Comments on: Do You Need a Sound Card?

By: jumboloa

jumboloa — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:42:40 +0000

I highly recomend this little device that once was part of my digital studio and is now a not only a sort of patch bay form my digital studio but also my computer sound card!

Behringer src2496 Ultramatch Pro

By: GourouLubrik

GourouLubrik — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:11:56 +0000

Soundcards are not only about gaming features. It can also replace dedicated audio components for stereo appliance.
I own a marvelous Asus Essence STX, which have a dedicated headphone AMP output (6.5mm), and use high quality DAC (Burr-Brown PCM 1792A), the one that’s in the 1k$ benchmark DAC1… With a great stereo headphone, it’s wonderful ! Way better than my Yamaha RXV663 or my Marantz CD6002 (which is already better than the yammy). It just worth every penny !

Many people are not educated to sound quality, and just don’t feel the difference (or don’t care). I guess that’s the main thing that will “kill” soundcards market.

By: Moggraider

Moggraider — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:51:06 +0000

Nahr: Surround sounds are just fine on Windows Vista 64 and an X-Fi. I have the same combination, and it’s fine. You probably fail at having OpenAL installed. Please stop with the FUD.

By: Loyd Case

Loyd Case — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:50:57 +0000

Yes, but if you have Alchemy installed, you do get surround effects out of an X-Fi card in Vista x64.

By: Do You Need a Sound Card? – Improbable Insights | Conceptguy

Do You Need a Sound Card? – Improbable Insights | Conceptguy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:23:57 +0000

[...] Originally posted here: Do You Need a Sound Card? – Improbable Insights [...]

By: Chris Nahr

Chris Nahr — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:53:08 +0000

Regarding RealTek Dolby vs X-Fi Surround: I’ve never heard any surround effects out of my X-Fi on Windows Vista 64 on any game, ever, with Bioshock being the most notable disappointment. A technology that works beats a technology that doesn’t work, regardless of how good the latter theoretically might be.

Dolby Headphone is a good technology — it’s also used by my Philips headphone system that I used for movies and console games, and it’s of course widely used by amplifiers and receivers in general. The implementation on the DX58SO board sounds good to my ears, too, and that’s ultimately all that matters.

By: Jobney

Jobney — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:16:04 +0000

I have decided to go the route of the X-Fi Pro (that’s pictured above).

I’ve been building my own systems since `95 and had them built for me before that. I liked Loyd’s quick walk down PC audio memory lane. I think people that buy pre-built miss out on a lot of computer history as they are not forced to research hardware in too much detail.

By: KH

KH — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:24:36 +0000

LOL I remember years ago searching around trying to find an old Sound Blaster Live! to buy because I specifically didn’t want to buy one of those Audigy pieces of shit. And I remember years before that, when I had a 386 with a Sound Blaster 16 (Adlib compatible!)

By: IvanHoeHo

IvanHoeHo — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:18:04 +0000

Thanks a bunch! All I found was some other list on the same website and they’re either rather incomplete or it’s another reason to be cheap and stick with XP for now, just to squeeze out the last drop of value out of the poor thing.

By: Rimbo

Rimbo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:40:30 +0000

The Audigy was far from the first Creative product to have shoddy drivers. I remember having to wait for Creative to fix their Live! drivers when Windows XP came out.

Even then, Creative’s quality — a supposed benefit to a separate audio card — has never been wonderful. The only audio card I’ve owned that had proper isolation from the noise generated by a PC was my old Roland LAPC-I.

If you really want good audio, S/PDIF output (or even bluetooth) is the only way to avoid the noise. And the codec in a decent home system is going to beat the pants off of anything you put inside your PC. This is also why pro audio is almost all external as well, using USB or even Firewire (IEEE1394) to connect.

If you must convert your audio from inside your PC’s case, you’ll get what you pay for. Hey, another reason to pay a premium for Apple hardware!