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#1
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
While I use a CarDeluxe and an M-Audio DIO-2448 on my two primary computers, I
have sound on each computer for non-critical applications. My primary work computer is one that uses the on-board Intel/Soundmax card through a decent set of PC speakers. While listening to some FLAC files of songs from the early 70s, I noticed what sounded like tape hiss. Long story short, upon investigation, I determined that the hiss is actually some sort of digital crap coming from the card. It's pretty constant. Of course no one has ever suggested that the on-board sound cards were even respectable, but I have never before heard a problem like this one that makes the card virtually unusable even for non-critical listening. Thinking maybe the the card was bad, I tried a couple of other computers here that I never use the sound. Same issue. These on-board audio cards are REALLY bad. To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
"mcp6453" wrote in message
While I use a CarDeluxe and an M-Audio DIO-2448 on my two primary computers, I have sound on each computer for non-critical applications. My primary work computer is one that uses the on-board Intel/Soundmax card through a decent set of PC speakers. While listening to some FLAC files of songs from the early 70s, I noticed what sounded like tape hiss. Long story short, upon investigation, I determined that the hiss is actually some sort of digital crap coming from the card. It's pretty constant. Of course no one has ever suggested that the on-board sound cards were even respectable, but I have never before heard a problem like this one that makes the card virtually unusable even for non-critical listening. Thinking maybe the the card was bad, I tried a couple of other computers here that I never use the sound. Same issue. These on-board audio cards are REALLY bad. Consider for a second that the particular on-board interface is not exactly SOTA, even among on-board audio interfaces. Soundmaxes are usually not *that* bad. It could be a bad sample or it could be a bad implementation by the system board maker. Have you tried downloading the latest driver? To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. The easy fix is a Behringer UCA 202 - more than good enough for your purpose, about $30, and installs without added software in mainstream OSs. |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
On Sep 8, 5:54 pm, mcp6453 wrote:
I noticed what sounded like tape hiss. Long story short, upon investigation, I determined that the hiss is actually some sort of digital crap coming from the card. It's pretty constant. Call up the Windows sound card software mixer, then mute or turn down all sources you don't need. Be sure to go to Properties ... Playback and tell the mixer to display *all* of the input volume controls. Sometimes they're active, and adding computer whine type noise, but hidden from view. --Ethan |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
On Sep 8, 5:54*pm, mcp6453 wrote:
While I use a CarDeluxe and an M-Audio DIO-2448 on my two primary computers, I have sound on each computer for non-critical applications. My primary work computer is one that uses the on-board Intel/Soundmax card through a decent set of PC speakers. While listening to some FLAC files of songs from the early 70s, I noticed what sounded like tape hiss. Long story short, upon investigation, I determined that the hiss is actually some sort of digital crap coming from the card. It's pretty constant. Of course no one has ever suggested that the on-board sound cards were even respectable, but I have never before heard a problem like this one that makes the card virtually unusable even for non-critical listening. Thinking maybe the the card was bad, I tried a couple of other computers here that I never use the sound. Same issue. These on-board audio cards are REALLY bad. To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. This sounds a bit like the thing with video cards and how the on-board ones are always crap. But I'm wondering how bad it really is. Mine sounds fine, though admittedly it's only a set of JBL's (not anything expensive). I'm wondering if the sound card's "hiss" could be getting picked up from various PCB paths on the motherboard. Because I'm not really sure an iMic would be so much better. |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
Arny Krueger wrote:
"mcp6453" wrote While I use a CarDeluxe and an M-Audio DIO-2448 on my two primary computers, I have sound on each computer for non-critical applications. My primary work computer is one that uses the on-board Intel/Soundmax card through a decent set of PC speakers. While listening to some FLAC files of songs from the early 70s, I noticed what sounded like tape hiss. Long story short, upon investigation, I determined that the hiss is actually some sort of digital crap coming from the card. It's pretty constant. Of course no one has ever suggested that the on-board sound cards were even respectable, but I have never before heard a problem like this one that makes the card virtually unusable even for non-critical listening. Thinking maybe the the card was bad, I tried a couple of other computers here that I never use the sound. Same issue. These on-board audio cards are REALLY bad. Consider for a second that the particular on-board interface is not exactly SOTA, even among on-board audio interfaces. Soundmaxes are usually not *that* bad. It could be a bad sample or it could be a bad implementation by the system board maker. I think most likely the last. I have an old Toshiba laptop with Avance AC97 Audio built-in. It also suffers from noise similar to what the OP described. "Tape hiss" describes it pretty well. I tried changing settings in the mixer to disable all other sound sources, but it didn't help at all. The lesson for me is that it's pretty easy to lose "hi fidelity" audio quality if things like low price and low power consumption are given priority over good sound quality. The easy fix is a Behringer UCA 202 Or something like it. I used an M-Audio Transit USB interface. Jay Ts |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
"gjsmo" wrote in message
