Question I Purchased The Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus Pure Edition But I Use 2.1 Corsair SP2500 Speakers, Have I Wasted My Money?

[Cassius101]

I still use the Corsair SP2500 2.1 Speaker System which is discontinued but I consider it to be among the best 2.1 Computer Speakers ever made and I don't wanna stop using it. I have used it since 2013.

Did I waste my money? Will I still notice the benefits of having a sound card? I was thinking I won't. Using my speaker system I can't put the red and white audio inputs in the graphics card or the speakers won't work, it must be hooked into the speaker system subwoofer, unless there is some type of triple converter but I don't think there is. This means I can only use the headphone jack with the speaker system, while I will mostly be using headphones, I do like experiencing it without headphones sometimes.

The speaker system also has a remote with a headphone jack so I won't be hooking up my headphones into the soundcard so will I still notice the differences with having this sound card? I don't think the sound would be as loud on my headphones if I had them directly hooked into the sound card anyway, I could be wrong but I doubt I am.

Currently I am upgrading my computer and the new motherboard I have is the AsRock Steel Legend Wifi Z790, while the MOBO isn't so different it has Nahimic audio support and I think it looks nicer but the onboard sound isn't as good as my current mother board which is the Gigabyte AERO G Z790. The AERO G has the ALC1220-VB CODEC and the Steel Legend has the Realtek ALC897, while the ALC1220-VB is supposedly better I have seen some that say you won't notice the difference.

 

[Brainonska511]

If the speakers are computer speakers, presumably, they have a standard 3.5 mm jack to hook into your audio output, either the built in on the motherboard or the sound card. And if your speakers are only red/white RCA plugs, you can always get a cheap 3.5 mm to RCA split cable.

I don't know why you'd need to hook your speakers to your graphics card.

Given the capabilities of modern integrated sound solutions on motherboards, I find it unlikely that you would notice a difference between the integrated audio output vs a dedicated sound card.

 

[sdifox]

Return the sound card and buy better speakers

 

[Motostu]

Another option would be an optical to RCA converter something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/AUTOUTLET-Op...e5f92943eb9beb08d690c649cfb&gad_source=1&th=1

 

[bigboxes]

Return the sound card and buy better speakers

This exactly. Most motherboards have adequate enough sound. Either get some better powered speakers, preferably 2.0