How to choose a good audio card?
- Thread starter cheerios
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Getting an addon card does not use computer mem resources. Most have mem on the card giving you more computer resources to use elsewhere. You will howerver have to disable your builtin sound card to use an addon one. Sound Blaster sound card seem to be compatiable with most programs.
it all depends on how serious of a music listener you are. If you have some grand speaker set up and big money invested in then i'd say yes get a good quality sound card. I have a cheapo installed on mine and it works great for the Altec Lansings that I have. Don't waste the money on an expensive sound card unless youre going to blow the neighbors away with your new fangled theater speakers.
cheerios said:
Only if you are trying to the following :-
* Increase the number to surround speakers. Entry level motherboards come with AC97 2.1 sound. The middle range onward motherboards seem to come with AC97 5.1 Sound.
So if you want some thing like 6.1 or 7.1, then you might need a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Auditgy II Card.
* Sound recording, especially if you are trying to so some thing specialised. Eg. Coverting your vinal onto CD.
* THX/DTS sound. For those people that what there computer to be their home cinema system.
* Professional Sound Resording. if this is the case, then a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro is most likely the $#!+iest piece of gear that you own, as every thing else is most likely Yamaha.
Personally, I am thinking over getting a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live for SUPERSONICB!+C# as I would like to improve it's sound recording/playback
well i'm about to order a sound card for my POS onboard "5.1" that is on my A7N8X DLX tomorrow. this is the best value in sound cards apparently and its only $40:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-118-101&depa=0
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this seems to be second best:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-102-162&depa=0
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and if youre really cheap this will be good:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-120-101&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-118-101&depa=0
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this seems to be second best:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-102-162&depa=0
=============================
and if youre really cheap this will be good:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-120-101&depa=0
We rescently got some Cheap 'n'Nasty 4.1 at work. I am going to check them out some time.
The main thing that i would like to do with SUPERSONICB!+C# is do the occasionaly sound recording of music from my PS2.
I do like some one the PS2 Music from time to time. Eg. Some of the tunes from Midnight Club are pretty kickin'
The main thing that i would like to do with SUPERSONICB!+C# is do the occasionaly sound recording of music from my PS2.
I do like some one the PS2 Music from time to time. Eg. Some of the tunes from Midnight Club are pretty kickin'
Cheerios, Hi again 
Basically there are many differences between independant sound cards and in-built sound chips on your motherboard. The main and most important I found out recently (on my second PC) is that the onboard sound has a very limited bandwidth. I wanted to listen to music on Windows Media Player, play Unreal Tournament 1999 and talk to people on Teamspeak RC2. With my main system this is no problem because my sound card has many channels to use, but my onboard sound chip gave me very bad sound, like helicopter sound (went in a helicopter yesterday). I bought a sound card for my second computer and the problem was instantly solved.
Basically there are many differences between independant sound cards and in-built sound chips on your motherboard. The main and most important I found out recently (on my second PC) is that the onboard sound has a very limited bandwidth. I wanted to listen to music on Windows Media Player, play Unreal Tournament 1999 and talk to people on Teamspeak RC2. With my main system this is no problem because my sound card has many channels to use, but my onboard sound chip gave me very bad sound, like helicopter sound (went in a helicopter yesterday). I bought a sound card for my second computer and the problem was instantly solved.
compare....
SiSoftware Sandra
General Information
Device Name : Creative SB Live! Series
Manufacturer : Microsoft
Version : 5.10
Product ID : 101 / 1
Specific Wave Information
Maximum Standard Sampling Bits : 16-bit
Maximum Standard Sampling Rate : 44.1kHz
Channels : 65535
~~~ to ~~~
SiSoftware Sandra
General Information
Device Name : Microsoft Sound Mapper
Manufacturer : Microsoft
Version : 5.00
Product ID : 2 / 1
Specific Wave Information
Maximum Standard Sampling Bits : 16-bit
Maximum Standard Sampling Rate : 44.1kHz
Channels : 2
that was for the "recording" function, but same goes for playback.
SiSoftware Sandra
General Information
Device Name : Creative SB Live! Series
Manufacturer : Microsoft
Version : 5.10
Product ID : 101 / 1
Specific Wave Information
Maximum Standard Sampling Bits : 16-bit
Maximum Standard Sampling Rate : 44.1kHz
Channels : 65535
~~~ to ~~~
SiSoftware Sandra
General Information
Device Name : Microsoft Sound Mapper
Manufacturer : Microsoft
Version : 5.00
Product ID : 2 / 1
Specific Wave Information
Maximum Standard Sampling Bits : 16-bit
Maximum Standard Sampling Rate : 44.1kHz
Channels : 2
that was for the "recording" function, but same goes for playback.
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