Dresden on 29/11/2010 at 13:05
So I haven't bought an actual sound card since I had a 486 and I need some help picking out a good mid range one. I was thinking about getting a Creative one but I've heard some bad things about their software over the years. Thoughts?
Briareos H on 29/11/2010 at 13:20
If it's for gaming and recording/playing music without the need for perfect quality, I'd recommend getting an old Audigy 2ZS (
http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Audigy-2-ZS-SB0350-7-1-THX-/180583755385?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0ba16e79) from eBay and using either the stock drivers (which aren't so bad since the Vista update, though there are still compatibility problems with some intel hardware when coming back from sleep mode) or the drivers from the (
http://kxproject.com/) kX project.
I don't really know of any incentives to get a more recent card unless you have a real 7.1 setup, hundreds of channels or require EAX 4.0+ compatibility. And in that case you wouldn't be asking the question anyway.
Dresden on 29/11/2010 at 17:20
Yeah I'm basically looking for something that makes games and music sound better than on board sound.
Brian The Dog on 29/11/2010 at 17:42
I picked up an Audigy x-Fi on Ebay where the seller didn't know what it was so I got it cheap, but I'd have been happy with an Audigy 2ZS, they're still great cards. Plus since they're a few years old now, the software bugs in the drivers have been ironed out.
EvaUnit02 on 30/11/2010 at 05:34
Auzentech X-Fi's are amazing pieces of hardware, I can't recommend one these cards enough. The best all-rounded cards on the market:- audiophile quality build and components, with the benefits of the Creative's X-Fi processor. Great for gaming, great for music, great for home cinema.
If you want to avoid Creative technology for personal moral reasons or whatever, Asus Xonar's are the next best thing. Audiophile quality build and components. Think of them as the sound market's equivalent to Nvidia (with Creative being AMD - since Creative drivers have historically been as bad as those for Radeon's). They even have a wrapper for games that use newer versions of EAX like v3-5.
Else Creative's X-Fi Xtremegamer and Xtrememusic are excellent value for money. The build quality ain't all that great compared to Auzentech and Asus Xonar's, but they still shit all over the motherboard integrated garbage.
inselaffe on 1/12/2010 at 19:31
What creative cards are actually good for soundfonts and midi playback though? Cos it seems rather broken and unpredictable on xfi to be honest. Just that it can be rather annoying in old games.
Sulphur on 1/12/2010 at 21:44
If you get an X-Fi, you'd be well advised to listen to all your music in the Audio Creation mode with bit-matched playback turned on. Else the card internally resamples everything you play to 48Khz, which fucks up the audio quality a bit. I recently discovered this myself, and after I turned those on the music being piped to my Grados was sharp, pristine, and awesome.
Nameless Voice on 19/2/2011 at 18:14
(Slight necromancy)
Similar question. I've always relied on built-in sound card. I briefly had a very cheap C-Media 5.1 card, but it wasn't anything amazing.
These days, I have actually decent headphones (a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b noise-cancelling headphones), and I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile getting a real, dedicated sound card too. If for no other reason than to get rid of that annoying very faint "bzzzt" I can hear through my built-in Realtek card when the computer scrolls webpages or does certain CPU-heavy tasks.
I tried using that aforementioned old C-Media card again semi-recently, but with the headphones I could hear a very loud hiss that I guess I just didn't notice back when I was using speakers.
I also have a Logitech G110 keyboard which has some kind of weird USB soundcard built into it, and plugging my 'phones into there does eliminate the annoying interference noise, though I haven't really tried using it that much to <s>see</s> hear what the sound quality is like on it. I think it has a little hiss as well, but not much. Windows 7's USB audio drivers seem to be very awkward, anyway - the USB sound card is so loud that I can't really adjust the volume at all - it's running at 6% volume and minor changes have a huge effect. (I had a similar problem with the built-in Realtek, but at least there I could apply a 50% volume level on top of Windows' volume.)
In any case, I'm rambling a little. I'm wondering if it would be worth my while to get a proper sound card, and if I'd even be able to hear the quality difference. My headphones definitely sound better than any speakers I've had, but I'm not exactly an audiophile and don't know if I'd be able to really hear the difference between the built-in Realtek and a proper card.
I mostly use my PC to play games (which probably don't have very high quality samples anyway), though I also listen to music and watch films/TV shows on it.
On the other hand, a sound card isn't likely to get obsolete very fast, so I guess one ought to outlast several computers.
I'm also not sure what kind of money I feel it would be worth spending on something I might not even be able to hear the difference in... I've seen sound card going for €100-300, but I definitely wouldn't want something that expensive. I'd be thinking more in the €50-100, tops.
So, I guess I have two questions: a) is a dedicated sound card worth it? and b) if so, what would be a good and reasonably-priced one to buy?
Matthew on 22/2/2011 at 09:30
Having always used a dedicated sound card I have nothing to compare it to, so I can't answer question A. As for B, the obligatory answer is a Sound Blaster card, but you might want to consider something from the Asus Xonar range - (
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/soundcards/2010/04/08/sub-100-gaming-sound-card-reviews/3) which get very decent reviews and are cheap in price.
I've heard great things about Auzentech cards but I believe they tend to be higher in price, so probably would not suit you as a 'starter' card.
