The world of modern computer technology is developing at the speed of light, it has affected absolutely all areas of this progressive industry. And sound is one of these areas, without which the picture of computer harmony does not look completely holistic. And to ensure high-quality sound, it is entrusted to such an important component of a computer as a sound card. Sound cards can be divided into two types: Internal and external, each type of card has its own advantages, and disadvantages of which you should definitely talk about. And now about everything in order ...
Internal sound cards
Such cards are already built into system units and laptops. And they are intended for normal use, without any frills. In fact, such cards are considered a budget option. They are universally suitable for watching a movie, listening to music or playing a game. Such a sound card will provide a standard range of reproduced sounds in stereo mode.
The internal card is usually inserted into the system unit through the PCI slot. It is invisible, many even have little idea what it looks like, since it is hidden in the case of the system unit and neither it nor the wires are visible. In which case is this sound card suitable for you?
If you are not picky about sound quality, do not play games that use surround sound technology, do not watch movies in surround sound format Dolby surround and you are a normal user who is satisfied with the standard sound quality without any special sound effects.
External sound cards
But this “device” is a completely separate conversation. This is a completely separate device that does not fit under the PC cover in any way. As a rule, such sound cards are relatively small in size, which makes it possible not to save on space. In addition, these sound cards have a very stylish and at the same time not catchy and unnerving design. A distinctive feature of external sound cards is the abundance of outputs, mainly eight. That allows you to draw a conclusion about the possibilities in comparison with the internal map.
An external sound card is the cherished key to the door called 5.1 surround sound. It is with its help that the sound on your laptop or computer will sound much more voluminous. The functional part of an external sound card is more than diverse, and each of the outputs on it plays its own strictly assigned role. The most important connector is used to connect to a PC, front speaker output, rear speaker output, center speaker, as well as a microphone, headphones, line-in, as well as other connectors that may also come in handy over time.
So, what does the external sound card give us in the end, what does it outperform the internal one in and vice versa. An external sound card will allow you to watch movies with surround sound, thanks to DTS technology (Digital surround and Dolby Digital) with the effect of presence, that is, explosions behind your back, the screams of the dead from left to right, and so on. Also, almost all advanced gamers use external sound cards due to a standard called EAX advanced HD.
Which allows you to get realistic, surround sound in modern, cool toys. And the presence of a digital output will always provide excellent sound quality, without any distortion. The key factor is the price of such a card, and it is an order of magnitude higher than the usual internal one. It is ideal for gamers, audiophiles or moviegoers who value impressive sound effects and quality surround sound.
Conclusion
The market is full of all kinds of sound cards and choosing the right sound card is not difficult. Which card to choose depends specifically on the person and his expectations. If the user is not pretentious and is accustomed to the usual sound from the speakers, then a standard internal sound card is ideal for all those purposes for which speakers are usually used. If the most powerful, surround sound is important to the user, then an external sound card is needed here. And you can choose the individually necessary card thanks to numerous reviews on the Internet or in a computer supermarket, after consulting with a specialist.
Sound card(or board) - a device responsible for playing sound. This is an indispensable component of any modern computer, because even such simple actions as listening to music, watching a movie or video, playing the sound of any computer game are impossible without it.
When choosing a sound card for a computer, you should know that they are available in three forms:
- internal integrated;
- internal discrete;
- external.
Integrated sound cards are the cheapest option. This is a separate chip soldered into the motherboard. Usually, better sound chips are soldered onto more solid motherboards, and simpler motherboards contain an inexpensive chip (for example, "Realtek").
However, saving on the purchase of a sound card is justified only if the quality of the reproduced sound does not have any high requirements. It should be noted that sound chips themselves can produce a sufficiently high-quality sound, however, after soldering, external factors begin to affect the result of their work. First of all, these are electrical noises that inevitably occur on the motherboard and affect the characteristics of the analog part of the audio signal.
