USB Sound Cards

Recently, I wrote a blog about what I don't know about audio technology. Well, I am learning more all the time. One of the most interesting lessons I learned was about connecting my home desktop computer to my new, improved music system. At first, it seemed very straight forward...all I had to do was connect a long cable from my computer's sound card to an input on my receiver. Of course, you can do that, but you may be in for a nasty shock...it probably won't sound very good. I know because I tried it.

I started doing some research on the Net and quickly found out that if you really wanted to make this connection, you need a better sound card...specifically a USB sound card. Internal sound cards are just not very good for getting music out of your computer into your music system. More research on revealed the USB sound cards run from about $25 to $200. The higher the price, the better the sound...supposedly. Interesting enough, these USB sound cards can also yield simulated five channels of sound to your sound system or to any pair of headphones. To be honest, I haven't really checked out that capability yet as I was more interested in just getting two channels to my music system and letting it turn it into 5.1 channels, if I want it.

Anyway, I opted for the lower priced option as I really wanted to see if it did work and would make a difference. I purchased a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage USB sound card from NewEgg.com for around $25. When it arrived, I found that the device was about the same size as a USB thumb drive. I installed the software, which was very straight forward. The manual recommended that you first plug in headphones to make sure it works well. So I did. WOW, what a huge difference in sound quality. It just blew me away how much difference there was between my internal sound card and my new USB sound card using headphones. Next, I plugged in my computer speakers and they sounded much better also.

The reason a USB audio card is so better has to do with something referred to as DAC (Digital to Analog Conversion). Remember, the computer, an iPod, a CD player, and DVD player are all playing material recorded digitally. Your ears (as well as your speakers) are analog. There has to be a conversion done someplace in the loop. DVD and CD players have their own built-in DAC. An iPod also has a DAC, but it is nowhere near as good as a DAC in a CD player. This is one reason why I wanted to output my music from the computer (using iTunes) rather than my iPod. USB sound cards provide this higher quality DAC. Supposedly, the higher the price, the better the DAC.

After the headphones test, I plugged a connecting cable to the music system receiver. It sounded just great. My new receiver also has an enhancer setting to improve the sound of compressed music, like MP3's, FM radio stations, and even music stations coming from your cable or satellite company. It does make a difference you can hear. Besides the 6,000+ "tunes" I have inside iTunes, I can also play Internet-based radio stations, all of which can now be directly outputted to the receiver and my high quality speakers.

For your info, when you plug your USB sound card into your computer, it bypasses your internal sound card, so you may be "forced" to plug your computer speakers into the new sound card. When you unplug your USB sound card, the old sound card kicks back in.

The bottom line is that the audio output from your computer sounds much better with a USB sound card. In fact, even if you don't connect your computer to your music system, a USB sound card is a good investment. You definitely should consider one for your laptop.