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Sound cards are boards that
connect into an expansion slot on the motherboard to produce high
quality sound effects and better gaming and music environments. The
have connectors for connecting multiple speakers into a surround
sound setup.
Sound cards can either be connected directly to the motherboard PCI
slot or also through the USB or FireWire interface.
A
sound card is composed of different components including input
connections, output connections, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor)
and onboard memory. A DSP is just like a mini processor, the main
purpose of this chip is to decrease the workload on the system CPU.
A dedicated memory will save the computer memory (RAM). DAC (Digital
to Analog Converter) is also an important part of a sound card; this
mini chip converts the digital signals to analog signals, so that
they can be heard on a speaker or headphone.
Contemporary sound cards also offer the facility for 3-D and
surround sound. 3-D and surround sound are very different from each
other. In a surround sound setup we can hear sound from different
directions, which can change according to the movements in the
object producing sounds, for example we can hear a flying plane
coming from one direction and going to other without actually
looking at the plane. 3-D sound is an advanced from of surround
sound in which sound also changes with according to the listener’s
actions.
A high end sound card can
support up to 7.1 surround sound, and are also THX and Dolby
certified.
Some sound cards also offer the facility to connect a synthesizer
through a MIDI (Musical
Instrument Digital Interface)
interface. Analog devices like cassette players can also be attached
to the card. By attaching cassette players sound card can convert
the analog signals to the digital format and store it on a storage
device on the computer.
If
you are keen to buy a good sound card, first make sure that you
speakers are crisp and clear, because even an excellent sound card
is useless if you do not have good quality speakers. |
