How important are drivers for sound quality?

428 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by TwoCables, Dec 2, 2009

Aelius

Discussion Starter · Dec 2, 2009

I have Z-5500 speakers with an X-Fi Titanium sound card. I've had horrible experiences trying to install drivers with this card, and after hours and hours of trying to fix it I finally managed to get the drivers from the disk installed. They're from January, but there are some July drivers for the X-Fi available. I'm not having any technical problems, but will sound quality improve? If not, to hell with it, I'm not messing with it again

Also, what about "High Definition Audio Device"? I don't know what that is, but apparently I have 2006 Microsoft drivers for it. According to a program I use called "Driver Detective", there are some newer drivers for this "High Definition Audio Device". The new drivers for it are, it says, from "Realtek" and are dated at September 2009. What are these drivers? And will they improve sound quality?

Thanks for the help.

See less See more

My overclock is thanks to the generous assistance of Blameless, who kindly helped a stranger in need.

Helmed Horror

CPU: Intel i7 Haswell-E 5820k (overclocked +21% to 4.0 GHz) | Motherboard: x99 ASUS Rampage V Extreme | GPU: GTX 780 (EVGA FTW, 3GB) | GPU: GTX 780 (EVGA FTW, 3GB) | RAM: 4x4GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws 2400 | Hard Drive: (x4, 4TB ea.) HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB | Hard Drive: Samsung 840 EVO (1TB) | Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000W | Cooling: Phanteks PH-TC14PE BK | Case: Enermax Thormax Giant | Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Monitor: LG 29UM65-P (29" 21:9 Ultrawide IPS) | Keyboard: Corsair K70 Vengeance (Cherry MX Blues) | Mouse: Logitech G400S | Mouse: Steelseries QcK Mass | Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Z | Other: Nidec Gentle Typhoon case fans x6 (1850 RPM) | Other: Delta AFB1212HHE CPU fans x2 | Other: Gelid GC-Extreme thermal paste | Other: Sennheiser HD 600 headphones | Other: Cyberpower 900W UPS (CP1500PFCLCD) | Other: NZXT Hue RGB LED Controller | Other: (3x) WD Elements 4TB external HDD | Other: Audio-GD NFB 12.1 external DAC/amp

Save

1 - 5 of 5 Posts

TwoCables

· #2 · Dec 2, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aelius

The "High Definition Audio Device" is the onboard audio. This must be disabled in the BIOS when using a sound card. This may have been why you were having difficulty getting the X-Fi drivers to install.

So, disable it. And if you still have any Realtek drivers installed, then uninstall them immediately.

See less See more

Save

TUDJ

· #3 · Dec 2, 2009

High definition audio device is your motherboards onboard sound, you should disable it in BIOS but it's not too important if it isn't causing conflicts - it will be using resources though.

I'd also leave the drivers as they are for the X-Fi, I've had similar driver installation issues in the past and it's not worth it IMO - I don't think there is any difference in SQ anyway.

If it's not broke, don't fix it

See less See more

Save

aaronman

· #4 · Dec 2, 2009

One of the reasons you probably have problems installing your X-Fi drivers is because your haven't disabled your onboard audio yet. That High Definition Audio Device is your integrated soundcard. Disable it in your BIOS.

And generally, drivers will not make sound quality better - but better drivers will be more stable and have less problems. I wouldn't upgrade sound card drivers unless you're actually having problems with your current drivers.

Save

TwoCables

· #5 · Dec 2, 2009

Of course, there are always Daniel_K's drivers which do improve the quality a tiny bit.

Save

1 - 5 of 5 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month