Ok well I just read the "Audio Newbie" thread, and noticed that everybody was dissing the Audigy series of soundcards. I was just about to purchase one (Audigy 4) when I read this. Which card would you recommend? Budget right now isnt really an issue... I love summer jobs The input would be extremely helpful. I know im a n00b, you dont have to remind me...
I need the card for the pc im building now though thats why im in the need... but thanks for the info any way, i didnt know they were coming out with a new one.
creative lie if you want actual sound quality rather then just playing games, in which case it wouldnt matter get something like a terratec or an m-audio for real quality...
yes and never go on people who say "i love my xxxxx creative" or reviews online you see. as 95% of them are done by people who the closest they have ever got to hifi is a set of logitech speakers. they suddenly notice a difference and then think its a miracle product and that they know everything about hifi. if they actually used another card they would realise. or if the actually knew what to listen for or listen on something other than pc speakers. such as a mini dell pc and ashley simpson.
Actually, S/PDIF outputs are not much different. The way the S/PDIF output of a cheap sound card can sound as good as that of an expensive sound card has to do with the fact that the internal DAC is bypassed. Then all that remains are the bitrates and DSP effects, if any. (I turn DSP off because music already sounds good without it.) BTW, the S/PDIF output of my ECS motherboard sounds just as good as the S/PDIF output from a professional sound card at the same data rate. Just to let you know, I did that testing with a good 5.1 setup and a 16 bit stereo 44.1k WAV file ripped from a CD with cdparanoia. Although I agree that analog output quality does vary a lot.
ok i have no idea why your going on about spdif again... he never said if he is using digital out or not. and its not the point either. unless your using an external dac and using the digital out, you really shouldnt realy on a onboard dac in a cheap amp. you should buy a better sound card and use analogue out to a better amp without in built dac. for the same money you will get better results. as for using a wav file ripped. WHY? just play the cd. and what you do you call a good 5.1 setup? but anyway this is totally sidtracking the point. just look at m-audio or terratec cards. you try them side by side to creative cards and you will hear the difference. unless your using £10 pc speakers then just use on board sound.
You do know that hard drives are basically sealed so there is virtually no dust to interfere with the playback, right? Cdparanoia actually extracts the data in a smart way, like fixing certain readout errors (there shouldn't be much, if any, with a good drive). An external DAC is generally better than an internal DAC because the external one will be farther away from high current electronics. (Some CPU voltage regulators have currents as high as 100A.) It would also have a more independent power supply. Of course, with my setup, it's all digital until the very last moment. BTW, I wonder if you use a Plextor for playing CDs.
no star882 i use a naim cd5i (link) atm thank you very much. as for stating an external dac is better, you just made my own point. as for why play off a cd... well you are taking a cd the ripping it the playing it through software which then interprits it in the soundcard. why not just use a cd player. but anyway.... not gonna do this again. its off topic i dont want to get into this. if you want to talk dacs and cd players start a thread. k?
dom you really need to remember that we're talking about PC users here, not audiophiles. Audiophiles know better than to use creative products, but for typical users, they're great.
I wouldn't trust Cdparanoia as a secure ripping technology, it attempts to fix read errors but who knows if it gets it right....gimme EAC anyday. </offtopic> For the soundcard recommendation, it really depends on what its primarily for. If all you do is gaming, get the audigy for those extra few frames per second. If, however, you will use it for other purposes such as DVD playback and music listening, I would recommend anything based on the Via Envy24HT chip, such as the Terratec Aureon Space and M-Audio Revolution. If you don't require 7.1 surround, consider the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 or EMU 0404 since these will sound better for stereo listening and cost less than their 7.1 cousins. In particular, if its faithful music reproduction and sound quality that you want, you won't beat the Emu for the money. I've seen it recommended many times on Hydrogen Audio and Head Fi. If you happen to be a musician, you may also appreciate the multitude of music making capabilities that these two cards have. I have a Terratec Aureon 5.1 Sky and have been very impressed with it. The sound is infinitely more crisp and detailed when compared to onboard sound, even with my ordinary stereo system. It has some nice features such as built in headphone amp and optical digital input/output and the drivers are refreshingly lightweight when compared to creative's bloated offerings.
I'm very happy with my E-MU 1212m...incredible detail and depth, especially noticable with my ER-6 (still don't have an amp for my HD600s, workin' on that). Probably the last source I'll need, only because: 1. I don't care THAT much about the small details and 2. There is no way I'm paying for an external DAC. I'm poor. Would rather build a great headphone amp personally. Anyways, I've heard nothing but great things about the other E-MU cards. The E-MU 0404 and 1212m are very popular (there's a regular 1212, which, if I remember, has an inferior DAC or amp circuit or something, but still very good). The 18xx line is the same as the 1212x but with an external box, more inputs/outputs, etc. DACs and important circuits are the same. Infact, they have the same 1010 and 0202 boards (1010+0202=1212). I don't have any experience with M-Audio cards, and I will say that, with my more low-fi headphones, the Audigy 2 was a pretty good source. It's in my system now only for gaming, which I can use it's digital out for. I put the Audigy 2's digital out into the digital in on my E-MU card, and bam, EAX and fancy gaming stuff with the quality of my 1212m. You can probably do this with any hi-fi soundcard that has a digital coaxial in (i.e. not optical, although you can get a converter) and decent mixing software (since you have to pipe it back out in real time). If you're on a budget, and are just doing 2.1 with low impedence headphones (and by the sounds of it, you're not exactly sitting in hi-fi gear) or speakers, check out the Chaintech AV-710. It actually does 7.1, but I've heard the DACs on the other channels are crap. The first two channels have some nice Wolfson DACs apparently, but they cheaped out on the other channels. Hence the like, sub-30 dollar pricetag.
