For non critical listening environments, no, But for more critical listening, say in a studio, for editing and running soft synths and adding efx with the plug ins, I say yes.
Example, I use a plain everyday Asus netbooks 1/8 mini jack for playback of my Wave backing tracks through a PA system for my live gigs. It sounds like any good quality CD player to me.
I also play my home stereo and watch movies via a Sound Blaster card on an old office PC.
On board sound cards are not all the same. My Asus was a lucky break. I had an Acer that was real noisy and hummed. You want to test your on board sound card first, I set Wave Lab ( any wave recorder will do) in "record mode and nothing plugged in, look at the level meter and phase scope. Some laptops and desktops will show as high as 30db of noise. The Asus was almost dead quiet. Just a fluke I think.
My home PC has the Sound Blaster which is a big upgrade from a MO sound chip but still useless for Sonar recording.
For recording and using plug ins you need the ASIO drivers. Otherwise you'll have all sorts of issues. But playback will work, if the card is quiet.
post edited by Cactus Music - 2013/12/14 12:50:50