Should I get a new sound card?
I'm about to get a new subwoofer for my stereo system, and I was thinking a new sound card for my computer might be a good addition as well. Currently, I just use the headphone jack coming out of my computer, an adapter cord to convert it to left and right RCA plugs, then it goes into my stereo receiver.
My question is.. would I get better quality sound with a PCI sound card?
Receiver: http://www.amazon.com/Aiwa-AV-D50-Audio-Video-Receiver/dp/B00000JXUO
Any help is appreciated.. thanks
My question is.. would I get better quality sound with a PCI sound card?
Receiver: http://www.amazon.com/Aiwa-AV-D50-Audio-Video-Receiver/dp/B00000JXUO
Any help is appreciated.. thanks
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Comments
The best recommendation I can do; is to tell you to get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 since it has RCA connections already, and a few of my blind friends who work in the audio field recommend it. And if you get that card, stick with gold plated RCA cables.
It largely depends on what you're feeding the sound card and where you are sending the signal too. And no, optical does not mean a great signal. I wish people would forget that ****. Because at some point that digital signal has to run through a D/A converter.
I personally prefer to run analogue straight out of the sound card if it is a decent card. Now if I was running it into a nice stereo receiver that I knew had a better D/A circuit than the sound card I'd let the receiver do the heavy lifting. I plan on getting an HT Omega Striker sound card. It's not an excellent card, but it is very respectable for its price range.
Now remember that you're only going to notice a difference if your source material is high quality. 128kbps mp3 probably isn't going to sound much better. But if you are playing lossless or high bit rate ogg/wma/mp3 you will most likely notice the difference if you have nice speakers. And that is another thing. The best way to improve sound quality is to invest in a nice set of speakers.
It all depends on how attuned your ears are in all seriousness. I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile and low bit rate (<192kbps) drives me crazy. But if you are just a casual listener then I would get a decent set of speakers and call it good.
By the way, I'm using 2 front bookshelf Bose, 2 rear surround Bose, 1 center Bose, and the Dayon 12" sub.
It sounds like you went down the path I would have chosen. Even though I'm not a big fan of bose systems I will give them the credit for sounding good though I think they are terribly over priced for what you get.
To change SPL as little as 3dB you need to double output power. Here are a couple formulas I have used while working with pro audio gear.
To get this change in dB
1dB 2dB 3dB 4dB 5dB 6dB 7dB 8dB 9dB 10dB
Multiply starting power by:
1.25 1.6 2.0 2.5 3.15 4.0 5.0 6.3 8.0 10.0
To determine the change in dB from one amount of wattage to another use this formula:
dB = 10 x log (P1 ÷ P0)
P1 =desired watts
P0 = starting watts
Hope this help in anyway.
3 dB = twice as much power, noticeably louder
6 dB = 4 times as much power, significantly louder
6 dB = twice the amplitude
9 dB = 8 times the power, nearly twice as loud
10 dB = 10 times the power, twice as loud