I'm reaching out to understand the technical reasons behind this perception. Do dedicated sound cards offer tangible audio quality improvements over modern onboard solutions like Realtek? Specifically, I'm interested in aspects such as DAC quality, component shielding, and feature sets that might contribute to a superior listening experience.
Additionally, how much of this difference is rooted in theoretical hardware advantages versus user experience factors? Any insights or experiences from device engineers and audio enthusiasts would be greatly appreciated!
Now those aren't things you can casually observe all that useful information from, so it doesn't really help that much other than to try and buy quality components and hope for the best, often if you want good onboard sound you can find it if you are spending a reasonable amount on the board to start with though and not using and underspecced or dirt cheap PSU. A sound card could alleviate some potential issues though either because you bought a cheap board or just from being lied to by marketing that you were getting better onboard sound than they actually built. But it is still located on your motherboard and near a bunch of other things running at their own frequencies which may or may not be a problem depending on location and shielding and components.
And for all those reasons, a lot of people have skipped the sound card route and got a USB DAC, which gives a lot of physical space between all those other components and eliminates some restrictions in form factor for being inside a computer.
One thing to look at before you do anything else, look at where your analog speaker line is running. Is it now crossing near your PSU or power cords? Is it a different cheaper cord? The lowest hanging fruit for sound quality is the longest and final analog run and it is always good to try moving it around if you suspect a problem.
Most sound cards these days are USB
Surely they are not /cards/.
Regardless, I did a quick google search to confirm that my usage of the term was correct and yep - "sound card" and "audio interface" are used interchangeably. So no one cares about your technicalities.
The actual ADC and DAC chips, or codecs, are usually specced just fine in even consumer on-board audio devices.
Hifi audiophiles are notoriously superstitious, and as long as RCA coax is the connection standard, my eyes continue to roll about their DAC nonsense, but you should pay attention to professional audio as this is where you can hear audible differences. Preamplifier stages and voltage amplification in general have a lot of nuance and analog circuit know-how inside. Removing the codecs from the inside of an electrically noisy computer is the beginning of starting to care about audio signal quality. Power filtration is another major concern for noise. Latency is a factor of buffer size which is both necessarily low when overdubbing recording while monitoring, and yet paradoxically allows for smoother glitch free audio as the buffer size is increased, largely a function that is CPU bound. No one talks about DMA controllers or the data bus employed, often USB, another factor that can affect audio independent of which audio interface or soundcard is employed. Some play nicely, some don't.
My advice is to delve into the world of professional audio, as this is real. Hi-fi often entails gullibility and snake oil in the sales chain.
Get rid of any unwanted noise caused by gear or environment. Add a basic EQ - I'm using a 15-band one just to compensate for the room, the speakers, hearing loss and anything else that would impact the sound.
From what I've seen, very few of the devices marketed to audiophiles are actually fraudulent. It's like Apple computers: a massive profit margin doesn't make a MacBook a scam, just an expensive way to get features a few months ahead of everyone else.
Mastering a recording for money?
Listening to MP3’s through headphones?
Or something in between?
Consumer audio devices do all kinds of psycho-acoustic adjustment based on the likely limitations of playback systems, likely music genres, and consumer expectations.
Headphones and small speakers are going to sound thin without them…i.e. a transparent system is going to try to reproduce sounds that most speakers can’t output.
None of which is to say your new system sounds good or bad. Just that what sounds good is subjective and context dependent.
that seems most likely to be the root cause of the change you're noticing.
if the source audio is 2-channel, do you have it only play on the L & R speakers, or is it getting output to all 6 speakers? that sort of upmixing needs careful tuning, if it's not done well it may sound "muddy" due to the slightly different delays in sound from each speaker reaching your ears.
if you want to isolate it as a controlled variable, hook up only your L & R speakers, play a test track, and see if the perceived quality degradation is still there.
And all consumer facing audio messes around with frequency response.
To put it another way “sounding good” is a question on the audiophile spectrum where people demagnetize compact disks and can hear the difference of premium HDMI cables.
youtube - the audio on youtube is.. not.. quality. i had a friend who used them as best-audio-compression-ever :) maybe, Opposite of all above, It is possible that now you are hearing their garbage that was unheardable before.
games - similar.. it's not an audiofile genre.
Get some proper sound out (e.g. flac or .ape or something) of something that you know how it sounds (piano? voice? some old electronic stuff?) hopeing it's not over-engineered at studio.. and check that. Better, multiple things ..
It's easy to see difference - median cards stopped at level of "SB Live!" (yes, exclamation sign is part of tm), which have ~90dB SNR; professional are at least 120dB (Audigy).
Unfortunately, if speak about internal cards (onboard or PCI/PCIe) they all depends on nuances of PC electrical design, which is still, after decades, just another basket for boards, without analog considerations. What I mean, for example, any sound engineer knows - you should not connect all ground wires in one point, as it becomes source of powerful noise from power converters of boards which are not sensitive to sensitive.
