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This thread is designed to help point out the differences between on board sound and a sound card. I see this as being a stickied thread or at least a thread that can be shared with those that need convincing or an opinion/reason to go sound card rather than stay with on board.
The Rules:
Feel free to extend your opinions on the matter, but before you post, I strongly suggest you take out your sound card or external DAC and listen to on board again to see the difference. Give it 1-3 days for it all to sink in then you may return to your dedicated sound card.
Post what version of Realtek or Creative your motherboard has and what sound card/External DAC you've tested it against. I will add your opinion if it's informative, brings about new ideas or uses an on board driver/sound card mix we have not stated so far.
Also add what speakers/headphones you tested the differences with.
I will also support a separate section for those of the opinion that a sound card is NOT better than on board up to a certain price range.
The Story:
I have recently sold off 2 Asus Xonar DXs and gone back to on board sound. My motherboard uses the ALC1200 by Realtek which is a product of Asus only. Other motherboard producers have similar "special" versions of Realtek ALC.
I will personally be comparing ALC1200 to a Xonar DX and will let you know my opinions on what the differences were. I have tested the sound on Energy CB-20 speakers, Logitech X540 surround speakers and Audio Technica AD700s. I've used these in particular because I find that most users use AD700s or a similar product, use Logitech X540s if they're into low budget surround and are wanting to know how their speakers will benefit and are wanting to upgrade eventually..and I've provided the Energy speakers for those with higher end bookshelf speakers that would like to see how their speakers stack up.
The Review:
On-Board Sound
I'll start my review with the AD700s.
ALC1200/AD700s: The AD700s shine with beautiful mids and highs as we all know, but what some of us may have forgotten is that headphones, no matter how good they are, only shine as brightly as the sound card will allow them to. In short: The AD700s with on board sound is atrocious. I am willing to state that the AD700s with on board sound are barely better than any skull candies you can pick up for 20 bucks. The AD700s are extremely crippled without a sound card in my opinion. What do I mean crippled?
Music:
The AD700s sound washed out. There's absolutely nothing special about them with on board sound. They're dead. They have no life. It's worse than just being neutral..it's just not great sound. I encourage everyone to try and take their ipod earbuds and test them against AD700s with on board. I'm sure the AD700s will sound better, but I just don't think they're THAT much better. The AD700s do not suffer from crappy staticy sound like cheap trashy ear buds may, so that's a plus, but the sound quality itself is simply..unimpressive. I don't feel drawn into music. I don't find myself smiling. There's nothing 'special' about it.
Gaming:
The AD700s step up slightly in gaming compared to music and perform better than ear buds. There's no doubt about this; however, footsteps simply do not stand out as they should or as the owner of these headphones would hope for after having purchased these headphones for 90 dollars. I remember wearing these headphones for the first time before I had purchased the Xonar DX and being quite disappointed with my purchase. All the hype over these "awesome headphones" and this is what I get? I was not pleased to say the least. I saw minimum advantage and was longing for more. All the sounds were simply meshed together. It was difficult to pull one sound from the other. Footsteps were not as apparent as I was hoping for. I came in with the mindset of "OH YEAH, KILLER ADVANTAGE, GUNNA KILL SUM N0RBZ YAAAA"
After further testing with the AD-700s and Modern Warfare 2, I've noticed that while I could still hear the footsteps, they weren't anywhere near as sharp as with a sound card. Additionally, I had no idea where the footsteps were coming from and sound position was lost.
On-Board/X-540s:
Music:
Everything seemed normal, couldn't complain with X-540s. I was happy with them and didn't really know what to expect from them at the time. After having gone from a sound card to onboard again though, I did notice some differences. Most of the music awesomeness I was to experience with a sound card was placebo effect. I could easily tell after going from sound card to on board again that with music, I was not missing too much. I'll describe more in the sound card section the differences.
Gaming:
Seemed normal. Was slightly worse in terms of positioning and hearing footsteps than the AD700s, but sadly not much worse. I know some of you may rage that I've come to that opinion, but that's how I genuinely feel on the matter with on board. AD700s had the advantage in positioning, but pulling sounds apart from one another was still a messy mesh. Bullets being fired in the background got mixed into the music and other noises such as explosions, footsteps, ladders clanging etc.
