> Do dedicated sound cards offer tangible audio quality improvements over modern onboard solutions like Realtek?
Depends on motherboard, but: I had a top of the line, very well reviewed gaming mobo, and I’d hear a buzzing noise over the speakers depending on what the computer was doing. Moving the mouse? Distinct buzz as a function of speed. Compiling the Linux kernel? Distinct buzzing. Etc. this happened under both Windows and Linux, so I don’t think it was a software issue.
Having an external DAC allows you to keep the audio signal very, very far away from the rest of the electronics, which completely solved the problem for me. I went with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for about $200, connected to my two JBL 305 speakers — it’s been great. It wasn’t in my initial plans, but I later took advantage of the XLR microphone input to set up a Shure SM7B microphone (wasn’t quite enough gain, so I added a TritonAudio FetHead preamplifier and a DBX 286s for de-essing/eq/etc — very happy with the setup now).
Depends on motherboard, but: I had a top of the line, very well reviewed gaming mobo, and I’d hear a buzzing noise over the speakers depending on what the computer was doing. Moving the mouse? Distinct buzz as a function of speed. Compiling the Linux kernel? Distinct buzzing. Etc. this happened under both Windows and Linux, so I don’t think it was a software issue.
Having an external DAC allows you to keep the audio signal very, very far away from the rest of the electronics, which completely solved the problem for me. I went with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for about $200, connected to my two JBL 305 speakers — it’s been great. It wasn’t in my initial plans, but I later took advantage of the XLR microphone input to set up a Shure SM7B microphone (wasn’t quite enough gain, so I added a TritonAudio FetHead preamplifier and a DBX 286s for de-essing/eq/etc — very happy with the setup now).
So, FWIW, I’m a big fan of external USB DACs.