In addition, the built-in sound adapter does not have its own processor. Accordingly, the load on the central processor increases, which in some cases can lead to a delay in the sound signal or “freeze” of the sound. Do not forget that integrated cards are not designed to connect powerful high-end external devices. They can only work with inexpensive headphones and microphones, as well as with multimedia acoustic systems.
Discrete sound cards
Discrete sound card is a stand-alone board that is installed in a free PCI slot. This is the most ancient type of boards - it was their use that at one time turned silent computers into multimedia computers. Discrete cards have a sound processor that performs the functions of sound processing, mixing audio streams, and so on. This makes it possible to reduce the load on the central processor, which, of course, increases the performance of the computer and improves the quality of the audio signal.
Such boards give a more decent sound in comparison with the integrated ones. As a rule, when using them, interference and sound delays are not observed. You can use more powerful external devices - high-quality speakers or headphones, it is possible to connect a home theater system. Usually, a disc with software is supplied with a discrete sound card, which, among other things, allows you to process sound in automatic mode. Manual tuning, as a rule, is performed through the audio player installed on the computer.
External sound cards
Installation required for high-quality professional sound external sound card. Of course, it must be a good expensive device. Cheap USB sticks don't sound good. External sound cards have appeared quite recently. They look like small plastic or metal boxes equipped with a certain number of inputs and outputs for connecting external devices. Some boards are additionally equipped with various tuning controls. Such sound cards are connected to a computer using USB or WiFi interfaces.
External boards are much more functional than internal ones. They allow you to use the widest range of possibilities of high-quality audio equipment. In addition to the sound output function, they also implement the function of recording sound signals - there are inputs on the case for connecting various types of microphones.
Each external sound card comes with software. As a rule, this is a package of applications that allow you to configure output devices for the most comfortable sound. In addition, they provide automatic driver updates, which is quite convenient.
Results
Summing up, it should be noted that when choosing the type of sound card, first of all, you need to focus on the required sound quality and the level of acoustic equipment that you plan to use.
Internal and external sound cards
Sound cards are divided into internal and external. External cards are connected to the computer via USB or FireWire. Internal cards can only be connected inside the system unit to the expansion slots (if any) PCI or PCIe. Internal cards with comparable quality are usually cheaper due to the lack of an external case. The disadvantage of internal cards is usually a high risk of poor-quality power supply to the computer and numerous pickups. External sound cards are often more convenient to control due to separate external volume controls for the headphone output. Also, an external card can work with both desktop computers and laptops.
Internal ESI sound card [email protected] and external ASUS Xonar Essence One
Professional and household
Between themselves, sound cards are divided into home and professional. Professional cards use the types of connectors typical for musical equipment, such as balanced Jack 6.3 and XLR, while consumer cards use RCA or Jack 3.5 connectors.
NuForce Icon uDAC-2 consumer sound card and professional E-MU 0404 USB
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5
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Klipsch Heritage Headphone Amplifier
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What features are worth paying attention to?
For external sound cards, external power is used or from the USB bus. When using an external power supply, the sound card may work better, because. does not depend on the quality of the computer's power supply. In contrast, USB-powered cards are more mobile because they do not require an additional outlet and can work connected to a laptop on the go.
This is a special protocol for transferring data from programs to the sound card driver. ASIO allows you to transfer sound from a program to a sound card without distortion. The second possibility, demanded only by musicians, is to set the minimum delay level for sending a signal from the program to the sound card, which is important when playing live instruments. As practice shows, the latency of internal cards is significantly lower than that of external ones, so serious sound cards for musicians are internal.
This is a free driver that adds ASIO support to any sound card. From the standpoint of sound quality and accuracy of data transfer, the driver unfortunately does not provide bit-by-bit transmission and is necessary in cases where the sound card does not have its own ASIO support, and the program with which you are working can only output an audio stream in ASIO.
