Hey guys, I have a nice pair of Grado Labs SR 80 headphones, I was wondering if I would be able to hear much of a difference playing games, listening to music, and watching movies by buying a Sound Card for around 50 bucks. Thanks everyone in advance.

Absolutly. If you have nice referance headphones such as Grados, I would suggest taking full advantage of having anything other than onboard sound (Assuming that's what you currently have). Even a decent old SoundBlaster would work fine. Mainly because you get less total harmonic distortion from the rest of the components on the motherboard. For some reason whenever I use any onboard sound (and I've use quite a few), I get random clicks, pops, and a constant hum, especially with my Grado headphones. Because they're so damn good! Got to say, nice choice in headphones.

Anyhow, I hope my two cents gave you some light on the subject.

If you want good pseudo surround sound effects, the new X-Fi card from creative labs is supposed to revolutionize headphone sound for gaming. Steep price though...$129 for the bottom end card. $280 for the gamer edition with 64M of RAM on it for "extreme performance" n games. I still want to see some reviews to see how good this card is, but it's worth checking out.

Otherwise, it's hard to go wrong with an Audigy 2.

"Republicans in Congress are moving to ratify a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, thus ending the Iraqi insurgency."

Personally I think my 8 channel onboard sound sounds great on my Inland headphones with built in subs:)

I see no reason to buy a SC that expensive!

RED

Everything sounds great until you hear what sounds better!

How do you think I got into buying $1000 home theater receivers? :-)

"Republicans in Congress are moving to ratify a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, thus ending the Iraq insurgency."

duald, I get the same exact thing with the random clicks, pops, and humming. I always assumed it was just a poor quality mp3, but I guess its because of the onboard sound. I definately think i'll get a sound card now. What model would you guys recommend? I dont want to spend much more than 50 or 60 bucks. Thanks guys.

If you're playing games, Audigy 2. Otherwise, Turtle Beach makes some good cards for about the same money that have better sound quality, but they won't support as high EAX effects for games.

"Republicans in Congress are moving to ratify a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, thus ending the Iraq insurgency."

Ok guys, thanks for the help. Audigy 2 it is then.