sound cards

B

Big Woof

Obliviot
Just read a very good report on the Turtle Beach Montego DDL. It scored a 7.
I run XP2 with a Realtek AC97 sound card. Mini plug cable from pc to Panasonic digital stereo receiver. 2 channel stereo with Klipsch speakers.
If the Montego is a 7, what's better for my purposes. 98% music. 2% whatever.
Hope somebody can help with this. There's just too many cards out there for me to make an educated decision.
And I'm new to pc's too.
Thanks,
Big Woof
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
If you are willing to spend money, the X-Fi may be the way to go. I use the Chaintech AV-710, which is almost a budget card but does music extremely well. Can't say the same for some gaming though.
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
The Montego most likely scored a 7 due to having no hardware acceleration for gaming. The sound is every bit as good as the Envy 24 based cards and better than a first generation Audigy.
 
J

Jag

Obliviot
I use an Audigy 2 ZS card, you can get them at a very decent price. Not top line but very solid and an excellent quality, especially if you primarily just need it for music.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I prefer the Chaintech AV-710 over the Audigy 2 ZS because they are half the price and offer near the same performance. That's just me though.

/me wants an X-Fi :\
 
S

spiffyp

Obliviot
The problem with almost all of the add-on cards, I've found, is the amount of CPU load they add.

I'd rather use a built-on card (playing MP3s while gaming).
Or, buy an X-Fi. If you have the $$$.

/me drools... X-Fi...
 
F

fussnfeathers

E.M.I.
You've got it backwards, Spif. PCI cards use less CPU, as long as they have onboard decoding for surround sound. Most add-in cards at least have regular audio processing built into them, whereas the onboard chips rely on the southbridge to process the stream, which in turn loads up the CPU.

Big Woof, if you're just listening to music, and super-high quality isn't an issue, your setup is actually just fine. I might ditch the Panasonic stereo for a good set of PC speakers, but I find 5.1 and 7.1 excessive for pure music.

If you want an add-in card, give the M-Audio Revolution a look, or just an Audigy 2. Both perform well, but I find the Revolution does a better job at music reproduction. The trade-off is the surround decoding for games and movies isn't done onboard, it's passed off to the CPU. For you, I don't think that will matter at all.
 
F

Flipi

Obliviot
If you want a card for music I would choose the M-Audio card, but beware of the 5.1 card, go for the 7.1 model. It does a better job than the Audigy series. The only problem with this card is that is not quite suitable for games.
Btw I am into music too and have Altec mx5021 wich is a 2.1 system and I love it. For true lovers though classic systems are of no comparisson to active speakers.
 
P

PUTALE

Obliviot
most onboard sounds are good for music hearing unless you are looking into heavy sounds that has a lot of ranges.
 
Tech-Daddy

Tech-Daddy

Tech Monkey
I have an X-Fi Music... Fry's has these baby's for sale pretty cheap right now with a mail in rebate. They really are great sound cards.

Highly recommended....
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
On-board is good enough for my dead easr........;) It only has to play basic sounds and low volume games on my system. So I really don't have a need for anything special.
 
F

fussnfeathers

E.M.I.
sbrehm72255 said:
On-board is good enough for my dead easr........;) It only has to play basic sounds and low volume games on my system. So I really don't have a need for anything special.
Click to expand...

Even you can benefit from a PCI based card. The main reason is most PCI based cards move the positional sound processing from the motherboard and CPU to a dedicated processor on the soundcard. This translates to a few FPS in games, and cleaner sound at low volumes. I go a step farther, my soundcard is an external FireWire based unit, so I'm completely removing not only the processing, but any potential crosstalk and noise.
 
sbrehm72255

sbrehm72255

Tech Monkey
I know this about the FPS in games, a few FPS isn't going to make or break me on the games I play one way or the other.
I have a few Soundblaster cards around the house and opted not to use them. I hate the creative drivers along with the extra crap in my case, it just gets in the way of my water cooling. .................;)
 
Drew

Drew

E.M.I.
ChainTech AV-710

I have to agree with Rob. I use the Chaintech and absolutely love it and the price was good too.
 
RazorBack

RazorBack

E.M.I.
Can anyone here suggest a new sound card for me? I have a mixer with two phono outputs and I would love to connect it to a decent sound card, rather than just through an adapter to a 1/8" jack. The quality really isn't good. I have recorded a few bands in the past, and the onboard sound really doesn't cut it. I don't have that much money lying around... maybe up to £70, not sure.

Thanks
 
J

jadegato

Obliviot
my 2 cents

As far as soundcards go, At the moment i use a Auzentech X-meridian. I just came from an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and the sound quality for music and movies is incredible on the X-M is way better. There is a definite difference between the two.

The x-fi is excellent for eax enabled games though definitely the way to go. The x-fi platinum ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102189 ) has phono inputs i believe so you might want to try that one.

However now that i moved away from creative. The X-Meridian is definitely worth a look you could also buy other variants of this card such as the Blue Gears Enspirer ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829127002 ) and the HT Omega Claro (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271002 ) . Those two are the same chipset as the Auzentech and not as expensive. Again though its up to your personal preference i barely play games but when i do it sounds amazing on DTS.
 
b1lk1

b1lk1

Tech Monkey
Another sound card to look for is the Sondigo Inferno. It uses the same chipset as the X-Meridian but is half the price. If you plan on using the Optical S/Pdif then the Sondigo is just as good as the X-Meridian.
 
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