Btw, I'm describing Modern Warfare 2 unless I state otherwise.
On-Board/Energy Speakers
I can't remember the name of the amplifier used for these speakers, but I can find out if you all find it imperative. These speakers belong to my friend who I recently sold his DX since he was the one to originally want to upgrade. These speakers sounded better than the X-540s, that's for sure, but having heard what the Energy Speakers could do before hand, it was clear as day what I was missing out on. Music became dull, bass was simply not right. It seemed bloaty in some sections when it should have been punchy. Instruments weren't as clear as they should have been, voices weren't as powerful as they should have been. It was sort of like the AD700s but more tolerable. I was less disappointed with the speakers than I was with the AD700s, still a lot was missing with on board.
On-Board/All/Misc:
Here are some things I noticed with on board AFTER I had gotten rid of my sound card, but never really noticed it before I moved to a sound card.
I immediately noticed that I had to bump up the volume significantly with on board. I'd say the sound card gave me about 2.5x the volume of on board. I realize the DX does not have a built in amplifier, so I was a bit puzzled by this, but I'm going to assume it has some sort of amplification method that simply comes from the parts on the card. There's no other way to describe it really.
I also noticed that system sounds were very distant. They were especially distant for me because I have a custom Windows 7 theme where all my sounds now take on anime quotes and jingles.
On top of that I noticed everything was a bit echoey. It's interesting. Also, I made sure that no effects were on and the environment was set to none. There's no reason the music, movies, or gaming sounds should have been echoey, but at times it was very apparent that there was a sort of echo. It was not always apparent, but at times it most definitely was.
Clarity in general. In all things was absolutely reduced. It was like night and day the difference in clarity. On board was simply not a great separator of instruments and did not provide the clarity we all hope for when listening to music or when gaming.
When watching a TV series or movie, I notice that when they're whispering or speaking very low it's very muddied and difficult to understand what they're saying. I notice I have to turn up the volume from time to time just to hear/understand what they're saying. It's pretty bad.
5/7/2011 - On board has difficulty keeping up with all sounds when complex sounds are present. Many instruments or noises from many areas lead to confusion and loss of instruments/sounds. Sometimes sound is even distorted and doesn't at all sound correct. I remember hearing a grenade explosion amongst other sounds and basically just heard "CHSSSHRRRR" It was horrible
![frown.gif]()
Asus Xonar DX
Music:
The first thing I noticed for the AD700s music-wise is how clear everything became. CLARITY if I had to sum up the entire review with one word is the word I would choose. Everything became infinitely clearer. I could hear individual instruments better. I had a better understanding of the sound stage. The AD700s were finally being used the way they were meant to be used. The headphones shined, music sounded brilliant. The highs were high, the mids were sweet. In comparison, it was almost like I was listening to an orchestra or band from behind a closed door with on board and when I put in my sound card I opened the door.
Gaming:
This is truly where the AD700s shined for me and imo it was all thanks to the sound card, not just the AD700s themselves. It was like the potential of the AD700s were locked when it was using on board, but with the help of a sound card, that potential was unlocked and the result was simply staggering. In Modern Warfare 2, footsteps became clear as day. They stood out from other sounds. Bullets became clearer and you could additionally tell the location of the foot steps and from which way bullets were coming.
Foot steps could now be heard as far as 1/4 of the map away. The sheer brilliance with which I could hear footsteps made people believe I hacked. I would be going down the stairs one moment, turn around after hearing footsteps above and not even seeing anything shoot the person down. It would make someone believe watching the kill cam that they were indeed hacking, but sound positioning is so phenomenal that unless you've tried it you won't understand.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the other hand with the Xonar DX was a terrible experience. Hearing footsteps with the Xonar DX was dreadful. You couldn't hear anything unless they were like 10 feet away from you. Good luck hearing bullets in that game too and making sense of which way they're coming at you from. Asus cards are not impressive for their positioning in this game. In other games it's pretty good though.