For Windows 7 and 8, there is an alternative way to transmit distortion-free sound through WASAPI, but fewer sound programs support it. WASAPI is an alternative to ASIO for accurate music reproduction.
Microphone support and phantom power
Modern microphones are divided into dynamic and electret. The first type of microphone does not require phantom power, and such a microphone will work with both household home and professional sound cards. The second type of microphone requires phantom power, which is around 5 V for consumer microphones, and from 12 to 48 V for professional ones. For this reason, household electret microphones cannot be connected to professional cards (phantom power will be too high and the microphone may be damaged), and a professional microphone connected to a household card will not work due to insufficient phantom power.
Almost any novice musician faced the problem of choosing a sound card. Long gone are the years when everyone had the same sound card - Sound Blaster! To date, the range of equipment is simply huge, but choosing the right version of a sound card from this variety is not an easy task.
A bit of history.
Previously, most computers did not have a separate sound card, and many did not even think about outputting sound from a PC. Others could buy the only model on the market in those early years - the same SB from Creative. And the map looked really like a map.
Years have passed, and now sound cards look like boxes of various sizes with a bunch of different "twist-swivels" that look almost the same to an inexperienced user.
Today we will learn how to understand this variety, select equipment in relation to your tasks, and buy what you really need.
Types of sound cards
Let's divide sound cards into conditional categories (so it will be easier for us to understand them), we will analyze for whom each group is intended and what main functionality it has. This will help us determine what equipment is needed to perform exactly the tasks that you set yourself.
1. Let's start with the simplest category of sound cards. These are devices designed to replace the ZK built into the motherboard in laptops and personal computers. They usually have a fairly small case, often with a non-removable USB cable. The main task of these devices is to output sound from the computer. Optionally, there is the ability to connect a microphone / guitar, headphones. The quality of these devices is far from professional, but they are superior to the notorious AC97.
Such devices will help if a sound card suddenly fails in a laptop, or if you need to output sound to an external device with quality and delays superior to the same RealTek.
Examples of such sound cards are Behringer's UCA series, ESI's U24XL and UGM96 series.
External sound card for computer BEHRINGER UCA222
2. The next category is larger in size and wider in functionality. These sound cards already have a microphone preamplifier (often with phantom power), a high-impedance guitar input, and a headphone jack. They can provide Direct Monitoring, etc. However, these are still portable devices that you can take with you, for example, to the park to play music outdoors. They do not need external power, and the functionality is more than enough for most electronic musicians, aspiring rappers and independent composers. Also, this group of devices will be of interest to Youtube bloggers, because most of them hardly need to connect more than one microphone. The quality of the converters of these devices is a step higher, and the presence of a microphone preamplifier with phantom power will allow you to achieve a more transparent sound of vocals, more intelligible speech recording.
In the photo - a Steinberg UR12 sound card for connecting one microphone
3. The third broad category consists of two-channel devices, which have 2 inputs and 2 outputs as standard. This group includes both budget and much more expensive sound cards. In fact, they differ slightly from the previous group. The presence of two full-fledged inputs (often on combined connectors) allows you to record simultaneously 2 microphones, or 2 guitars, or a synthesizer / piano in stereo. Some devices of this group have not 2, but 4 outputs, which allows you to connect 2 pairs of monitors in a small studio or send sound to an external effect processor. Also of interest are devices that have additional digital S / P-DIF connectors that can be used to connect external devices, excluding conversion to analog.
M-audio M-Track, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2/2i4, Behringer UMC202/UMC204, Steinberg UR22/UR242, Roland Duo/Quad-capture are popular and loved by many devices that are perfect for a small home studio or musicians who need to write 2 input channels at the same time.
Pictured is a small home recording studio.
4. We have come to the most functional, most powerful ZK category. These are multi-channel interfaces, most often made in a rack or semi-rack case, with a bunch of different buttons, lights, knobs and from afar look like an airplane control panel.
