Audigy SE vs Realtek ALC882D

[Stormcrow]

For the first time last night, I actually tried out this mobo's onboard sound ( Realtek ALC882D). My old board had garbage for onboard, with constant clicking and dull sound so I purchased a bSoundblaster Audigy SE which sounding great considering it was only 25 bucks off the Egg. When I switched to this mobo, I used the Audigy along with it without ever bothering with the onboard.

Now for speakers, I have what looks like nothing special. A small 2.0 setup with no brand name, I got them for free awhile ago. However, these things pump out some amazing sound to be 2 channel, even when cranked up enough to get phone calls from three stories up they don't distort or crackle and sound clean. Needless to say, I can hear minor differences when playing well known songs and games.

This HD chip from Realtek completely blew the Audigy out of the water. It's hard to describe without actually hearing it, but before the bass was a little too deep and the highs a bit pitched and not clear. With the onboard, I can hear the reverberations of a plucked string, or in synthesized songs different sounds that weren't present on the Audigy.

I tried Oblivion and SupCom for a bit with the Realtek, and sound effects like fire, explosions or trickling water are much more pronounced and even what sounded distant and fuzzy before is clear. Now the difference between, say a bitrate of 128 and 196kbps is actually noticeable.

Not really much to this post except that Realtek HD rocks, and if you get a mobo with the newer ALC88 chips definitely try it out. It'd be great to get ahold of an X-Fi and see if what advantages that 100 dollar price tag really gives.

[Carl Martin]

Audio quality is very subjective, so I always think it's a good idea to try the onboard sound before buying a card. While I've read opinions that said the Realtek on my mobo stinks, I think it sounds fine. Glad it worked for you.

Carl

[Quakindude]

Same here really. I used Soundblaster cards for years. But now, I just use the onboard sound. Positional audio using headphones is supposed to be a lot better with a sound card over Reltek on board, but I'm not an audiophile, so it makes little difference to me.

[azianai]

I use a Soundblaster X-Fi xtreme audio for my PC. Only reason is when i was lookin for a cheap AGP card for my little bro's computer, some dude was selling an X850Pro along with the soundcard for like 70 bucks. personally i agree onboard is good enough, but i still think the audio is better with the card myself. Then again with sound, its all about the hardware (speakers), i got bose companions on mine so they sound great =D

[screwballl]

I have tried onboard with every computer I have built which were always good at the time but my ears are sensitive enough that after using an X-Fi, I refuse to use anything else

[Capper]

yeah, we've raised this issue before.....onboard audio has come a long way, and is more than adequate for any outside of the most discriminating audio geeks.

Although Realtek has had their share of issues, they are nothing compared to the shoddy support and buggy software we typically see from Creative products.

[Yellowhello]

I agree with you, Stormcrow. I used to have a vanilla Audigy for use with my old ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus, because the add-in riser card was really bad; pops, crackles, etc. I then tried the onboard audio on my new DFI Blood Iron, and i is awesome. I believe it's the HD audio, but never the less, I love it way more than my vanilla Audigy.

[polobunny]

The Audigy SE was never the best of the Creative cards out there and more of a decent replacement to AC97 chips than anything else. It's getting rather old too, early 2005 if I remember correctly.
Just as your onboard HD made your Audigy look ridiculous, my X-Fi blew the onboard straight out of the water (my board has a Realtek ALC850 chip btw)
The crystal clear sound coming out even of the cheap home system speakers I had back then was incredible. The bass felt more vibant, even if I had no subwoofer. Since then I bought Logitech Z-4 and more recently Logitech Z-5500 and i'm glad I have my X-Fi XtremeMusic to power those. :)

[RangerXLT8]

yeah the newest onboard HD sound will blow away and audigy. Put it up against a X-fi with onboard memory and the X-fi will run it into the dirt.

[Stormcrow]

I'm just impressed with how it sounds, considering it comes with the motherboard. An XtremeGamer will smoke it, but the sound coming out now is good enough to where I'd think that extra C-note would be better spent on a better processor or video card. I'm pretty picky about sound, the old Dell sounds like banging trashcans and the KV8 Pro in the living room is so dull it might as well be monotone. If I had something like a high end Logitech, BOSE or Klipsch setup investing in a X-FI or Xonar might look better , but when I update my speaker setup I'll see how it still sounds and if an add-in card would be worth saving up for.