Greets.

For me AV-710 would be the perfect alternative. Unfortunately I live in Europe. No trace of that card anyway near here. So.. what alternatives are there in the same priceranges as the Chaintech?

Anyone know anything about "Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo IV"? Seems to be a very new card.. cant find specs on Hercules.com even. The mini-specs on retail homepages says its a 24, 96/192 soundcard. Which should be a significant change from Fortissimo I,II,III that was a TB SantaCruz type soundcard.

You might want to see if you can find a Mad Dog Multimedia Entertainer 7.1 which is the exact same as the AV-710 except it has an SPDIF input as well as an SPDIF output.

Unfortunately 'Mad Dog' was as untraceable as the AV-710. Thanks for the tip though! If it do arrive it might come under that name. However its not very likely. Creative's SoundBlaster department is crushing all competition around here. There are no E-Mu cards to be found either.

Btw. I saw some indication that the Fortissimo IV card is a Envy24HT based one. Promising! Although I need some kind of verification that hercules didnt botch the card build somehow.

If the Fortissimo IV is a 7.1 card then there is a good chance it has the Wolfson DAC, as the 7/8 channel is where the Wolfson DAC resides on the Mad Dog Multimedia and Chaintech cards. Also, to order EMU cards in Europe check out the "Creative Professional" section of the Creative Europe online shop.

The AV-710 is availible in Europe, seen it as SAV-710, according to chaintech it is the same card i believe. You can check Chaintech.com.tw to see if it exists any distributors in your country. Or if you live in Scandinavia you can buy the card from Hovedkort.no. Hope you find it!

Mr.Radar:
Wolfson would be great. I found some retailer that showed some specs:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/6036...tissimo-i.html

Indeedio a Envy24HT, they say. How does that differ from the AV-710's Envy24PT? Might it have more processing capability for 3D sound acceleration?


Erik S:
Tack så mycke! Då kanske det finns i Sverige också! But I have not found it yet around here. I suppose its not a big deal to order from Norway. Ordering from US can be a bit of ordeal with toll and tax etc.

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Actually, the AV-710 uses the Envy24HT-S, not the Envy24PT. The Envy24HT-S is a cheaper version of the Envy24HT with a few features stripped from it. The Envy24PT, unlike the Envy24HT(-S), is limited in its maximum theoretical sampling rate support to 96kHz [the Envy24HT(-S) theoretically supports sampling rates up to 192kHz].

So, what is the difference between the Envy24HT and Envy24HT-S? Well, the Envy24HT (without the "-S") supports 5.1 or 7.1 output at up to 24bit/96kHz, while the cheaper Envy24HT-S (and Envy24PT) supports high sampling rates only in stereo mode (those two cheaper chipsets must rely on an AC'97 codec, which is typically limited to 16bit/48kHz output maximum, for multichannel output).

Try http://www.compgeeks.com I ordered 2 of the chaintechs from them. It took just over a month to get them though, but that was to the UK. The shipping was $20 for one card or it was $24 for the 2. I got them this afternoon and both work and sound great.

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The HT-S is simply a PT with a different name printed on the chip. Apparently Via wanted to differentiate their cheap onboard audio Envy24 chipset from their cheap soundcard Envy24 chipset. They use the same circuit (and the same driver). Also, if you look on the product page on Via's website for the Envy24PT it says it supports 192KHz max (even though their overview page says 96KHz). The regular HT (no -S) is completely different though.

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So, is there any cards out there with the envy24pt chipset?

Even though The Tech Report says the MDM E7.1 uses it, it's listed uner the Envy24HT-S - The Definitive Source (on AVS Forum) as being an HT-S card. Like I said above Via is trying to differentiate their onboard audio and soundcard solutions from each other, even though they're exactly the same.