Asus VIA HD Audio

Computer sound cards are amongst the most underrated products around. If you're pleased with the performance, enjoy listening! 

  Hi, bigboss. Ta for your comment. I'm just trying to avoid getting on to the upgrade ladder with my laptop unnecessarily, but might look for a better DAC.

 

Ooh, I've been name checked.

I don't know your sound card, but if you are connecting to the E7, then it should sound fine. I say should, because I haven't actually heard that DAC either, I just suspect, based on very little, that a half decent external DAC is as far as you need to go. I also think that, whilst an external DAC worked better for me than just a soundcard (according to my imperfect testing), talk of of computers sounding particularly bad is generally cobblers; to say they can often be improved is not the same as saying they sound awful to begin with.

I'm far from experienced with a wide range of kit, and my answer probably btrays that, but you did ask me

Oh look, it's light outside.

G'night.

 

 

Greetings, Alex, and thanks for your input. It was mainly because you also have an Asus laptop that I thought I'd ask. I only have, in addition to the usual headphone outlet, USB out from my Asus's soundcard, so wondered whether it wasn't particularly good, but to be honest it's sounding quite good - to me, anyway. As it's designated "HD", which I took to mean High Def, it ought to be reasonable, and it seems to be. The headphone sound via the E7 is better than the soundcard. With the L7 attachment which makes the E7 act as a DAC I can output to my main system, but haven't reached definite conclusions as to which is best to listen to using phones, though. But it does allow me to listen to my downloads.  The search goes on.

 

Ah, no, I don't have an Asus laptop; that's my motherboard.

I had a Toshiba Satelite P300 which from its paper specifications should have sounded excellent: 24/96 and hi-def this, that and the other. Pitty it sounded pants. That's not saying your Asus sounds pants, if you like it then that's all that matters, just pointing out that paper specifications and 'HD' labels aren't guarantees of high SQ.

Agree! My laptop is rated as HD but is probably more to do with the fact that it will decode some form of HD audio standard and thus nothing to do with actual sound quality. I have the Fiio E7 and it easily beats my laptop sound to headphones. I don't think that any laptop's default soundcard will beat the E7's audio quality tbh. If you don't need it as an amp only (iPod) then I hear the Fiio E10 is better for the money but I found the E7 to be a no brainer for better audio quality to headphones from a computer.

With the Asus you will either need to use a USB Dac or stream the music to an amp to get the best sound quality.

 

As for the Toshiba if u connect using the HDMI port it will give you the best possible sound. If you think the sound is poor when connected like this - then something is wrong with your settings.

My Tosh didn't have HDMI, and anyhow it's been RIP for a long time. At 13 months old the hard-drive and motherboard died and seeing that it was a relatively inexpensive laptop to start with, I decided it wasn't even worth trying to sell it for parts. So I ended up pulling it apart, smashing up the hard drive (that felt sooo good)and recycling what I could in the appropriate bins. I just mentioned it because on paper its sound card was the highest-specified device in the house, but it sounded lousy.

I'm dithering about on the edge of downloading/streaming, and don't really know how to do this, and using my laptop to feed my amp via the E7+L7 as a DAC appears my best option, as it's all close by, and has all - wired connections. I wondered about the Asus soundcard, which isn't easily swapped to improve on, but the E7/L7 enables me to download hi-res music and play back through my main system. I also use the E7 in my car, to amplify an i-pod Nano to listenable levels, so it's been a good buy. I am impressed with the E7 for headphone listening via USB, but still evaluating listening with my main system via the E7+ L7 DAC from the laptop.