Advice on a MEGA CHEAP sound card..

[Electronics4Life]

Which of theese sound cards are the best? Or if you know of a better mega cheap card let me know. This card will only be used for playing Mp3's. No games! I have a 2.1 speaker setup.

1. EZ-Media 8738 6-Channel PCI Soundcard 5.1 $8.49
2. Directron PCI 128 Sound Card, Retail box $9.99
3. Creative Labs Sound Blaster CT4810 PCI Sound Card, OEM $12.00
4. PCI Crystal CS4280-CM Chip 4-Channel Sound Card $7.95
5. CMI PCI CX3D Positional Audio 4 Channel Sound Card $7.95
6. CMI 8738 6-Channel PCI Sound Card $12.50
7. AudioExcel AV512 6-Channel PCI Sound Card, PC Theater 3D Sound, compatibility w/ SB16 $12.00
8. Asound Express II 2002 PCI 32 Bit PnP Sound Card, Retail box $12.00
9. ALS4000 Avance Logic Chipset PCI Sound Card, Retail box $12.99

 

[randomlinh]

cmedia based is great for the price

 

[phice2000]

I've tried some of the c-media 8738 cards. Their sound quality really isn't up to par if you're demanding of your music. The bass level seems way too high and the sound gets distorted pretty easily. Among the card i've used: santa cruz, acoustic edge, aureal montego, ensoniq audiopci, sb live. Suprisingly the SB live is the best sounding card with the best range i've heard so far..... except i have VIA crackling problems with it, so I have to use the santa cruz now.

 

[bluemax]

The SB PCI128 got higher audio quality scores than most SB Live cards. Not that I'm a CL suporter, but it's cheap and good.

 

[Zepper]

Crystal based sound cards have always been good sounding to me. The current TBSC and Guillemot use Crystal.
.bh.

 

[zephyrprime]

If you want a cheap card, you may want to try used. Maybe you have friends that have extra sound cards? Or maybe there is a used computer stuff store in you town?

 

[Modus]

I'll cast my vote for the C-Media based cards. Let's support a smaller manufacturer that puts out a good product.

I personally use the Chaintech AV512 in a lot of builds and it works well. In my experience, all decent sound cards yield the same sound quality, provided your volume levels are reasonable (i.e. low enough for a single room) and your speakers aren't high end audiophile stuff. Those are the typical limitations for most people's audio setups, and in that environment the CMEDIA 8738 is more than adequate.

I wonder what a blindfolded subjective sound quality survery would reveal in a comparison of cheap and expensive sound cards. I think people could tell the difference (i.e. warmer, punchier) but might not be able to decide which one sounded "better".

Modus

 

[Electronics4Life]

I went with the c-media sound card from compgeeks. Worked out well as I need some cables and such that they also had cheap.

 

[holdencommodore]

The C-media cards are great for the price, especially considering it uses Sensaura 3D. I find it perfectly acceptable with mp3's too.
The new 6.39 WDM drivers support C-media's new Xear 3D headphone technology. It's quite a interesting feature, but requires special "open eared" headphones. There's a white paper of this technology on cmedia's web site.

Cheers