If you would like to listen to music on computer and cannot stand the poor quality which brings the bad listening effect from the audio, what should you do? Maybe buying the subwoofers or the speakers to help you capture the good audio quality is not enough. Instead, a great soundcard will save this terrible situation. You will have a pleasant experience provided by such a small device when you are listening to music and playing games. But one thing you need to keep in mind is that choose the best soundcards for yourself to meet your needs.

Part 1: Best 5 Soundcards for Music Listening 2019

1. Creative Sound Blaster Z
This soundcard is designed in a good feature of a headphone amplifier in 600ohm for the headphone with high impedance, also it has 116 decibels SNR and five multiple headphone jacks in 3.5mm which includes the front and back speaker, the subwoofer, the headphone volume amplifier and the slot for microphone. To make the soundcard fit for your needs, Z included in it contain two kinds of software, one is the control panel in Z series and the other is Alchemy. EAX support enables in the old games is allowed by Alchemy, while the function of fully controlling the soundcard is available via Z series control panel. You just need to toggle between your headphone and the speaker system, then your room can be immersed in the sound. Moreover, it is easy to adjust the sound back to your headphone to prevent any noise affecting your family or your neighbors.

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2. Asus Xonar DSX PCIe 7.1
This sound card is inexpensive compared to others and it is perfect for music listening especially in movie and game. It can be plugged into the slot PCIe x1 which is compatible with the newest mainboard, 7.1 surrounds sound supported by Xonar is matched with added support in the swapped operational amplifier. A strong output signal can be produced due to the operational amplifier and the greater sound thereby can be offered from it. Apart from the swappable components, hi-fi theater can be brought to your desktop in a direct way by Xonar due to the support of DTS connection, which helps to enhance the entire sound quality. Moreover, 192K/24bit supported by Xonar maximumly reduce the signal noise and focuses on the multimedia performance.

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3. Asus Xonar GHX PCIe GX2.5
Three kinds of gaming options are offered by the audio amplifier installed in this sound card, which produces a good effect to your audio experience. When the headphone is inserted, the front panel with jack sending will switch from the back to the front in an automatic way. Moreover, the sound can be adjusted automatically and therefore you don’t need to change the connection settings manually. Dolby headphone included leads to a clear and deep sound, which makes the users feel immersive and enhance concentration in their music.

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4. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX
If you don’t want to cost lots of money on the soundcard, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX is definitely what you are looking for. 5.1surrond sound is offered to make you truly feel immersive. Additionally, with the help of this soundcard, your computer will be turned into an entertainment system for music listening. The audio will be processed behind the scenes and the output sound will go through the advanced processing. The headphone amplifier in 600ohm still offers an excellent experience and you don’t need to gain the greatest sound at an expensive earphone. Get one set of analog speakers plugged in will do a good favour to you to find the best audio. But you should note that if it has no EMI shield, it will probably have inference with another electronic equipment.

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5. Creative Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe
The main reason for this sound card to become flagship is that it has gain crown jewel for the steering lineup. The clear audio at 124dB offered by this soundcard, meanwhile, it also uses the DBPro daughter board. The non-motherboard operates the extra oomph. This respective sound offers you the 99.9% clarity, which is much better than the operation of mother board. The sound put out from it gives you the quality of audio in your studio and the 3D effect of surround sounds. The interface with a sound control will let you toggle between the headphone and the speaker so that the volume and the built-in microphone are able to produce the beautiful sound. Though the price is a bit high, you never feel disappointed when you plug such a perfect soundcard into your computer.

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Part 2: How to Set up Soundcard on PC for Music Listening

If you want a high sound quality for music listening, to install a sound card will help you capture the sound as you required. You can follow the steps as below to complete the setup process of the soundcard in your computer.
1. Find the PCI slots where the expansion cards can be installed. White is the typical color for PCI slots and the number of these slots is usually 1 to 5.

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2. Get rid of the existing card by removing the screw and pulling the card from the slot directly.
3. Before installing the new card, the notches must be made sure to align with the soundcard. Then the soundcard must be pressed straight down tightly. Finally, use a screw to get the soundcard secured.
4. Associate the soundcard with CD drive or DVD drive. Close the back case of the computer and make it secure. Then insert the cables to the computer.
5. Your speaker must be set up beside your computer. No matter the right channel or the left channel, they should be ensured on the right sides.
6. Make your speakers connect to the soundcard. Check the ports of the soundcard and make sure their colors are matched with the cables of your speakers.

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7. Open your computer and the windows will detect your soundcard automatically, the drive program will set up automatically. If the drive program of your sound card cannot be set up in the correct way, then you can set it up manually.

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8. Click on the icon button of Volume and check the speaker by setting the volume on the slider.

Extension: How to Record Music with Soundcard

After the installation of the soundcard on your computer, you will have a good experience in listening to music in good sound quality. If you are a music lover and would like to record your favorite music for offline listening, here we will recommend you two effective methods to complete this recording task. But whatever method you will use to record music, you should connect your microphone with the soundcard first before the recording work begins.

Record music with soundcard via Leawo music recorder

Leawo Music Recorder is a perfect software for recording music, which facilitates you to record different music from the built-in input audio, computer audio and online music. The recorded music can be saved as an output format of MP3 or WAV in the original quality. Moreover, music tags can be added to the recorded music automatically or manually. The customized settings even can help you to capture the music files to meet your needs. Below are the specific instructions of how to record music with Leawo music recorder.

1. Run the software on your computer and you will enter the main interface. Press on the icon “Audio Source” located on the main interface and set audio source before recording. Then choose the option “Record Audio Input” to record audio source from the built-in input audio like microphone.

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2. Click on the red button “Start” to make Leawo Music Recorder begin to work. Then click on the audio source files to make it play. You should remember that music recorder should begin recording prior to playing the audio source. If necessary, you can click on the icon “Recording task scheduler” on the left corner bottom to bring out Task Scheduler. With the help of this function, the start time and the duration time can be set for your recordings according to your needs.

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Record music with soundcard with Audacity

Using Audacity to record music is an effective solution to get your favourite music recorded freely. This music recording software is able to help you complete the music recording process with a simple operation. But, before you launch audacity on your computer, make sure the stereo mixing is available on computer in order that the music recording can be completed with high sound quality. Below are the steps of how to record music with Audacity for your reference.
1. Run audacity on your computer and then you will enter its main interface. Then press on the icon “Microphone” and choose “Stereo Mix” from the drop-down list which shows up.
2. Make audacity begin to record by clicking on the red dot button “Recording”.

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3. Choose the music you need to record and press on the button “Play” to start recording work.
4. To end the music recording process, you can press on the square button “Stop”.
5. You can get your recorded music playback by pressing on the “Play” button which is next to the “Record” button on the main interface of audacity.