Motherboard Audio Comes Of Age 367
darth_silliarse writes "ExtremeTech have thankfully confirmed that I am not completely deaf - onboard m/b sound is not as bad as it sounds. Is onboard sound for the poor, needy or completely bone idle? What are other peoples opinions of m/b sound? If nothing else, it frees up a PCI or ISA slot... ;o)"
Good Enough (Score:5, Insightful)
BTW, how many slots do we really need? With so many USB peripherals, PCI and especially ISA slots aren't the important resources they once were.
It's all in the speakers (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, I can't tell the difference between a 128 and a 160 mp3, so who am I to speak?
Price (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not on a Mac it 'aint (Score:3, Insightful)
That isn't true at all. They sound identical. I don't know what kind of eqiptment equipment you're using or at what settings but in iTunes with Sound Check, Sound Enhancer and EQs all off they sound perfectly identical coming from my Quicksilver of straight from my Receiver (which is hooked up to Edirol Monitors).
As an additional note it also sounds the same as if I port it through the UA-700 or if I play the MP3's through Peak instead of iTunes.
I hate onboard anything (Score:4, Insightful)
Motherboards should have nothing on them except lots of slots. I like my computers modular.
I've been listening to onboard sound ... (Score:4, Insightful)
*thud*
Re:Not on a Mac it 'aint (Score:2, Insightful)
*THAT* would explain the difference more than anything.
speakers (Score:2, Insightful)
Audio has reached a point where cheap is good enough for most people. (sorry for bad grammer or bad spelling but it's 7:49 am, I haven't slept yet, and I'm quite drunk)
More money to spend on a faster CPU... (Score:1, Insightful)
Plus if I do want to upgrade my board/my board develops problems, I need to think about replacing it with another all-in-one, reinstalling drivers etc. etc.
In all seriousness, we've all read the stats. With onboard peripherals stealing as much as 3-5% up to 20% of your CPU usage. Is a mobo with the lot really all it's cracked up to be?
What happens if I want to build a system WITHOUT said items? I'm gonna find myself short a PCI slot or two, even if I can free up the resources in the BIOS.
Sure there is a better choice of onboard chipsets and the audio quality suits MOST applications. Yes - the drivers actually install now, but you can't replace a PCI sound card/modular solution for overall practicality.
At the very least we need to keep the option of VGA-less, sound-less boards going so there is a choice.
Re:Good Enough (Score:1, Insightful)
when it came to the people who actually whinged, only 2 in the channel had anything more than an AGP video card in *ANY* slot - both only had extra PCI video cards. Everyone else was happily using their machines with nothing in the PCI slots.
Lots of intellectual wankery I think. It's like a group of 15 year olds arguing about which cars are useful, which are shit, and none of the kids have licenses or have even seen the cars themselves.
Not much difference between pci and onboard (Score:2, Insightful)
If you are are a musician doing recordings, spend some dough and get a high quality external sound D/A converter.
There really is not difference between pci sound cards and onboard sound. External sound is where the real difference is made.
bad trend (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Not on a Mac it 'aint (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason that your example sounds better when burned to a CD is due to electrical noise. The inside of a computer case is an incredibly noisy environment (in both acoustic and EM specra). Converting the digital signal to analogue inside the case is going to sound bad. If you want decent sound from a computer then keep the signal 100% digital until after it has left the case. Keep the amplifier away from sources of EM noise (like, for example a computer).
The question of whether onboard audio is adequate is quite stupid. There is no difference in quality between (for example) a SB PCI128 in a PCI slot, or one soldered onto the motherboard. They are both in the case, on the PCI side of the south-bridge. I consider onboard sound to be adequate for going 'pling', game sound effect, and music that I'm not really listening to. For anything else there is far too much noise, and this can only really be solved by using an external DAC, either in the form of a SPDIF output from a computer or a USB/FireWire external card. And ideally putting the computer in the next room, so you don't hear the fan noise.
By the way, my onboard audio chip on a 2 year old motherboard has a perfectly acceptable digital output...
Re:Not on a Mac it 'aint (Score:4, Insightful)
1) play mp3 through decent stereo straight from (Quicksilver) Mac.
2) Burn same Mp3 to CD and play through same stereo.
Now try the above but have a friend randomly switch sound sources while you look the other way. No trolling, but can you still sense the difference?
There is a _lot_ of psychology in sound systems; oftentimes even the true audiophiles fail blind tests between pieces of equipment of which they have very different opinions.
Tor
Sound card? Think Amplifiers and Speakers! (Score:2, Insightful)
I would say that the big difference to sound quality lies on the amplifiers, and of course, on the speakers.
Myself, I use a Delta44 into an Alesis RA-100 which provides very low noise, and JBL speakers. Sound is as close to perfect as I would wish, meaning that it would only get better if I built new walls around here.
That is what I think makes the difference. There is no way a decent amplifier and good speakers can compare to the crappy $5 PC "amplified speakers".
There is one last difference: Impedance. But then again the crappy speakers wouldn't work with good cards.
But for Joe 16bit, onboard sound and SBLive! are just the same. (and yes, I own both of those too).
Re:Good Enough (Score:2, Insightful)
No, seriously, MP3 quality really depends on the music genre. Metal/Rock sounds usually worse. Especially stuff like cymbals.
It has always been that way, even before CDs (Score:1, Insightful)
differentiate the quality between ceramic and
magnetic cartridge turntable. You would have
people listen to different systems and they would
for the most part not be able to say which one
sounded the best.
The sound quality is so different that you'd have
to be partly deaf or a complete moron to think
that either one sounded just as good.
When it comes to MP3 vs CDs, in many cases it is
virtually impossible to be able to differentiate,
even with people with good hears.
But, if what you listen to ressembles more noise
than music. If all you want is some stuff that
compares more with subway noise or crashing frying
pans than music (like most modern so called rock
music) then there might not be really noticeable
or important differences. Rap recordings would
also be hard to differenciate either way.
Re:It has always been that way, even before CDs (Score:1, Insightful)
If you listen to real music like classical
music, opera, songs with soft music or good
quality rock music you are likely to see a big
difference between MP3 and CDs.