thinking of a sound card......

[Yrkoon]

i gave my dad my old gigabyte.z170 sniper recently and i have a tomahawk max one now, i have noticed my music has a kinda muffled effect to it now and it is just not as clear as it was.

thinking of getting one of these https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html but i hear its a bit old.

any tips? my amp is just some dumb philips thingy that does not even have a optical connection, i used to love my audigy untill i tried it on vista lol

only using 2 speakers on my amp\hifi it claims to be 5.1 but i call bull, the 2 speakers work though when i disable the middle and back ones which is all the time now

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

Cheaper option is to grab a USB DAC.

On another note, have you been through all Windows' sound setup procedures? Make sure it's set for full-range speakers, disable all effects etc. Had it default to 'small speakers' and some processing effect that made everything sound muddy before now...

Most mobos have very good sound these days, discrete sound cards are becoming less and less relevant..

 

[Yrkoon]

ah no i have not been through windows settings etc that is something i will mess about with when im sober and ill let you know if i have any luck

yeh the last soundcard i had was an audigy and had it softmodded to a audigy2 then vista said nope, just been wondering since this mb is a more budget one than my old one

hmm just installed some realtek msi software from my mb page it seems to be improved, will need further listening but you might of saved me about 60 quid

edit: still a bit muffly but not as bad

heres pics of my music and settings:

 

[Shoeyuk]

I had a similar problem although I was using the optical on the motherboard for my old work pc to my denon amp.

The new motherboard for my Ruben build didn’t have one which wasn’t a deal breaker as I used the money for better ram and I got a cheap usb sound card from the bay that had optical out for about £10.

The sound card you listed above has been around for a while and it is a good card and should tick all the boxes.

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

Looking good on the settings- not the dialog box I was expecting, but I'll assume the MSI setup software just changes the Windows settings via a fancy interface...

Check also the 'sound effects' and 'room correction' tabs and make sure they're all disabled too.

And a very important thing is to let your ears and brain adjust to the new sound. I love my hifi, and changing ANY component nearly always results in disappointment, because the sound is 'different' to before. Give it a day or three, and you'll stop noticing these differences perhaps.

 

[Yrkoon]

cheers for the advice guys ill see how i get along with it

 

[JasonM]

Go into device properties, and set supported format to 24bit 44.1, see if that clears up the noise issue.

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

Just looked at that screenshot of the MSI software again. Can I just confirm your audio jack is plugged into the pale-green coloured socket on the motherboard?
I'm confused, as the picture shows the rear-panel connection as red. Seems odd, as it's a widely-used colour scheme.

I'm sure you have it in the right hole, otherwise it probably wouldn't be working at all, but just checking...

 

[Yrkoon]

Just looked at that screenshot of the MSI software again. Can I just confirm your audio jack is plugged into the pale-green coloured socket on the motherboard?
I'm confused, as the picture shows the rear-panel connection as red. Seems odd, as it's a widely-used colour scheme.

I'm sure you have it in the right hole, otherwise it probably wouldn't be working at all, but just checking...

its set to 24 bit 44.1, just had a look at the back and all the ports are just coloured black but it is in the line out one and same one the manual says to use for stereo

 

[DoneADougalOnSofa]

That's ok then!

 

[Yrkoon]

thanks again for the help guys

edit:

im getting tempted to order this later https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...ound-card-retail-70sb150000001-sc-087-cl.html

at least that way my sound would be consistant across new mainboards, plus i need a new mic anyways and that comes with one, using the old one that came with a gamevoice years ago, took it off the head set and taped up some wires lol

 

[Yrkoon]

just ordered the sound card, should have my hands on it tonight

borderlands 3 sounding like trash was the last straw

got 2 cheapo light strips coming as well

should have some good sounding tunes later ill let yous know how it goes

woohoo got the sound card and my music sounds miles better

 

[JasonM]

woohoo got the sound card and my music sounds miles better

That's because on board audio is rubbish, that's my listening experience of it anyway.

And the ironic thing is, the Soundblaster Z you have just ordered it's very good, but it's not super high end good - for example a Cambrige DAC magic would easily out perform the Soundblaster Z for music. So imagine how bad the motherboard audio would be compared to something very high end.

 

[Yrkoon]

my last one was ok, but the new one was doing my nut in, yep miles better with a dedicated soundcard

so much clarity and many options im making use off