Support Audio card suggestions

uraizen

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Oct 7, 2018
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Okay, so my headphones are the HyperX 7.1 whatever. The USB is butt and I often miss audio from games because of it. It wasn't apparent how much until today when I booted up an old game I played a lot before these things. There's also some games that split audio between each ear piece. One side will play attacks while the other plays background music. Anybody got some suggestions for an audio card? My old one was a Soundblaster X-Fi 5.1 and I used only headphones and mic separately on it. Should I got external again or go internal? Pretend I have PCI-E and anything else one might use available.

tl;dr I know shit about audio cards and need suggestions.
 
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lashman

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oops, i just noticed you made a thread as well :)

but yeah, as i said - Presonus AudioBox USB
 

Blizniak

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Sep 19, 2018
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I used Xonar STX for a couple years but it still got noisy over RCA to speakers with some games running so I'm gonna switch to external setup. I'd recommend just getting better headphones honestly, gaming's not that demanding and all those multi driver 7.1 or whatever headsets are generally trash. Even something like Creative Aurvana Live will sound better tho that one's pretty bass-y so it's not perfect for competitive shooters. DT880 or AKG612 would be better suiter for those.
Going with an audio interface like lashman suggested is also a good option.
 
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uraizen

uraizen

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Oct 7, 2018
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oops, i just noticed you made a thread as well :)

but yeah, as i said - Presonus AudioBox USB
Yeah, I figured I would cover the two places I trust to give me some good suggestions. That's pretty much what I was looking for and I had something similar before. Just need to wait for my payment to come in.

I used Xonar STX for a couple years but it still got noisy over RCA to speakers with some games running so I'm gonna switch to external setup. I'd recommend just getting better headphones honestly, gaming's not that demanding and all those multi driver 7.1 or whatever headsets are generally trash. Even something like Creative Aurvana Live will sound better tho that one's pretty bass-y so it's not perfect for competitive shooters. DT880 or AKG612 would be better suiter for those.
Going with an audio interface like lashman suggested is also a good option.
These headphones are new, but the USB piece of it is garbage. So I'll use them on what lashman recommended.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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I was using an Asus Xonar DGX until recently when swapped to onboard sound on my new mobo. It's an old card so you need the MaxedTech Uni Xonar drivers on Windows 10 but cheap at about £25 and has a seperate integrated headphone amp. I can't offer any other advice as that card has been fine for me for the last 6 years or so.

edit: Now i think of it i rarely use headphones on PC and other than my AptX BT earbuds my headset is an old Sennheiser PC/360.
 
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Kuro

"Oh yeah? Aren't you gonna punish me?"
Dec 22, 2018
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I use one of these:
Can run hi-fi headphones too if you later decide to get some.
 
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uraizen

uraizen

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oops, i just noticed you made a thread as well :)

but yeah, as i said - Presonus AudioBox USB
I use one of these:
Can run hi-fi headphones too if you later decide to get some.
Ah, I should ask since you both still have yours. Did the quality go to shit after Windows 10's April update? The 1903 build specifically that recently rolled out. Seems to have caused a lot of people issues with their sound drivers and now there's a lot of static and popping.
 
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Kuro

"Oh yeah? Aren't you gonna punish me?"
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Ah, I should ask since you both still have yours. Did the quality go to shit after Windows 10's April update? The 1903 build specifically that recently rolled out. Seems to have caused a lot of people issues with their sound drivers and now there's a lot of static and popping.
Still on 1809 so can't answer this one, sorry.
I will let you know though when I update.
 
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lashman

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Ah, I should ask since you both still have yours. Did the quality go to shit after Windows 10's April update? The 1903 build specifically that recently rolled out. Seems to have caused a lot of people issues with their sound drivers and now there's a lot of static and popping.
nope, not really ... but then again - i'm on insider builds ... but i never noticed any changes in quality in any of the builds so far
 
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uraizen

uraizen

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Still on 1809 so can't answer this one, sorry.
I will let you know though when I update.
Delay updating as long as you can.

nope, not really ... but then again - i'm on insider builds ... but i never noticed any changes in quality in any of the builds so far
So am was I, maybe you weren't affected. A good ole' cmd then winver can give you what you want.
 
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teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
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I'm looking forward to adding a Soundblaster and some Rokit 6's to me rig once I get settled into my new job next month.

Hopefully that's a simple enough task.

That EVGA card is tempting, but hot damn is it costly.
 

teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
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For those of you who use a sound card, have you noticed an obvious improvement in sound beyond what your GPU offers?

I've got an EVGA RTX 2070, and really do enjoy my Sony MDR-1R headphones, I've been using my Logitech 2.1 Z323 as a makeshift DAC for the time being.
 

lashman

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i ... don't think the GPU has anything to do with the audio?

or does it?
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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i ... don't think the GPU has anything to do with the audio?

or does it?
Only if it's using the HDMI output and the monitor has speakers or there's a VR headset involved.

deftones r cool I'm going to assume you're plugging the Logitech speakers into the motherboard so it depends on what mobo you have as to how good the sound is. To be honest, if you're not bothered with the audio at the moment i'd leave things as-is. If you do want to change the audio then we may have some advice to give but as you can see most if us are in the same boat and just use the onboard audio as anything relatively recent will be good-enough unless you're an audiophile. In my opinion of course :)
 

teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
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I actually am somewhat of an audiophile. Currently waiting on my monitor so the chain goes GPU > HDMI > TV > Audio out 3.5 mm > Logitech speakers > Sony MDR1R headphones > my ears > my brain