Sound Card under 150?

[Ianb262]

I am looking at a soundcard to enhance my sound, I am doing music production and am only using the integrated realtek sound. I am looking for one that would sound nice with my Sennheiser 598s and is under 150 dollars preferably.

Thanks!

 

[photonboy]

I would investigate an external DAC to eliminate noise contamination from the computer. I'll post this and see what is available.

This is really beyond my expertise, but here are some points:
1) some are USB (so should act as the processing device as well)

2) some connect to the onboard audio digital output (TOSLINK) to convert that into an analog output (so your desktop speakers would use analog output, and the headphones would be using the digital output via the DAC)

3) Some DACs support desktop speakers AND headphones, some only one or the other (and may be limited to stereo)

4) Quality varies a lot. As does software support.

5) Again, DACs eliminate analog contamination to avoid "hissing" or other issues that are common to desktop headphones. Even a good sound card has a hard time eliminating this.

6) *If you get a good sound card, not a DAC, make sure it can connect to both your speakers AND your headphones. Or you can connect the headphones to the speakers if that's supported but the sound quality would be affected (hard to say how much though).

7) A good sound card might not sound noticeably better than a recent audio chip in a modern motherboard.

 

[Ianb262]

I would investigate an external DAC to eliminate noise contamination from the computer. I'll post this and see what is available.

Sorry for the lack of info, I have Sennheiser 598s and a MSI Z97 Pc Mate Mobo

 

[rgd1101]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from Ianb262 : "Sound Card under $150?"

I am looking at a soundcard to enhance my sound, I am doing music production and am only using the integrated realtek sound. I am looking for one that would sound nice with my Sennheiser 598s and is under 150 dollars preferably.

Thanks!

you would be better served by buying a dac if you have a halfway decent motherboard.
as onboard sound is as good in a lot of cases as any sound card you can get for around the money your willing to pay, a dac might be the better option.

what motherboard do you have?

you would be better served by buying a dac if you have a halfway decent motherboard.
as onboard sound is as good in a lot of cases as any sound card you can get for around the money your willing to pay, a dac might be the better option.

what motherboard do you have?

It was the cheapest one I could get, a Z97 Pc Mate

bump

 

[photonboy]

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00LP3AMC2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8

Again, not my area of expertise but the above product looks interesting.

Note you would have to change audio using "Playback Devices" since this should register as its own device. It appears you can also have STEREO desktop speakers via the LINE OUT at the back (or coax if digital and they support that option).

If you have the desktop speakers attached to your MOTHERBOARD (Realtek) you would need to switch between Playback Devices as said. There MAY be (and probably is) an easier solution in software with another product such as auto detection of headphones to enable or disable desktop speakers.

In fact, it's likely the above device will auto disable the rear outputs if you attach headphones to the front of the DAC (in which case you would be using the DAC only for both headphones and stereo desktop speakers).