good soundcards

[rahimiv]

I am connecting my soundcard to an integrated amp and there is quite a bit of noise from the soundcard (its an onboard AC'97) especially when connecting the headphone to lineout. The integrated amp's preamp filters out the noise when a headphone is connected to the amp but on speaker especially with louder volume the noise is annoying. Are there better soundcard with a good signal to noise ratio so I can you know, listen to wav files on my computer without making my stereo equipment sounding like crap?

Computer AMD Intel Hard drive

 

[astrallite]

Any sound card would work for you. The differences in analog performance for most are minor, you are paying for stuff like EAX or other frills mostly.

The noises you here are EMI interferrence on your motherboard, it's not actually your onboard sound cards' fault. Moving to a PCI sound card will fix all your problems.

 

[rahimiv]

so whats the deal with creative X-Fi card? whats good about it?

Computer AMD Intel Hard drive

 

[4Ryan6]

Look <A HREF="http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=pciinterfaces" target="_new"> here </A> buy <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=1793&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=57&Submit=Property" target="_new"> here </A>, M-Audio for connecting an AMP to a computer, for crystal clear distortion free music playback, you'll never regret an M-Audio purchase.

M-Audio by far is not your cheapest solution, I'm sure you'll be flooded with alternate suggestions but I personally own an M-Audio Delta 1010LT on my DJ computer, its way more than you will need for your home setup purposes, but my claims of quality come from actually owning and using the soundcard everyday with crisp clear performance, and not the first time have I regreted purchasing it!









<font color=blue>AMD XP 3200+ / Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe / Corsair XMS PC3200 1024mb LLC2 / ATI X850 Pro / SoundBlaster X-FI / 2 Seagate SATA 7200rpm/8mb / Plextor PX-716A DVDRW</font color=blue>

 

[4Ryan6]

<A HREF="http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html" target="_new"> Audiophile 2496 is all you would need </A>


<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829121120" target="_new"> Newegg </A> Hit Click to see lowest Price $89.00, not bad Newegg! thats $40.00 cheaper than the manufacturers price!





<font color=blue>AMD XP 3200+ / Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe / Corsair XMS PC3200 1024mb LLC2 / ATI X850 Pro / SoundBlaster X-FI / 2 Seagate SATA 7200rpm/8mb / Plextor PX-716A DVDRW</font color=blue>


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by 4ryan6 on 10/09/05 12:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[4Ryan6]

Couple of last things to tell you, if you're a gamer you may want to consider the M-Audios Revolution series of cards, because the card I reccommended has no hardware acceleration for gaming, its just music throughput dedicated.

And you asked about Creatives X-FI, I have one on my gaming machine and its great, but that machine is not hooked to an external amplifier, so I cannot attest to whether its distortion free with external AMP playback.

Hope I helped you in some way!

Have a nice day!








<font color=blue>AMD XP 3200+ / Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe / Corsair XMS PC3200 1024mb LLC2 / ATI X850 Pro / SoundBlaster X-FI / 2 Seagate SATA 7200rpm/8mb / Plextor PX-716A DVDRW</font color=blue>

 

[astrallite]

Creative X-Fi can make bad speakers sound better because they exaggerate the highs, which can be perceived as *detail*.

Tomshardware had an article about the X-Fi's compression algorithm a while ago.

Basically if you have low end speakers and don't want to replace them, yet really want to get an expensive sound card for some reason...the X-Fi will help you for games and music by bringing out the detail your speakers would normally not be able to produce...at the cost of distortion (from aggressive EQing).

 

[4Ryan6]

Moving to a PCI sound card will fix all your problems.

Thats not a true statement!


Maybe made out of ignorance, and not intentional, but still not true!











<font color=blue>AMD XP 3200+ / Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe / Corsair XMS PC3200 1024mb LLC2 / ATI X850 Pro / SoundBlaster X-FI / 2 Seagate SATA 7200rpm/8mb / Plextor PX-716A DVDRW</font color=blue>

 

[pat]

I had a M-Audio Revolution which got fried by a lightning bolt that hit about 200 feets fom my house.. BIOS became scrambled too.

It was still under warranty.. waiting for the return..

I have to agree that, for movies and music, this card is pretty good...

(\__/)
<b>(</b>='.'=<b>)</b>
(")<b><font color=red>ώ</font color=red></b>(") This is my bunny.. got mumps from Ned!!!

 

[4Ryan6]

You're the first I've talked to thats owned a Revolution, is it a 5.1 or a 7.1?

Have you done any gaming with it? I was wondering how it performs with games, I know the music and movie playback should be awesome, but the gaming aspect I really wanted to hear from someones first hand experience.

Lightning whoa thats some bad stuff, I know of a guy that had 2 computers and lightning hit his house, one computer was totaled nothing salvagable, the other about half salvagable, consider yourself lucky, even though it doesn't seem that way.





<font color=blue>AMD XP 3200+ / Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe / Corsair XMS PC3200 1024mb LLC2 / ATI X850 Pro / SoundBlaster X-FI / 2 Seagate SATA 7200rpm/8mb / Plextor PX-716A DVDRW</font color=blue>

 

[pat]

That the 7.1. In game.. well, all I can say is that I have sound.. I'm not a big gamer and I don't really are about sound, as long as I hear something, I'm happy. But from what I heard, it was good.

(\__/)
<b>(</b>='.'=<b>)</b>
(")<b><font color=red>ώ</font color=red></b>(") This is my bunny.. got mumps from Ned!!!

 

[stingers96]

I also have a revo 7.1 and am very happy with it. I havent used it to drive a real audio system yet, however I have done some critical listening (with both high end headphones and mediocre pc speakers) to music when evaluating mp3 compression setups (anything less then 256 is annoying to me) the m-audio showed shined.

I dont play any games any only use a 2+1 setup so I cant speak in that regard...but it cant be bad

a while after I purchased my revo I oread an interview with the honcho at m-audio in a non-technical mag (i think it was an airplane mag.) I was very impressed with the level of dedication that he portrayed to manufacturing a audiophile quality pc-card. it was very clear that it is the companies goal to provide the market with the best available sound indifferent to the cost, cutting no corners.

A build it and they will come attitude. If more companies in the tech industry held to those morals we would all have reasonable pc support and 100mb internet. (just IMHO)

bottem line, cant go wrong with the revo

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No matter what tech device/component you buy, the next version will be announced in the near future. the "law of endless upgrades" (c)<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by stingers96 on 10/18/05 04:03 AM.</EM></FONT></P>