Audigy 4 vs Onboard

Pulseammo

Pulseammo

Pulseammo

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Joined
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Scotland
Hello folks,

Currently I have an Audigy 4 and I've just upgraded my machine and decided to install Windows 7.

The Audigy 4 works fine sound wise but my microphone is basically in-audable even with micboost enabled and the recording volume cranked up. It seems to be a driver issue.

My choices are this: Either use my onboard sound exclusively or use it JUST for my mic and use the Audigy for output. My motherboard is a M4A785TD-V Evo with the following sound specs:

Enjoy high-end sound system on your PC!
The onboard 8-channel HD audio (High Definition Audio, previously codenamed Azalia) CODEC enables high-quality 192KHz/24-bit audio output, jack-sensing feature, retasking functions and multi-streaming technology that simultaneously sends different audio streams to different destinations. You can now talk to your partners on the headphone while playing a multi-channel network games. All of these are done on one computer.

VT1708S 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-Streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking
- Optical S/PDIF Out ports at back I/O
Click to expand...

If the onboard is better than my Audigy 4 I'll just use it alone but I'm under the impression that it isn't. Other concerns are whether or not having 2 sound cards installed will make apps go crazy (I plan to disable the outputs on the onboard).

Can anyone knowledgeable give me a clue to what setup I should use? Please and thanks :)
 
I did the same thing a while back (with an Audigy 4 non the less). To me the card sounded better than the onboard so I kept both and ran both. I didn't get any odd bugs although some apps were determined to use onboard rather than my Audigy so I had to go into the settings to change that. I'm using a different board with VIA audio so obviously YMMV.

My suggestion would be to listen to both onboard and card and see if you can tell the difference, if you can stick with the card, if you can't use onboard and sell the card to put towards an upgrade. I sold my card to get a Xonar DX but ended up getting a DG and it's been a pretty big jump in quality for such a small price so you might want to look into doing that too, especially if you are a headphone user!
 
Thanks, I guess I'll give it a go and see if I notice any difference in quality.

I do use a pair of cans on a very regular basis but they are just a pair of Sennheiser HD515s. My hope is one day I'll build a DAC and Headphone amp myself and perhaps get a better pair but for now it is what it is :).
 
Ok so the onboard audio idea was a bust as well... 30db mic boost and it is still too quiet on that as well!

Anyone got any ideas?

Edit: It seems to be useable in L4D2 now I think, although it's not as loud as it was in XP. It still doesn't really register on windows sound recorder though. Perhaps I just need to smash it off my desk a few times to make it start acting consistently ;)
 
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Is your mic good enough? I use an old relatively cheap Sennheiser over ear headset thing as my mic, which I leave on the desk. I have 20dB boost and my friends can hear me fine. Friend of mine has a super cheap headset, and the mic is poor on that. If he moves it a few inches from his mouth, the volume drops dramatically, even with boost.
 
My mic is a black Logitech Desk Mic. It can pick up sounds *clearly* from the other side of my room when it was running under windows XP. Think it cost a tenner ages ago and frankly I was surprised with the quality of it because all other desk mics I've used have been rubbish.
 
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