Hey all you Hackintosh people (or even Mac Pro and iMac users)...

[slugg]

Simply put, the integrated sound cards that Hackintosh users have to use are complete crap. The Mac Pro and iMac also have integrated audio, and it too is complete crap. I'm not totally an audiophile, but I do have good ears and good speakers. I guess most of the population can't tell the difference, but I'm telling you, the difference really bothers me.

Pretty much, I'm spoiled with the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi in the windows world. Bash it as much as you want - it's still lightyears ahead of any integrated audio solution. If you tweak the driver settings, it just sounds SO good. Unfortunately, there aren't any Creative cards compatible with Mac OS.

So basically, I want some high fidelity audio on my hackintosh. For the same token, someone with a Mac Pro that wants some high quality audio but doesn't want a recording rig is in the same boat as me. We're kinda limited to PCI-E sound cards or external cards. None of the Intel macs have PCI slots...

Any ideas? Has anyone heard of a "consumer enthusiast" audio solution for mac, or possibly an upcoming product?

 

[Kaido]

It all depends on your budget - how much are you willing to spend? There are a lot of great internal PCI-e/PCI cards that work, as well as all Mac-compatible Firewire & USB sound cards (that I know of). You can try browsing the Sound section of InsanelyMac:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=154

Also check out the HCL Wikis:

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.2#Sound_Cards

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.1#Sound_Cards

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.0#Sound_Cards

This USB Soundblaster is supposed to work: (note from Wiki: "Fully working on Leopard default driver,must mute once when switch between line-out and front-side phones.")

http://www.soundblaster.com/pr...gory=206&product=10702

My brother actually has one of those, so I'll test it out on my Hackintosh this weekend if you're interested. Pretty much all of the external pro-class devices work, so if you want top-quality audio and have the budget for it, it's definitely available!

 

[slugg]

Do you know of any way to have some of the nice features that the creative cards have, like equalizers and what not?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: slugg
Do you know of any way to have some of the nice features that the creative cards have, like equalizers and what not?

You could always use the iTunes EQ (assuming you use iTunes)...

 

[mshan]

Computers can serve as superb digital outputs to an external dac (USB or digital / coaxial digital output), but IMO PCI slot sound cards as limited because most are mass market items targeted at non-audiophiles, and they are immersed in the very noisy electronic environment inside a computer case.

Check out the computer sub-forum at Head-Fi.org for some very reasonably priced outboard dacs and / or usb digital outputs.

 

[herm0016]

we use the maudio firewire 410 for multichannel and the maudio fast track pro and firewire solo for sound duties on all the macpro's in the finearts/audio production computer lab. they work great, have excellent DtoA and AtoD converters and include a few mic pre-amps. maudio use to have regular pci sound cards too that work with mac.

 

[MrTransistorm]

Originally posted by: mshan
Computers can serve as superb digital outputs to an external dac (USB or digital / coaxial digital output), but IMO PCI slot sound cards as limited because most are mass market items targeted at non-audiophiles, and they are immersed in the very noisy electronic environment inside a computer case.

Heh. Most may be consumer junk, but Lynx, RME, Echo, M-Audio and others make high quality PCI cards for pro and semi-pro use. Many of them are Mac compatible too.

A good design will filter out most noise. I have had an Echo MIA in my PC desktop for several years, and it is plenty quiet for most uses.

Unlike Realblech and Creative Flabs ....

 

[Kaido]

Just FYI the M-Audio Audiophile does NOT work in Hackintoshes, despite Mac compatibility.

 

[slugg]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: slugg
Do you know of any way to have some of the nice features that the creative cards have, like equalizers and what not?

You could always use the iTunes EQ (assuming you use iTunes)...

Thanks for the response, but keep in mind that iTunes isn't the only thing that I care about. I want my VLC, Firefox, and other music writing apps (Finale and Sibelius) to sound good, not just iTunes.

Anyone know if there are any DAC's that have integrated DSP, similar to Creative's features?

 

[mshan]

I have an RME Digi 96/8 PAD, and it's a very very good sound card with Mac drivers (haven't tested yet since I haven't built a Hackintosh yet).

But a computer acting as a transport (good bit perfect, low jitter, coaxial digital output, or even usb dac) can be competitive with multi-thousand dollar cd players as transports. It's a nice feature of Mac OS X that it can be bit perfect out of the box (got to disable equalization and other dsp in itunes), while you have to use special drivers in Windows XP to bypass Windows Kmixer (which resamples digital signal). You can also use the mini-optical output of an Apple Airport Express to get bit perfect digital output with either Windows or Mac (self serving aside - I've got a b/g only Apple Airport Express in my sig).

Using a computer this way also opens many many audiophile targeted dacs, many which are not even outrageously priced now.

 

[slugg]

^^ this all sounds great, but excuse my ignorance. Okay so lets say I get a bit-perfect digital signal out of my computer... now how can I EQ it before it gets to my speakers? I don't want just iTunes to be EQ'd - I want all audio to be EQ'd.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: slugg
^^ this all sounds great, but excuse my ignorance. Okay so lets say I get a bit-perfect digital signal out of my computer... now how can I EQ it before it gets to my speakers? I don't want just iTunes to be EQ'd - I want all audio to be EQ'd.

Oh, I see - you're looking for a Global EQ! Audio Hijack Pro will do the trick:

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

You just "Hijack" the app you want EQ'd and it appears in the left pane (or something along those lines, maybe the Pro version does it automatically). Is this more along the lines of what you're looking for?

 

[slugg]

^^ yea thats definitely along the lines of what I'm looking for

I've used that on my friend's mac (he has the full pro version). There are a few issues with this program - maybe you can offer an alternative? Basically, it's annoying to have it in the dock. I want it to be seamless... Also, you have to open up the program and click "hijack" every time you log in to your mac. Other than that, it DOES have a global EQ, which is what I'm going for.

Edit: While I do recognize that there are better cards out there, it turns out that this is compatible with OS X out of the box, minus the proprietary Creative features. For $60, that looks like a very good alternative to integrated sound - both windows and mac. I think I might jump on this after I do some more reading.

edit 2: After further reading, it turns out that the above mentioned audio interface crashes Leopard. So, if anyone's wondering, it looks like this is the next closest solution (while staying in the consumer level). This combined some some type of global EQ would do the trick

 

[Zaap]

I just got a Griffen Firewave for my Hackintosh so I could have decent surround sound. To me, it sounds excellent, but I'm by no means an audiophile. It's only $30 right now before they're all gone. At any rate, it's lightyears better than the internal audio on any Mac or Hackintosh.

 

[slugg]

Does it work in windows?

 

[Zaap]

Nope, the Griffen Firewave is not Windows compatible. (Wow, there's a switch from the usual)

I'm currently on the lookout for a simple, affordable switch box that'll switch my speakers between the sound card output for the PC, and the Firewave for the Mac.

 

[Kaido]

I tested the Creative USB Sound Blaster Live 24-bit External ($50 from Amazon) and it works! No driver needed, but you do have to restart after plugging it in to get sound out of it. I've only tried the headphone output, nothing else:

http://www.soundblaster.com/pr...gory=206&product=10702

 

[slugg]

YES! I finally found what I was looking for! Time to share.

This is something that I think a lot of Windows users would like to see, especially those with premium consumer level sound cards:

Want similar functionality to the Creative Control Panel in Windows, but you your Mac?

This includes global EQ and several DSP effects for your system-wide audio. This is comparable to Creative Lab's audio control panel with their X-Fi sound cards, but this is even more feature-rich. I'm trying the demo right now and it has DEFINITELY helped improve audio quality.

Here's a link to the product page.

Here's a direct link to download the demo.

 

[shamskabra]

It all depends on your budget - how much are you willing to spend? There are a lot of great internal PCI-e/PCI cards that work, as well as all Mac-compatible Firewire & USB sound cards (that I know of). You can try browsing the Sound section of InsanelyMac:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=154

Also check out the HCL Wikis:

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.2#Sound_Cards

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.1#Sound_Cards

http://wiki.osx86project.org/w...HCL_10.5.0#Sound_Cards

This USB Soundblaster is supposed to work: (note from Wiki: "Fully working on Leopard default driver,must mute once when switch between line-out and front-side phones.")

http://www.soundblaster.com/pr...gory=206&product=10702

My brother actually has one of those, so I'll test it out on my Hackintosh this weekend if you're interested. Pretty much all of the external pro-class devices work, so if you want top-quality audio and have the budget for it, it's definitely available!

