For quite some time I’ve known people who live and die by onboard audio. I know they’re out there. I also know that onboard audio has made great strides in the past few years. Even I have been using onboard audio with a computer that’s very dependent on audio. However, after using onboard audio, I’ve finally turned back to the trusty sound card and don’t regret it one bit.

Nowadays most boards have “HD Audio,” which basically means it supports multiple channels and also supports the DRM-based encryption so audio can make it to your speakers securely (DRM Folly Note: It comes out to your speakers as regular analog, sort of defeating the whole DRM thing in the first place). This onboard audio usually works pretty well, except it has it’s downsides. It’s more prone to EMI (bad for audio!), since it’s directly connected to a motherboard that’s buzzing with activity. It also has a higher tendency to offload processing to the CPU. Finally, it usually doesn’t include the extras you’d find on an individual sound card.

For most users, onboard audio is just fine. For those who require a higher standard of audio quality, you’re better off with a sound card (think of the power supply methodology: don’t expect to put your $400 video card in a computer with a $25 PSU–you’re just asking for it).

Some examples:

Several years ago when I didn’t have a media center, I had 5.1 speakers hooked up to my personal computer. I was playing WoW at the time and tried both onboard audio, as well as an Audigy 2 ZS. The Audigy provided much clearer sounds, and was especially noticable with surround sound noises (the Audigy had surround sounds very lifelike, while the onboard had surround sound noises quiet, tinny, non-existant, or “too far away”).

I have been using onboard audio with the Media Center ever since I upgraded to a faster processor, etc. This seemed to work fine, but I noticed that there were several specific instances when audio sounded poor. Surround sound noises were still weak or tinny sounding, and I usually had poor performance when there were higher levels of bass. I also had problems with poor driver support, especially when Vista SP1 was released. I installed that trusty Audigy 2 ZS sound card and was surprised to hear that such an old card still outperformed todays onboard audio. Surround sound noises are more lifelike and louder, performance was still solid with bass, and line in worked (moreso, the audio is processed and sent back out, meaning stereo is processed into surround. This makes XM and the Xbox sound excellent).

While I’m not necessarily a fan of Creative lately because of their ego and their methodolgy of supporting EAX on Vista (and their initial claim that EAX was bust on Vista in the first place), and while I wouldn’t mind researching a new sound card for the media center, I’ll have to admit that the Audigy 2 ZS is working great, and I’ll probably keep it around for awhile. If not for the fact that it’s a free upgrade from onboard audio (I’ve had that card for forever), I’ll definitely keep it in there to make a point that onboard still has a ways to go.

So long, almighty crab..

~Jaker