Is it worth it to get a Sound Card in this scenario?

[JP7PlaysMC]

Hello fellow members of the community.

Recently I purchased a pair of Kingston HyperX Cloud IIs, and, after descovering a fault, returned them. Before going ahead and buying another headset I browsed a bit and saw the regular HyperX Clouds as appealing.
My question is: Is it worth to get a cheap sound card like the Asus Xonar DGX in order to enhance the sound quality, or is it better to just buy the HyperX Clouds and use my onboard audio (Asus H97-Pro by the way), since I've also heard that the real benefit of Sound Cards starts to kick in with somewhat higher end headphones and.... well, sound cards.

I am also interested to know if, for the price, I can get a better headset, would that be the case.

As always, I appreciate all kinds of input on this matter.

 

[johnnyb105]

The onboard sound these days are quite good what I would do is get your headset and try them out on your pc with the onboard sound first and go from there.. Back in the day it was common to buy a sound card because the onboard if any wasn't that good but tech has come a long ways since then and they are quite good.

 

[spiketheaardvark]

General rule for sound, if it's digital it's all the same. I have a home theater amp hooked up to my computer though S/PDIF. It wouldn't matter if I had a $1000 sound card my amp would get the same bits and it would sound exactly the same.

Some head sets use USB, which would mean the head set has a little built in sound card. In which case the onboard sound isn't even doing anything.

When it does matter is when you use the analog outs on the sound card. There is lots of electronic noise in a computer case that gets picked up by cheap sound cards (the wires to the jack on the front of most case are largely unshielded too). The better the headphones the more you notice. This would be the only time I'd recommend a better sound card.

 

[GearUp]

I found a hot discussion about the Realtek ALC 1150 audio (True Audio?) that covered things well but can't access it at this time. That may actually be true 24-bit audio but so far I don't hear a difference with ALC 897. Will need to do a quick side-by-side comparison with music. Personally I can do fine without headphones or DAC.

 

[vagrantsoul]

getting a high end soundcard and budget headphones is pointless... just like budget soundcard with expensive headphones... l would maybe look into getting the soundcard, and suggest the following as a budget stopgap: http/www.amazon.com/Sentey%C2%AE-Headset-Virtual-Vibration-Intelligent/dp/B00RNBCCYQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440708701&sr=8-1&keywords=sentey+gaming+headset&pebp=1440708702590&perid=0ENVZF4D7XYK87WVY215 I have these and LOVE them. I've used turtle beaches, corsair, King Cloud, etc... this is on par.

 

[JP7PlaysMC]

The onboard sound these days are quite good what I would do is get your headset and try them out on your pc with the onboard sound first and go from there.. Back in the day it was common to buy a sound card because the onboard if any wasn't that good but tech has come a long ways since then and they are quite good.

Yeah, I think this is along the lines of what I'm going to do. Thanks a lot!

 

[JP7PlaysMC]

General rule for sound, if it's digital it's all the same. I have a home theater amp hooked up to my computer though S/PDIF. It wouldn't matter if I had a $1000 sound card my amp would get the same bits and it would sound exactly the same.

Some head sets use USB, which would mean the head set has a little built in sound card. In which case the onboard sound isn't even doing anything.

When it does matter is when you use the analog outs on the sound card. There is lots of electronic noise in a computer case that gets picked up by cheap sound cards (the wires to the jack on the front of most case are largely unshielded too). The better the headphones the more you notice. This would be the only time I'd recommend a better sound card.

Correct, glad to have confirmation on that . Thanks a lot!

 

[JP7PlaysMC]

I found a hot discussion about the Realtek ALC 1150 audio (True Audio?) that covered things well but can't access it at this time. That may actually be true 24-bit audio but so far I don't hear a difference with ALC 897. Will need to do a quick side-by-side comparison with music. Personally I can do fine without headphones or DAC.

Thanks for the information. Some people, mostly audiophiles (which I'm not) tend to indeed give much importance to the sound matter, and every bit counts. Glad to hear your opinion!

 

[JP7PlaysMC]

getting a high end soundcard and budget headphones is pointless... just like budget soundcard with expensive headphones... l would maybe look into getting the soundcard, and suggest the following as a budget stopgap: http/www.amazon.com/Sentey%C2%AE-Headset-Virtual-Vibration-Intelligent/dp/B00RNBCCYQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440708701&sr=8-1&keywords=sentey+gaming+headset&pebp=1440708702590&perid=0ENVZF4D7XYK87WVY215 I have these and LOVE them. I've used turtle beaches, corsair, King Cloud, etc... this is on par.

Will definitely take a look into those (though they might not be available here ) Again thanks for confirmation on the whole sound card, headphones, budget and expensive .

 

[johnnyb105]

Your welcome

 

[Jack Hammered]

When it does matter is when you use the analog outs on the sound card. There is lots of electronic noise in a computer case that gets picked up by cheap sound cards (the wires to the jack on the front of most case are largely unshielded too). The better the headphones the more you notice. This would be the only time I'd recommend a better sound card.

Does the noise (especially that of the motherboard) still not affect digital output?

 

[spiketheaardvark]

When it does matter is when you use the analog outs on the sound card. There is lots of electronic noise in a computer case that gets picked up by cheap sound cards (the wires to the jack on the front of most case are largely unshielded too). The better the headphones the more you notice. This would be the only time I'd recommend a better sound card.

Does the noise (especially that of the motherboard) still not affect digital output?

I'm not a electrical engineer but I would think that If EM noise was strong enough to corrupt data in a sound card it could do in any part of your computer, from pci express links to data along the sata cables. I do know that when I have the headphone plugged into the front jack on the case I can hear a lot of noise depending how active the computer is . If I plug the head phones into my amp hooked up to the S/PDIF of the same sound card I hear nothing. That said analog jack in the back is not nearly as noisy. (the jack in the front of my very cheap case hooks up with just a pair of unshielded wires so it does a pretty good impression of an antenna)

 

[GearUp]

I found a hot discussion about the Realtek ALC 1150 audio (True Audio?) that covered things well but can't access it at this time. That may actually be true 24-bit audio but so far I don't hear a difference with ALC 897. Will need to do a quick side-by-side comparison with music. Personally I can do fine without headphones or DAC.

Thanks for the information. Some people, mostly audiophiles (which I'm not) tend to indeed give much importance to the sound matter, and every bit counts. Glad to hear your opinion!

I pulled out my ancient Sennheiser headphones. The Realtek app makes quick comparison easy and 24-bit 48 kHz is definitely different and I'd say a little better than 24-bit 44.1 kHz, even with internet radio Rock music. The only way I can tolerate headphones however is at low volume. That is the true test of equipment since high fidelity stresses are much greater. Anyone trying higher bitrates is probably better off with a sound card. Headphones with their own amplification bypass this. I think positional affects will be primarily determined by the headphones in gaming.
I didn't have any static. I have to agree with a power supply comparison I read about 7 years ago regarding shielding. While the only problems I have had with DVD players is when they are placed adjacent to the motherboard power plug, my experience with antennas suggests shielding benefits are modest. It is necessary the cut the end off of a shielded coaxial cable to use it as an antenna but the orientation of the full length has significant affects.