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    • Echo Dot
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      9 months ago

      A sound card is a device you add to your motherboard if for some strange reason your motherboard doesn’t have the ability to play sound already. I have literally never heard of anyone needing one since about 1995.

      Maybe it’s for a retro system? It’s not exactly expensive.

      • Daxtron2@startrek.website
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        9 months ago

        A lot of motherboards cheap out on their audio. I had one that had a lot of EMI in the line in and swapped it out for a 30$ card like this and it cleared it up so people would stop telling me my mic sounded like shit lol.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Apparently having a dedicated sound card and high end audio equipment can improve the quality of the sound. You can chalk it up to audiophile stuff.

        • Digestive_Biscuit
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          9 months ago

          I’m not really an audiophile but switching to an external usb amp dac was a good decision.

      • DumbAceDragon@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        I actually had to add a dedicated sound card to my PC because the onboard one shat itself and died somehow, and it was way cheaper than a new motherboard.

      • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        I had a board that the onboard audio was causing crashes. I disabled it and installed a PCI sound card and everything was fine.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        I literally have a modern system that does not have any audio onboard.

        I put in a USB connected mixer that also functions as an audio interface for my PC… But I could have easily gone this way too.

    • tws@lemmynsfw.com
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      9 months ago

      Back in the day, they were the only way to get sound out of machine, except the internal speaker but that only said beep