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Topic: Sound card for people with modest requirements (Read 8118 times) previous topic - next topic
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Sound card for people with modest requirements

What I want from sound card: good/excellent audio quality, no internal resampling (e.g. 44.1 kHz to 48.0 kHz), analog 2.0 output, probably ASIO, if it comes at reasonable price
What most modern sound cards offer: [some already mentioned things], digital output, 5.1 output, kewl gaming performance, etc.

I wouldn't mind features that I don't need, if they wouldn't make the price remarkably higher.

I am open for your recommendations

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #1 –
I'm interested in this too. I want a cheap sound card with excellent audio quality and not much else (no multichannel, digital IO, or weird sound effects, please).

Also, is there actually any significant variation in sound quality given these requirements?

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #2 –
Go to Geekstuff4U.com and check the Onkyo sound cards.  I have the PC 150 and like it very much.  I replaced Audigy with the Onkyo.

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #3 –
Wow, those Onkyo cards have more capacitors than my whole PC
I found a review that contains some Audio Precision measurements of the stereo-only model: http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%...=en&ie=UTF8
The translation is not very brilliant, but what I gathered from it is that the graphs were provided by Onkyo. Assuming they're not cheating, it's most probably a good card indeed.

But both posts above are asking for an affordable sound card, which I think this one isn't... plus it's only available through a few specialty shops...

I've seen quite a few people mentioning the Hercules Fortissimo4 as a good budget option. To get a rough idea of how it compares: http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/01/27/doe...ules/page7.html
- but note that that sort of testing tests both the output and the input at the same time (it's a loopback measurement), whereas the Onkyo graphs used the calibrated inputs of the Audio Precision tool...

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #4 –
E-MU 0404

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #5 –
Chaintech AV-710. It has a good DAC and does not resample. I use it in Win XP just for 2-channel audio with foobar and I am very happy with it.

Look around here for opinions and for experiences with various versions of drivers. (Note: it is difficult to get (or maybe impossible to get) in Europe.)

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #6 –
I use the Audigy 4 and you can set it to not resample in the standard driver control panel.
Acid8000 aka. PhilDEE

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #7 –
ESI Juli@

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #8 –
ESI Juli@ here too.

This one got an excellent review in the German HiFi-Mag "Stereoplay" which puts it on par with E-MU's 1820M.

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #9 –
One vote for 1212m.
Break The Rules!!!

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #10 –
Slight update on the Audigy 4. I finally did a proper analog loop back test in 16/44 non-resampling mode and the results aren't exactly top of the line. The cable I used was from ideal (unshielded etc.) however, so perhaps that degraded the signal a bit. It does meet your requirements for "kewl gaming performance" and sounds perfectly fine for music in my opinion.
Acid8000 aka. PhilDEE

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #11 –
Did you run a RMAA test? Can you post the results? If you're short of webspace let me know, I can host it for you.
daefeatures.co.uk

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #12 –
Yeah I've got the test results for both resampling and non-resampling mode, but have no webspace. It's all in a RAR archive.

Edit:
Here is the RAR archive with the RMAA results. As you can see its not the best out there.
http://rapidshare.de/files/29589600/Audigy_4_Test.rar.html
Acid8000 aka. PhilDEE

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #13 –
Pending your specific requirements, I am now starting to like my M-Audio revolution 5.1. ($65). It has:

- no resampling
- envy chipset
- full 192Khz/24bit output support on both digital out and internal DACs (this is fairly unique)

The downsides:
- Can't do digital AND analog out at the same time
- Drivers are fairly old (dating back to 2004) although i haven't really found many problems with them
- No direct control of the output digital settings (bit depth & samplerate), it depends on the source application. perhaps this is a good thing, but I would've liked the optional control.
- Not very well-tailored to gaming.. it works fine but there are no hardware 3D room rendering things etc.

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #14 –
What if I'd like to use an external amplifier with 2 diffusers + an active subwoofer attached to the soundcard, since the amplifier doesn't support it?

Which high quality soundcard would you guys suggest me?

Thanks!
Francesco

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #15 –
How many of these cards have 5.1 output?

Looking to upgrade from my NF7-S onboard sound to something more substantial.

Also, I am in the UK. Why are AV-710s not available in Europe?

Also I want one of those neat external things like you get on some Audigys.
hi

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #16 –
Quote
Pending your specific requirements, I am now starting to like my M-Audio revolution 5.1. ($65). It has:

- no resampling
- envy chipset
- full 192Khz/24bit output support on both digital out and internal DACs (this is fairly unique)


I would recommend the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 too as I have one and I have been impressed with it's performance so far. You can find it for less then $60 bucks on some websites too.  If you need a card for the gaming then I would go the E-MU route despite the fact, either way it's a solid card.
budding I.T professional

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #17 –
I have been reading thru the posts, trying to decide on a sound card to buy, but it seems to be confusing more than helping.  I wanted to get this done just after Christmas, but I've gotten very busy and I can't seem to find enough time to digest all the info and distill an answer for myself....so I'm just going to ask straight out.

I'm looking a sound card for a PC desktop.  Currently there is the onboard, an Intel 865PERL board.  I have an open PCI slot.

My requirements are to use this PC mostly as a file server, including .flac music files and to play .flac files through a stereo system and MAYBE headphones.  It is sometimes used as workstation, so it isn't exclusively a file server.

The stereo system I currently have is old and will be replaced in the future with new, maybe 5.1 home theatre system.  Since it is unbought, there are no restrictions on inputs/outputs...I will buy what I need later.

Having said that, my current needs are similar to the original post; specifically:
I would like to use the sound card on the existing stereo system, so regular old school analog outputs are necessary and I want to do some vinyl recording to digital with this sound card and existing stereo system.  I do a little .wav processing on some files.  No big deal mic. recording or fancy gaming or anything professional-like.  Basically, I just want to get all my music (including vinyl) to .flac files, listen to it in mid-high quality.  Buying a sound card slightly above my station is OK for a scalabiliy factor for unknown future requirements/interests.

I like to buy in the mid-high quality range and I am somewhat demanding in audio quality; not an all out audiophile however.  Money is always an issue, but I don't mind paying for quality, although I don't want to go overboard and have a 'Hummer to go shopping' with, if you know what I mean.

I've gathered that the X-Fi line and Creative might be better at marketing than they are at making sound cards, so started this search.  I almost had bought an X-Fi Platinum.

It looks like there are some suggestions in this thread that may suit my req's, but the replies are a little old for technology related questions, so I am posting this because of that.  Are there any more or updated thoughts that apply to my specific needs?

Thank you very much for your valued input.

Sound card for people with modest requirements

Reply #18 –
I settled on the E-MU 1820.
It's a Hummer after all; but I decided the turntable inputs were  worth the cost as vinyl to PC is one the big things this card is going be expected to do.  I couldn't lose spec-wise and it has a lot of headroom (features) to play with.

For those interested, it looks like this card may be getting hard to find; a couple of places listed it as 'Discontinued', so if you're thinking about it...might not want to wait too much.