Do I need a sound card

Don Phillipson

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Nov 10, 2011, 3:37:45 PM11/10/11

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Interested in classical music, I got a Soundblaster
Audigy card when sound-on-board died in my Asus
P4 PC (2005) but could not hear any difference
from performance with a cheap Envy audio card.

The new WinXP (SP3) PC has ADI UAA audio on
the motherboard. Would I hear any improvement
(via Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers) if I installed
the Audigy card?

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Bob Masta

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Nov 11, 2011, 8:53:07 AM11/11/11

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On Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:37:45 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
<e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:

>Interested in classical music, I got a Soundblaster
>Audigy card when sound-on-board died in my Asus
>P4 PC (2005) but could not hear any difference
>from performance with a cheap Envy audio card.
>
>The new WinXP (SP3) PC has ADI UAA audio on
>the motherboard. Would I hear any improvement
>(via Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers) if I installed
>the Audigy card?

I can't answer specifically about your speakers and cards,
but in general the answer is "probably not". In general
most sound cards do a pretty decent job at ordinary audio,
meaning casual listening in an ordinary environment with
ordinary speakers. If you are doing critical listening in
an especially quiet room with premium speakers, AND you are
reasonably young and haven't blown out your ears with too
much loud music, then you *might* notice lower background
noise and improved high frequency response with a premium
card, possibly even lower distortion on some passages.

But listening tests are notoriously difficult to do
objectively. More often, if you have some emotional or
financial investment in the outcome, the favored system will
sound better. It's very hard to do a true double-blind
listening test, such that neither the subject nor the
experimenter knows which system is being heard. And if you
know, then subjective effects are extremely powerful.

Bottom line: Go with what you have, and don't sweat it
unless you are pretty sure you hear a deficiency.

Best regards,

Bob Masta

DAQARTA v6.02
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Sound Level Meter
Frequency Counter, FREE Signal Generator
Pitch Track, Pitch-to-MIDI
Science with your sound card!

Don Phillipson

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Nov 11, 2011, 3:12:32 PM11/11/11

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"Bob Masta" <N0S...@daqarta.com> wrote in message
news:4ebd24e...@news.eternal-september.org...

> Bottom line: Go with what you have, and don't sweat it
> unless you are pretty sure you hear a deficiency.

Thanks for confirmation.
DP

Ant

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Dec 2, 2011, 4:37:10 PM12/2/11

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Don Phillipson <e9...@spamblock.ncf.ca> wrote:
> Interested in classical music, I got a Soundblaster
> Audigy card when sound-on-board died in my Asus
> P4 PC (2005) but could not hear any difference
> from performance with a cheap Envy audio card.

> The new WinXP (SP3) PC has ADI UAA audio on
> the motherboard. Would I hear any improvement
> (via Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers) if I installed
> the Audigy card?

I can hear a differences between my old SB Audigy 2 ZS PCI sound card
and EVGA X58 SLI (132-BL-E758; BIOS date 5/11/2010; v6.00 PG; release
number IX58SZ64) motherboard's onboard RealTek audio. It is mainly the
low frequency/bass. Onboard has much less bass and more distortion with
my Logitech Z-2300 speakers (2.1 setup and analog). :(
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