Advice on sound setup to PC

sjp1966 · 11 Feb 2021 at 19:36

Hi All,

I currently use a gaming machine with standard, crappy PC speakers run via the onboard sound card and wanted to beef up the sound quality a bit for when I want to listen to music, be that through Spotify or via CD (yeah I have loads of those still).

I read on the "What desktop speakers are you using" thread that some people have a AV Amp connected to the PC via HDMI and a couple of speakers connected to the amp, I like the sound of that setup but the room I am in is small so was also exploring getting a sound card for the PC and attaching speakers to that soundcard.

I've a couple of questions.

1: If going the sound card route can someone recommend a decent soundcard, looking at no more than £100 ideally, and a recommendation for speakers too.

Sound card wise I saw this and wondered if anyone had any experience with it.

Speaker wise I saw these, would these ft on that sound card above?

2: If i can get an AV Amp cheap enough, does the HDMI just connect into the graphics card HDMI slot in order to make the connection?

mattyfez · 12 Feb 2021 at 12:07

I'd get something like those Edifiers or maybe creative T-20 and see where you are then.
Personally I don't find I need a dedicated sound card, the onbard is fine with some decent PC speakers. YMMV.
You could always add a sound card later once you've tested the speakers out.

SonicSW20 · 12 Feb 2021 at 12:18

I wouldn't bother with a sound card at this budget. Put the money towards speakers / amp etc, its going to make a much bigger difference.

JasonM · 12 Feb 2021 at 16:03

What's your motherboard make & model? I think on-board audio is terrible, however try you on-board audio first you might find it ok.

turbot1984 · 12 Feb 2021 at 16:15

I was thinking of connecting amp/sub/spkrs is optical best as my mobo/amp has this? Alternatve would be jack plug on mobo to phono aux on amp?

sjp1966 · 12 Feb 2021 at 16:21

JasonM said:
What's your motherboard make & model? I think on-board audio is terrible, however try you on-board audio first you might find it ok.

Mother board is a Gigabyte Z390 UD, machine is about 3 years old now. I do like the look of those Edifier Speakers although my current soundcard (onbaord) doesnt have connections like that just the standard light green for speakers phono socket

JasonM · 12 Feb 2021 at 20:39

sjp1966 said:
Mother board is a Gigabyte Z390 UD, machine is about 3 years old now. I do like the look of those Edifier Speakers although my current soundcard (onbaord) doesnt have connections like that just the standard light green for speakers phono socket

if your not buying a sound card, then buy some Edifiers with a built in DAC, and connect via SPDIF as I expect this would better.

Something like this.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/edifier-r1280db-studio-bookshelf-speaker-sp-04d-er.html

sjp1966 · 13 Feb 2021 at 08:39

I’ll admit I am not massively knowledgeable on connection types but those speakers linked don’t seem to have a built in DAC, also they (and other edifiers I’ve seen) seem to have RCA connections so I would assume with my set up (as my motherboard doesn’t have RCA) is to get a RCA to Phono conversion lead. I cannot see any here on OC but have elsewhere.

My motherboard doesn’t have anything on it mentioning SPDIF either. I am confused as how I would connect these speakers.

Aside that, what are Edifiers like? I read that they are a Chinese brand and it isn’t a country that is renowned for its quality audio (imo)

DoneADougalOnSofa · 13 Feb 2021 at 08:45

Your mobo has a SPDIF header, but no SPDIF socket, apparently... So presumably there's a part available from somewhere.
Seems a bit daft..

JasonM · 13 Feb 2021 at 13:21

The speakers do have a built in DAC.

If you don't have SPDIF header, then you can connect those speakers with TOSLINK optical cable, I'm sure your motherboard will have a header for this.