Are sound cards worth it?

Hi guys i use a Hyper X Cloud headset and wondered if sound cards were worth it, if so any recommendations? thanks

For those cans? No...don't get a soundcard. Unless your cans (headphones) are at LEAST $200, and preferably up to $400-500 or more, the difference between onboard sound and a dedicated sound card is hard to notice. If your cans have a mic built in, which I'm willing to be yours does, it's not a real headphone. A good sound card is noticeable to audiophiles, but those people have high end gear. I have a Creative ZXR ($250 sound card) and it's amazing, but my Audio Technica cans are nice. Even then, it's NOT a big difference in quality from onboard audio.

I hope I helped...if you aren't in the audiophile group of people don't waste the money on a soundcard. If you were a part of that group, you wouldn't be asking if sound cards are worth it. Save your money, or spend it on something more worth your while.

Yea, only throw money towards a soundcard or DAC if you're working with more expensive sound gear. For every $500 dropped on speakers/headphones I'd roughly consider ~$200 towards a DAC/Receiver/soundcard. For $150+ headphones that benefit from amplication, it's definitely worth picking up a cheap soundcard with an amp for ~$35.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8qk0VEt2r8&t=3m15s

I have them, and yeah they do sound better on my x-fi hd usb than the onboard realtec.

A xonar soundcard would work well with them.

Going for actual decent to good quality sound is affordable (great quality sound is becoming more, and more within grasp as well), some motherboards come with decent enough sound cards/chips and DACs. I know our current Asus x99 motherboard has immediately noticeably better sound than the previous Asus motherboard of 4 years ago. Higher quality DACs, and sound chips are able to be produced smaller now, so higher quality on-board audio is becoming more feasible, and seen more often.

Some affordable sound cards will improve this to varying degrees. The ones that really improve the sound quality usually cost more, and the extremely good quality ones are out of the budget of most people. Its also smart to research what you want to do plan to do with it. If your just gaming then a decent gaming sound card, and a decent headphone amp (doesn't have to be a tube amp) will be more than sufficient for for the needs of most.

That being said, you would still have to upgrade your headphones to something decent/good as well. (Sennheiser, AKG, Audio Technica as opposed to Bose, Razer, etc.)

There many additions to add to a signal chain that could affect/improve your sound quality. On this computer we are going from on board Asus X99A motherboard line output, (1/8 to RCA) into a Little Dot Mk II headphone tube amp (using some Russian power tubes & German driver tubes) that go into some AKG-K702 headphones. This setup sounds AMAZING. (we could even add in a better DAC as the motherboard has an optical output)

Sorry bout the wall of text here. I just like the subject. I tried to make it as simplified and least amount of techno-blabble, lol.

Depends on your hearing capabilities/limitations, and other gear if getting a better sound card would be worth it.

I have Creative X-Fi Sound Blaster Fatal1ty Titanium Pro laying in a box somewhere inside my storage room - does that answer your queston?

I use my integrated 40$ MOBO sound card and I didn't notice any difference.

They're a waste of money...

I have the Hyper X Cloud and they are the best made headset you can buy for the $70-$80 you can find them online for.

I have an external USB sound. With a 600 Ohm amp, I only have my sound at 11%.

I wouldn't worry about any sound card unless you have static or pops, or your impedance of you headset is more then the Ohm of your sound.

Best description here for you op.

In short...It CAN make a difference, but if you want a real high quality sound setup you need to start fresh with better cans. That's what I'd recommend...drop the soundcard for now, invest in a real headset (as mentioned, Sennheiser/Audio Technica/Bostons etc are a step above) and then get a sound card later on if needed. Just watch the resistance...higher end cans will have 600ohms worth of resistance, making you need an amp right away.

Sound cards are just not worth it unless you have some pretty dang good gear in the first place. Any sub $200 can on the market will have little to no impact with a soundcard. It's silly to buy a card for cheap cans. Spend the money on a better headset first. BTW...your headphones should NOT AT ALL INCLUDE A MIC. If it does, it's not high end. A separate mic is cheap and you have lots of options...it'll keep weight off your head, and you'll know your money is going to better quality components on your headset.

Anyways...it's your money, so do what you want. My last suggestion is to try things out if you can. Some people just can't notice a difference. My wife can't tell the difference between her onboard audio and $80 headphones, from my $500 phones and $250 sound card, but I sure as hell can. If you can tell the difference, and it's worth it to you, spend the money.

Just for the record there have been a couple of headphones that come with mics that have been of high quality.

For instance I want to say that Shure offers (maybe offered) a mic attachment to go on some of their headphones like the SRH440, and SRH840 headphones (even sold them in bundles if memory serves me correctly). Though the mic was high quality as well, connected through XLR which already destroys the grand majority of USB mics on the market. These Shure setups will have far more quality than 90% of all other headsets.

But I concur most "headsets" aren't going to compare to a set of real headphones. You can buy a cheap clip-on mic (like a lavaliere style mic) that will have the same quality, or better than most headsets. These you can get $10-$15. Seriously OP, go to Amazon search clip on mic. They are cheap!