Sound card rolling over?

[stn0091]

Is it possible for a sound card's sound quality to deteriorate over time? I noticed that music and the usual explosions in games don't sound as nice as they used to recently. I have an Audigy2 ZS; it's about a year old now.

[jimmyrules712]

Just the passing of time wouldn't usually cause a part to deteriorate. But it could have been damaged by something external like electrical issues or something, but honestly if your sure that it isn't as good as before I'd say it's more likely you have either a software problem or a problem with your speakers. Do you have access to any spare sound cards that you can try swapping out to see if a dif sound card is better or not?