This category includes both budget devices, for example, Behringer FCA1616, M-audio M-Track Quad, Tascam US 4 * 4 / US 16 * 08, Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, Presonus audiobox 1818vsl, as well as professional audio interfaces from RME, Universal Audio , Avid, Prism sound, allowing you to record about 12-30 channels at the same time. The cost of such equipment can reach hundreds of thousands of rubles, so these devices are mainly chosen by professional studios. Devices in this class are equipped with high-quality microphone preamps that provide a transparent and neutral sound. Such devices are characterized by low latency when working with audio. If you are professionally engaged in music, if you need to write a live drum kit, choir, ensemble - these devices are just for you.
Professional sound card TASCAM US 16 x 08
Additional functions.
After we have dealt with device groups, let's look at what additional functions they may have, the presence or absence of which will help you decide on the choice of interface:
Not all devices are equipped with phantom powered mic preamps, so if you intend to use a condenser mic, one is a must;
Not all devices are equipped with an instrument input, if you only write vocals, if you are a vlogger or a rap music performer, this may not matter to you. For guitarists, this input is vital;
Some devices may have not one, but two headphone outputs, which will be very useful when recording vocals.
For some musicians, devices with a built-in DSP can be very useful. This processor will allow you to apply some effects without connecting an external processor. The list of possible effects is usually limited to a couple of reverbs, a compressor and an equalizer, but this is enough.
Separately, I would like to note the Universal Audio Apollo devices, which have up to four DSP processors on board, with the ability to use various plug-ins. In the UA store you can buy high-quality reverbs, equalizers, compressors, tape emulators and other effects processors. They work on these cards with almost no delay, allowing you to enrich the sound of your work.
Apollo 8 Thunderbolt 2 Audio Interface
Finally.
Summarizing the above, when choosing an interface, it is necessary to determine the following parameters:
Number of inputs/outputs. Do you need to write yourself a loved one or a chorus?
- Their configuration. Writing a condenser microphone, a guitar, or both?
- The presence of separate controls for the main mix and headphones.
- Multiple headphone outputs.
- Availability of digital inputs/outputs, MIDI-interface, S/PDIF, ADAT.
- Ability to work without a power supply.
- The presence of a DSP-processor.
- Convenient drivers, additional software.
By answering these questions, you can easily choose a sound card that best suits your requirements, has all the necessary functionality at the moment and maybe even has some reserve for the future.
Gone are the days when computers hit the shelves "deaf and dumb": today even the most budget models have a built-in sound card. Now speakers or headphones can be connected to any computer - be it office or gaming, desktop or mobile, expensive or cheap.
The problem is that the sound quality at the output of built-in cards often leaves much to be desired. Anyone understands that when choosing a motherboard, the last thing the buyer will pay attention to is the characteristics of the built-in sound card; the manufacturer understands this. Therefore, the first (and often the only) criterion for choosing a sound chip for a motherboard by a manufacturer is its price.
Cheap sound chips have low-end, low-speed DACs and are often very noisy - as a result, the output sound is very far from ideal. And if this sound quality may be enough for an office, then for a home computer the capabilities of the built-in sound card may no longer be enough - if you connect a 5.1 (or 7.1) speaker system to your computer, then you will need an appropriate sound card to get a really voluminous sound picture.
A separate sound card will also be required for the gaming computer - the built-in cards do not support surround sound technologies used in games.
If you're into writing music and/or playing musical instruments, you'll need a sound card with a midi interface and (possibly) a high-impedance electric guitar input.
Classification of sound cards.
Although the principle of operation of all sound cards is the same, according to their characteristics and supported formats, they are usually divided into two classes: professional and multimedia.
