Ironsave Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I am also curious what's the best sound card for playing music/ movies..... I currently use an external Philips Aurelium; pretty decent; but am curious what I might be missing.... I found this one on New Egg by Asus; seems like it would be WAY better..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007 Suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 For now the best consumer soundcard is the creative X-FI You do not need the fatal1ty version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odysseyrevolver Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I've used the b-Enspirer sound card for three years without complaint. http://www.bgears.com/b-enspirer.html Great SQ, great software and even comes with a toslink cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Auzentech has the best sound card I have found. http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwc Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I am also curious what's the best sound card for playing music/ movies..... I currently use an external Philips Aurelium; pretty decent; but am curious what I might be missing.... I found this one on New Egg by Asus; seems like it would be WAY better..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007 Suggestions? The Asus Zonar made the cover of Stereophile. I built a computer music server/player for a buddy of mine on this forum. I used that card. He seems to be impressed with it. That card has good specs. Easy to set up. jc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Thanks for the responses! I like the Xonar because it is by Asus; my MOBO for last 3 computers were this brand, top notch. I checked the brands mentioned in other responses..... All seem to be much better than my current card..... I will do some more research...... Obviously money spent will be an issue; hoping to keep it under $125...... Probably will order this weekend...... Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Microcenter has this one for a bit over $100.... http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0325334 Based on reviews; seems to be best bang for the buck. Odysseyrevolver; thanks for the reccomendation; probably would not have considered it as New Egg is out of stock..... Hoping my local Microcenter has this in stock..... Again, thanks to everyone else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Auzentech has the best sound card I have found. http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php from the website: The Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 soundcard marks the first time Creative has permitted a third-party soundcard vendor to use the Creative X-FI™ chipset in its own soundcard design Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Oh BTW, are you going to use digital outputs or not? I just use digital out and let my denon reciever handle the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Auzentech has the best sound card I have found. http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php from the website: The Auzen X-FI™ Prelude 7.1 soundcard marks the first time Creative has permitted a third-party soundcard vendor to use the Creative X-FI™ chipset in its own soundcard design Yes and Auzentech improves on it and makes a nicer card than Creative. Auzentech is a very high quality card and extremely good for music. I think the X-FI chip was used for gaming benefits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo33 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I am also curious what's the best sound card for playing music... The best musical sound card bar none! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 Oh BTW, are you going to use digital outputs or not? I just use digital out and let my denon reciever handle the rest. Yes, It will be digital out as my receiver has an digital in...... Hopefully mine can "sort it out" well enough..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 It really does not matter than since digital line out does not do much to the signal besides sending it out in 0's and 1's of whatever the information on it was stored. Yeah it can tweek it some with bass and treble but basically if its digital out, the digital processor on the reciever will handle the information however it wants to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatgrass Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I have two of these Onkyo's. I really enjoy them. Well made, also. May be a bit higher than your target. Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuBXeRo Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 my gripe with creative is the amount of drivers and software crap that they give you. I had an Audigy II and found that my motherboard sound drivers were just as efficient and alot less hassel. Keep in mind it was an $80 card when i bought it, the high price tag doesnt always denote a good product. My dad and i have used Turtle Beach sound cards in our machines in the past and i have been quite happy with them. They seem to have gone to the way side over the years which is kind of a bummer. Quite frankly, i don't know enough about sound reproduction on a digital level to understan the differences thoroughly enough between cards to accurately tell you which one is better. I do both games and listen to music as well as edit music from time to time. My dad has done digital conversion of records up to his tower for click/pop removal and what not in preperation for cd burn and the turtle beach cards do all of it. I do like asus very much btw, i will never not buy an ASUS mobo from here on out, i had an intel one, rock solid, rock solid boring since i like to overclock and have options. On that note as well, i have an asus mobo from around 6-7 years ago and theonboard audio on that is HORRIBLE but my new asus mobo and previous intel mobo have had excellent sound and the intel is about 2.5 years old and my asus mobo is about 1 month old. For what you are doing, it doesnt sound like you need a super expensive sound card to get the job done, i expect to see you in the $30-$80 price range to find something that will do the job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironsave Posted January 15, 2010 Author Share Posted January 15, 2010 It really does not matter than since digital line out does not do much to the signal besides sending it out in 0's and 1's of whatever the information on it was stored. Yeah it can tweek it some with bass and treble but basically if its digital out, the digital processor on the reciever will handle the information however it wants to. My current (external) card (Philips Aurilium, PSC805) has a digital line out as well..... Are you saying if I use this I should not spend $100~ on a new card as it would be little difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Auzentech also has a very nice looking card for HTPC with HDMI which might be one of the best to use if you want to play Blu-ray discs on the computer. I have no personal experience with this card but it looks very nice. http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometheater_hd.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Basically. When you buy a soundcard you really buy it for it's DAC or digital to analog converter. If you are going digital to digital you will not really hear a difference since the digital decoder in the reciever itself will handle the signal. If you do hear a difference it will be due to the settings like the xfi which has a crystalizer that basically bumps up the bass and treble or 3d acoustics which sounds terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Basically. When you buy a soundcard you really buy it for it's DAC or digital to analog converter. If you are going digital to digital you will not really hear a difference since the digital decoder in the reciever itself will handle the signal. If you do hear a difference it will be due to the settings like the xfi which has a crystalizer that basically bumps up the bass and treble or 3d acoustics which sounds terrible. While that is basically true it is not entirely. I have heard quite a bit of difference when changing a couple of sound cards. Also some cards are 16 bit some are 24, there are a few spec differences that can vary even on the digital output. The card I just posted above was the only computer sound card capable of the newer audio Blu-ray HDMI formats such as True-HD etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevysales Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Asus Xonar D2X line or most of their high end cards..creative are crap and always have been. had their top of line with break out box built on my last system thats why i changed run a benchmark thru them and see whith your eyes what your eays most likely are already telling you. sound cards are finally going thru some changes as too many settled for crap for years then buyers used onboard sound on some better mobo's... now cards seem to be broken into 4 places. game cards music cards like Xonar which if left alone (set on hi-fi adds no extra crap) dont touch the signal. m-audio and the like to make music with and the new line of cards for headphone music lovers. now all this also must take into consideration your OS and your build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.