sound card

marco.da.man · 29 Mar 2018 at 14:50

is there a decent either 5.1 or 7.1 sound card you guys recommend to buy ?

specs are below

EsaT · 29 Mar 2018 at 15:09

Are you using speakers?
Unless you have some interference from integrated separate sound card won't bring anything new to table.

And for headphone use that Gigabyte already comes bundled with Creative's software giving excellent binaural sound simulation.
So unless having that interference you really don't need to buy separate sound card.
(while good headphones would improve game immersion lot more with binaural sound)

marco.da.man · 29 Mar 2018 at 15:34

EsaT said:
Are you using speakers?
Unless you have some interference from integrated separate sound card won't bring anything new to table.

And for headphone use that Gigabyte already comes bundled with Creative's software giving excellent binaural sound simulation.
So unless having that interference you really don't need to buy separate sound card.
(while good headphones would improve game immersion lot more with binaural sound)

i have the logitech 5.1 z 506 speaker system

Marsman · 29 Mar 2018 at 18:23

Pretty much as Esat has said; unless interference is an problem, I don't think there's much point in getting a sound card, not for PC speakers anyway. Good hifi or studio monitor speakers would get more benefit from a sound card, but really a DAC would be a better option.

marco.da.man · 29 Mar 2018 at 18:50

Marsman said:
Pretty much as Esat has said; unless interference is an problem, I don't think there's much point in getting a sound card, not for PC speakers anyway. Good hifi or studio monitor speakers would get more benefit from a sound card, but really a DAC would be a better option.

cheers

mistersprinkles · 30 Mar 2018 at 17:50

You have a fairly high end motherboard. I'm not up to checking specs atm (too lazy) but I'd guess it's alc1150 based with a pretty good implementation. Gigabyte doesn't really mess around with that. You won't get a tremendous improvement out of a soundcard and I'd argue that it's not worth spending the money. Also your speakers aren't really super high end or anything and that's another reason why a soundcard wouldn't really make a difference.

These days soundcards are a bit pointless. What you really want, once you get your $1000+ speakers is a nice external DAC.

Rroff · 30 Mar 2018 at 17:56

mistersprinkles said:
You have a fairly high end motherboard. I'm not up to checking specs atm (too lazy) but I'd guess it's alc1150 based with a pretty good implementation. Gigabyte doesn't really mess around with that. You won't get a tremendous improvement out of a soundcard

I've got systems with the ALC898 and ALC1150 (Gigabyte implementations as well) and I really don't rate them personally - sound detailed enough but dry and lifeless - I stuck with soundcards and/or external DACs due to that.

EDIT: I actually prefer both of my main monitor's built in DAC (no idea what they are) over the Realtek stuff though I suspect the THD isn't as good - they pick up less noise especially noticeable with more sensitive headphones and have a warmer (though I'm not a huge fan of warm - but I'll take it over lifeless) signature.