Does the sound card affect sound quality of speakers much?

I have a XPS m1330 with the normal sound card. Looking to buy the Logitech z-2300 and was wondering if my normal sound card would limit the sound quality a lot. How much do sound cards affect these speakers?

 

decent speaker choice for that price. and NO, even the crappiest sound card wont begin to be noticeable until u spend more on speakers than you did on your computer, (and even then only if u have undamaged, trained ears). sound quality is 98% amplifier and speaker, which are outside of your laptop
(% used for illustration, not literal)

 

I had a friend who thought like that a while back. He was playing DOOM 3 with his 5.1 on board and logitech speakers. He was impressed. He kept telling everyone how good his motherboard was. He came to my place one time and he played on my PC. When he saw the quality and surround my Platinum Pro was giving he went out the next day and bought the same saying how wrong he was and how he was barking at the wrong tree.


Bottom line: integrated components will never yield the same quality as specialised components. Your XPS will sound poorly with the Z-2300.

 

well... i found that using external usb sound card (X-mod, plug and play), improves the sound quality, the sound has less white-noise and is more fuller sounding.

all of my desktop is fitted with sound card, they do sound considerably better than the onboard one when i try them.

 

Right...

 

Any decent sound cards for notebooks under 100?

 

You know that ironically enough for you and your example, Doom 3 is one of the few games which DOES NOT utilize the sound card for sound rendering AT ALL? It's all built-in. So actually your sound card made zero difference in your example. Maybe your speakers were better than your friend's...or more probably it was a placebo effect. You and your friend were tricked...by your minds.

Sorry to burst your bubble

To answer the OP's question: No it wouldn't if you're just listening to music. To be honest, any positive difference you would hear would be a placebo effect. Especially with those speakers. But hey, if your ears perceive the sound as better with a soundcard, then go for it since you would enjoy your music more. As for gaming...integrated solutions only support up to EAX 2.0 I believe (or even no EAX at all.) If your games use EAX then you would definitely notice a difference with a Creative sound card.

 

I disagree with you
I have a really nice speaker system, but it sounded crappy with the built in sound card.
It sounds so much better with my new soundblaster x-fi expresscard
It's a huge improvement
You'll hear stronger tighter bass and more overall clarity, and you'll most likely notice details in familiar songs that you've never caught before.

 

My Daughter has a Shuttle PC with onboard sound driving Logitech X 230 speakers, which are admittedly a quarter of the price of the Z 2300 of the OP, and they sound dreadful - I have to turn the Windows sound down to 50% on the master volume and device volume sliders to get rid of the buzzy, crackly, muffled sound. But if I plug the speakers into the Echo Indigo PCMCIA sound card on my Latitude D620, those same speakers sound fantastic!
I can only assume, therefore, that the sound card makes a great deal of difference.

 

It really depends on your ears. Some people cannot hear a difference from integrated audio, some can. The most recent generation of integrated audio is good enough for majority of people. Notebook soundcards are at least 2 generations behind desktop soundcards. Especially Creative Labs crap that they call X-Fi, isn't really true for their notebook as it doesn't truly support 5.1 or majority of the features you would find on the desktop, nor is it near the quality of a desktop soundcard.

 

I bet you have never owned one
Yes the notebook card may not support 5.1
But IT DOES have majority of the features of a desktop Sound Blaster, and IT IS near (if not the same) the quality of a desktop card
I have a sound blaster x fi fatality card on my desktop and a soundblaster x fi card on my laptop, and I don't think the laptop card is "CRAP"

 

Actually I do (or rather did since I've gotten rid of it) own the X-Fi Xtreme Audio (Expresscard) as well as the desktop SB Live! and used the X-Fi XtremeMusic, among others such as the M-Audio Revolution 7.1, Turtle Beach Montego, and Auzentech X-plosion. Without a doubt, Creative is at the bottom of the list. Creative also uses poor quality parts and have shoddy drivers (which is a well known fact in many computer enthusiast's circles), so yes, I would still call it crap. If you can't hear the difference, stick with integrated audio, if you can, then you can find a lot better solutions in a similar price range.

 

You're talking about the old soundblaster xtreme audio expresscard .
I have the new one that just came out last month.
the old one was known to have poor quality.