onboard sound SUCKS.
 

it really, really, really sucks. i pulled out my sb live card, and am using the onboard AC97 codec 4 channel sound, and it BLOWS.

it's terrible. even day of defeat sounds like pure ass. i can barely even stand to listen to mp3's now on my klipsch speakers, it's almost bearable on my headphones.

argh. i just thought i'd share that with you.

Think that onboard sound is there just to help you hear that 'Medic!' or 'Frag out!' on the 550W 20 cubic inches 20$ desktop speakers, not so much for the music...

I hate mp3 anyway, anything I listened on original CD and coded in mp3, the diff is so great that I just realised I should keep my cd collection smaller, but original. Mp3's are good for parties and boomboxes, but not if you like to sit in the sweet spot and see the stage:D

I dunno, I use the onboard sound on my AOpen P4 board which has an optical out. I have a 50 Ft optical line running from my server (with that board), to my home theater. Instant 50GB MP3 Library playing 24/7.. its like Joe Radio all the time. And 99% of the MP3's were ripped by myself or friends at 256k/highest quality so they are pretty much CD quality.

Just using Winamp 2.9 to play on the server. slicker than shit setup.

Obviously saying something like " onboard sound SUCKS" is wrong. Some of it does of course, but then many actual sound cards are awful as well (SB Live for instance). There are better implimentations then others.

well, i'll agree that the sb live isn't exactly the pinnacle of pc audio, it's not horrible. especially comparing it to the onboard chip i have. i can't remember what chip i have, and i'm too lazy to look.

i've tried to tweak it a little bit, but it's just plain nasty.

this board doesn't have optical out, it seems that became much more mainstream just _after_ the board came out. now i see it's on a lot of boards, and with that i'd assume is backed with a little nicer processor.

i would also agree that generally speaking, cd audio is better quality than mp3. however, i record most mp3's at higher bitrates than generally used, and the sound quality is acceptable (on a good recording, there's little difference on this setup than an audio cd). and, it's much easier and includes more variety just to load a large playlist and let it shuffle through the day (i don't have one of those fancy carosel cd changers).

also, some of the new formats coming out for digital audio are rather impressive, something to check out (the new format itunes uses, for example).

i'm sure there have been recent leaps and bounds in on-board audio, but everything i've used to date was mediocre at best.

Onboard Audio & MP3s
 

The latest chip sets do have much better audio performance and some what lower CPU usage. But if you want the best game performance or you listen to something other than highly compessed comercial Rock & Roll I sugest that you get a quality sound card with no analouge components living inside the computer case. This is exspecialy true if you are trying to record original sounds frome live acustic instuments.

As for MP3s, I may have "golden ears" but I can still hear the difference between MP3s at 256K, highest quality and the CD from whitch they were ripped. All of the end user compression algorithms depend on the presense of louder or nearby (in terms of frequensy or time) sounds to mask the artifacts they create as they discard data. All of the codecs are lossy compression schemes.


Grayson

Hehe. Good part with military service and noisy assault rifles.
I don´t mind 128 K ripped MP3:s anymore. ;)
regards
Mikael S.

I spent three years at Fort Sill in an 8" howitzer battalion (2nd of the 36th). I managed to escape with alot of my hearing by threatening to kill any RTO who locked his Push to Talk on.

Grayson