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Topic: M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (Read 2526 times) previous topic - next topic
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M-Audio Revolution 5.1

Hello all,

I have a few questions regarding the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 card, foobar2000, resampling and windows audio in general. I will mark my questions clearly if I can.

After many years of using standard equipment I wanted to get some quality sound from my PC, and so I have just bought myself a good pair of headphones (Sennheiser HD600) and the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 card here in the UK for £69.99, which seems a good price for such a high quality card.

I currently have a Creative Sound Live! Value, which I thought was the de facto standard at the time that I got it (just as the Audigy was being released). However, I now realise that it isn't the best card around - it resamples to 48KHz in all cases, and not very well. Because of this I have been using foobar2000 to resample the signal to 48KHz before it gets to the card.

1) If I use DirectSound (i.e. goes via K-Mixer) as opposed to Kernel Streaming, then does that mean that the K-Mixer always resamples to match the cards' output? (e.g. 48KHz resampled by K-Mixer to 48KHz in this case)

1b) If so, then that must mean that it is only worthwhile using the resampler if you also use Kernel Streaming?

2) Will the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 also resample, or does it natively support the samplerates 32, 44.1, 48, 96, 192 etc. ?

2b) In which case, I will no longer have to use the resampler, right?

2c) However, I presume that the K-Mixer will still resample (e.g. 44.1 > 44.1) as always?

3) The M-Audio Revolution 5.1 uses the VIA HT audio chip that I was after. I was also looking at the Chaintech reviews and forum comments - although this card is good quality and very good value there were a number of things which I didn't like the sound of. Firstly, if you want bit perfect SPDIF then you must flash the firmware, which makes the analog outputs break. Secondly, it cannot drive headphones well, and I didn't want to buy an external headphone amp. But, this card has a good CODEC (Wolfson chip). My question is, is the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 CODEC of the same quality?

3b) What is the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 CODEC?

4) Comparative cards, from what I have read, seem to be the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (£99.99), Terratec Aureon 7.1 (£65), Chaintech (not available) and Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 (not available).

4b) How do ALL of these cards (especially the cards avalable in the UK) fair against the M-Audio Revolution 5.1?

4c) Is the 5.1 the same as the 7.1 in terms of quality? I like the fact that it had a seperate headphone output.

I am now wondering if I should have bought the Aureon. Does it use the same high quality chip and DAC that is in the M-Audio or Terratec DMX?

I think that will answer most of my questions, but I'm sure I will have more!

Cheers.