Logitech X-540s w/ Asus Xonar DX
You wouldn't think much difference would be heard over a pair of ..what 45 dollar speakers? You'd guess wrong. Even on these simple speakers I could hear a difference with the sound card. The difference was mostly in music; however, as opposed to gaming. Gaming sounds were clearer, but the ability to truly understand the positioning of footsteps was nowhere near as helpful as the AD700s. Still, these speakers made for a decent listen if I wasn't in the mood for wearing headphones and wasn't participating in FPS games. It was acceptable to me. I wasn't wow'd at all, but it definitely wasn't so bad that I couldn't listen to them. I think for 45 dollars these speakers are exceptional. Music wise, they really did well for me. I was pleased with them which should be differentiated from "wow'd." I was only wow'd in that I bought them for 45 dollars and they were decent, but I was merely pleased with them on a scale of disappoint to Wow'd with pleased being in the middle or slightly above. Again the 45 dollar point really makes these speakers. These were a great intro pair of speakers and I don't regret buying them. They served me well, but it's time to move on from them now.
Energy Speakers
I couldn't test with the Xonar DX, but instead were used on a Yamaha receiver. Simply put, they were marvelous and it's kind of an awkward feeling but I felt like they were sending wave of "energy" through me. Corny, I know, but the speakers were really nice. I felt the speakers could handle higher highs without turning painful. The speakers were even clearer and..for some reason I want to use the term powerful, but I'm not sure if that's the right word to truly describe them.
Don't ask how long it took my to write this up. Enjoy and I hope I may have solved any questions you had about whether a sound card is worth it over on board.
The Conclusion:
It is most definitely worth it to purchase a sound card or external DAC if you at all care for quality of sound/music/gaming or whatever. What you're hearing on on board sound is only the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to audio. If you really want to unlock sound, you should upgrade and a sound card is your first humble step. I would argue that it is MORE important to buy a sound card than to buy a high end pair of headphones. You will see MORE out of a sound card + low budget headphones than high budget headphones and no sound card or no external DAC.
This thread has been added to: http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/248036-essential-reading-audio-fans-please-read.html
Please refer this link to all people new to audio and in need of answers to questions that have already been answered.
The Rules:
Feel free to extend your opinions on the matter, but before you post, I strongly suggest you take out your sound card or external DAC and listen to on board again to see the difference. Give it 1-3 days for it all to sink in then you may return to your dedicated sound card.
Post what version of Realtek or Creative your motherboard has and what sound card/External DAC you've tested it against. I will add your opinion if it's informative, brings about new ideas or uses an on board driver/sound card mix we have not stated so far.
Also add what speakers/headphones you tested the differences with.
I will also support a separate section for those of the opinion that a sound card is NOT better than on board up to a certain price range.
The Story:
I have recently sold off 2 Asus Xonar DXs and gone back to on board sound. My motherboard uses the ALC1200 by Realtek which is a product of Asus only. Other motherboard producers have similar "special" versions of Realtek ALC.
I will personally be comparing ALC1200 to a Xonar DX and will let you know my opinions on what the differences were. I have tested the sound on Energy CB-20 speakers, Logitech X540 surround speakers and Audio Technica AD700s. I've used these in particular because I find that most users use AD700s or a similar product, use Logitech X540s if they're into low budget surround and are wanting to know how their speakers will benefit and are wanting to upgrade eventually..and I've provided the Energy speakers for those with higher end bookshelf speakers that would like to see how their speakers stack up.
The Review:
On-Board Sound
I'll start my review with the AD700s.
ALC1200/AD700s: The AD700s shine with beautiful mids and highs as we all know, but what some of us may have forgotten is that headphones, no matter how good they are, only shine as brightly as the sound card will allow them to. In short: The AD700s with on board sound is atrocious. I am willing to state that the AD700s with on board sound are barely better than any skull candies you can pick up for 20 bucks. The AD700s are extremely crippled without a sound card in my opinion. What do I mean crippled?