Professional sound cards are used, as the name suggests, for professional audio work:
- to create high-quality recordings from studio microphones;
- to record music from connected musical instruments;
- for "voicing" (including polyphonic) and overlaying sound effects on audio tracks of films;
Such cards are most often external, equipped with specialized connectors, regulators and multi-channel high-performance ADCs (analogue-to-digital converters). DACs (digital-to-analog converters) on such cards also have high speed and bit depth, providing high-quality sound output to speakers. The main disadvantage of such cards is that they are expensive. In addition, such cards usually do not support gaming surround sound formats.
multimedia cards are designed for the average user and are presented in a wide range of both prices and other characteristics. Such cards are characterized by the absence of professional connectors, a minimum of adjustments and a simple (usually single-channel) ADC. On the other hand, even the cheapest sound cards of this class offer support for surround game sound formats.
Characteristics of sound cards.
Location cards can be external or internal. Internal cards, as the name implies, are installed inside the computer in a free expansion slot. External cards have their own case and are located outside the computer, connected to it via an interface cable (usually USB). Such devices are most often used with mobile computers - laptops and tablets. However, it is not uncommon to use professional external sound cards with a desktop computer - built-in cards have a platform for connectors of limited size, and a large number of connectors simply will not fit on it.
Format sound card corresponds to the number of playback channels and determines whether the multi-channel speaker system connected to the sound card will work fully. Most sound cards provide only stereo sound playback (2.0 format, two playback channels). To connect and fully use surround sound systems 5.1 (6 channels) and 7.1 (8 channels), you will need the appropriate sound cards.
DAC bit depth determines how faithfully a high-quality audio file will be voiced. It is important to understand that when playing an audio file recorded with a 16-bit bit depth (for example, audio CD tracks), there will be no difference between playing it through a 16-bit or 24-bit DAC. 16 bits means 65536 amplitude gradations - in most cases this is enough. But theoretically, under ideal conditions, the human ear is capable of providing greater resolution. And if the difference between 96 kHz and 48 kHz recordings can be argued, then many people with good hearing can distinguish 16-bit sound from 24-bit in the absence of background noise. Therefore, if you are going to use a sound card for listening to high-quality audio (DVD and Blu-ray) and sounding Blu-ray movies, you should choose a model with a 24-bit DAC.
Maximum DAC frequency determines the frequency with which digital data will be converted to an analog signal. The higher the sampling rate, the closer the conversion result is to the original signal. It would seem that the higher this indicator, the better. But, according to the Kotelnikov theorem, to transmit a signal of any frequency, a sampling frequency that is twice the frequency of the signal itself is sufficient. Given that the highest audible frequency is 20 kHz (for most people, the upper limit of audible sound generally lies in the region of 15-18 kHz), a sampling rate of 40 kHz should be sufficient for high-quality digitization of any sound. The audio CD sampling rate: 44.1 kHz, and the maximum sampling rate for mp-3 files: 48 kHz, are chosen based on this criterion. Accordingly, the DAC of a sound card that plays audio tracks and mp3 files must have a sampling rate of at least 48 kHz, otherwise the sound will be distorted.
Theoretically, such a sampling frequency should be sufficient, but in practice, sometimes a higher frequency is needed: the real audio signal does not fully meet the requirements of the Kotelnikov theorem and, under certain conditions, the signal may be distorted. Therefore, recordings with a sampling frequency of 96 kHz are popular among connoisseurs of pure sound.
The DAC sample rate is higher than the original file, it does not affect the sound quality, therefore, it makes sense to purchase a sound card with a DAC frequency above 48 kHz only if you are going to listen to blu-ray and DVD audio on your computer or loseless music with a sample rate , greater than 48 kHz.
If you are firmly committed to purchasing a sound card with a sampling rate above 48 kHz, then you should not save on the purchase. A DAC, like any other audio device, adds its own noise to the signal. In inexpensive models, the noise can be quite high, and given the high sampling rate, ultrasonic noise dangerous for speakers may appear at the output of such a converter. And in the audible range, the noise can be so high that it will overshadow all the gain from upsampling.
