Sondigo Inferno 7.1 PCI soundcard

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/10/12/sondigo_inferno_pci_soundcard/1.html

 

My main gripe with the review is with the graphs for X-fi and Realtek, they are the same blue!

 

I would strongly not reccomend using BS4 as a sound benchmark in the future, it plays havoc with several iterations of the Nforce based soundcards.

 

Well, I dont use an nForce based board. It was meant as a subjective comparison and the only game which was non-EAX I had to hand.

Bio: point noted, I may change the colour later.

 

Great to see a new company bringing out a great product. I've had many problems with older creative products, which meant that I stuck to onboard sound as there were no decent alternatives - until now.

 

Competeing companies are always better for the consumer. I am tired of Creatives dominance in the soundcard market. I think I will be getting this card.

 

Bindi: I mean that if it can cause problems with some soundcards, it may cause problems with others

 

I'm sorry, it's one of my pet hates...There's no such thing as a "Base Guitar", it's a "Bass Guitar", the same as "Bass Drum", "Drum and Bass", "Trebble and Bass", "Sub-Bass" and "Mid-Bass" etc.

Goog product though and a good review.

 

Corrected. You're of course right it should be Bass. It's one of those things I know and should have used but is not second nature and spell check doesn't pick it up.

Doug: If I'd had had problems then I would have either used something else or reported it. It's a soundcard review, not a motherboard or game review.

 

While we're on the subject, it's Treble

I'd agree that the X-Fi is an incredible card and that it does indeed have its faults. Getting it to run on an NForce4-based board can be (and was for me) a pain in the derriere. However, when it decided to play ball, the quality is amazing. You can suddenly hear more of the music/sound effects. Imo worth the effort/money.

 

Doh.. Well spotted

 

Plus the fact that Creative offer about 3 software updates before giving up on a product and the software isn't as easy to navigate. Having said that, OCUK are doing a Music Xtreme OEM X-Fi for £50 now, which is a bit of a kick in the nuts for Sondigo. No word on it's real world S/N ratio or software support but it does have the "24 bit crystaliser" though.

Im gonna use this card til Wil shouts at me that they want it back. Im hoping everyone will forget about it

 

Creative make good hardware, but are sorely let down by their marketing department making promises they can't deliver on and frankly atrocious software that appears once in a blue moon.

I'm not convinced however this will be the 'solid competition' needed to force change.

 

I recently picked up an AuzenTech XPlosion 7.1. It has the C-Media CMI8770 which is also a Dolby Live/DTS Connect chip. I really like it. This board looks to be spec'd better than the AuzenTech. I will take these over anything creative puts together any day.

I can't speak much about the noise levels, as I have never actually hooked up speakers to the output jacks. I always use it in Dolby Live or DTS Connect mode, or in direct S/PDIF pass through with a toslink. Anyone with an external receiver (or Logitech Z-5500 speaker set, like myself) NEEDS this card or the AuzenTech. It is THE piece to finish your HTPC.

Supposedly DTS Connect has a higher bitrate that Dolby Live, but I can not tell any difference. There is a small amount of cross talk on the channels in these modes. If you play a sound out of one speaker and disconnect that speaker, you will hear the sound faintly out of the other channels. I'm not sure if this is a DTS Connect/Dolby Live upconverting issue or a channel separation issue with the Z-5500. Either way, it's barely worth mentioning, makes no audible difference unless you're specifically testing for it.

The C-Media software is a bit cheezy looking, but it gets the job done, and done very well WITHOUT ADS FOR FREAKIN' CREATIVE CRAP floating around. I remember the first time I installed my Live! 5.1 card, there was a Nomad ad right at the bottom of the control panel applet. That's just WRONG and I will never forget it!

I'm not a big gamer, so the EAX issue has never come up. The most recent game I've played is Descent III. (Yee haw!)

Buy this card (or the AuzenTech).
Jeff

 

Does this thing have linux drivers out? The lack of drivers for my X-fi is one of the last hurdles keeping me from going full time on linux. I know that Creative has "promised" linux drivers for Q2 07, but I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Quoted for truth - I hope these guys do Really well, but given the history of competitors I'm not holding my breath.

Note to Creative Liars Labs: see the trend in those posts - personally I haven't bought "Creative" since Sound Blaster Live "upgradeability" promises proved to be... um, untrue.

Sadly Creative has an edge there (I still won't but from them though)

 

Only thing i thought was
"I was using a decent pair of headphones (Sennheizer HD215) for the testing but I also put it through some basic £10 "TEAC PowerMax" speakers and some £10 Sony in-ears. You can easily tell the quality difference the more you spend, even over that of the "geek pride" element that extenuates the "awesome" effect of any major purchase."

You talk about ASIO but don't explain how much of a benefit it is if you download drivers for your media player. Cutting out the k-mixer is such a bonus.

Is this really a good enough test system to test the sound quality? I know we are not talking Hi-Fi here but still a better system would enable you to hear all the differences in quality.

But otherwise you went into great detail. A comparison between more Hi-Fi cards such as e-mu or m-audio would have been useful too.

Oh and its Sennheiser.

 

$150? Eek. I think I'll have to hang on to my AuzenTech card (rather, swipe it from home the next time I'm there). Anyways, it has some desirable features and was a great review. But what a silly name... anyone else keep reading it as "sondingo" or something to that effect?

 

Glad to see some competition for Creative.

What is a "separate"?

 

Bindibadgi...

Please change your avatar.

Thank you,
Nature