Poll: Best sound card manufacturer

[divinemartyr]

Rockogre:

How is it better? The Live! value and X-Gamer are the same cards and use the same chipset, they just come with different software so I fail to see where the improvement is?

dm

 

[WileCoyote]

i kinda like the stuff guillemot puts. not too much on the high end stuff, but ok for me, a gamer on a budget. i like their version of the creative live drive. its 25% cheaper too.

 

[Priit]

Gravis was way over Creative until they stopped sound card business. 7 years old GUS MAX still IMHO sounds better playing MIDI than SBLive (using 8Mb of RAM for samples vs. 1Mb on GUS). I'll do some recording on both cards near future so you can hear and justify by yourself. From modern soundcards, I prefer Terratec.

 

[borealiss]

aureal before they went under.

 

[Wingznut]

Rockogre, if you've only used Creative.... How do you know the other manufacturers are inferior?

 

[SendTrash]

You should add integrated audio!... My onboard audio seems good enough for me

 

[SDsucka]

Honestly.. how the heck can i tell if my sound card is one of the best?? I've been using Creative SoundBlasters forever now, and my guess is that the sound quality between creative and the others isn't too far off, or even noticible is it?? What do you people think?

 

[Wingznut]

I've owned the SBLive!, MX300 (Aureal Vortex2), and now I have the Santa Cruz.

The SBLive! has horrible 3d positional audio (for gaming). It's really, really bad compared to the other cards. EAX... Well, all they did is add some reverb, and it sound real artifical to me. The outputs to the speakers have more of a hiss (not sure if this has been fixed), and it has this annoying "POP" sound, when the PC boots up. I truly think that the SBLive! is one of the most overrated pieces of hardware ever.

Yes, there's a difference between the SBLive! and other cards (namely the Santa Cruz and Philips Acoustic Edge.)

 

[holdencommodore]

I think Yamaha, Cirrus Logic (Crystal) and Philips.
It is worth mentioning though, Philips Semiconducors did NOT design the ThunderBird Q3D or ThunderBird Avenger DSP.

It was infact VLSI, in conjunction with QSound. VLSI is now a subsidory of Philips Semiconductors, so now Philips are claiming that they designed the chips.

Now that Philips has got a hold of the chips though, they are making good use of them. Before, the ThunderBird Q3d only made it into a couple of cards, the Aztech PCI 368DSP and the Labway Thunder3D.
It never really got any recognition. And Aztech were VERY SLOW at releasing driver updates (I know, I've got one!).

The ThunderBird chips arn't brand new, the Q3d was launched in 1998 and the Avenger was released in 1999. They are still top alternatives to the SB Live, if you don't want to go the Creative way.

The best feature is QMSS.

 

[Sunner]

Dont know, I only have Creative cards, but I doubt they're the best.
My Live! is nice for the price, doesnt sound perfect, but decently good, and drivers are pretty good too for that matter.
However Creative's complete and utter lack of innovative capability is disturbing.

 

[AgentOrange]

Creative all the way.....

 

[LXi]

Creative is NOT overrated, they're never meant to do what they're not suppose to, and do they a damn good job of what they should do. 3D positioning is not a problem for me, even in games that require 3D sound positioning I find the Live! very adequate for the job, reverbs sound very realistic even though I know its articifial, and it enhances my gaming experience more or less, especially in NeedForSpeed which takes advantage of EAX. Their driver support is excellent, very frequent updates, and even to date, Live! is the only recognized and agreed capable soundcard in Win2K because of the excellent support team behind it, one of the reasons why their compatibility has been second to nobody.

 

[Remedy]

Ummm, I might be wrong here but last time i checked EAX was Environmental Audio Extentions right ? I don't think it can be ruled a 3D api, which is the reason why they don't list it on the box. I can't understand why ppl list Creative as best card manufacture when they haven't even changed there chip in the last 2 years. Aureal made more innovative moves then CL did and now that there gone CL still hasn't changed that lame chip they keep using and boosting for like 200 dollars in the store its rediculous. I wish ppl would stop using that lame argument about cpu utilization, its like 1-4% on most top soundcards such as the Turtle beach Santa Cruz,The Late Aureal cards and i belive the hercules GamersXP card also,phillips too and the utilization isn't even enough to move any athlon not even duron will blink so kill that aurgument right there. The santa cruz and phillips cards has just as many features and or more to be considered a threat To sb live! and i think they are both cheaper last time i check too. So what makes CL better than TB and Phillips?

