Best option sound/price wise?

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gpuser

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Mar 17, 2012
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Hello

I have a motherboard with onboard audio: Realtek® ALC887.

I was wondering would it be worth buying a dedicated sound card and would the difference be noticeable? I have a limited budget between £20-40, and was thinking of getting the Xonar DG.

(I have a set of 7.1 speakers at the moment but only using it with 2.1 configuration).

Also my motherboard has an optical out, would it be better to get a DAC or some adapter (I'm not sure what it is) and hook these up to my speakers/headphones?

 
Solution
ittimjones
ur onboard sound should be good enough. The sound through coaxial 3.5mm jacks is only so clear. I highly recommend optical over a headphone jack, but you should be fine with just the 7.1 onboard sound if you're not too crazy about how perfect the pitch of every noise has to be. Of course, if you were, you would go optical all the way...
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ittimjones

ittimjones

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ur onboard sound should be good enough. The sound through coaxial 3.5mm jacks is only so clear. I highly recommend optical over a headphone jack, but you should be fine with just the 7.1 onboard sound if you're not too crazy about how perfect the pitch of every noise has to be. Of course, if you were, you would go optical all the way...
 
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ittimjones

ittimjones

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nah, that's not going to increase ur audio quality. Ur audio quality is still limited to the headphone jack's throughput, which is still good. If you're not happy with the sound, it's most likely the quality of the speakers, which can get expensive...
 
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ksham

ksham

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Mar 29, 2013
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Depends on what speakers or headphones you have. If you have bad quality ones, then the sound card won't help. If you're an audiophile and have great quality speakers or headphones, then it would be worthwhile to invest in a sound card.
 
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gpuser

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Mar 17, 2012
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I have good headphones and decent speakers, but im on a budget so can't spend more than £40-50 on a sound card.

Would i notice a bigger difference using the optical out and a DAC to my speakers than buy a sound card?
 
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gpuser

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Mar 17, 2012
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sorry I missed your second reply ittimjones. So its not worth getting a sound card at this budget range, and the DAC makes no difference.

I was thinking of getting KRK rokit 6's soon, how would I go about hooking them up through the optical out? Is this way better than coaxial?
 
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