Music:
The AD700s sound washed out. There's absolutely nothing special about them with on board sound. They're dead. They have no life. It's worse than just being neutral..it's just not great sound. I encourage everyone to try and take their ipod earbuds and test them against AD700s with on board. I'm sure the AD700s will sound better, but I just don't think they're THAT much better. The AD700s do not suffer from crappy staticy sound like cheap trashy ear buds may, so that's a plus, but the sound quality itself is simply..unimpressive. I don't feel drawn into music. I don't find myself smiling. There's nothing 'special' about it.
Gaming:
The AD700s step up slightly in gaming compared to music and perform better than ear buds. There's no doubt about this; however, footsteps simply do not stand out as they should or as the owner of these headphones would hope for after having purchased these headphones for 90 dollars. I remember wearing these headphones for the first time before I had purchased the Xonar DX and being quite disappointed with my purchase. All the hype over these "awesome headphones" and this is what I get? I was not pleased to say the least. I saw minimum advantage and was longing for more. All the sounds were simply meshed together. It was difficult to pull one sound from the other. Footsteps were not as apparent as I was hoping for. I came in with the mindset of "OH YEAH, KILLER ADVANTAGE, GUNNA KILL SUM N0RBZ YAAAA"
After further testing with the AD-700s and Modern Warfare 2, I've noticed that while I could still hear the footsteps, they weren't anywhere near as sharp as with a sound card. Additionally, I had no idea where the footsteps were coming from and sound position was lost.
On-Board/X-540s:
Music:
Everything seemed normal, couldn't complain with X-540s. I was happy with them and didn't really know what to expect from them at the time. After having gone from a sound card to onboard again though, I did notice some differences. Most of the music awesomeness I was to experience with a sound card was placebo effect. I could easily tell after going from sound card to on board again that with music, I was not missing too much. I'll describe more in the sound card section the differences.
Gaming:
Seemed normal. Was slightly worse in terms of positioning and hearing footsteps than the AD700s, but sadly not much worse. I know some of you may rage that I've come to that opinion, but that's how I genuinely feel on the matter with on board. AD700s had the advantage in positioning, but pulling sounds apart from one another was still a messy mesh. Bullets being fired in the background got mixed into the music and other noises such as explosions, footsteps, ladders clanging etc.
Btw, I'm describing Modern Warfare 2 unless I state otherwise.
On-Board/Energy Speakers
I can't remember the name of the amplifier used for these speakers, but I can find out if you all find it imperative. These speakers belong to my friend who I recently sold his DX since he was the one to originally want to upgrade. These speakers sounded better than the X-540s, that's for sure, but having heard what the Energy Speakers could do before hand, it was clear as day what I was missing out on. Music became dull, bass was simply not right. It seemed bloaty in some sections when it should have been punchy. Instruments weren't as clear as they should have been, voices weren't as powerful as they should have been. It was sort of like the AD700s but more tolerable. I was less disappointed with the speakers than I was with the AD700s, still a lot was missing with on board.
On-Board/All/Misc:
Here are some things I noticed with on board AFTER I had gotten rid of my sound card, but never really noticed it before I moved to a sound card.
I immediately noticed that I had to bump up the volume significantly with on board. I'd say the sound card gave me about 2.5x the volume of on board. I realize the DX does not have a built in amplifier, so I was a bit puzzled by this, but I'm going to assume it has some sort of amplification method that simply comes from the parts on the card. There's no other way to describe it really.
I also noticed that system sounds were very distant. They were especially distant for me because I have a custom Windows 7 theme where all my sounds now take on anime quotes and jingles.
On top of that I noticed everything was a bit echoey. It's interesting. Also, I made sure that no effects were on and the environment was set to none. There's no reason the music, movies, or gaming sounds should have been echoey, but at times it was very apparent that there was a sort of echo. It was not always apparent, but at times it most definitely was.
Clarity in general. In all things was absolutely reduced. It was like night and day the difference in clarity. On board was simply not a great separator of instruments and did not provide the clarity we all hope for when listening to music or when gaming.
When watching a TV series or movie, I notice that when they're whispering or speaking very low it's very muddied and difficult to understand what they're saying. I notice I have to turn up the volume from time to time just to hear/understand what they're saying. It's pretty bad.
