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Is there any point to having anything "better" than an nForce4 onboard or Soundblaster Live? I'm just wondering because I see sound cards that are $200+, and unless people are a whole lot more stupid that I think, they has to be *some* reason someone would be willing to shell out that much cash for a sound card.

I've yet to find any reason why my onboard sound card on my nForce4 board is insufficient. Heck, I haven't even installed my SoundBlaster Live. The only thing I do know is that newer cards are set up for surround sound and the like, but the onboard sound on my nForce4 board is already 7.1. The only other possibility is EAX stuff for games, but surely that's not the difference in price (considering my 5 year old, $50 Live has it).

So, whats the hoopla about?

Miles Teg

I have an external car in the PCMCIA slot on my laptop. It make a HUGE difference, what with havin dolby digital, 5.1, and EAX. This card is far superior to my onboard hardware. If that is waht you were asking about, then I hope that helps.

But it surely didn't cost you 200 dollars muffin. He's talking about the expensive ones. I think audiophiles are the market for that. The high price buys better shielding, sturdier desings and penis compensation value in some cases (depending on the actual quality/price ratio). Basically those are for people who are obsessed with sound quality and have to have it sounding as good as is humanly possible. They've probably got 'em running on quarter inch or RCA (or in rare cases XLR (XLR jacks are more for professional stuff like running mikes for concerts, not home usage and I don't think I've ever seen an XLR sound card and it would be weird because the most common type are the three pin ones and those are just grounded, balanced mono sound so you'd need two rather big plug for stereo, or 8 for 7.1 sound, and you'd rapidly run out of room. And then you'd have to find or build an amp that would connect to it. So they probably don't build any sound cards with XLR which makes me wonder why I said it at all?)) into expensive amps and expensive speakers or headphones. Maximum quality every step of they way is the audiophile creed. No 3.5 mm jacks or integrated speaker amps in sight.

Unless you are an audiophile it really isn't necessary. Onboard stuff is generaly good enough. Most onboard card support all the surround sound formats but do them in software.

For gamers that must have those last 3 fps it makes some (very little) sense to buy an addon soundblaster because it processes the sound on its own so there is lesser CPU usage.

Laptops are something of a special case since they have shit speakers built-in and poor external connections usualy. If I wanted decent sound on the laptop I'd rather spend some money on a good headset then pay the extortionist prices for a PCMCIA form factor sound card.

All in all, for general usage (including gaming) I'd say there is no need. If however, you are doing audio editing or similar, then ofcourse.

Yeah I forgot about recording through a computer. Which is funny because I may be doing a lot of that in the near future.

I just got an audigy 2 zs, It's better than my onboard audio, but I'm glad I didn't pay retail price.

mp3s in general don't usually have the quality to warrant a better sound card, but I think they sound slightly better. My midi files actually sound like real music now though; before they sounded like glorified 8-bit music files, but now they sound like real instruments playing.


ps. Creative Labs sells refurbished cards through an e-bay store

It's been said before, but I'll reiterate here. When your sound card goes above even $100 you're going into the prosumer and even professional level of sound cards. That's the rarified air of both audiophiles and amateur/professional musicians.

It also depends on what application you're using. For "normal" operation, including hard core gaming it's, as was stated earlier, about penile extension or bragging rights. There's only so much quality that can be pulled from even the best MP3/4 compression.

Where high end sound cards make the difference is with music applications. If you just want to make noise, any old audio device will do. But if you want to hear, and I do mean hear, a .1db change at 244hz then you pretty much have to fork out the cash for a better audio card.

I've noticed a definite difference in quality between onboard audio and my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, which is why I continue to use it.

I've got an Audigy 2, and I use the digital output on it exclusively, to connect to my surround system. Means I don't need a dvd recorder or anything of the sort in my home theater system, and that I couldn't have done with onboard sound anywhere.