[silencer.dot]

i been using a onboard sound card for atleast a year, the sound is good, but not great, since i upgraded everything on my computer, to video card to hd. maybe i should upgrade my sound card too.

i usualy use headphones mostly, but would a sound card makes a difference to the sound quality of headphones?

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In some cases, yes it will. But if you have poor quality headphones in any plug it will always sound pretty poor. I use onboard sound, AC97' Reltek, run by nVidia nForce, it sounds good, though my leads all run to a 600W Kenwood amp, and my speakers are of high quality.

What I'm saying is, theres no point in upgrading the sound card if the speakers or headphones you are playing it off it bad quality. If this is not the case, I'd recommend buying a sound blaster audigy.

[SuperSam]

In some cases, yes it will. But if you have poor quality headphones in any plug it will always sound pretty poor. I use onboard sound, AC97' Reltek, run by nVidia nForce, it sounds good, though my leads all run to a 600W Kenwood amp, and my speakers are of high quality.

What I'm saying is, theres no point in upgrading the sound card if the speakers or headphones you are playing it off it bad quality. If this is not the case, I'd recommend buying a sound blaster audigy.

[warriorscot]

At the moment myself im using the Onboard ac97 as its adequate for my needs but its only a stop gap until x-fi either comes down in price or my bank balance goes up, ild rather have something good than spend what money i have on stop gap measures.

[silencer.dot]

im pretty much using this headset

http://www.futuresho...10049849&catid=

[p-zero]

Upgrading a sound card makes A HUGE DIFFERENCE, the realtek onboard sounds ok at best compared to my Sound blaster X-Fi. And by the way the X-Fi has 300x the quality of the audigy cards. I was Amazied when I learned that. But the price is a little steep. But, also keep in mind the X-Fi cards are the ONLY cards that are THX certified. So you know theyre going to sound SWEET!
Just my opinion,
-Pete.
PS: My onboard sound is the realtek '97.

[warriorscot]

Pretty much everyones is realtek its a standard there is other but thats the most popular, its not to bad as far as integrated goes, for the rice though for x-fi you would be more than a little annoyed if it wasnt amazing, also you need the sound equipment to back it up.

[SuperSam]

I have my AC97 set up on 5.1 surround. Seems sufficient for me, so why waste money on it, when I get virtually crisp sound anyway:

Kenwood 600W Amplifier (DTS, Dolby Digital)
2 x Mission 770 (125W) Front Speakers
2 x Mordaunt-Short (85W) Rear speakers
1 x Yamaha (75W) Center Speaker.
5.1 Surround, with Dolby Digital using my AC97. No need for a subwoofer with my missions, though I'm looking at buying a Bose subwoofer, they are beefy.

[warriorscot]

Well you get used to it and few people really ever experince truly excellent sound quality, before you had to spend tens of thousands of pounds to get the best quality sound and to some extent you still do, but with the x-fi they redressed alot of issues that mean you can get alot of the performnace of those trully horrendously expensive sound systems at a fraction of the cost.

Creative are the only company that is putting any decent amounts of money into cheap but effective sound proccessing, the big guys like bosch, seinheioser, altec lansing invest alot but there systems cost alot more and are full set ups.

[p-zero]

Sound cards can also speed overall performance, for lower end or older systems, as the X-Fi has its own processor. I actually noticed a difference when I installed it in my old rig, on the newer games that are out now. COD2, HL2. So to me at that point it was well worth the money.
-Pete.

[silencer.dot]

anyhow... im using a SoundMAX Digital Audio..

the reason why i wanted to upgrade my sound card is becuase i need better sounds from playing games, movies, and other stuff.

what sound card would u reccommend to a person that plays games alot? (well not alot, but watching movies too)

[warriorscot]

Anything from the audigy range from creative is a good choice, a sound card will boost performance as they reduce cpu load in an onboard set uo the cpu does the extra audio processing, adding a sound card removes this factor. The performance boost though is limited depending on how good the system is to start with and how good the onboard and cpu are.

X-fis are something you get only when you have everything else for your pc and youve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket.