Sound Card Recommendation?

[ncage]

Hi everyone. I am upgrading my system to a AMD 65 system. I am so sad the nvidia got rid of the sound storm functionality of their chipsets. I really like mine. So anyways it looks like i have to go out and buy a new sound card. The only thing i really do with my sound card is once in awhile play mp3's and play games. I want a sound card that has eax and possibly eax2 functionality but does all the encoding in hardware. Thats the reason i don't like via's chipsets solution to sound..most it is done is software. Well anyways, to get similiar functionality with what i had should i just get a soundblaster live or do i need to go to an audigy or an audigy 2 or is there a Non-Creative product that has the functionality i need. Of course, i want to spend the least i can and as you can tell high fidelity at least for my computer isn't really that important to me just want my games to sound good.

thanks,
Ncage

 

[dirtcheapguy]

for music get newest emu 0404 for 129 dollar but for one or two month it will get down 99 dollar. if you listen music alot on pc. using lossless format get emu 1212m for 200 buck
for game get creative sound card platinium2.

 

[ViRGE]

Creative's Audigy line is still the only series of soundcards that supports EAX 3(aka EAX HD) and higher, so if you're planning on gaming, an Audigy would be my reccomendation.

 

[dheffer]

I'm in a similar situation. I have an older sb live! gamer edition (non 5.1). I know this is better than onboard, but how much is it cutting into my cpu cycles still? I dont care too much about sound, but I dont want it destroying my games while I play =)
Oh well Ill probably just upgrade to the cheapest audigy2 i can find.
Tried looking for the cheapest deal on hot deals anyone know where i can find the cheapest audigy 2 w/ firewire?

Didn't mean to jack your thread, just didn't wanna start a new one. =)

 

[AristoV300]

the SB audigy zs is a great card. Not only does it support EAX HD it can also do 24 bit audio and can play DVD music disc which are amazing if you have ever heard one. The card does handle most the sound task via its processor which helps free up the CPU cycles.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: dheffer
Tried looking for the cheapest deal on hot deals anyone know where i can find the cheapest audigy 2 w/ firewire?

If you can live without Firewire, you can get the Audigy ES, which is basically an Audigy 1 minus Firewire, and goes for $42 as a result. Otherwise, a full Audigy 2 is going to run close to $70.

 

[dheffer]

Sound quality, s/n ratio, and channels over 5.1 aside, what are the differences between an A1 and A2 and my Live! Value I guess because I dont have 5.1, it just says Live!. I remember when the 5.1s came out, this is just a 4.1 card, man that was a long time ago haha

 

[ViRGE]

If we exclude sound quality and channels, that leaves DVD-Audio and EAX. The Audigy2 series can play back DVD-Audio, although that's really an almost pointless feature. The difference then comes down to EAX, where the Audigy series can support EAX3/4/HD, along with 64 3D sound channels instead of 32.

 

[dirtcheapguy]

for cheap and work best of all included game and music than go for this Chaintech AV-710 at newegg for 25 buck
here is the review link http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75454

 

[CommandoCATS]

Both the A1 and the A2 use the EMU 10k2 DSP, which operates at a fixed 48kHz. This means that if you play a sound stream through the DSP, it will get resampled to 48kHz no matter what. The A2 allows you to bypass the DSP via some special driver hacks and play/record at 96kHz and also avoid resampling (I think).