best external sound card to add surround sound to pc

External sound cards are simple plug and play. Not everyone is comfortable with taking their computer apart and adding extra pieces here and there.

Easy installation - You won’t have to open up your computer at all.

What Benefits Does an External Sound Card Have?Įxternal sound cards have a few advantages over installing an internal sound card: These are also built-in to external sound cards. This process is done through Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). The sound card will then amplify the electric current in order to translate it to 1’s & 0’s for the computer. A microphone can capture sound and send it to the sound card. The speakers and headphones ride the powered current to make wonderful orchestral performances, rocking concerts and inspiring speeches to be heard.Īn external sound card usually has a way to input sound as well. The electric current needs enough power to drive the magnet.

The amplifier provides more power, feeding the wave until it is large enough for speakers. The newly created wave starts as more of a ripple. This wave becomes the electric current to be sent to speakers. The DAC will take samples from the bit train and create the shape of a wave from it. For going from the computer to speakers, a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) receives the train of bits from the computer and transform it into a wave form. How Does the Sound Card Do This?Ī sound card needs to convert the bits from a computer. After those two steps of conversions, we can finally hear what the song from the computer is. It requires a sound card to translate the signal to what speakers can use to produce sound in the air. The computer isn’t compatible by itself to pass music to our ears. It moves a magnet to produce an electric current in the wire. A speaker is made up of a wire with an electric current, magnets, and a cone attached to the magnet to make sound. When an electric current runs by a magnet, the magnet moves. Electricity and magnets react to each other. Speakers and headphones are what make part of the magic happen. The bits need to be changed to a wave and sent through the air. We hear in an analog form, which resembles a wave. In addition, our brain isn’t designed to understand 1’s & 0’s of a computer. The song needs to be released into the air to hear it. Can you hear the song as it is doing that? I can’t. It is zipping as a group of 1’s & 0’s through wires from one side of the computer to the other.

Bits are flying everywhere on wires inside our computers and digital devices.

The bits could be imagined not as a wave, but as blocks in a line on wires.

Best external sound card to add surround sound to pc