I'd go with an aftermarket sound card for sure. On board sound cards tend to have crackly sounds, and not as "full" sounding.

What card would be a good idea I don't know. I'd steer clear of Creative because their drivers suck big time. I occasionally have to close all my programs and reopen them because everything turns into staticy garbled gibberish.

 

It would depend on your motherboard and the type of built-in sound card that it has. Unless you're a huge audiophile, you don't need an expensive 3rd party sound card. Most on board sound cards are more than adequate.

Also, on another note, I've never had any issues with Creative products in the past.

So there you have it...two completely contradicting opinions.

 

It really depends on the onboard card, my onboard card is very "flat" sounding.

Recently I haven't had any issues with my Creative card, but I bought it immediately after it came out, and was having issues right away. *knock on wood*

 

If you care anything about sound quality then don't bother with the onboard sound at all. You need to get a stand alone card. I would suggest the Creative X-Fi. This is one of the best cards you can get for the money. If you're concerned with Creative's driver issues of the past then I would suggest a card from Azuentech.

 

All this garbage about on-board sound sucking is only half true.

The large majority of people asking won't notice a difference. I have a VIA board in my car now, running straight to the Auxiliary input on my stereo. There is only a bit of noise when everything's turned all the way up, and the engine is completely off.

If you're only playing medium-bitrate MP3s, what will you gain?

I'd suggest trying things first with your onboard sound. I have only used one PC104 (smaller than Mini-ITX) board that had crap sound, and that was because my switching power supply wasn't filtered.

If you want to get a sound card to put in, get a low-profile Creative PCI card

 

All this garbage about on-board sound sucking is only half true.

It's not half true. Onboard cards are garbage, they sound like garbage, and if you aren't seeing a difference listen to both on a good set of speakers and tell me it's a half truth. Onboard cards are made with cheap crap components and are intended for people that use the crap speakers that come with the crap Dell computer they bought.

I have heard pretty much every onboard sound card and not one of them sounds good. At least not on half decent speakers. Also, if you're listening to medium bitrate Mp3s, then you don't care much about sound anyway.

 

I noticed the difference, even with lower quality MP3s, my onboard was atrocious.

 

Honestly, I think it will depend more on what kind of speakers you are using than the card. But I do agree that as a general rule of thumb, onboard sound as well as onboard video is typically worthless. I use a really nice creative labs sound card for on my studio computer but it has a huge input box that has to plug into it so I'm not sure it would be best for an automotive application.

 

I see what you're saying. I wouldn't use onboard for anything and I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but I do care about sound quality.

I'd be interested to know what sound card and speakers you're comparing to?

 

I am also looking into getting a carPC and I do care about my sound. what is the best way to get it from my carPC to my 4 channel amp and my sub amp? just a 3.5mm jack to RCA splitter? I would like to stay away from that though.

 

this is probably your best bet:

ESI - GIGAPORT HD

ESI GIGAPORT/ HD High Quality 24-Bit, 8-Out USB Audio Interface

supports 7.1 with 8 RCA outputs off a usb port. this is what i would get if i was building my carpc since i have a 5 channel amp. you can't split a 3.5 stereo jack into left and right.

 

I'd be interested to know what sound card and speakers you're comparing to?

Back when I was building my CarPC I had an old Sound Blaster Live PCI, and my speakers are Logitech X-540's. I swapped out the Live card a while ago and am back to using onboard Realtek audio. (This is not an OEM pre-built motherboard though, it's a midrange MSI board.) The difference is very small; there is a tad bit of distortion in the bass if I crank the output to 100%. The Live card didn't have this small issue. Since I have the output set to 70% all the time it's not an issue.

And to be honest, the small amount of noise I hear in the car with the engine off is easily overpowered by the hard disk spinning The VIA also has the same problem reproducing bass at max volume. Same thing, just keep it around 70-80% and no distortion.

To anyone who is curious about this kind of thing I'd recommend experimenting; but always try the cheapest options first.

I am also looking into getting a carPC and I do care about my sound. what is the best way to get it from my carPC to my 4 channel amp and my sub amp? just a 3.5mm jack to RCA splitter? I would like to stay away from that though.

That's basically it, don't skimp on audio cables. And most importantly be careful not to run them parallel to any power wires you have, or you'll get an irritating hum.

 

Back when I was building my CarPC I had an old Sound Blaster Live PCI, and my speakers are Logitech X-540's. I swapped out the Live card a while ago and am back to using onboard Realtek audio. (This is not an OEM pre-built motherboard though, it's a midrange MSI board.) The difference is very small; there is a tad bit of distortion in the bass if I crank the output to 100%. The Live card didn't have this small issue. Since I have the output set to 70% all the time it's not an issue.

And to be honest, the small amount of noise I hear in the car with the engine off is easily overpowered by the hard disk spinning The VIA also has the same problem reproducing bass at max volume. Same thing, just keep it around 70-80% and no distortion.

To anyone who is curious about this kind of thing I'd recommend experimenting; but always try the cheapest options first.

I had a standard Live card in my system on some Klipsch speakers. I upgraded to the X-Fi shortly after it came out and it was a huge difference. You have to remember that the Live cards are pretty old by now. Actually five generations behind, so I can see it barely being better than the onboard. I think you'd see a huge difference between that and an X-Fi.

Just remember that SNR is only one slice of the pie.

That's basically it, don't skimp on audio cables. And most importantly be careful not to run them parallel to any power wires you have, or you'll get an irritating hum.

Yeah, avoid the Y splitter. Also, good advice. Don't run anything near a power cable.

 

I was just wondering but can you use something like a cross over so you dont have to use a Y splitter?

 

The splitter and the crossover accomplish two completely separate things:

In short, the crossover will filter the correct frequencies from a single channel into 2 or more speakers appropriately.
The splitter will split the channel into 2 identical channels.

If you're using an amplifier, you don't really have to worry about any kind of signal loss from using the splitter.


EDIT:
Head over to Basic Car Audio electronics, Basic Car Audio Electronics, and spend some time reading it before you proceed any further if you're unsure of anything - the site has **A LOT** of info on it

 

Actually, I did just that last night. It appears as thought the sound card can eliminate ALL of the devices meant to go between the head unit and the Amp. Basically, One can use the card to pump only the freqs they want down each port of the card, and those go straight to the Amps (they act as pre-amp signals).

 

My only thought was i know my old cross over had 1 input and several out puts. The thery behind that was do a headphone to rca and not have to use splitters