Sound: jk, onboard is fine nowadays.
You joke, but I spent like an hour trying to convince my friend (who is new to the scene) that there was NO REASON to spend $150 on "high fidelity" sound card, amp, and speakers.
... he ended up buying them anyway.
These Audio Arguments are Far from the truth... and are largely based on Ignorance.. as well the possibility of these individuals not having decent hearing ranges.
First... I will state that Onboard Audio has improved in quality over the years... but... it still falls Far short of dedicated hardware that is decades older.
At work, I have a PC that has Onboard sound. Its a Realtech based chipset, and has all sorts of features, as well as a software based EQ.
To get decent sound out of it... you really need to use the EQ... as the base output is wretched. The problem?
The EQ is wildly erratic. For one... there is a delay between the time you adjust it, to it actually changing. That alone, would not be that bad... but... the real problem is that the EQ sliders are not stable nor accurate. If you crank up the treble ranges, it will suck some "power" from the low end bass. Each slider is sort of tallied into an algorythm, that ends up spreading power levels between all of the sliders. This is not how an EQ is supposed to work! >_< Worse yet... is that if I slide a few of the levels up and down... then return them to the original positions... the EQ does not sound the same. I have to actually max out a slider value, to get it re-calibrated to the correct level that it visibly reports. What this is indicating... is that not only are power levels being slid around... but actual frequency values are being slid around as well. Its a damn mess.
Now.. if your Music / Movies...etc.. are all relatively balanced, and you do not need to adjust the EQ... then this may be acceptable for you. Add in some distortion of the Audio signals... and thus some muddying of the sounds.
The other issue with Any "Onboard" device... is that they tend to use "Shared Ram". If you have a lot of ram... this may not seem like that big of a deal... but its much deeper than that. These chips are heavily reliant on Software functionality. This means, that your CPU is also going to be doing a lot more processing, than it would if you were using a dedicated 100% hardware card solution.
Those in the know... will Immediately disable ALL onboard hardware in the PCs Bios... to Maximize the PCs performance. (Also removing all traces of any potential Drivers that were installed... if the system was previously loaded with the hardware enabled) One might think that the onboard hardware doesnt impact performance that much... but I can assure you, that the performance boost can be quite Surprising.
My older Soundblaster Audigy, and even soundblaster cards older than that... blow my work PCs onboard Audio out of the water, in every way.
The stock sound almost perfectly balanced... without much, if any, need for EQ. The audio seems far less radical in swings, between different songs, movies, games..etc. The Treble / Bass sliders are rock solid... and there is no frequency drifting issues... nor is there any issues of power-sharing. If you crank up the bass... the highs do not drop in frequency, nor volume. Likewise for the inverse. The best part about the card is the crystal clear, distortion free highs. There is a magical quality of these cards to produce audio so cleanly... that once you have heard the Onboard comparison... it makes you want to Vomit in disgust.
You must realize... that there is a reason why these cards have so many components, and are quite complex in their looks. You can not expect to get Lamborghini results... from a Dump Truck.
As for the argument about Audio-foolery... that depends on what you are talking about. Paying +$200 for specialty Monster-audio cables... isnt going to really net any discernible value, to the average speaker + amp + volume levels...etc... if at all. However... any time I have handed someone my Sennheiser HD 590 headphones to listen to... their jaws hit the ground... their eyes widen, and they are absolutely blown away by the difference in the experience. Even from people whom first admitted that their ears were not the greatest... even they could tell the difference, and were astounded.
People latch on to heavily advertised name-brands... like Bose, Beats, and Klipsch... but these companies are Smoke and Mirrors + Garbage (in comparison to Real Audiophile grade equipment). Beats uses a horribly inaccurate driver set, that is not much better than a cheap 20$ headphone. Id wager that the drivers cost about 5$ to manufacture... and are really poor in their ability to deliver clear and precise audio... let alone a true spatial 3d image. As for speakers... Bose and Klipsch use very low powered drivers... that basically require a sub-woofer to TRY to cover the huge gapping mid and low woofer frequencies. They use ports, with distort the bass sounds... as well as the audio in general. And they use a sub/woofer that is too small in diameter, and or case tricks to amplify a bass-effect... which results in a very artificial sound... (that tends to get even worse with higher volumes)
A fellow collector friend of mine, had just ordered a very expensive pair of Bose headphones. I had my older HD 500 headphones on me at the time... and had him listen. He nearly cried... at how much better they sounded... and how much cheaper they were. Not only that... but how comfortable, and durable. Mine lasted about 13 years before I managed to break the band, due to extreme temperatures, when I was forced so sleep with them on in my minivan, in the middle of the winter. As good as the 500 was... the 590 was Leaps and bounds over it, from frequency ranges, to clarity, accuracy, and pretty much Zero distortion...even at the highest of volumes.
