Should I buy a soundcard?

I currently use Bose Companion 5's for computer speakers and my onboard sound from an Asus P5Q Pro. I game and listen to mp3's. Is there any reason to go to an after market sound card such as a X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty?

+1

For whatever it is worth, I am an audiophile with about 30Gs into my audio system. I can hear differences between cables, interconnects, power conditioners, anti-vibration devices, furniture placement in my room, etc. But I could not hear a meaningful difference with a dedicated sound card vs. regular integrated chipset audio.

Dagger said it best: "No, you won't hear a difference. Spend it on something that matters."

I have a hard time believing some of the people who posted here are "audiophiles" yet claim not to hear the difference between onboard sound and a sound card. I have a xfi fatal1ty sound card in my computer and it sounds much better than with the integrated sound from other computers.

Good sound cards have what is a called a "24 bit crystalizer" which restores some of the sound quality lost in mp3 compression. Now if you are listening to really heavy, distorted rock music you may not notice the difference as much if you are listening to a piano solo for example, but the difference is definitely there. It also came bundled with some great media player, recording, and audio configuration software. God I hate iTunes, the software alone was worth it for me.

So yeah, integrated vs sound card is day and night to me. Mp3's sound so much better with the 24 bit crystalizer. Then again I am one of those people that value sound over graphics even. Depends on what your looking for.

I have used every sound card Creative has made from the Sound Blaster 16 on up. I currently use an X-fi EP with Klipsch ProMedia 5.1's.

I have also used a host of Realtek ALCs on various motherboards.

Never mind gaming, you need hardware accelerated sound for gaming.

Are you asking if your mp3's will sound better? Absolutely. Unquestionably, and if they are high bit rate encoded, such a 192KBPS variable and up you will notice internal detail and resolution you might not have noticed before from those very same mp3's you have listened to for years and years.

Even more dramatic is the sound stage when using headphones of even moderate quality. I have a pair of Sony MDR-V600's that I use as daily gamer cans, they are probably older than you are and yet they sound good and punchy and with bright crisp highs with a ton of headroom.

For audio clarity and quality, an add-in card is obvious. For gaming EAX and highest FPS and best sound it is required gear.

If you use Vista, whatever you are on your own. The software/cpu audio stack in Vista is a joke and add-in card unfriendly...even compared to the single threaded and latency sensitive XP stack.

Plus you get EAX errr 5 now is it upto for games with a sound card.

To some degree this depends on your luck with a sound card manufacturer.
After long time with great deal of problems with Vista Creative came up with working and stable Vista drivers.
ALchemy solution works well for me now, too,
so in Vista, too, a good sound card does make sense.

Besides: quality of components is higher with sound cards and they are also better isolated from other PC components compared when they all sit crammed on the motherboard. E.g. the latest Titanium cards come with the special shield that is supposed to stop any electromagnetic interference.

i AM an audiophile, although i havent quite spen "30g's" on my system. i completely 100% disagree with some of the people here. when i ridden my system of realtek HD for an m-audio fire sound intereface (that is overkill for most people, just i also do a spot of home recording editing)

now i personally think that there are 2 places where the dedicated cards and external interfaces make head way over built in card.

these are 32 and 24bit audio resolution.

the other is the quality of the connections, the cheap 3.5mm jacks, rather than the much preferred 1/4" jack or optical connection.

mind, if your mp3's are 128, save your money.

Absolutely not!!!

The speakers you've chosen cannot take advantage of Creatives EAX, IMO the reason for buying such a gaming card in the first place!

Sorry Dude, You've been Bosed!

Also unless for some reason you plugged sound input from your computers soundcard to the Bose controll pod, you are not using your soundcard at all, if the Bose Companion 5 is connected by USB as is supposed to be, you may be using an existing software music playback application that possibly came with the onboard sound of your computer but you're not using the onboard soundcard.

However if the USB connection fails you can run stereo only through the Bose control pod 1/8th input jack from the output connection of your onboard sound.

Add in soundcards not making a difference is an astounding statement from self proclaimed audiophiles!

It really doesn't matter whether we're talking stereo reproduction or gaming purposes, you will hear a definite difference, from the soundcards purpose you choose!

I run 2 different M-Audio PCI dedicated stereo solutions for my computer DJ machines, the M-Audio cards are dedicated stereo reproducing cards and are absolutely excellent in their reproduction and clarity, and there is no doubt what so ever the difference between them and an onboard sound solution, to say theres no difference is flat not true, and possibly just a statement made in ignorance.

My gaming machine however is running a Creative Extreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro soundcard, its performance compared to the onboard sounds pitiful offering in games, is really no comparison, it flat rules Period!

My gaming machine is also the machine I convert and proof my music files that are transfered to the DJ machines, and as far as the stereo reproduction it also Rules in playback and proofing!

Maybe this is an issue for Mythbusters, or maybe the onboard sound flag wavers, need to actually try a high performance add in soundcard, to know what they're talking about before thay say it!

The OPs speaker system does not plug into his sound outputs from either onboard or add in soundcards, it connects to the computer through a USB connection, as a matter of fact he should probably disable his onboard sound in his BIOS, and remove the drivers in the OP/SYS if he hasn't already done it.

The OP has a Bose USB speaker system, a soundcard whether integrated or addin will not do squat for him period, unless he intends to also change his speaker system to one that plugs into a soundcard, his speaker system does not connect to the computer through his soundcard.

+1 I !@#!$% hate Itunes piece of !@#$ it !@#$ up my ipod and DRM sucks