HDMI sound vs. sound card.

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gamerk316
Putting it simply, the sound that will be played back resides on your PC in digital format. At some point, some device will need to convert that audio into analog, and send it to your speakers. You want whatever device that produces the best analog output signal doing this process. When you connect from a PC using HDMI, you are basically having some *other* device doing this conversion. If its a $300 receiver, then you probably gain over letting the onboard audio chip do this conversion. If connecting directly to say a TV, then you lose a ton of quality.

Point is, if you have a soundcard, let it do its job. Even cheap soundcards from ASUS produce an output similar, if not better then, some $300 digital receivers these days...
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gamerk316

gamerk316

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Putting it simply, the sound that will be played back resides on your PC in digital format. At some point, some device will need to convert that audio into analog, and send it to your speakers. You want whatever device that produces the best analog output signal doing this process. When you connect from a PC using HDMI, you are basically having some *other* device doing this conversion. If its a $300 receiver, then you probably gain over letting the onboard audio chip do this conversion. If connecting directly to say a TV, then you lose a ton of quality.

Point is, if you have a soundcard, let it do its job. Even cheap soundcards from ASUS produce an output similar, if not better then, some $300 digital receivers these days.

Whether you can hear the difference? That depends on the speakers you connect to. But the ASUS soundcard will almost certainly produce a better output.
 
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HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed

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For me, I never recommend sound cards to anyone who isn't really an audiophile. But, if you already have it, the sound card will do better than HDMI. Like gamerk said, dedicated is pretty much always better than shared. Now, if you want to fully utilize the 7.1, HDMI might be the way to go, but you would get technically better sound quality from the sound card. How much better depends on your speakers you plan on using.
 
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markyap73

markyap73

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This is a good read as I was toying with the idea on buying a sound card.
At the moment I have my PC hooked up into my TV, then have my Onkyo TX-NR525 (Kef speakers & Cambridge sub) switched on and use the ARC. Sound is fairly good tbh.

I'm a total nOOb when it comes to getting the best sound from my PC, so here's my question. What would be a good sound card for around £100...and what would be the best way to hook it up to my AV?
 
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gamerk316

gamerk316

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For $99, the Creative (ugh) Soundblaster Z is probably the best until ASUS decides to refresh the Xonar DX, which is really getting on in years (though still solid). Problem is getting it to the receiver, as there aren't typically ways to connect via analog, and it really doesn't make a lot of sense to connect using Optical from a soundcard.

The best option in this case, given you already have a receiver, is probably optical from the motherboard to the receiver.
 
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Wilde_37

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Does optical from the soundcard only output in 2.0?
 
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gamerk316

gamerk316

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Kind of.

Optical is limited to UNCOMPRESSED 2.0, but is capable of outputting 5.1 via either Dolby Digital or DTS, which *most* onboard chips can encode to on the fly now (typically Dolby). You'd have to check and see if your motherboard can though.
 
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Alain01

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Hi .Check out for foobar2000 ist an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform..Very useful...You can easily switch your output..hdmi,pc sound card , dac....Also you can use your phone or tablet like a remote.
 
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