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View submission: Simple Questions - December 02, 2020
Onboard sound got good enough for the masses. It still sucks, but it doesn't suck because the DACs are bad - dirt cheap DACs can be very good, on their own. It sucks because it's unbalanced, in a box with a lot of magnetic fields changing really fast, so it picks up activity from data buses, and CPU and/or GPU VRMs. Also, use of hardware DSP is dead - it's all done in the CPU, now, so the sound chip is just a transport, DAC, and line driver. If you want better sound, the first step is getting the analog section and power supply outside of the PC. If you look for USB DACs, USB soundcards, and USB interfaces, you'll find there are many choices. Many people also prefer to instead opt for digital, often wireless, headsets, these days, as well.
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