Onboard vs Cheap USB SoundCard? Options

[Tall-Guy]

Hey,

Up until now I have been using my Onboard Sound Card - ALC1200(Realtek). It suppose to be quite decent according to reviews (I'm mainly using it with Headphones).
More technical information about it can be found here.

Recently I purchased a set of new headphones that comes with a USB Soundcard: Steelseries USB Dongle. Technical information can be found here.

Few questions based on the above:
1. Is any one of them significantly better than the other (spec-wise)?
2. Does Onboard card getting Amp on the way out by the motherboard? What about the USB soundcard?

I tried to compare them using my ears, but the time it takes me to unplug and plug everything again (and change the output device in Windows) just takes too much for me to 'Remember' how to previous sounded. Or perhaps it just the difference was not that major for me to notice.

Thanks.

[Tall-Guy]

You need a cable that connects speaker out (or line out, should be the same) to line in. You should enable line out for playback at maximum volume (without amplification) and line in (and *only* line in) for recording. RMAA will allow you to tune the volume when you start the test, do this by gradually increasing the line in volume until it just doesn't clip.

It basically means however I can not perform this test on the External USB Card? as It doesn't have Line in, but only out (and a USB).

[Garf]

It basically means however I can not perform this test on the External USB Card? as It doesn't have Line in, but only out (and a USB).

You can loop back the line output from the USB card into the line in of another soundcard. This will limit the maximum possible result to the performance of the second soundcard, though, so you'd typically want to use the best you can get your hands on and RMAA that first.

If you only have the built-in audio on your mainboard, you can RMAA that, and then use this set up to see if you get approximately the same result when you use the USB card line output into the mainboard line input. If the results are close, this means the USB is "no worse" than the mainboard.

So you can only see if the USB is worse or not worse. You can't measure if it is better.