How is the on-board audio? Will I need a sound card for high-quality sound?
1868326
I thought it was fine. The general opinion these days is that better brands of motherboards use fine on board sound solutions. I say order it without and test if it's acceptable to you. It's easy to add on a sound card later if you don't plan on using the Pci-express slot fir a video card.
1868327
Works fine for me, I use no sound card. Let me say this though: I use FL Studio, which uses that special audio driver, and it doesn't seem to like it when I do live recording via the FL sound driver. I have to go into my Audio options, disable my audio, and then it will function for recording live sounds (just a pain really, but still works). Other than that, I have no complaints running it through my 20$ logictech speakers.
133371
As long as you have a good knowledge of computers I would suggest the Asus Xonar STX. The sound is amazing, but it comes with it own problems. The drivers are bad and in order to set mine up I had to install through safe mode and get on my wife's computer to download some files. Make sure you have a program like Win Rar if you download off the asus website. If you are prepared then it will be a lot easier to install. I don't know if it was just an abnormality, but when I got mine it was missing a screw that holds the back plate to the circuit board.
183632
You shouldn't have a problem. As long as your system possess a decent audio card, no issues....
292599
From what I have read, better speakers would be a better investment before changing the sound card. Have a look at this forum. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/58378-6-speakers-sound-card
651418
Honestly, no. Soundblaster does have drivers available on their support page, but they are frustratingly outdated and may or may not work. But you would be better off using the on-board sound device and drivers for your motherboard. If you want clearer and louder music and games, SoundBlaster and Asus offer a few new models worth checking out first. kk
2699
Your board has Soundblaster cinema onboard. If you get the right software for that, it will be fine. It has a very decent onboard amp that is capable of driving headphones, and you won't find a significant difference in quality here. If you are getting any sort of hum, whine, static, or other noise when using the analog outs, you will probably get that with the Asus card also. In that case, you can use the optical digital out and use a decent DAC like the Fiio D3 or E3.
1472075
these will run fine with the onboard soundcard. they're easy to drive plugged into just about anything.
1744148
Only 5.1. Might try looking at HT Omega. Much better cards, better sound and real customer support. I returned this sound blaster card because my onboard sound was superior.
1647592
no onboard sounds but offers extensive sound banks thru software program (included)
2167445
The soundcard is built in. You just install the software to utilize the 7.1 sound.
610981
Yeah there are ports for everything. If you're just playing music privately there should be an integrated sound card on your motherboard, so just check if there's already some ports on the back of the PC before ordering :P
1094975
Your computer's onboard audio will definitely be able to drive them. I used them on several different computers and they worked with all of them.A headphone amplifier will probably make the headphones sound better, but it's definitely not necessary.
1405158
It appears as a separate sound card, and it can definitely be better than onboard sound. The headphone amp is quite nice with a Sony MDR-V6 with replacement soft pads.
1520939
Not necessarily. A decent MOBO will have the channels to make it work but I use a Asus Xonar DGX with mine. Unless you are an audiophile any 5.1 sound card will be fine.
1081397
The onboard sound will work with that headset yes, but in almost every situation I'd recommend using a third party PCI-E card for sound if quality is your concern.
536547
The Asus Xonar class are great products. You should have no problem installing this as there are no drivers needed in Win 7 and Win 8/8.1. The sound from that card is rich and beautiful.
957741
I have two Asus Xonar sound cards that send digital signal from my computers to older MSB DACs. The sound is quite wonderful, very musical. I prefer to use the optical out if I can, but coax seems to work very well too. These are both in older computers that are dedicated to audio playback only.