Soundcards

They are a meme. Don't waste your money. Also keep your ATH-M50s and buy velour pads for them. You will feel like you got brand new headphones.

>>69619693
>I'm not an audiophile but most time at my computer is spent listening to music and I do enjoy good sound.
What's the problem, why not buy some expensive gaming card then?
audio interfaces are of no use for you, they are designesd for different purposes.

Soundcards are shit, external dacs/amps are way better

>>69619693
Depends on the volume. Most onboard sound is good enough these days, unless you want MIDIs to sound more realistic. You're better off spending the money on higher quality speakers.

Dont buy a soundcard get a DAC/amp

And dont get the 800 unless you know what you're getting into m8. You should upgrade from m50s tho probably. Consider getting an HE-400i (recent sale for $250)

Or good speakers

Soundcards haven't mattered since DOS games were prevalent

>>69620200
>>69620651
>DAC/amp

>>69620697
Oh god I used to have the cheapest Soundblaster clone, but I still get nostalgic for DOOM with the soundcard's crappy MIDI sound.

>>69620964
Wait, I forgot to add the 'this':

>>69620200
>>69620651
>DAC/amp
This.

>>69620330
>midi
>sound
lel

Don't be an idiot and get hd800s before you get a quality amp and dac.

>>69620998
So dont be an idiot and buy the headphones first or dont be an idiot and buy the amp first?

>>69621077
Lol get an amp that's fit to drive those headphones before getting headphones. Also, unless most of your music is high-quality it really isn't worth it. What kind of genres do you listen to? Hd800s will make certain kinds of music sound awful.

>>69620200
>>69620651
>>69620964
>>69620980
>>69620998
Give me objective evidence besides "my DAC sounds way less [insert long list of ridiculous pretentious nonsensical adjectives here] than my built-in Realtek audio, I could totally tell right away!" that a DAC is actually superior sounding to most onboard audio from the past 6-7 years.

I considered getting a DAC but when I noticed these companies that sell them never actually give graphs or measurements for frequency response or anything else, compared to the same measurements from built-in audio or competitors products... I realized the improvement in sound probably isn't there unless you truly are one of the rare ones with shitty audio.

Or the DAC just outputs the sound ever so slightly louder due to impedance/damping factor difference and people mistake that for it "having a wider sound stage; much less jagged; just the perfect amount of sparkle; exquisite analyticalness; less muddy mids; an overall cleaner sound with more forward mids; a more natural warmth that isn't as cold or veiled... almost as good an improvement as my $5K audio cable provided (saving up for the $10K model, can't wait)"