No. What’s the point in doing that? My built in card does not have digital output, and every built in I’ve ever heard has a lot of buzzing due to the other components in the case. It’s not high fidelity just because I make it louder, filter out the buzzing, and add bass.
Plus, frankly, adding high fidelity makes you realize how sucky a lot of your audio actually is. It’s the same problem as when you watch an old video on your newly HD monitors. I can listen to 96 kbps audio and not tell the difference.
I have a set of Monsoon 2.1 speakers I’m very fond of. Most times when I’ve tried to run my computer sound through my receiver, I get a humming sound that, if it occurs, I can never solve. It either works or it doesn’t. May depend on the wiring of the place I’m living. I rent, so I can’t do much about it. Anyway, my Monsoon’s are pretty nice by my standards. Could be better I’m sure, but I’ve also had much worse. I only listen to MP3’s or FLAC these days, and don’t even have my stereo set up anymore. All my music is through my computer, or when the occasion calls for it, my Fuze MP3 player.
Nope. Don’t much care about audio quality. My PC has crappy little speakers, though they put out a nice sound as far as I can tell, and they’re nicer than the speakers I had previously.
You didn’t say what your source is, but if it’s from Netflix, an Internet radio, or some better YouTube videos, the sound can be superb – or at least CD quality. Only the final output stage will reduce it to the “sucky” class.
[QUOTE=BigT]
No. What’s the point in doing that? My built in card does not have digital output, and every built in I’ve ever heard has a lot of buzzing due to the other components in the case. It’s not high fidelity just because I make it louder, filter out the buzzing, and add bass.
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Good point there. I used to have my work laptop’s dock plugged into one of the monitors, and the sound quality was dreadful. I was wondering why I was almost subconsciously hearing weird weedly-burbly noises until the day I accidentally turned off the monitor. A quick “Plug in an iPod” test later, and the monitor was absolved of any acoustic crimes. No idea whether the odd noises are coming from the laptop or from the circuits in the dock, but it’s not like I compose music with it, so I just let the laptop’s internal speaker handle the sound.
I’m hooked up to a 5.1 system via HDMI out. When I don’t have the amp turned on the audio passes through to the monitor’s tinny built-in speakers. My computer also has integrated stereo audio on the motherboard which can be alternately used since Windows 7 has the ability to use multiple audio devices.
Have you ever considered that most people just don’t really care? I have the technical know-how to setup something high quality (and expensive) if I wanted to but frankly audio isn’t that important to me.
There’s nothing I use my computer for where hi-fi would be a benefit.
Surfiing the StraightDope? No.
Reading news stories? No.
Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook? No, no, no.
Amazon, Ebay, Craigstlist, Facebook? Four no’s.
The only place I listen to music is my car. The only place I watch movies & tv or play xbox is on a 60" screen with 5.1 surround.
