Sound card required ?

[micceo]

Hi ,

I have Energy 5.0 speakers , paired with a pioneer sw-8 sub connected to a sherwood receiver. I connect my pc to receiver using 3.5 mm to RCA cable. Currently I am using onboard audio alc892 i think, so do you think investing in a sound card will improve the sound quality for me?

Thanks
Mic

 

[thee_prisoner]

It might, it depends on what you want to do with this setup...

 

[micceo]

It might, it depends on what you want to do with this setup...

Well mostly just listen to music and play games and movies,
since its going to be connected to a receiver , will the sound card improve quality ?
or do u recommend me to get some kind of hdmi to RCA for my receiver instead of the sound card ? or should i get a sound card and connect an spdif to the receiver?

 

[thee_prisoner]

IF you have HDMI out on your mobo or video card, outputting to a receiver would work fairly well. I would recommend HDMI over spdif.
So unless your signal coming out of your mobo is crappy, just do HDMI to receiver. spdif is limited but great for music. HDMI is great for music, movies and games.

A sound card might improve quality but if you are hooking it up to a decent receiver, integrated amp or surround sound processor, you probably won't need it. SO try it out without a sound card, if it doesn't sound good. Buy a very good sound card, not a cheap one and listen if you can hear a difference.

Without knowing the model of receiver, I can't recommend anything.

 

[micceo]

IF you have HDMI out on your mobo or video card, outputting to a receiver would work fairly well. I would recommend HDMI over spdif.
So unless your signal coming out of your mobo is crappy, just do HDMI to receiver. spdif is limited but great for music. HDMI is great for music, movies and games.

A sound card might improve quality but if you are hooking it up to a decent receiver, integrated amp or surround sound processor, you probably won't need it. SO try it out without a sound card, if it doesn't sound good. Buy a very good sound card, not a cheap one and listen if you can hear a difference.

Without knowing the model of receiver, I can't recommend anything.

What you said seems right logically I have a Sherwood RV 7050 R, and it does not have an hdmi in or out, can I use some HDMI to rca converter to audio to receiver, and DVI to send video to screen ?

 

[thee_prisoner]

HDMI to rca converter would cost some money since they aren't compatible. Do you have optical out on your motherboard/computer and does the receiver have an optical in?

Hard to find a manual for this but from some badly taken pictures, I don't see an optical in but it does have analog inputs so that is good.
IF you aren't happy with the sound and want to spend money on a soundcard go for it but a cheap one probably won't improve the sound quality.

 

[micceo]

HDMI to rca converter would cost some money since they aren't compatible. Do you have optical out on your motherboard/computer and does the receiver have an optical in?

Hard to find a manual for this but from some badly taken pictures, I don't see an optical in but it does have analog inputs so that is good.
IF you aren't happy with the sound and want to spend money on a soundcard go for it but a cheap one probably won't improve the sound quality.

My motherboard does not have an optical out
can i use something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132020
to get an optical out and connect it to my recever ( so then i would need a spdif to rca cable ? )

 

[ssddx]

after reading this over.... the best sound you can get is likely by buying a cheap sound card. really all you need is spdif output. hdmi is better but since you dont have hdmi inputs this is a moot point. the soundcard will be bypassed completely (all you needed was a spdif out) but since you dont have spdif onboard your motherboard you need a pci card solution.

you could use 3.5mm but you will get better sound from spdif.