Realtek inbuilt HD ALC887 vs Asus Xonar DGX PCIe

Guys i think its not always about having the best headphones, ive seen a lot of pro's buy sound card for gaming purposes, i was thinking this could be one of the solutions, as i feel my onboard is shit, ive used the same headphone on a different system which sounded much better.

IVE GOT A GIGABYTE AX370M-GAMING 3 MOTHER BOARD

Which headphone are you using and have you updated the audio drivers?

W

Onboard audio on mobo is almost always inferior to a dedicated sound card & Asus Xonar brand is quite famous among audio cards(this particular model is budget model though but still quite good). However you need to have some decent headphone/speakers to notice the significant improvement in audio quality.

I have XONAR U3 and my onboard motherboard having realtek soundcard has far superior audio quality. Tested on speakers and headphones/earphones.

W

Xonar U3 is a usb sound card,not even close to a dedicated pci/pci-e sound card like Xonar DGX.

@SaiyanGoku I am using a chinese gaming headphones called kotion each, now before u make any judgements i would like to say that it has performed better than my previous sennheizer HD series (i had like 2 of them) and logitech gaming headset(all of which i paid around 4-5k at that time).

@whitestar_999 which are the ones i can consider can u give me a list? and links to the products?

please provide urgent inputs guys

ramaswamy ganapathy said:
please provide urgent inputs guys

Which kotion each headphone, specify the model? Have you updated the mobo audio drivers?

yes mother board drivers are updated

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ramaswamy ganapathy said:
yes mother board drivers are updated

Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Price in India - Buy Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Online - Kotion Each : Flipkart.com

Your headphones don't even require it as they are low powered (32 Ω only link: EACH G2100 Vibration Function Professional Gaming Headphone | Kotion Each Official Site - Media Center ). For comparison, my E10c and 598SE have impedance of 42 Ω and 50 Ω respectively and my office desktop (Realtek ALC662) can drive them easily.

Realtek ALC887 Onboard audio vs Asus Xonar DG / DGX or any other similar dedicated Sound Card - [Solved] - Components

Dedicated sound card will give you a huge volume boost. My Creative X-Fi (PCI-E card) has such a high volume output that I had to limit max volume in drivers because my Sennheiser HD415 headphones would destroy my eardrums if volume level in Windows would be changed to max by some program (heck even ~30% was unbearable without forced limitation).

As for sound quality, you may get some sweet bass, but I think it's more related to quality headphones and any realistic improvement from soundcard itself would be more available power for output & driving high(er) impedance headphones and quality speakers.

IMO, you should consider buying an external powered amp instead of a pcie sound card if you want higher, but distortion free, sound levels.

something like this?

*www.amazon.in/Kotion-Each-Gaming-H...F8&qid=1526638853&sr=8-4&keywords=kotion+each

ramaswamy ganapathy said:
something like this?

*www.amazon.in/Kotion-Each-Gaming-H...F8&qid=1526638853&sr=8-4&keywords=kotion+each

Nope, those would be an option if your mobo audio died and you needed something urgently as a backup. FiiO E10K is considered as a good budge dac/amp.

rule of thumb is u should spend half of total value of ur earphone + speakers on dac. pairing a 2k hp with a 5 k dac is worse than going for a 7K earphone instead and using mobo out

@SaiyanGoku The cost of that thing is same as the cost of

*www.amazon.in/Creative-Blaster-Aud..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=NHWZPDAESRQK8QKY43SY

*www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone...00LP3AMC2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

don't u think a sound card is future proof in case i go for a better headphone?

ramaswamy ganapathy said:
@SaiyanGoku The cost of that thing is same as the cost of

*www.amazon.in/Creative-Blaster-Audigy-Performance-Headphone/dp/B00EO6X4XG/

*www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00LP3AMC2/

don't u think a sound card is future proof in case i go for a better headphone?

What better headphone would you upgrade to? You'd be better off buying a tube amp/dac instead of a sound card if you decide to get studio headphones.

@SaiyanGoku gaming headphones, logitech,sennheizer,steel series etc.

ramaswamy ganapathy said:
@SaiyanGoku gaming headphones, logitech,sennheizer,steel series etc.

Even those won't go above 50-100 Ω at worst (unless they're priced higher than, say, 10k). E10k is rated for 16-150 Ω.

@SaiyanGoku thanks bruh for coming through with this, is this thing easy to setup tho?

ramaswamy ganapathy said:
@SaiyanGoku thanks bruh for coming through with this, is this thing easy to setup tho?

I haven't had the need to buy one. Can't comment on the setup procedure.

W

r/headphones - FiiO E10k Settings question.