Maximum frequency and ADC bit depth determine how accurately an analog signal from a mic or line input will be converted to digital. These parameters are important if the card is intended for recording high quality sound. For most household needs, a single-channel ADC with a maximum frequency of 44.1 kHz and a bit depth of 16 bits is sufficient.
To record stereo sound, you must have at least 2 recording channels.
 |  |  |
PCI | PCI-E | USB |
Connection interface determines how the sound card will be connected to the computer. PCI and PCI-E are interfaces for connecting internal sound cards, which must be installed in the corresponding slot on the motherboard. USB - interface for connecting external sound cards.
Signal to noise ratio determines the level of noise added to the signal by the sound card itself. The higher this value, the clearer the sound remains. For listening to music, it is undesirable for this figure to be below 75 dB. Hi-Fi equipment provides a minimum of 90 dB, and high-quality Hi-End devices are capable of providing a signal-to-noise ratio of 110-120 dB and higher.
Support for EAX, OpenAL, A3D determines if the card supports gaming surround sound formats. With the help of these formats (by means of a multi-channel acoustic system), imaginary sound sources, sound reflections from virtual walls and other sound effects are created in space. Of course, for all this it is necessary that the game itself also supports this format.
ASIO support. ASIO is a software interface for direct (bypassing the operating system) data exchange between a sound card driver and a sound recording/playback program. The need for this format arose due to the fact that Windows (which uses this format) can delay the transfer of audio data when the system is under high load. By ear, this is defined as "jamming" and "slowing down" the sound. And, if (for example) when watching a movie, you can ignore such isolated cases, then with professional sound processing, this, of course, is unacceptable.
At the same time, ASIO support is not a guarantee that audio tracks will sound without delay - a lot depends on the quality of the sound card and its drivers. You shouldn't expect much effect from enabling this mode on a cheap base-level card.
Availability of digital output(S/PDIF, HDMI) allows you to transmit digital audio to audio equipment that can receive such a signal, such as a home theater. With this connection, the DAC parameters of the sound card are unimportant - the conversion of a digital signal into an analog one is performed by the DAC of a home theater. Such a connection is justified if the home theater DAC is better than what is built into the sound card.
Availability of digital input allows you to receive a digital signal from audio equipment (such as digital microphones and audio players). When using a digital input, the characteristics of the ADC of the sound card are unimportant - the sound already enters the card in digital form. In this case, the ADC of the device from which the digital audio signal comes from takes over the work of converting analog sound to digital (if it is done).
Availability built-in headphone amplifier It will be useful if you often sit in front of a computer with headphones on. If you have a high-quality high-impedance earphone, the presence of an amplifier is a must - otherwise they will sound quiet. You can buy a separate headphone amplifier, or you can choose a sound card with a built-in amplifier.
Phantom microphone power used when connecting condenser studio microphones - this microphone is considered to provide the best voice recording. To connect conventional dynamic microphones, phantom power must be turned off, otherwise the microphone may be damaged.
High impedance instrument input (Hi-Z) designed for direct connection of electronic musical instruments with high pickup impedance (such as electric guitars, electric cellos, violins, etc.) If you connect such instruments to a conventional line input, the signal's frequency response may be distorted.
Balanced inputs and outputs necessary when increased protection against noise induced on audio cables is required. Unlike conventional (unbalanced) inputs, balanced inputs use three wires per channel instead of two. In a normal input, one wire is ground, the second is an audio signal. Interference induced on the audio signal freely enters the ADC input, spoiling the main sound. In a balanced input, one wire is ground, the second is an audio signal, and the third is an audio signal in antiphase. In the card, the audio signal in antiphase is subtracted from the main one, while the induced interference - since it is in the same phase on both signals - disappears, and the useful signal is amplified.
On balanced inputs, a universal connector is often used, which can work both as balanced and as unbalanced.
ASIO support, microphone phantom power, high ADC frequency and bit depth, balanced, instrumental and Midi inputs are the distinguishing features of professional sound cards capable of high-quality sound recording.