 

[divinemartyr]

<< Live! is the only recognized and agreed capable soundcard in Win2K because of the excellent support team behind it, one of the reasons why their compatibility has been second to nobody. >>



So the Live! is the only card that works in Win2k? Wow... Sounds like Microsoft has a lot to worry about since they made this the only card to work with their OS. Sounds like Microsoft has more than one problem in court. Hampering other manufacturers from being able to compete would be a serious issue IMHO.

dm

 

[Noriaki]

You forgot Philips. The Accoustic Edge is the most impressive soundcard out there right now. Though they didn't really design it...but they do make the driver support top notch which is very important to me

You also forgot Roland and Gravis, the Gravis Ultrasound is the absolute sh*t.

My vote goes to Philips, though they aren't on the list.

Turtle Beach would be a close second, specifically for the Santa Cruz but that's based on a DSP from some other company, and they are one of a few companies that use it (VideoLogic uses the same chip in one of their boards)...so who gets the vote?

I'm not really that picky about quality, they all sound the same to me really...I just go for connections, game compatibility and features. I like the AE becuase of the 2 or 4 channel upmix thing...QMSS I think it's called...

 

[Wingznut]

o·ver·rate (vr-rt)
v. tr. o·ver·rat·ed, o·ver·rat·ing, o·ver·rates.

To overestimate the merits of; rate too highly.


Don't confuse &quot;overrated&quot; with &quot;incompetant&quot;. I'm not saying that it's not a good sound card. What it does (which isn't much), it does just fine. But it just doesn't do anything exceptional or unique. The latest offerings from Turtle Beach and Philips really show up the SBLive!.

 

[Remedy]

THANK YOU Nutz, thats what i've been trying to explain to so many ppl in this forum. Their top of the line card(which uses the same good for nothing chip as the lower budget Live! cards) is like over 150 dollars, and for what?? I don't get why do ppl praise this card. If it had a versajack like my Santa Cruz or Sensura 3D like my Santa cruz then that would be a different story. Then i could justify the cost but it doesn't do anything Ground Breaking expcept for maybe that corny ass live drive(which should be an Optional accessory and not introduced with the same old card as a new card and a jacked up price!)that might get them over but in reality it just goes to show how innovative Outdated Labs is. I Gurantee you if that Aureal SuperQuad 3500(everyone who knows the specs of that card agree with me) would of came out, CL would be out of the Sound card game as far as knowledgable and gaming ppl go in this world.

 

[Asha'man]

I'd say creative. I'm happy with my sb16 value from 94.
not.

some day, a Live! will cross my path, and I will TAKE IT

Asha'man

 

[Wingznut]

&quot;some day, a Live! will cross my path, and I will TAKE IT&quot;

Why not set your sights on a better card?

 

[holdencommodore]

Noriaki:
I didn't forget Philips!!! (see my post above)
I think they have the best value cards, with the best features around (QMSS).

If they do the right thing, and continue with regular driver updates, they could have a winner on their hands.

I think that everyone forgot C-Media (eg CMI-8738)!!??

 

[dcdomain]

Creative... but I felt like I was forced to buy a Creative, not much competition out there to choose from, wish they'd have better drivers/software. So many problems...

 

[SUOrangeman]

What? No one has a Terratec?

... and I thought you all were enthusiasts!

-SUO

 

[rommel]

creative...with out a doubt...sound blaster live series...fromt he value to platinum all use the same engine and are excellent...lol

 

[Wingznut]

&quot;creative...with out a doubt&quot;

What don't you like about the Accoustic Edge and Santa Cruz cards?

 

[BA]

Posthumous award to Aureal