And sound chips are become so cheap now, that nearly all boards are now have onboard sound stub, but some companies are more serious on sound quality, and others are less serious. What was even more curious for me - when I seen audio driver for GPU (unfortunately I forgot on which exactly, probably 20s series from Nvidia).
Before, I have more then decade happily used SB Live!, but unfortunately it is PCI, but many new mbs don't have such interface. And audio quality not always measured on reviews, may be because considered, serious people will not depend on internal "stub" quality.
For example, at the moment I use Gigabyte B250-D3M, and it work perfect on internal audio, but I don't know if this is just because I use only network cards as external, or I will have issues when add some GPU or other card with high power consumption.
Any way, external cards, now mostly mean USB cards, have potential to be much better, because they have their own power supply and are far from noise sources. Unfortunately, external DACs are expensive.
So, unfortunately, it is now lottery, I cannot recommend any manufacturer of boards with internal sound, looks like some boards are good and other are not, even for median consumer. For professionals or sensitive, looks like no choice, only some professional grade card.
Note, however, that this concern really only applies to whatever in your system is performing the final digital to analog or initial analog to digital conversions since that interface with the "real world" is where the quality matters. In a world with bluetooth speaker systems, where that mixed signal phase actually happens in the speaker hardware, it is relevant to consider where this kind of quality even matters in the full audio system you're deploying.
Depends on motherboard, but: I had a top of the line, very well reviewed gaming mobo, and I’d hear a buzzing noise over the speakers depending on what the computer was doing. Moving the mouse? Distinct buzz as a function of speed. Compiling the Linux kernel? Distinct buzzing. Etc. this happened under both Windows and Linux, so I don’t think it was a software issue.
Having an external DAC allows you to keep the audio signal very, very far away from the rest of the electronics, which completely solved the problem for me. I went with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for about $200, connected to my two JBL 305 speakers — it’s been great. It wasn’t in my initial plans, but I later took advantage of the XLR microphone input to set up a Shure SM7B microphone (wasn’t quite enough gain, so I added a TritonAudio FetHead preamplifier and a DBX 286s for de-essing/eq/etc — very happy with the setup now).
So, FWIW, I’m a big fan of external USB DACs.
Then I got a Fosi Audio DS2 out of curiosity after coming across some measurements and discussion over on audiosciencereview.com
and
it is MILES better than any audio device I’ve ever had
There is a difference. (Also when driving speakers.) The difference is very, very clear. This particular device isn’t the only one that makes this kind of difference. It was like $50.
Apple's adapter seems pretty good for $9:
https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu...
Also Macs since 2021 can drive high-impedance headphones from the built-in audio jack.
Interestingly enough old Macs (and Apple TV and AirPort devices) used to have mini-toslink output, but USB and HDMI are probably more useful in 2025.
It surprised me that the jump to devices like the Fosi DS2 that have modern DAC and driver chips with higher design aims was big.
Specification-wise, I’d have expected that noise floors and distortion levels and, idk, the amount of current flowing were in both cases more than enough to sound practically the same, especially in the context of driving line-level devices rather than headphones.
Nnnnope!
I got the little Fosi device for two purposes: To better drive headphones I have – more volts, more current flow – and to kind of disprove to myself that there was a difference working with line-level signals.
Very surprised at the difference with the latter. Surprised that there was a difference. –And it’s not a loudness difference!, which can be deceiving.
It’s a bigger-than-$41 difference, I find.
Anyway, external DACs are the way to go. My external DAC supports USB in addition to optical, so I just use that, and everything is wonderful. I have a cheap USB <-> XLR device for audio input. Again, no problems.
All in all, I've never had great luck with onboard sound. I am not sure why it's hard to get right. Maybe it's an Asus thing. For some reason I always end up with Asus motherboards.
However I hear a big difference with my laptop onboard audio and off brand dongles, they have an audible noise floor.
To the OP I would recommend getting the Apple USB-C dongle before spending big bucks on something else because for listening it's likely to be good enough.
The findings concluded the product was insanely good value for money and was on par with mid/high end DAC.
Beyond that. Recon3d is Soundblaster? So they were probably doing a quality level one full step up from what you’d get with a typical motherboard. Something like an Asrock Taichi would typically max out the motherboard tier. Beyond that, you’re into PCIe cards or USB things or HDMI cards that expose a digital device to your PC and do the analog conversion somewhere other than the motherboard.
The conversion from beep-boop binary to analog electrical impulses for your headphone drivers, and the ability to add and remove power to the drivers through your headphone cables, are the two components of quality that you have control over. They’re typically called DAC and amp, and the options in hardware reflect that.
The fastest way to find out whether you’ll be happier with a better sound card is to buy one that has a 15-day return policy; either any modern USB Soundblaster, or a combo dac/amp for headphones like the Schiit Fulla E at ~$100. If that makes it all better and you’re happy, solved!
If it sounds perfectly fine in quality (no hiss, clearly audible music like you prefer) but is ineffably flat or lifeless, you may have had some sort of enhancement processing going on in the old motherboard’s driver that was adding head effects. For that path, make sure you’ve tried out Windows spatial sound > Dolby Atmos for Headphones; it’ll cost a few bucks one-time to activate but it’ll let you test if you were getting virtual surround boosting (or the modern Soundblaster USB devices may have this built in to test with too).
