Audio Advice

[Rennn]

I'd like to improve my audio quality. Right now, my speakers use VIA HD Audio (onboard audio, 16 bit, 48khz), which unless I'm mistaken is roughly DVD quality.

 

My speakers themselves are 24 bit, 192khz, so they're being wasted to an epic degree. (My monitor doesn't have speakers)

 

I have a GTX 660 with the latest Nvidia HD Audio drivers, but ofc that would be through HDMI, which doesn't help me at all since I'm not trying to get sound through my monitor.

I'm willing to buy a sound card as long as it's not terribly expensive, but then under certain circumstances a sound card doesn't even help, does it?

 

What would be my best option to improve audio quality?

 

Also, would there be a notable difference between my current 16 bit audio, and any of these 3 progressively more expensive sound cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132052

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

 

Whatever solutions are available, I would prefer to spend ~$50 and absolutely can't spend more than $100, as I'm in college at the moment and it's quite expensive. I'm only trying to improve the quality in the first place because I bought quite good speakers a couple months ago, only to find out that it was a complete waste of money without further upgrades. I don't need audiophile quality, it just needs to be substantially better than it is now.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Rennn

[FMod]

 

My speakers themselves are 24 bit, 192khz, so they're being wasted to an epic degree.

Speakers are measured in inches of driver diameter and cabinet weight, not in bits.

 

I'm afraid you may have sunk $200 unwisely. Pretty much all speakers that are made out of plastic are only good for indicating noises here and there, not for actual sound reproduction. To my knowledge Creative hasn't ever produced a tolerable (like something to rate 3/10) speaker set, and overprices the Chinese junk they sell quite shamelessly.

 

Assuming you use digital connection, the only reason you would need to install a sound card is if you hear unwanted noises, like clicks and such, out of your onboard.

 

 

 

Right now, my speakers use VIA HD Audio (onboard audio, 16 bit, 44.1khz), which unless I'm mistaken is roughly CD quality.

Actual CD quality is generally considerably higher than what you're going to ever hear in practice out of most PC. For one, most content is lossy compressed sound.

For plastic speakers, you are especially not coming anywhere close to representing CD quality. Their potential would be fully realized by something like an 8 bit, 32 kHz signal.

[Rennn]

I don't use a digital connection, unless a 3.5mm connection is digital (which I doubt).

 

Also, if that's the case, why is there a difference which is impossible to ignore when switching from 44.1khz to 48khz?

[FMod]

If there's a difference, it has to be related to your onboard sound not working correctly in one of the modes. There are many codecs named VIA HD Audio, I'm not sure which one it is. Ones that I know of actually "support", at least in name, more than 48kHz, not that it helps.

 

You aren't going to hear the actual difference in Shannon limit between quantization rates using a $1 sound chip and a set of speakers that probably don't even have high-frequency drivers.

[Rennn]

Okay, that makes sense.

 

Edit:

I have a question. I thought my speakers were measured in bits and hz because when I go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> Speakers -> Properties and click on the "Advanced" tab, it brings up a drop box of potential audio quality settings. The speakers allow 24 bit, 192khz from that list, whereas VIA HD Audio only displays up to 16 bit, 48khz. Is there a reason for that, or is it due to some other thing that doesn't translate into real world audio quality?

Edited July 8, 2013 by Rennn

[FMod]

It's just the limit of what Windows supports natively.

 

Speaker bit depth and sampling rate only apply to digital connections. Analog speakers, in theory, have unlimited bandwidth and sampling rate, even if increases in both are pointless past a very low threshold.

 

For any upgrade in terms of sound quality, you should be looking at both new speakers (preferably something stereo - good 5.1 is too expensive) and a discrete sound card, like Xonar DGX, but they'll only help together.

[Rennn]

My plan atm is to upgrade my soundcard first, and if I don't hear a difference then I'll give up for the moment since it wouldn't be wise to upgrade my speakers again.

[FMod]

Unless you hear noises or obvious distortions, I don't think you're going to hear any difference.

 

If your speakers are still in good condition, try to offload them. Let's say you get back just $100, even that's enough to get a better active pair. Sell them while they are worth something to someone who thinks they are worth anything.

 

Get back $120, add $60 you were going to spend on the sound card, and you can buy this pair - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290268 - and a second-hand amp to drive them.

[Thor.]

You can't beat the quality of boston Acoustic, the sound reproduction is second to none.

 

http://www.amazon.ca/Denon-DHT-1312XP-Channel-Theatre-System/dp/B005J75Z22/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1373250843&sr=1-1&keywords=boston+acoustic+speaker+and+receiver

I bought a combo similar to that, but the receiver that came with it was of low quality and didn't do the speakers justice. Technically its a 1000 watt speaker setup.

 

I technically wanted the speakers because they come around 200$ a piece if you plan on getting them separately.

 

make sure to look up the reviews and make sure they don't suffer from the awful rattling and distortion that some plastic bookshelf speakers have.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Thor.

[FMod]

I'm pretty sure it's second to one of these...

http://stereotimes.com/Munich07p3.shtml

 

But in $200 range, have to go with what's cheap yet decent.