When I turned on my computer this morning I noticed that I was having serious distortion on the left channel from my Chaintech AV-710. This distortion persists from all sources. It sounds like severe digital clipping, and is definitely present only in the left channel. Lowering the volume does...

Thanks for your informative post kin0kin, I was wondering the same thing. So, how do you know what level of gain you need for your particular headphones? What is considered medium or high gain?

Given properly designed and functioning hardware and software, there should be no effect at all. If you can listen to the resulting files and not hear anything, then you know things are operating as they should be.

Well, I finally found the point of failure. One of the hair-thin (literally) wires on the driver running from the solderpoints into the driver broke off at the solderpoint. I guess my only chance for repair would be to try to just stuff it back on the solderpoint and glom a comparably massive...

I was just sitting here listening to music when suddenly the right speaker in my Sennheiser HD590 stopped making any sound. I verified that it wasn't my source or cable by muting the left channel and wiggling the jack in and out of the headphones, I can hear the right channel through the left...

Quote: Originally Posted by quke How is the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 gamewise? I'm thinking of getting one since I can't get hold of the Chaintech or the (now discontinued?) Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1. My other choices are Terratec Sky and Space at the moment, but all I see is everybody bashing...

If you're just interested in surge protection, the APC SurgeArrest Performance series is what you need. These come in two models, PF11VNT3 and PF11VT3. The PF11VNT3 model has Ethernet surge protection, the other does not. They have 11 outlets and perform to APC's usual excellent standards...

DVD Decrypter is a good program that allows you to decrypt and demux the audio stream. You'll most likely end up with a 480kbps AC3 (Dolby Digital) file (DTS and lower channel AC3 files are also possible). Transcoding this compressed audio to FLAC or something is silly, since it's already lost...

It's a truly excellent soundcard when using the hi-resolution stereo channel. The other channels are only good quality, but the hi-res stereo channel is easily as great as cards costing over $100. It's really not worth getting a better card unless you have money to burn and demand the best...

Pick up the Chaintech AV-710, as ooheadsoo recommended. It's only $23.50 at newegg. If you want to stick with what you have, download the kX Drivers, switch to using the rear out port, and get 48khz resampled ASIO output working in whatever media player you use. We can provide detailed...

Get the Chaintech AV-710 everyone loves. It's $23.50 at newegg, and offers the best audio you'll get short of spending ~$100. As for the importance of components, both matter. Crappy speakers on a great soundcard will sound terrible, as will great speakers on a crappy soundcard. The Chaintech...

If you're a professional CS player, you'll want to find a card that still supports the Aureal A3D API. No current cards that I know of do, so you'll have to do some looking. The advantage is that, in CS, using A3D allows you to hear sounds from twice as far away, meaning you gain a very real...

A USB soundcard is your best bet in this case.

The problem is that you're getting noise on the line-out of your soundcard. This is caused by EMI (electromagnetic interference) on your microphone-in and line-in inputs that is being amplified by the soundcard and sent through the line-out. Muting EVERY input on the soundcard will fix this...

Sadly, the only option for new soundcards that offer 3D audio support is Creative Labs. You won't get the straight sound quality you would with a Chaintech AV-710 or better card, but Creative cards do offer full 3D Positional Audio acceleration. Check out the Audigy 2 ZS for $88. At this point...