If you have high-end speakers (5.1 or 7.1 channel) or high impedance audiophile headphones such as Beyerdynamic DT990 PRO, Audeze LCD-3 or Pioneer SE-MASTER1 then you can’t get the most out of them by using integrated audio, as their true quality and higher volume can only be experienced with a good dedicated sound card equipped with a headphone amplifier.Īlso, if you have an older computer with crappy onboard sound or your PC integrated sound is damaged or not supported by an upgraded version of the Operating System then even a budget internal sound card comes in very handy and can make your PC sing again.
An audiophile or a music enthusiast can easily tell the difference between the quality of a dedicated sound card and an integrated sound solution. A good dedicated sound card is still way ahead of the onboard sound, no matter how better onboard audio has become in recent times. However, if you are an audiophile, music enthusiast, enthusiast gamer or a professional whose job involves music or sound recording, testing or playback then you do need a good dedicated sound card. The most common integrated sound chip or chipset used in almost all the motherboards is Realtek and it provides up to High Definition (HD) audio and 7.1 channel sound setup in most of the motherboards. Most of the computer users don’t buy sound these days because of this tremendous improvement in the quality of onboard audio chips. An integrated audio solution is also good enough for listening to music, watching movies and even for an average HTPC setup. Thank you for supporting the work I put into this site!)ĭo you really need a sound card for gaming? Probably not for most of the gamers because onboard audio on motherboards has become so much better these days that you can have an enjoyable gaming experience on it. PulseAudio - General purpose sound system intended for out-of-the-box audio, multiple simultaneous inputs, can handle complex setups is network-capable.(*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase through the links I provide (at no extra cost to you).
PipeWire - Multimedia framework intended as a replacement for both PulseAudio and JACK, supports containers like Flatpak.Network Audio System - An open-source, network-transparent, client–server audio transport system.
JACK Audio Connection Kit - Sound server for pro audio use, especially for low-latency applications including recording, effects, realtime synthesis, and many others.OSS - An alternative sound architecture for Unix-like and POSIX-compatible systems which has been superseded by ALSA due to a licensing change, but got opened back in 2007.
ALSA - The default Linux kernel component providing device drivers and lowest-level support for audio hardware.
If you want additional features you can install one of several sound servers.
This article is about basic sound management.