Comments on: Does anyone buy Sound Cards anymore?

By: fuji x100

fuji x100 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:10:49 +0000

I most certainly will put this website to my favorite features, it can be good.

By: popeye

popeye — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:42:55 +0000

you are comparing the onboard soundcards to consumer sound cards like creative audigy or asus xonar. you are forgetting about the big guns like M-audio delta or tascam pci. on a professional level, a dedicated sound card is essential. sound output is roughly the same if you compare the onboard soundcard with pci soundcards using 2.1 speakers. its the input where you see the big difference. the MIC in of all onboard sound cards are absolutely crap. you can forget its even there. they’re only good for voice chat or voice calls. don’t even consider these for recording. Its too noisy and sometimes have intolerable latency. the line in is tolerable but still would not pass as professional recording quality again because of noise and poor amplification. As there are no other inputs other than the line in and mic in (both of which are not reliable for recording purposes), this is one reason why a dedicated sound card is still necessary. Another thing is MIDI i/o. no built in soundcard has this.

By: Beccer

Beccer — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:03:32 +0000

I’ve been looking for 1 decent sound card review site all bloody day. I need to connect my PC to my amp via optical OR coax for 5.1 over my present stereo setup. Not to mention getting rid of that really annoying humming sound. This my friends is why we still buy sound cards. Reviews have become a mere description usually ripped off the mans. page. I was have been going to Tomshardware since its beginning for advice. NO MORE Tom. You will have to struggle along without me from now on.

By: wolfdale

wolfdale — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:14:55 +0000

there is no such thing as sound quality today with sound cards .It’s like mp3 players , they are all the same .built in sound chips today are the same as external sound cards.the cpu cyrcles thing is a myth.it would be more correct to say that a sound card lags the computer due to the pci connection when a stock sound chip is directly on the motherboard. its a waste of space , time , money, energy and speed. The same thing is going to happen soon with cpu and gpu, they are going to be the same thing

By: Almi

Almi — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:09:51 +0000

Using a PCI Soundcard especially those having branded names like SounBlaster having a specs of 24bit would really make a difference. Your like comparing a cheap headset bought in the sidewalk to a BOSS headset. Yes, I agree. You have to consider the price and the practicality of the hardware but what I dont agree is the fact that some people were saying that branded PCI soundcard are a thing of the past and are just the same with the built-in sound system in most motherboard. Guys, get real, Ok!?

By: Lucien

Lucien — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:53:29 +0000

I’m planning to buy either an EEE PC pre-loaded with Windows Live, a 500GB external H/D and an external soundcard or a regular desktop with a powerful internal soundcard.

This should go well with my Original Audio CD’s which I’m planning to rip into lossless media and my Shure earphones.

By: ChrisMo

ChrisMo — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:09:21 +0000

I always bought separate peripherals, I am a little picky with my PC parts so I guess for emergency needs I use all on-board systems, and use the add-on cards for most days. I am also quite ecstatic with these new plug and play USB sound driver/thumb(I dont know the proper name for it) Since sometimes when I work at night I use headphones on my PC and adding a usb SRS 3d wow preprocessor makes the sound better than the software equivalent, and it has noise cancellation too. And I have these other USB sound thing which puts out a 7.1 system THX certified, now that’s innovation…!

By: JC John SESE Cuneta

JC John SESE Cuneta — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:28:10 +0000

Im going to buy 2 new sound cards this year – 1 for upgrading my existing PC; the other for the new PC I’m going to assemble.

So yah, hardcore gamers like me do buy non-built in stuff still We prefer the almighty powerful independent peripherals because we have more choice than the built-in ones, and secondly, we want “the” ultimate experience.

Not just for gaming but for other entertainment purposes as well, watching *ehemm* downloaded shows for example. And creating videos

By: andre

andre — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:21:23 +0000

for most users the built-in ones are enough, so why buy a separate one? it’s also worth mentioning that few sound cards in the market are really much better than the built-in sound in today’s motherboards. syempre gagastos ka rin lang, wag naman pipitsugin na sound card.

By: Lloyd Lopez

Lloyd Lopez — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:13:00 +0000

I’m still using a Creative Audigy 4 sound card bought almost 2 years ago but I might ditched and go with an onboard solution.

By: vance

vance — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:49:53 +0000

I still do, especially if your built-in one suddenly dies..

X-Fi are really good.. but they won’t sound good unless you have a good set of speakers.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:12:59 +0000

I don’t remember when I bought one. I always use built in para tipid..

By: orgl

orgl — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:21:52 +0000

I guess pci soundcards will still remain available in the market, especially those hardcore gamers, musician, and hobbyist whom preferred using PCI or PCIe type of soundcards. Like for instance, you can find in some forums that most musically inclined individuals are talking about setting up a dual sound card mainly use it for replacing the traditional analog audio mixer and take note I haven’t seen any built-in sound that provide a midi connector which are often used by musician for connecting their midi capable keyboards or synthesizers that don’t have a usb or firewire connectors. In my own case I bought a cheap pci soundcard and installed it because my Asus A7V266m motherboard built-in sound can’t drive my pioneer headphone simply because it doesn’t have enough pre-amp power.

By: Maruel

Maruel — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:49:09 +0000

Yeah, we still use our internal SB Audigy 2 ZS which be bought like 4 years ago. We have changed motherboards and processors but we always retain this sound card even if we just a 2.1 speaker system and doesn’t use it’s 5.1 features.

By: Jomark Osabel

Jomark Osabel — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:33:16 +0000

Yeah I am still using a separate sound card. I guess for ordinary use a built in sound card is good enough but for multimedia production a separate card can really make a difference.

By: ralph

ralph — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:59:22 +0000

nah. i have an external soundcard creative soundblaster audigy 2 ZS so i could put two 2.1 surround sound speakers. plus its a video editor.

By: jhay

jhay — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:16:16 +0000

I last bought a sound card back in 2000. Afterwards, there wasn’t really a need for it.

By: Fitz

Fitz — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:47:24 +0000

Good observation. I actually don’t remember the last time that I bought one.

By: BrianB

BrianB — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:52:12 +0000

This could be you. Do bloggers work too hard?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/technology/06sweat.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

By: Subwoofer

Subwoofer — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:33:40 +0000

i still buy sound card because the built in sound card has very bad sound quality.

By: Andre

Andre — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:53:53 +0000

I think people focus more on the peripherals rather than the internal hardware for sound devices. Eg subwoofers and surround speakers. Only the professional users would seem to have a need for the internal hardware soundcards.