5/7/2011 - On board has difficulty keeping up with all sounds when complex sounds are present. Many instruments or noises from many areas lead to confusion and loss of instruments/sounds. Sometimes sound is even distorted and doesn't at all sound correct. I remember hearing a grenade explosion amongst other sounds and basically just heard "CHSSSHRRRR" It was horrible
Asus Xonar DX
Music:
The first thing I noticed for the AD700s music-wise is how clear everything became. CLARITY if I had to sum up the entire review with one word is the word I would choose. Everything became infinitely clearer. I could hear individual instruments better. I had a better understanding of the sound stage. The AD700s were finally being used the way they were meant to be used. The headphones shined, music sounded brilliant. The highs were high, the mids were sweet. In comparison, it was almost like I was listening to an orchestra or band from behind a closed door with on board and when I put in my sound card I opened the door.
Gaming:
This is truly where the AD700s shined for me and imo it was all thanks to the sound card, not just the AD700s themselves. It was like the potential of the AD700s were locked when it was using on board, but with the help of a sound card, that potential was unlocked and the result was simply staggering. In Modern Warfare 2, footsteps became clear as day. They stood out from other sounds. Bullets became clearer and you could additionally tell the location of the foot steps and from which way bullets were coming.
Foot steps could now be heard as far as 1/4 of the map away. The sheer brilliance with which I could hear footsteps made people believe I hacked. I would be going down the stairs one moment, turn around after hearing footsteps above and not even seeing anything shoot the person down. It would make someone believe watching the kill cam that they were indeed hacking, but sound positioning is so phenomenal that unless you've tried it you won't understand.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the other hand with the Xonar DX was a terrible experience. Hearing footsteps with the Xonar DX was dreadful. You couldn't hear anything unless they were like 10 feet away from you. Good luck hearing bullets in that game too and making sense of which way they're coming at you from. Asus cards are not impressive for their positioning in this game. In other games it's pretty good though.
Logitech X-540s w/ Asus Xonar DX
You wouldn't think much difference would be heard over a pair of ..what 45 dollar speakers? You'd guess wrong. Even on these simple speakers I could hear a difference with the sound card. The difference was mostly in music; however, as opposed to gaming. Gaming sounds were clearer, but the ability to truly understand the positioning of footsteps was nowhere near as helpful as the AD700s. Still, these speakers made for a decent listen if I wasn't in the mood for wearing headphones and wasn't participating in FPS games. It was acceptable to me. I wasn't wow'd at all, but it definitely wasn't so bad that I couldn't listen to them. I think for 45 dollars these speakers are exceptional. Music wise, they really did well for me. I was pleased with them which should be differentiated from "wow'd." I was only wow'd in that I bought them for 45 dollars and they were decent, but I was merely pleased with them on a scale of disappoint to Wow'd with pleased being in the middle or slightly above. Again the 45 dollar point really makes these speakers. These were a great intro pair of speakers and I don't regret buying them. They served me well, but it's time to move on from them now.
Energy Speakers
I couldn't test with the Xonar DX, but instead were used on a Yamaha receiver. Simply put, they were marvelous and it's kind of an awkward feeling but I felt like they were sending wave of "energy" through me. Corny, I know, but the speakers were really nice. I felt the speakers could handle higher highs without turning painful. The speakers were even clearer and..for some reason I want to use the term powerful, but I'm not sure if that's the right word to truly describe them.
Don't ask how long it took my to write this up. Enjoy and I hope I may have solved any questions you had about whether a sound card is worth it over on board.
The Conclusion:
It is most definitely worth it to purchase a sound card or external DAC if you at all care for quality of sound/music/gaming or whatever. What you're hearing on on board sound is only the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to audio. If you really want to unlock sound, you should upgrade and a sound card is your first humble step. I would argue that it is MORE important to buy a sound card than to buy a high end pair of headphones. You will see MORE out of a sound card + low budget headphones than high budget headphones and no sound card or no external DAC.
This thread has been added to: http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/248036-essential-reading-audio-fans-please-read.html
Please refer this link to all people new to audio and in need of answers to questions that have already been answered.
Okay so yea, total troll title but still. Got this thing and it's way to good now I'm afraid I'm going to become an audiophile
