onboard vs pci-e dedicated sound card

N

nelis

Expert Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
2,533
Reaction score
183
Hi there

So i bought the AKG k511 on special from Musica for my work pc. So far impressed with the headphones in it's price range as far as i can tell. Comfort wise etc but anyway let's not debate what headphones was most probably a better buy.

So my work pc is the h77ma-g43 running realtek alc892 chipset. Now i'm looking for either a cheap soundcard(internal vs external) to complement my headphones. The AKG k511 is 32 ohms, max power 200mw, 18-20khz. i listen to music, watch a little bit of videos etc. Now I'm looking at the xonar DGX as it's the cheapest as my motherboard doesn't have PCI slots so must buy pci-e. So will it be an actual upgrade from onboard audio?

Oh and on my gaming pc I'm running a hd598 and Sound Blaster z and as far as i can tell there is a huge difference between ALC1150 vs SBZ but seeing as this is somewhat low end headphones I might still benefit from having a low end sound card. I'm looking at spending as little as possible
 
Chevron said:
All depends on your budget. But anything with a headphone amp will make a big difference.

If you really have no budget:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/internal...ss-built-in-headphone-amp-3-headphone-ga.html

But if you want to spend a bit more:

http://www.rebeltech.co.za/internal...hannel-pci-express-with-metal-shielding-.html
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for suggestions so far. LOL if i want to spend a little bit more and here we go more than 3 times the price of the dgx. i know impressive sound card but for my work pc i don't think worth spending that much. Anyone else to give opinions?
 
if you have the budget, an external headphone DAC+Amp combo is fantastic. I also own the HD598s as well as HiFiMan HE-400's and even though both can be driven by anything really, the amplifier allows them to reach full potential.

The versatility of this device is what makes it so great - I have the Fiio E-17 which I can plug into my PC via USB (no soundcard neccessary), or use the standard 3.5 jack with my cellphone or iPad when I'm on the move, so this device gets a lot of use. There are cheaper portable DAC+AMP combos out there, worth the investment imo
 
Since it's fairly cheap headphones, yes a sound card will make a HUGE difference. Built-in sound on modern motherboards is ultra-crap.

Obviously an external amp and DAC, or at least both in one would be much better but again they do cost a bit. The Fiio's are great value apparently but they will probably cost a lot to get to SA since you have to import from Amazon or similar.
 
I use an Asus Xonar U7 external DAC. It's very good and reasonably priced.
 
Thanks for the info. i'm just looking for something cheap that will definitely be a step up from Realtek ALC892 on my motherboard. I have a xonar d1 here that's pci so i installed that into some other motherboard p67a-gd65 msi that runs the same chipset and what i can find no difference only the volume is louder but the Xonar D1 is one of the lowest end xonar sound cards you can find and i think it comes with no Amp on it. I only tested a few youtube videos and downloaded video files, stuff I generally use. So don't know if the dgx is much better and will be any better
 
RogerWilcoZA said:
if you have the budget, an external headphone DAC+Amp combo is fantastic. I also own the HD598s as well as HiFiMan HE-400's and even though both can be driven by anything really, the amplifier allows them to reach full potential.

The versatility of this device is what makes it so great - I have the Fiio E-17 which I can plug into my PC via USB (no soundcard neccessary), or use the standard 3.5 jack with my cellphone or iPad when I'm on the move, so this device gets a lot of use. There are cheaper portable DAC+AMP combos out there, worth the investment imo
Click to expand...
External DAC's generally have built in amps to drive the headphones and don't tax the system because all processing is done external to the pc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X