Sound card...

dalehitchy1

dalehitchy1

dalehitchy1

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I bought a Yamaha 5.1 a system bundle with the speakers for a cheap price... And while great for the price.... Would I get better quality from a sound card.

a lot of people argue you'll defiantly get better quality from a dedicated card ... But even with some of the latest motherboards? I have a pretty new mobo ( msi z68 gd65 ) and I would have thought it would havea pretty decent on board.

Anyway .... I have the money... Is it really worth getting one?
I do watch a lot of films and play games on my comp....so...
 
The onboard sound would be adequate. But not great, you can get dedicated cards from about £18 upwards, the Asus Xonar DG being a recommendation at this price.
 
That's what I was thinking, but I couldn't be sure without knowing more details.

There is value in getting a sound card, but not from a sound quality point of view.

When connecting any speaker system to a PC via SPDIF (optical/coaxial), it's just data that is sent, not actual sound. Using an SPDIF connection on a motherboard, would be no different from a £50 sound card, in regard to sound quality. It's digital data.

The decoder on the speaker side, then converts it from digital into analogue sound.

In other words, by using a digital connection to the PC, the speaker system is doing what a sound card, or onboard audio would. Convert digital data into analogue sound.

You might ask. Why get a sound card then, if there will be no sound quality difference?

When playing films/movies on the PC. If it's a DVD for eg, then the DVD will have a 5.1 Dolby or DTS track, which will be passed on to the home theatre system, to decode.

The problem arises when playing games. Majority of PC games do not have Dolby or DTS 5.1 sound. In order for 5.1 to be sent via SPDIF, it needs to be encoded with Dolby or DTS. Unless the sound is encoded with Dolby/DTS, then SPDIF will only take stereo.

Dolby and DTS have real time 5.1 encoders, but they are usually only found on high end motherboards. Looking at MSI's site, the board you have, doesn't have those features.

That's why a sound card with real time 5.1 encoding capabilities is needed.

Just thinking about it. Does your Yamaha have HDMI input?
 
Marsman said:
That's what I was thinking, but I couldn't be sure without knowing more details.

There is value in getting a sound card, but not from a sound quality point of view.

When connecting any speaker system to a PC via SPDIF (optical/coaxial), it's just data that is sent, not actual sound. Using an SPDIF connection on a motherboard, would be no different from a £50 sound card, in regard to sound quality. It's digital data.

The decoder on the speaker side, then converts it from digital into analogue sound.

In other words, by using a digital connection to the PC, the speaker system is doing what a sound card, or onboard audio would. Convert digital data into analogue sound.

You might ask. Why get a sound card then, if there will be no sound quality difference?

When playing films/movies on the PC. If it's a DVD for eg, then the DVD will have a 5.1 Dolby or DTS track, which will be passed on to the home theatre system, to decode.

The problem arises when playing games. Majority of PC games do not have Dolby or DTS 5.1 sound. In order for 5.1 to be sent via SPDIF, it needs to be encoded with Dolby or DTS. Unless the sound is encoded with Dolby/DTS, then SPDIF will only take stereo.

Dolby and DTS have real time 5.1 encoders, but they are usually only found on high end motherboards. Looking at MSI's site, the board you have, doesn't have those features.

That's why a sound card with real time 5.1 encoding capabilities is needed.

Just thinking about it. Does your Yamaha have HDMI input?
Click to expand...

it does... and ive tried sending only audio to it via hdmi from my gpu ... but cant figure it out. i cant have video being sent as i have eyefinity set up.. and when connected to the AV system.... it messes my monitors...so i need to figure out how to do audio only
 
Ah! I should have asked that first TBH. I just had the impression you have an all in one 5.1 system. Should have asked if you had a separates system! :o Although, thinking about it, I'm not sure Yamaha make all in one efforts.

Ok, I see why you are not using HDMI connection to the AV receiver.

In that case, using SPDIF (optical) is the next best option. You will need a sound card to encode the sound with Dolby or DTS to be sent to the receiver.

What PCI or PCIE slots do you have free on your board?
 
Depending on what you want to spend, there are a few options. First of all, there is either Creative or Asus. I've had trouble in the past getting Dolby/DTS real time encoding to work with my X-Fi. I've also seen other people say they have had problems.

That's not to say Creative cards are rubbish for real time 5.1 Dolby/DTS encoding. I'm sure there are many people who have had no issue.

I bought a Xonar after having difficulty with getting the Creative card to work properly with Dolby Digital Live. I had no such problem with the Xonar. The other few comments from people who also had trouble, would steer me toward recommending a Xonar.

The DS is the cheapest card, which has real time 5.1 encoding. It has DTS Connect, but not Dolby Digital Live. D1/X is up next, which has DDL, but not DTSC. Xonar D2/X, has both.

Other than real time encoding features, a Xonar D2/X, is not going to offer any more than a DS will, other than DDL of course. So it depends if you'd rather Dolby or DTS, or if you do want both, then a D2/X is the answer.
 
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