Sound card worth it for these speakers?

Cathartis · 16 Oct 2012 at 12:58

I recently bought a set of Logitech Z523 2.1 speakers to replace the old £15 or so 2.0 speakers I previously had, in the name of getting much nicer sound and music quality.

They sound pretty good so far, but I'm currently using onboard sound and was wondering if it was worth getting a soundcard to go with this speaker setup, whether it would make much difference? My budget is probably going to be ~£100.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Phal · 16 Oct 2012 at 15:20

Might make a little difference but for those speakers I wouldn't buy anything too shiny. One of those £20ish Xonars would be fine imo

Cathartis · 16 Oct 2012 at 15:31

That's kinda disappointing, I'll probably buy something else if there's not much difference :/

Just out of interest, what level of speakers would you need to have before a soundcard was a must-have in terms of difference to sound quality?

Kosmiche · 16 Oct 2012 at 15:56

Phal said:
Might make a little difference but for those speakers I wouldn't buy anything too shiny. One of those £20ish Xonars would be fine imo

You will assuredly hear the difference.

Phal · 16 Oct 2012 at 16:27

Difference between onboard and entry level soundcards seems rather subjective. For a lot of people it's more of a placebo and they claim to notice huge differences whereas some people notice no difference at all when they swap. It's hard to judge differences in sound since there's no benchmark tests to run like with a graphics card or something.

If you're happy with the sound then it certainly won't get worse! The more expensive soundcards are either geared at premium headphones, surround sound speaker setups or are just game branded thingies that cost a lot.

For a £75 set of 2.1 speakers I would definitely recommend a soundcard but not something that's worth more than the speakers

Cathartis · 16 Oct 2012 at 16:33

So are the Asus Xonars probably the best cards to go for in the £20-30 price bracket? Going for a cheaper card if there's not going to be a subjective difference compared to more expensive ones certainly saves me some money to buy other parts

Marsman · 16 Oct 2012 at 19:10

Yes, Creative's cheaper cards are rather poor in comparison. If you are going to use the sound card with just the speakers, then either a DS/X or D1/X. D1/X is a superb card and at £60 is the most you should be spending really. As Phal said, the sound card should not cost more than the speakers, otherwise it's a waste.

A DG/X is another option. Very good budget sound card, but it's really aimed at headset/headphone use.