A few weeks back I was discussing sound in WOFF.
One part of that conversation was me saying the Nvidia sound through my monitor, via the HDMI cable, was just fine.
Someone here disagreed and said I am missing a lot of audio subtleties by not using a dedicated sound card.

Well, and I am sorry I forgot your name, but you were 100% correct.
Decided to try out the brand new RealTek card/chip in my new system and the difference was quite amazing. As an excuse I will say the previous card was a 10 year old Soundblaster so perhaps that is why the Nvidia signal sounded fine.

So use your sound card - if it's newer!

You sound like me Duke. Been wrong but never unsure.

Wow, SoundBlaster. A name from the 1990's. Things have moved on since then. I'm still trying to remember the name of the sound card that preceded the Soundblaster. Back in the early 1990's. Something like Thunder card...it was pretty impressive back in the day.

I still remember the Ad Lib sound card. Only because as a kid I wanted a sound card so bad, but never had one.

My hearing has gone down hill over the years. I've found that using headphones makes a huge difference

In the 90s the Soundblaster soundcards were the top ! I still use a Soundblaster HP surround set.

Bah! Humbug! A PC speaker is all that you need.

I'm old enough to remember when Santa Cruz's Turtle Beach cards were considered top of the line, especially for music.

But Hasse, "you keed, you keed!" Even I have a 5 speaker + subwoofer sound setup). And I like what one reviewer said about an SR-71 sound set that a simmer made up from real recordings: "Turn your speakers up and it's a great way to get headed for Divorce Court!"

I have a surround sound system but can only use it when Mrs Corsaire is at work, which luckily happens every week day... Most of the time I wear my G35 Logitech headset.

I always use headphones. Was looking around for a new pair last week and was checking one pair out....$260.00! I about fell over. I love you WOFF but I better be rolling in cash before I drop that kind of coin for the benefit of my wooden ears.

I hooked up an old surround sound system when the grandkids were over and we played some WOFF on a rainy day afternoon. It pissed (W)off Grandma some. We sent her out on an icecream run and rocked the old shack while she was gone.

Okay, what are good sound cards these days?
And are they really better than what a modern motherboard comes with?
(I have an ASUS P8P67 mobo)

I'd love to see tips and knowledge from users of separate soundcards.


PS: SoundBlaster seem to exist still - here is a German site with a new SoundBlaster Z:

http://de.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-z

I have a Soundblaster USB soundcard that I can use in my laptop. My MOB has on-board Realtek which seems good enough.

I think for what we do the onboard Realtek are imho good enough.

For audio specialists you have sound cards like :

Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 (which main circuit comes from Creative) 125 Euros
Asus Essence STX II 7.1 247 Euros
Onkyo Wavio SE 300 420 USD by Amazon.com

Ah, okay - thank you both for the info!

I have been using pc's since the Apple IIE in 1981 and I can honestly say that I have never had any trouble setting up video cards (even the Apple IIE 80 (wow!) column video card). I think the default was 40 columns. BUTTTTTT I have lost more hair and learnt more swear words trying to get audio to work properly. Even getting my Realtek setup to work with my Logitech 7.1 speakers is an absolute pain - sometimes it is 5.1 sometimes it is 2.0 and sometimes one speaker or another refuses to work.

My Soundblaster USB was a complete pain in the neck to install involving downloading what seemed like many drivers which didn't work or didn't work properly. I eventually stopped using it because there was a 'click click' about once a second that drove me mad. I eventually figured out that it must be picking up interference from my electric fence. So I put up with it for a while. I don't get interference on any of my radios or this desktop so I give up again. The only good thing was that I was given the Soundblaster with no installation CD or manual - now I know why I got it for free!

Be wary of upgrading sound cards as I think the sound card makers are intentionally making them sound less good.I had a big rant online yrs back where I was amazed that my newest SB-Z card sounded so much worse than my SB audigy card of which had a superb sound.Funny thing happened to me as I thought I was just getting older and was convinced this was the case when I found a website that explained that as hearing gets lost you start hearing less highs and lows.I am a huge music buff and seriously went into a mini depression.I then found a website that tests ones hearing and found that my hearing was pretty dam great.It was dumb of me to not realize that as soon as I installed the new card music and games sounded worse but my argument is that I thought this card was top of the line and believed it was perfect.

I started reading up on sound and found that with lots of tuning with the equalizer the sound from the SB-Z easily matched my old card PLUS it had a built-in amplifier which was perfect for me as I listen only with headphones.I then started writing to Creative and asking them why they would ship a card with default sound settings that clipped the card of its full potential and never got an answer back.

So my theory of all this bull was that sound cards have reached a place where humans cant perceive betterment so they start shipping cards with detuned equalizer settings and voila....customers will hear their friends PC's belting out wonderful sounds and buy a new card.just my theory and no I am not a conspiracy theorist but this one just really got to me.Here is a review from respectable website that says most people wont notice a difference between modern on board sound and an expensive audiophile card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html

And before I forget....good speakers and headphones do make a difference IMO.

Another solution is to use an external quality amplifier with a HDMI connection.
You can find second hand ones for cheaper than high quality sound cards.