On Sep 8, 5:54 pm, mcp6453 wrote: To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. While the input side of the iMic leaves a lot to be desired, the output side is approximately CD quality. This sounds a bit like the thing with video cards and how the on-board ones are always crap. Depends on your needs and point of reference. Given that off-board graphics cards can run like $500 each and some motherboards support 2 of them with their coprocessers siamesed, on board graphic interfaces can't possibly compete. OTOH, if all you want to do is business graphics or even playing a few Blu Rays, on-board interfaces can get the job done. But I'm wondering how bad it really is. Mine sounds fine, though admittedly it's only a set of JBL's (not anything expensive). I'm wondering if the sound card's "hiss" could be getting picked up from various PCB paths on the motherboard. Because I'm not really sure an iMic would be so much better. Download the Audio Rightmark program freeware measurement program and run it. It produces a fairly complete technical report in a few minutes. All you need is a jumper cable from the output to the input of your audio interface. |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
"Jay Ts" wrote in message
om Consider for a second that the particular on-board interface is not exactly SOTA, even among on-board audio interfaces. Soundmaxes are usually not *that* bad. It could be a bad sample or it could be a bad implementation by the system board maker. I think most likely the last. I have an old Toshiba laptop with Avance AC97 Audio built-in. It also suffers from noise similar to what the OP described. "Tape hiss" describes it pretty well. I have some experiences with Avance audio chips on PCI cards. Most of these are built using the chip vendor's reference design. It was among the noisiest audio interfaces I've ever heard. Maybe 55 dB dynamic range if you optimized the level settings. Shortly after this Avance was bought out by Realtek, who are pretty sharp. The next generation parts were branded Realtek, and they were at least halfways decent. |
#8
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
On Sep 10, 7:25*am, "Arny Krueger" wrote:
"gjsmo" wrote in message On Sep 8, 5:54 pm, mcp6453 wrote: To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. While the input side of the iMic leaves a lot to be desired, the output side is approximately CD quality. This sounds a bit like the thing with video cards and how the on-board *ones are always crap. Depends on your needs and point of reference. Given that off-board graphics cards can run like $500 each and some motherboards support *2 of them with their coprocessers siamesed, on board graphic interfaces can't possibly compete. OTOH, if all you want to do is business graphics or even playing a few Blu Rays, on-board interfaces can get the job done. $500??? I got a Radeon 5830 (good gamer card) for $179, you can get a good 4350 for around $40. But even so, it seems that no matter how cheap they make a good graphics card (a 4350 is just about the best for non-gaming), they can't seem to put a good one on the motherboard. But I'm wondering how bad it really is. Mine sounds fine, though admittedly it's only a set of JBL's (not anything expensive). I'm wondering if the sound card's "hiss" could be getting picked up from various PCB paths on the motherboard. Because I'm not really sure an iMic would be so much better. Download the Audio Rightmark program freeware measurement program and run it. It produces a fairly complete technical report in a few minutes. All you need is a jumper cable from the output to the input of your audio interface. I'll do that... |
#9
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
"gjsmo" wrote in message
On Sep 10, 7:25 am, "Arny Krueger" wrote: "gjsmo" wrote in message On Sep 8, 5:54 pm, mcp6453 wrote: To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. While the input side of the iMic leaves a lot to be desired, the output side is approximately CD quality. This sounds a bit like the thing with video cards and how the on-board ones are always crap. Depends on your needs and point of reference. Given that off-board graphics cards can run like $500 each and some motherboards support 2 of them with their coprocessers siamesed, on board graphic interfaces can't possibly compete. OTOH, if all you want to do is business graphics or even playing a few Blu Rays, on-board interfaces can get the job done. $500??? I got a Radeon 5830 (good gamer card) for $179, you can get a good 4350 for around $40. But even so, it seems that no matter how cheap they make a good graphics card (a 4350 is just about the best for non-gaming), they can't seem to put a good one on the motherboard. Please check out the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 cards out there, which are SLI (multiple cards per motherboard) capable. |
#10
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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On-board Sound Card
On Sep 10, 5:07*pm, "Arny Krueger" wrote:
"gjsmo" wrote in message On Sep 10, 7:25 am, "Arny Krueger" wrote: "gjsmo" wrote in message On Sep 8, 5:54 pm, mcp6453 wrote: To solve the problem, I hooked up my Griffin iMic as an output device. The difference is night and day. I'll probably go ahead and get another DIO-2496 or at least install a Creative Audigy that's in a box around here somewhere. While the input side of the iMic leaves a lot to be desired, the output side is approximately CD quality. This sounds a bit like the thing with video cards and how the on-board ones are always crap. Depends on your needs and point of reference. Given that off-board graphics cards can run like $500 each and some motherboards support 2 of them with their coprocessers siamesed, on board graphic interfaces can't possibly compete. OTOH, if all you want to do is business graphics or even playing a few Blu Rays, on-board interfaces can get the job done. $500??? I got a Radeon 5830 (good gamer card) for $179, you can get a good 4350 for around $40. But even so, it seems that no matter how cheap they make a good graphics card (a 4350 is just about the best for non-gaming), they can't seem to put a good one on the motherboard. Please check out the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 cards out there, which are SLI (multiple cards per motherboard) capable. And my Radeon 5830 is Crossfire capable. It's not as good a GPU as the GTX480 (I don't think), but it's still a gamer card - I can run Crysis on max (no AA) at 1600x1200, if that means anything to you. It's a great card - but it's not the best. Still, this is like comparing a Behringer 202 to the Apogee Duet - they're totally different. My Radeon is not top-of-the-line. That GTX480 is close. |
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