I have recently purchased some Klipsch promedia 2.1 speakers (they’re great) and I wonder if I should use something other than my onboard Realtek ALC850 sound module.
I would be using the soundcard for Stereo playback of music only. Virtually all of it MP3s at 192 Kbps or lower bitrate.
I ain’t gonna need:
no gaming features.
no optical out.
no surround.
no midi.
no sound mixing/editing capabilities
no nothing else that’s not stereo music playback.
No, probably not. Sound cards are good for sound manipulation and higher end things like 7.1 sound. You don’t need one for the plain vanilla stuff you are going to do.
I agree. Unless you get something like a 5.1 or 7.1 setup and actually use it, a soundcard isn’t worth it. I’ve got one that works with my Altec-Lansing 4.1 setup, but then again I play games where audio coming from all around me is actually useful (some RPGs, FPSes, that kind of stuff.)
I’ll say this - turning off my onboard sound and using a basic $19 Soundblaster Audigy card greatly improved the gaming performance on my Dual Core 4300 system. Much more than I thought it would have any right to.
The signal-to-noise ratio for D/A conversion on the ALC850 is -86 dB, which isn’t too good. Most sound cards are quieter than that.