wow. glad i gotta sound card!

[shecky981]

well, my speakers (old phillips 2.1's) finnally died (died=dropped and broken) so i decided to get some new ones. after reading reviews and listenbing to them myself i decided on the ALtec Lansing ATP3 speakers, which were cheap for what i wanted. while i was at it,. i decided to get me a soundblaster live 5.1 card rather than using the onboard audio.

WOW! incredible difference! i figured that the onboard audio would be fine, but i am listening to my "reference" CD (blue man group - audio)and i am blown away. i know these are not even particulary high-end speakers and it sounds amazingly rich and full, way better than the onboard. and i know it is not just the speakers b/c the phillips i was running were a pretty high end pair of 2.1 speakers at the time they were new.

i did the XP driver download for the live card and all seems to be working great so far.

[fatboyjim]

5.1's not bad is it? :)

I bought that with Surround 5.1 speakers, it's superb

[archie]

A while back, I replaced the onboard sound with a 'cheap/plain/don't have model #' PCI creative lab sound card and couldn't believe the difference in sound quality.

[newme]

this may be a dumb question but,is there a way to tell if you have a sound card or onboard sound /or if you can disable onboard sound.thanks for any replies

[homer15]

well, one quick (and probably inefficient) way to check and see whether you have a sound card or on board sound is:
are the speaker plugs and mic plugs inline with your mouse and keyboard plug? if these are in the same section, and it is seperate from, say, your modem, then you probably have onboard sound.
also, you could open the computer and look inside. if there is an actual card for the speakers, then you have a sound card. if the speakers are plugging directly into the motherboard, you have onboard sound.

[newme]

thanks homer 15 ill try that

[homer15]

hey, fuggetaboudit. also, what kind of computer do you have? if it's a compaq or an hp, it most likely has onboard sound.

[KuhnDog]

I like the Creative 6.1 They are awsome.

KuhnDog

[newme]

hi homer15 its hp pavillion and the speakers look like there plugged right in the modem card sound right?

[homer15]

a lot of voice modems also double as sound cards. that's the case here. so you actually have a sound card, it's just combined with a modem. if you want to get the best performance, get a seperate sound card. having all this combo and on board stuff is ok because it keeps the cost down, but perfermance-wise it doesn't even compete with a seperate sound card.

[fatboyjim]

Yeah and you can get some pretty cheap sound cards nowadays

Look for a Sound Blaster Live! at the least, these are very good and mostly very cheap

[homer15]

yea, i got a yamaha surround card for like 20 bucks. believe me, it's not going to break the bank. more money is spent on speakers nowadays.

[fatboyjim]

Yeah, now if you want a good set of speakers... :)

I got myself a nice 5.1 Surround set and SBLive! 5.1 Player Card for about £130

[newme]

thanks for the replies, when i turn up my comp volume it does sound like crap, thats why i was asking, ill look into asound card and speakers. thanks again