My PC's board came with an integrated sound card, which is a RealTek AC'97. I just bought some new, and somewhat pricey, set of headphones to use mostly with my PC. The sound quality is definitely better, but I was wondering if there is anything more I can to improve it. I downloaded the latest driver, and changed the Windows settings to its headphones feature.
For listening to music with my headphones, is there anything more I can do? Would getting a better sound card help at all?
Also, is there any difference in quality between plugging my headphones directly into jack of the sound card instead into the jack on my speakers?
Can I improve my audio?
Moderator: Thanas
Re: Can I improve my audio?
Well, onboard sound processing tends to output a degraded signal before it even goes through the cable due to electric interference from the other components that they put nearby on the board, a PCI soundcard, even a cheap audigy 1, will have a higher quality signal and (most likely) jacks. It also has the advantage of offloading mixing from the processor, reducing load when sound is playing. It should be noted that no sound cards are hardware accelerated in Vista except X-FI's, but the output quality will still be better than onboard.Superman wrote:My PC's board came with an integrated sound card, which is a RealTek AC'97. I just bought some new, and somewhat pricey, set of headphones to use mostly with my PC. The sound quality is definitely better, but I was wondering if there is anything more I can to improve it. I downloaded the latest driver, and changed the Windows settings to its headphones feature.
For listening to music with my headphones, is there anything more I can do? Would getting a better sound card help at all?
If you want to use the onboard, you should go to your sound settings and enable 24bit (HD) sound and 48khz or 96khz as opposed to 44.1 16bit (I'm fairly sure the AC'97 supports HD sound), note this will increase the processing power needed to play sound.
Yes, the speakers will introduce signal degradation, as will the extra jack and cabling.Also, is there any difference in quality between plugging my headphones directly into jack of the sound card instead into the jack on my speakers?
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