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Best Sound Card for Klipsch Promedia 4.1


RaidersFan

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I'm building my dream system one part at a time. I want a great sound card and dont want to let price be a factor in my decision. I just want a great card, regardless of the cost. Well I take that back, nothing ridiculous. For now, it's just music for me. I mainly listen to MP3z.

I am planning on getting the Klipsch Promedia 4.1 There is no doubt in my mind these are the best computer speakers ever, come on, they are THX certified, what other computer speaker can say that.

So what do you use, especially if you have the Promedias? How do you like them?

Any opinions on the SB Live, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or the Philips Acoustic Edge? What about the audiphile 2426? I am using Win 2K. Any problems with that on any of this?

I have heard good things about the acoustic edge, but a sound card from Phillips? I have a tough time imagining that will be any good? And what about quality? I am a loyal creative customer and still like their products? I hate dealing with drivers. How are the drivers for these cards? I know the SoundBlaster should be backwards compatible which I love. What about the acoustic edge and the Santa Cruz? The audiphile? Can you say driver issues? The SoundBlaster just seems old. When is creative going to redesign that chip?

I am willing to pay the price for quality. I want a very high quality card.

Does anyone have this setup? How do you like it?

I like making purchases and keeping the products for a long time. I like to know the part I buy is simply the best out there and will be for a while. Is anything new supposed to come out soon in the sound card field in the next 6-9 months? Basically, what I am asking is what is the best soundcard right now and is it a good time to buy now. Will anything new be coming out in the next 6-9 months? If so, I will wait.

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AE.

J

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JOIN THE "AMY FOR PRESIDENT" CAMPAIGN. OUR PLATFORM:

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PIII @ 1.08GHZ

SuperMicro PIIISCD I820 Mobo

512mb pc133 Viking

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata66

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata100

Generic DVD 4X

Creative 8x4x32x Burner

GeForce256 32mb DDR (orig)

3Com 905B-TX Lan

Netgear RT314 Gateway/Router

Philips Acoustic Edge

425w Power Supply

Triple Boot Me/2K/Whistler Build 2416

Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1's

umm... a floppy.

thats it, for now

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

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Well here is the speal on today's fine and exquisite soundcards...(my opinion, don't say I'm wrong)

You are right on the SbLive cards, the emu10k chip has been out for 2 or so years now, SB is currently working on a newer card, no dates have been said.

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, this card had potential, but the company killed it. They have not released a decent set of new drivers in several months but there are _many_ problems remaining with it that need to be settled with new drivers.

Philips AE, yes they are not really popular in the computer hardware industry but they have been making tvs, vcrs, recievers and all kinds of electronic gizmos for a while now. It is a relatively new card but what really sets it ahead of Santa Cruz especially are drivers being periodically released. Updating though is a pain with the auto-update.

Anywho personal experience wise, sblive was good, back then though. I chose philips since I thought it had the most potential and I wanted to see how the Qsound worked and it sounds great. Klipsch 4.1s go well with it, trust me, I keep being told to turn my *word* down. =P

Blue skies,

Stu

----------------------

Dual PIII 733 mhz

128 RDRAM

ATI Rage 128 pro AIW

Philips AE

Klipsch 4.1

12x CDRW

40 G HD

DVD

Win/Linux

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How about a different view? 4ch soundcards for 4ch speakers.

The owner of the ADS2000 ac3 decoder swears by the 4ch mix down,(maybe he didn't swear) the remote control, all the in/outs, and the quality of the D/A converters. Better than that is the Panasonic decoder that also does DTS decoding.

If you're not hung-up on 5.1ch analog soundcards You should look at Hoontec.com, either of these cards have a s/pdif out on the back but also a s/pdif in the inside.(good for s/pdif from a dedicated DVD decoder card)

These cards use the NX DB II & ST DB III expansion options for all kinds of optical and AES/EUB digital in/outs.(more than I've seen on any thing else) The XG uses the Yamaha 744 chip to do max midi and the NX takes advantage of newer Q-sound.

http://3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/Digital-XG/DigitalXG.html

http://3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/Digital-NX/DigitalNX.html

And the front and rear analog is all the pros need, because thats all they are, 4ch.

Hoontech can turn your computer into 12 and 24 track recording studio with their Pro stuff.

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go for the santa cruz,i havent had a single problem with this card,ive had soundblaster cards before ended up taking them back..this is my 3rd Turtle Beach Card and i have been very happy with each one,as far as Phillips well they make a decent TV..but lets face it they were always a bottom feeder in the business.all these people crying about drivers really gets annoying.if you want a quality card Turtle Beach is the way to go.

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Sound Blaster Audigy X-Gamer. This sound card is aimed at the gaming market and is to replace the todays X-Gamer. The price is expected to be around US$99.

Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+. In fact, this is just the same thing as the previous model with that only difference that the developers devoted a lot of attention to MP3 when working on it. The product will cost about US$99.

Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum. The cost of this solution is around US$199, however, for this money you will also get a remote control unit, FireWire connectors, etc.

SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY LINE

Key Selling Points

* Powerful EMU10K2 Audio Processor -- expanded power, double the effects

* Secure Content Support -- Expanded content secruity, safe box, secure music, secure transaction

* Dual Firewire/1394 Support -- expanded high speed connectivity, connectivity to DV cameras, connectivity to external storage and 1394 supported devices; similar to USB, but 30x faster; can hook up to 60 devices

CLI will also be creating sub-brands for each feature to leverage technology, EX: Audigy Audio Processor, Content Pass, Sound Blaster 1394

Secondary Features

* 6 channel digital and analog output (Dolby Digital approved -- CLI is only company to have this approval)

* PlayCenter 2 -- high quality 320kbps encoder with up to 9x digital audio acceleration; digital media organizer; audio only media player that allows selection of frequencies, added click remover and noise reduction features

* Customization with EAX effects and Oozic-- various acoustic properties, voice shifter; visual component/enhancer

* Complete software package

* Upgradeability via CreativeWare (formerly LiveWare)

Platinum Product Only

* Audigy Drive with Firewire connector -- connects to front of PC, offering consumers 2 connectors

* Remote control

http://www.checkdomain.com/cgi-bin/checkdomain.pl?domain=Audigy

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Great we have a cut and paster. I will defend the AE here, I have not had a single driver problem. I explained earlier that the auto-update feature can be a pain. The review at Gamer's Depot and some other places http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/sound_cards/turtle_beach/santa_cruz/001.htm I decided for myself (you may choose otherwise) that I would not want the Santa Cruz. All I can say is look at full reviews of the different sound cards and decide what works best for you.

Blue skies,

Stu

------------------

Dual PIII 733 mhz, 128 RDRAM, ATI Rage 128 pro AIW, 40 GHD, 12x CDRW, DVD, Philips AE, Klipsch 4.1

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again, AE. www.3dsoundsurge.com and www.3dspotlight.com also have great reviews (in addition to the gamer's depot).

j

------------------

JOIN THE "AMY FOR PRESIDENT" CAMPAIGN. OUR PLATFORM:

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

PIII @ 1.08GHZ

SuperMicro PIIISCD I820 Mobo

512mb pc133 Viking

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata66

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata100

Generic DVD 4X

Creative 8x4x32x Burner

GeForce256 32mb DDR (orig)

3Com 905B-TX Lan

Netgear RT314 Gateway/Router

Philips Acoustic Edge

425w Power Supply

Triple Boot Me/2K/Whistler Build 2416

Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1's

umm... a floppy.

thats it, for now

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

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I got an AE, and it by far beats anything in sound quality. To show you how much better it really is. I basicly had to delete any of my 128 kbit mp3's and get at least 192kbit encoded one's. I could literally tell the diffrence between the two in sound quality.

As for Driver support Everything works fine for me. And if I think about it, the last set of speakers i had were Microsoft DSS 80's. Great speakers. If only the power supply on it didn't go bad i'd still be using them. But they were made with Philips technology. To me, Philips has proved themselves by far to be great quality. And with that, I stuck with them and they've made yet another quality product.

I would Highly recommend them to anyone.

------------------

DvS

dvs@jackasp.net

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quote:

Originally posted by d3vi0s:

I got an AE, and it by far beats anything in sound quality. To show you how much better it really is. I basicly had to delete any of my 128 kbit mp3's and get at least 192kbit encoded one's. I could literally tell the diffrence between the two in sound quality.

Ehhh...I can do that with my SB Live! X-Gamer.

Not knocking the AE at all, it's a great card. I'm just saying, don't say that it beats everything in sound quality before you've compared it side-by-side to a SoundBlaster Live!, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, a Hercules Game Theater XP, etc...

But, glad you are happy with the Philips card. I'm considering buying one myself.

------------------

CPU: AMD Thunderbird 1.33 GHz 266fsb AXIA / Mobo: Iwill KK266-R / Memory: 256MB Crucial PC133 CAS2 / Video: Elsa Gladiac 32MB GeForce 2 GTS / Hard Drives: Twin 30.0 GB IBM Deskstar 75GXP 7200rpm ATA100 (not running RAID at the moment) / CDRW: Plextor PlexWriter 16x/10x/40x, Plextor PlexWriter 8x/4x/32x / Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer / Monitor: Sony G400 19" Trinitron / Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400's (400w of THX-certified goodness) / Printer: Lexmark Z52 Professional Printer / NIC: Linksys 10/100 NIC / Modem: Viking 56k external (They keep telling me "DSL will be here in a few months...") / Mouse: Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical (the new, 33% faster one) / Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (w/2 additional USB ports)

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the GTXP looks sweet; I love how it has all the fancy inputs/outputs and most of all, 4 USB headers. I would probably pick that or the SBLive! 5.1 before anything else at this point.

Go to www.3dsoundsurge.com for reviews on all the soundcards mentioned above and probably more.

"they are THX certified, what other computer speaker can say that."

and to correct your statement (I don't know if you knew this or not) but Altec Lansing has a speaker set that is THX certified; though I will agree with most here that I doubt it's as good as the Klipsch.

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