
- #External sound card for laptop with line in drivers
- #External sound card for laptop with line in driver
Question Question Better Audio quality - get external hardware compared to Realtek? Nice, the Hyperclouds are actually a nice pair of headphones unlike many gaming headsets. They represent incredible value yet excellent sound.Ĭurrently I own a pair of hyper x clouds, but im probably going to be getting a pair of sennheiser HD 6xx 's (im thinking of it, but maybe a different pair at around 200$ budget for headphones) I am partial to the Audio Technica ATH-M40x as I own them. If you need to pick it for gaming: https //57ml11 If you need help picking a good set of headphones for music: https //5b1qb3 So, basically what I am say is that ONLY if you already own a good pair of headphones will it be worth getting a DAC (or a sound card). Getting a DAC to connect to a pair of cheap headphones will be a huge waste of money. Putting most of your money into the best headphones you can afford will be the best return on money for you. What headphones do you have? You might be better off just with better headphones depending on what you have. You have an ALC1150 codec on your motherboard which is meant to be pretty good, many people say it can be more or less as good as a Xonar DG in quality (but not sure if your motherboard has a headphone amp). I ask this because you would notice a more noticeable difference with better headphones than with a DAC or soundcard. (like under 200$ if possible but i dont know how pricing works with dacs) I just want something that will sound better in general, I would hope to keep it on the cheaper side however. Do you have an idea what audio setup you are upgrading to? Can you also give us an idea of what you have at the moment?Ĭurrently I just have the built in audio on my motherboard which is the Gigabyte z170x ud5h v1 Although DAC's are generally recommended because they are away from most of the interference from your PC, sound cards are a lot cheaper.
#External sound card for laptop with line in driver
However the Windows driver is perfectly fine for many recording situations.It depends on your budget. That's okay as long as the device is known to work with it. The Windows usb audio driver does not provide the best latency so if you need low latency but a low latency driver is not supplied by the manufacturer, then you might end up using the universal ASIO4ALL driver.
#External sound card for laptop with line in drivers
I would check the specs on any usb device to see if it uses the usb port's power or if it has to be plugged into house current, and whether drivers are supplied. I am inserting a link to a Focusrite model just an example of what I mean, not meant as a recommendation:Īnother choice could be a little usb mixer like Behringer makes. However if you don't have the pre-amp or mixing board yet then look at a bedroom studio audio interface rather than a consumer sound card. If so, either of those would send out a line-level signal so it would be best if you got a sound card with a line-in jack, but if you lower the gain quite a bit you could probably get by with a sound card that just has a mic jack since the mic is only supplying a mono signal. If it is a typical studio condenser mic then it requires 48 volt phantom power that the laptop does not supply, so I assume that you are using it with a mic pre-amp or mixing board. I don't know if any of the usb devices can duplicate those hardware features. If we were talking about an actual sound card, the better ones had dsp processing chips to take the load off of the computer's cpu when doing tasks such as adding reverb or other effects to the audio, and they had a synthesizer chip for converting MIDI into sounds. If you are looking for other features or a higher quality product, let me know, but I don't know of any that have their own memory. If you are looking for a name brand consumer product, check out the Sound Blaster 5.1 which does have a line-in jack. If you need a stereo line-in input - look for a device that has an input jack specifically for line-in, because you cannot use the basic mic jack on these devices as a line-in jack. They are all plug and play and use the Windows usb audio driver, so no driver to install. The cheapest ones have a mono mic input jack and a stereo output jack. Beyond that, it is a matter of which features you need to accomplish your purpose. Since we are not talking about an actual card, you are looking for a device that has some of the functions & features of a sound card.Īll of the usb audio devices have the basic function of a sound card, which is to convert audio to digital and back again (DAC & ADC). The term "sound card" itself doesn't have much meaning unless one is talking about an actual card that fits into a slot inside the case of desktop computer tower. "Moderately priced" can mean anything depending on the frame of reference, but you can see devices of all prices at an online store like Amazon. I am looking to purchase an external soundcard that is moderately priced.