Hello there,
I had been searching for any help on this topic , but did not find anywhere not google did not help either maybe because this is outdated i guess. hoping that some one will may help here I have join the forum here is the question.
for some reason I am using the old Logic Platinum 5 which i can not change I had been told that this is the only DAW you can work with for the mixer and PC I am using i have Eurodesk MX 9000, I am not pro or expert user of mixer so i believe what people around me said to me. it works fine but I need to have a plugin for this DAW and its called Antares Autotune, the question is dose autotune work for Logic Platinum 5, if yes then how can i install. i did try manually to copy the vst in vst plugin folder but that dose not work.
any help will be highly appreciated.
My Computer is a PC Pentium 4 with windows 98, Because i am told that this is the only window you can work with Logic Platinum 5. I can effort a hacentosh to use Auto Tune but again i am not sure if my current card Audiowerk 8 will work with hackintosh.
here is more detail about my pc.

OS Win 98
Intel (T) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHZ
Memory 1GB DDR
Graphic Card
Nvidia Geforce 6200
512 MB
Sound Card Audiowerk 8

 

[Rakehellion]

Simply put, the integrated sound cards that Hackintosh users have to use are complete crap. The Mac Pro and iMac also have integrated audio, and it too is complete crap. I'm not totally an audiophile, but I do have good ears and good speakers. I guess most of the population can't tell the difference, but I'm telling you, the difference really bothers me.

Pretty much, I'm spoiled with the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi in the windows world. Bash it as much as you want - it's still lightyears ahead of any integrated audio solution. If you tweak the driver settings, it just sounds SO good. Unfortunately, there aren't any Creative cards compatible with Mac OS.

So basically, I want some high fidelity audio on my hackintosh. For the same token, someone with a Mac Pro that wants some high quality audio but doesn't want a recording rig is in the same boat as me. We're kinda limited to PCI-E sound cards or external cards. None of the Intel macs have PCI slots...

Any ideas? Has anyone heard of a "consumer enthusiast" audio solution for mac, or possibly an upcoming product?

Use digital audio out?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Hello there,
I had been searching for any help on this topic , but did not find anywhere not google did not help either maybe because this is outdated i guess. hoping that some one will may help here I have join the forum here is the question.
for some reason I am using the old Logic Platinum 5 which i can not change I had been told that this is the only DAW you can work with for the mixer and PC I am using i have Eurodesk MX 9000, I am not pro or expert user of mixer so i believe what people around me said to me. it works fine but I need to have a plugin for this DAW and its called Antares Autotune, the question is dose autotune work for Logic Platinum 5, if yes then how can i install. i did try manually to copy the vst in vst plugin folder but that dose not work.
any help will be highly appreciated.
My Computer is a PC Pentium 4 with windows 98, Because i am told that this is the only window you can work with Logic Platinum 5. I can effort a hacentosh to use Auto Tune but again i am not sure if my current card Audiowerk 8 will work with hackintosh.
here is more detail about my pc.

OS Win 98
Intel (T) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHZ
Memory 1GB DDR
Graphic Card
Nvidia Geforce 6200
512 MB
Sound Card Audiowerk 8

I had an Audiowerk 2... it's old.

You can probably get it to work with Windows XP 32-bit, but...

If the system you have works, keep at it, but be prepared to replace, like, EVERYTHING when something finally breaks. (Computer, DAW software, interface, mixer, etc.)

 

[Space69]

for some reason I am using the old Logic Platinum 5 which i can not change I had been told that this is the only DAW you can work with for the mixer and PC I am using i have Eurodesk MX 9000, I am not pro or expert user of mixer so i believe what people around me said to me. it works fine but I need to have a plugin for this DAW and its called Antares Autotune, the question is dose autotune work for Logic Platinum 5, if yes then how can i install. i did try manually to copy the vst in vst plugin folder but that dose not work.
any help will be highly appreciated.

I would advice you to visit forums that are more focused on audio production and ask your question there - you would receive way better responses.

You can try :

www.gearslutz.com/board/
www.logicprohelp.com/forum/
www.kvraudio.com/forum/

 

[jji7skyline]

Can't hear much of a difference between my ALC892 audio and my CI2 USB Audio Mixer sound so I think this is all hype :s