Audiophile Speakers -vs- Modern big-box speakers -vs- Overpriced PC speakers
I have a pair of EPI 100mv speakers. They are about bookself size... with only two drivers. An 8" woofer, and a 1" inverted dome tweeter.
I used to own FOUR technique 3-way speakers... that were rated for 200 watts each. After listening to the EPIs at a friends local business... and being blown away by the fact that I could not located the speakers without him pointing out where they were (thats how amazing the 3d imaging is)... I could never go back to the Techniques. Not only are the EPIs far superior in the 3d imaging... (nearly the whole room is the "Sweet-spot" !) .. but the Bass is far deeper, richer, accurate, and powerful. The EPIs are not ported... so the bass is not Farty-Fake, as is the case with the Techs.
The EPIs are nearly half the size of the techs... but if you were to pick each of them up... you would be shocked. The Techs are light as a feather... were as the EPIs are heavy as an Anchor. The reason? EPIs use thicker wood for the cabinet.. but thats just the start. The woofer driver itself, has a FAR stronger magnet driver. While the techs woofer is a 12"... the EPIs 8" totally decimates it, in every way.
The most Modern speakers are even worse. They use even smaller drivers, such as using three low quality 6 inch mid-woofer drivers. They lack power, depth, and accurate control... AND, because of their weak magnets + ported design... they are horribly artificial and distorted. They tend to require a person to buy a Subwoofer, to try to fill in the lows. However... the Subs that tend to come with these systems... and or are recommended... are low quality "Thumpers". They are not Musically accurate... and are mostly for filler and Effect. Yet... because they are subs.. and not actually woofers... these speakers are lacking a large spectrum of bottom end... all the while... are giving the end user a distorted farty and thumpy mess.
PC speakers are the worst Rip-Offs of all... as they use even lower powered, and lower quality drivers... that are powered by an All-in-one Sub+Amp. They are FAR over-priced... especially for the performance. But worse yet... is that their Amps are such low quality.. that they tend to fail in less than a 2 year span of time.
I bought my EPI speakers used + re-foamed, for about $100. They blow away EVERYTHING that is at my local high-end stereo shop... including their most expensive $3500 ish pair. Not by a little... the EPIs totally Slaughter them, in every way possible.
My advice to people... IF they love good high quality music... is to get a Soundblaster Sound-Card, a used stereo amp from a thrift / 2nd hand shop (the older models tend to be better + more powerful in general), and a used pair of restored Vintage speakers. One will have to do some research into which vintage models are good.. and get to understand the reasons why. Not all EPI models, for example... are great. Towards the 80s... many speaker companies started cutting corners, using ports, cheaper drivers... thinner cabinets, poor quality crossovers...etc.
The rise in labor and materials did play some factor in this... but also, there is an environmental agenda, that also drove this. Ported speakers sound louder, due to more sound being able to exit the cabinet. Since they do not have to deal with high air-pressure environments that you will find in a sealed box... they can use lower powered magnet drivers... and thus, will need less Electricity to drive them. Of course... the quality and clarity of the audio suffers Dramatically, as a result.
The agendist do not want the average Joe to know that they are being Scammed with over-priced garbage. And to make things worse... most all music that has been produced over the years, has been highly compressed... to further reduce power consumption. You may notice that a CD made 10 years ago... sounds quieter than one made in recent years. Thats because they peg all of the channels at near maximum volume. You get louder audio.. but you lose the dynamic range and clarity. Every year over the last 20 years.. studios have been compressing audio, progressively worse and worse, each passing year. And those over-prices Re-masters?! They are FAR inferior to the original CDs / tapes / masters... because of that compression. (in addition to some other horrible practices)
So... the Shills will try to create a Divide, to keep people Ignorant, of what they are being denied. To keep people fighting among themselves, and their own ignorant Ego-drivin bias's. The truth does not care about your Pride / Ego / feelings.
Feeling you are right... is not the same thing as Being right.
Having the Opinions and Assumptions of something... is Not the same as Depth of Knowledge and Experience.
TLDR - High Definition Audio is Far Superior to overpriced name brand Garbage, and Cheap Onboard Chipset Junk.
++ And... If you disable Onboard junk, and remove all of the drivers... you will get a nice Performance Boost
+++ Finally... Not all PC motherboards are Optimal. Companies like Dell do not use high quality components, AND, they do not spend
a lot of time / energy on making their Circuitboard designs as Efficient / Performance based.. as a Custom companies Motherboard does.
Even with the Fastest CPU... the poor designs of Pre-Build motherboards, can radically slow and cripple its performance.