 seconds until the audio completely cuts off. Then the circle begins over again.

>>55919404
more like a twitter ai which is fed with audiophile forums nonsense

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>the current year 2016
>sound cards

>>55918554
What the fuck is this 5.1 shit? Fuck off.

>>55918679
I'm using sony dav DZ270, which is an old home theather system I had laying around.

Using an optical cable to connect it and the PC.

Would there be a point in getting a specific sound card to improve quality or is the onboard digital out good enough?

>>55919001
It's both. It has DAC functionality.

>>55920003
digital out is good enough, as long as you don't have some kind of software interfering with the signal in a way you don't want. For instance, Creative cards will have EAX or Crystalizer or half a dozen things that are fine if you want that to be a thing. If you're trying to get a pure signal out, you might have to take some specific steps.

What music player (software) are you using? Looking into how you can "bitstream" the decoded PCM will do you some good. I think with foobar you want to use WASAPI, but that may just be for analog outputs.

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I use onboard audio. When I play a silent audio file and turn my pc volume and amp to ten I still need my head right next to the speaker to discern any noise.

>>55920172
Windows recognises silence and nupes your shit.

>>55920172
>When I play a silent audio file
kek

>>55920182
GNU/Linux

>>55918572
>iPhone tier sound quality
So, excellent?

>>55920194
You fucking waste of skin.
http://www.xamuel.com/blank-mp3s/

>>55920217
>Rename them to popular song names and send them to someone as a joke
kek
But really tho, the output from your soundcard is no different with a blank mp3 than with nothing at all, is it?

>>55918572
The iPhone has a reference-grade DAC on par with the best audiophile systems: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-6-plus.htm#measurements
Though you may still need an amp for some headphones.

>>55920144
Using Winamp(yeah I know) with a WASAPI plugin.

No other sound modifying software on the system whatsoever.

Guess I can look into a plugin that would allow winamp to bitstream directly to the sony amp.

>>55920377
If it's got wasapi you shouldn't need anything else. Just point it at the optical output.

>>55920275
Of course it's different you twit.

>>55920413
Oh, nice. Thanks.

What about laptops and phones? Why does nobody talk about audio quality/electrical interference on these?

>>55920544
they're both pretty good nowadays. phones might not power high impedance headphones sufficiently, though.

>>55918491
You are correct.
But unfortunately humans like to waste giant bushels of money on placebo.

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i just use my recording interface instead of onboard

>>55918554

just ordered a dgx, you better not be wrong

Related cringe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1rXcJuEsy0

Just get a mainboard with a ALC1150 it outperforms most dedicated sound cards (you can't tell which is which anyway).

Reminder for 99% of people sound cards are a waste of money and they can't tell the difference between using on board or dedicated.

Sound cards don't always solve EMI issues either.

>Should you buy a sound card
>probably not unless you have a specific reason

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>>55920955

>>55921024
Can anyone here refute this? How would a decent ALC1150 solution (Like Asus Supremefx) go up against a Xonar Dgx or Soundblaster Z?

>>55920717
I do this too
I have the UR 12 tho

>>55921227

ALC1150 offers less

clean power
depth in their functionality
virtual surround tech, unlicensed
latency
offloaded dedicated audio processing

onboard for speakers, soundcard for headphones

I'm using ALC1150 - crystal sound 2 much more

>>55921227
Try to refute it yourself, I bet you can't tell which is which in a double-blind test.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html
And this is about the cheaper ALC889...

>>55921453
>clean power
Depends on the mainboard, the switching regulators there are usually damn good nowadays, never had a problem

>depth in their functionality
Which function do you actually need? Look at the specs of the ALC1150, 99.98% of the users won't even use all the capabilities of this chip and the audio quality is immaculate.

>virtual surround tech, unlicensed
LOL

>latency
and
>offloaded dedicated audio processing
Was only a problem with onboard sound chips 15 years ago. Things changes a lot since then.

>>55919497
>using loudness equalization
there's your problem.

>>55921453
>offloaded dedicated audio processing
Microsoft eliminated the HAL from Windows starting with Vista, we haven't had dedicated audio processing in forever, everything is software and on the CPU.

>electrolytic capacitors

Would a sound card be a good investment if I have a Dell Optiplex 7010? I doubt that the motherboard audio can be any good.

I started using back audio ports instead of front and I noticed that the audio is much lower, not really an issue but still.

>>55918554
You forgot to mention the slight bump in FPS since the work has been offloaded from the cpu to the soundcard now.
>we are talking about 1-3 fps here

>>55922637
Lol are you fucking kidding me?

>>55918588
>digital to analog converter, basically an external soundcard
internal soundcards also use DACs you moron

>>55918451
>card differences
barely noticeable S/N difference mostly these days (actually, it's pretty much been like that since streamed PCM became the standard way to play audio instead of samples or FM or whatever like on the Gravis or an oldschool SoundBlaster -- way back in the day, soundcards mattered because they had wildly different abilities, some had terrible PCM playback at like 8bit 22.05kHz vs something that could do 16bit 44.1kHz or 48kHz, some had poor MIDI playback ability -- which doesn't matter now since most non audio production MIDI playback has been done in software on computers for more than a decade now, and in audio production, midi data would be going to dedicated synthesizers instead of being played back on the card)

in short:
you only need to care about your soundcard if you're doing audio production as a job
unless your onboard audio is really, really fucking noisy, to the point where you can easily hear it, it doesn't matter

>>55918491
Wrong, sort of. Output-wise, yeah. If you're just playing music from youtube/on your computer through your speakers, or watching movies on your 2.1 system then yes, it's solved. Onboard audio is undetectably different from say, a soundcard or a USB DAC.

HOWEVER. Input-wise, onboard almost always leaves a lot to be desired because it's so noisy. That's just the nature of the beast, you can't get away from that when you're using a 3.5mm mic. If you're just chatting with people in games, it doesn't matter, but if you're making podcasts or recording music or whatever, you *have* to have an off-board ADC/mixer/soundcard and a legitimate condenser mic at least. Keep in mind you can get both for less than $100 combined from Amazon.

>>55918572
Retard, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my 7 year old motherboard audio and a $400 sound card or some shit.

>>55922637
True in 2003, not at all true in 2016. The entirety of audio processing maybe, MAYBE occupies 0.5% of CPU usage in a game these days. You will not detect a difference, at all.

>>55922675
In this context when someone is talking about a DAC they *are* talking about an external soundcard.

>>55922757
This.

Anything else is wrong.

whats a decent entry level usb dac then, ~50usd

>>55922830
A Realtek 1150 chip costs just $4

>>55922914

so what the fuck am i gonna do with it

>>55922988

stick it in your ass audiofaggot.


DAC technology has advanced enough that the sound quality difference between a 1150 mobo and a shitty chink made DAC is all confirmation bias.

A dedicated DAC starts making a difference when you've already invested in high-end amp and speakers/headphones. Until then DACs are paperweight.

>>55923065

or my fucking onboard audio died and i'm looking at what options i have you retarded fucking cunt

>>55918491
yessss thank you for being the first reply to this

hopefully these threads will go away... so we can argue over gpus instead -.-"