If you have a decent set of headphones or speakers, grab a soundcard from the jungle site and find out. If you can't tell a difference, return it and keep your money.
It is subjective. Just depends on what is important to you. Pretty much everything has 24bit/96khz capabilities if not 32bit/192khz capabilities these days. IMHO, it comes down to if the opamp on the device is of good enough quality for the device you're driving. You don't want to plug a set of 600ohm headphones into a generic onboard sound device and expect it to sound like it would if you bought a proper DAC+amp setup. It simply doesn't have the power. If the sound device has a line-out, then you only need an amp.
I was very surprised after doing some mixdowns on the onboard laptop soundcard on my Macbook pro that it sounded AWFUL when pushed to real speakers. Tried it on two other laptops.
Will never use a laptop sound card for real audio work or even listening again
On my previous PC I used a Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 with it's own heaphone preamp. It was better than onboard, but worse than USB DAC/preamp (more noise).
This is essentially a mini transformer that physically isolates speaker/amp from the computer to isolate any power related noise.
They are dead cheap on Amazon these days.
Other than that, a USB DAC might help. You don't need an expensive one, which are mainly expensive due to inputs & microphone preamps. The main benefit will be a reduced noise floor/less background hiss, although that can also come from the amp driving your speakers.
If you're not about playing your FLAC collection via either decent headphones and/or decent HiFi setup then pretty much the only thing you should care about is "is there noise?". Which probably isn't there. And if it is - start with your cables, then your PSU.
Also, check software. Maybe your old setup had some software shenanigans (or your new one has - like a "headphone" profile selected) and that's the difference you are perceiving.
In terms of caring about "quality" you do need to start with CD-level material, and then the rest of the chain should follow according to your needs and preferences; there is no point buying a $400 USB DAC and hooking it to a $15 headphones; and if 128kbps MP3s sound OK to you then congrats your audio needs are effectively non-existent, anything will do (and I do not say that disparagingly; it's _fine_).
As someone who sometimes listens to music digitized from analog sources, this has been my experience, too. Tape hiss, cracking/pops and distortion are easier to notice on my headphones+DAC than on my (somewhat cheaper) IEMs.
At that point, it doesn't matter whether you have FLAC or MP3.
Ignorance is bliss. I'm extremely happy I've never learned to notice higher or lower quality audio. The last time I've had to research at all about audio hardware was when I was trying to find a card which supported EAX for games back in the early 2000s. Since then it's been all onboard audio all the time, with the only exception being my wireless headset's USB dongle. It's great!
As far as general audio quality for non-recording scenarios (listening to music, watching movies etc) does not differ too much in my experience. You could be experiencing external issues like speaker placement, room issues, bad cable somewhere
So the answer is that you should get a dedicated sound device, but don't bother looking for an internal card. External devices are easier to connect, won't complicate upgrades, and can be attached to a different machine with less work.
Onboard has always been good enough, it's just that people are usually willing to accept trash.
That said, my biggest gripe about external sound cards is introduction of drivers rather than usage of standard bus class protocols, which has a tendency to create "complicated upgrades" problems due to the manufacturer dropping support for the driver over time, causing an unnecessary forced obsolescence for otherwise good external hardware.
Supposedly there are some mobos with almost as good if not better audio than discrete cards, but that only happens in high end mobos.
Noise isolation is a thing though, consider a lot of stuff is happening in your mobo all the time. A discrete card should have a lower noise level than an onboard one, while an external through hdmi/toslink/spdif should offer the best noise isolation.
Most of that info is widely available online though, you can check if your old Recon3D is better than your mobos onboard one.
Finally, remember that audio is a highly subjective experience, even with newer and better specs you may find you like the Recon3D sound signature more.
Also I couldn't control volume directly.
What I have found works great is an offboard dac:
Just wire it up using usb or toslink/spdif to get digital sound to the dac cleanly, then the dac is isolated from everything and you get a volume control.I use headphones + mic + fulla (soon gunnr) but this also works for straight headphones or speakers with other models of dac.
PS: see also the comment from Ross about the drive ability of your card
I was thinking who is still making consumer dedicated sound card? Never heard of the name Recon3D. Turns out it is Creative Sound Blaster.
An external DAC should be better in theory, but if you match the volume and haven’t got any interference you’ll struggle to tell the difference.
I may of course have damaged hearing so YMMV
i'm quite partial to the ESS sabre series of DACs at this point personally.
Ask HN: is on-board audio good enough yet to obviate dedicated add-on hardware?
When did on-board audio surpass custom hardware, so that we are on a reverse trend? I didn't get the memo. (Not that I'm subscribed to this issue in any way, mind you).
I switched out the 'TOSLINK' over to a standard coax and the sound is much better - not on par with the Recon 3D card, but it's an improvement. I am using some Logitech speakers and not headphones.
Another possibility? could be placebo