Agreed but that's the least of all the benefits if you ask me. Discrete soundcards have vastly superior DACs and are MUCH better shielded against electrical noise, which can get VERY audible at times.. The latter being the bane of ALL onboard chips. Even recent attempts by motherboard makers to shield onboard chips have yielded less than acceptable results.

less than acceptable results :D yeah sure, probably thats why 99% uses them :)

the size :P

well if you only have your internal realtek controller there will be a quality loss regardless, even on the more expensive motherboards

ofc this could all be a trick to ensure better sound cards will be sold

yep it is a trick

would people buy those cards if they would say this produces the same sound but more expensive buy it now to flash now with a fancy name and logo
so they just say some unmeasurable slogans like for audiophiles or high quality sound :D

My current bedroom sound setup consists of integrated sound card, el-cheepo half chineesium/ half diy made amplifier and a set of stereo diy speaker with 13cm drivers. Sound is ok-ish but stereo imaging isn't good, due temporary speaker placement. Not great but enough for me, since I tend to listen at very low levels.
A program called Equalizer APO is a must IMHO, mostly since I don't like "boomy bass" that most people seem to enjoy, I really find it very tiring. It does a nice job smoothing out the response of the speakers.
This is simply not true and is not only audible but measurable. If you don't hear the difference it's ok, I don't get most of the stuff as well. But if you listen at high levels with a semi-good system you definetely hear the difference, even if you don't care for it.
Probably 75%+ of PC's in the world only use Intel integrated graphics and that doesn't make them less than acceptable for heavy games, right?
I can't speak about headphones though, very rarely use my Plantronics set.

If you only care about listen to the steps of the enemies on your FortCraft: Global Siege game, then a better system will do no good for you... However, listen to your average music (even mp3) on a ok-ish system will make you hear instruments you never know were there...

BTW, I kind of enjoy the Ikea line of wireless speakers.

but it is true, just do some blind tests, and chose which sounds better good luck with it
oh and dont use some shitty low bitrate mp3 ,use 256 or 320 kbps

I wonder if there are topics left that haven't been infested by the troll?

I decided to go the home theater PC (HTPC) route close to a decade ago. I've fiddled with and upgraded components over the years. Current set up is a bit perfect HDMI connection to a higher end Denon reciever that goes out to a 5.1 setup using entry level Focal home theater speakers/subwoofer.

Sound is fantastic overall, but anytime I can use WASPI mode so that it bypasses the Windows sound tweaking and allow the receiver to do it's thing... the sound becomes amazing.

I gave up a long time ago trying to get any sort of true audiophile experience from my PC set up.

I have a very respectable hi-fi system set up in a separate room from my PC which is where I do my serious listening. Of course not everyone has this luxury.

I tried some relatively cheap active speakers for the PC and even an active 5.1 system but just felt the results where underwhelming. None of the kit I tried was particularly expensive when viewed against real hi-fi options (mostly logitech gear)- I don't believe there are too many options in this area for a reason.

If you think about it speaker placement is automatically going to be an issue- where are the speakers going to go unless you spend some serious cash on options to place them exactly in the right positions for a PC which you are generally going to be using at a desk anyway...

Of course I believe you can do it, but I would say only by using a dedicated external DAC to a dedicated separate hi-fi system will get you serious results. PCs are just to noisy in terms of electrical interference to do anything else.

Currently I am using a relatively cheap soundblaster x-fi card and using a sennheiser head set. Using a headset/headphones is bang for buck always going to get you a more immersive sound on the PC than using cheaply made speaker options.

My opinion only of course. I still listen to music through my PC but if I like what I hear, I will always buy it on a format that I can use in my separate dedicated hi-fi.

As for soundcards, I believe they are starting to die off and have been since Vista. There are all kinds of debates about microsoft messing around so much with the different layers and codecs that it will make your head spin reading it all. At a basic level I am guessing that most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a dedicated card and onboard. Take into consideration that I read somewhere that typical overhead you save nowadays with dedicated soundcards equates to about 2 or 3 fps and there is definitely something to consider.

I can't see myself buying another dedicated soundcard- but that's just me :)

Digital out (toslink) from integrated soundcard to Zero DAC/headamp (used as pre-amp) to ART Headamp 6 Pro to Sennheiser HD800.

I've always used speakers, for everything. I just don't find wearing headphones a pleasant experience.

I've found that using speakers requires lots of space for proper placement and lots of time & effort & money for acoustics, and then you're still left with a system that you can't use at night without potentially disturbing other inhabitants -- and it does very little to keep outside noises from disturbing you (not that open cans are a whole lot better on that front).

In my experience, it depends on the speakers. Some are more 'sensitive' to placement than others. And I don't think that it's just MY experience... you can read about in reviews.
But sure, both speakers and headphones have their up and downsides. I've never thought that one is generally better than the other. It's a personal choice.

"can't use at night" is a bit dramatic though. It might be the case in your current personal situation. Maybe you live in a building full of elderly people that start complaining if they hear anything more than a squeek?