Yes, the only onboard that I have had thats worth bothering with was also nvidia for me too, which was the SoundStorm on the NF7S. Funkily enough, its only a realtek sound device too! - just shows doesnt it?
I have so-called high definition Audio on my P4 3.6 and to be quite honest, its among the biggest piles of doggie doo I have ever had the misfortune to use and if that board caught fire, id probably dig out some marshmallows, so just because it says its something, its not always the case.
I also have a couple of TBSC Cards, and while they are a little dated now, and yes some motherboards are better quality and perhaps better performance-wise too in games, at least you know what you get with the TBSC / VLSF, and thats a good warm sound... Not too harsh like Creative cards, but not quite high end like the Philips / MAudio etc
AFAIK the TBSC is no longer supported too, as I have not found an updated driver for years.
As for getting a mate to swap cables over etc, this I think is a mute idea. I think the only way you can really test it, is by using the onboard for a fair while, trying out various things to put it to the test properly, playing various styles of music and various Audio-heavy games etc, get the Balance of it just right for your speakers and so on, and then just think for yourself how well it compared against the TBSC... Then, should you want to re-try the TBSC, just plug it in and have a play about.
You can in most cases, run them alongside each other, so doing that might be an option, and using the control panel thingy to select the output device, but also remember that in some cases, even if the sound device is not used, it can still slow the system down, and not let you have a fair comparison when you are loading the running one.
Any opinions though?
