[ak622]

What are the benefits of flashing it to prodigy? Can you please explain what do you mean that are far less troublesome? Are there any cons to flashign it as well?? Thanks in advance!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjf You should flash it to prodigy. It does not sound any better, but the drivers are far, far less troublesome.

 

[fjf]

Pros: a better driver, with native ASIO. With the envy24 driver you must use asio4all (or kernel streaming), and if you get it to work, the driver has to be locked to 41KHz. If you play a movie or soundfile coded to 48KHz, yu have to manually change it in the driver, and sometimes it works, and others don't. The prodigy has ASIO selectable within Foobar and does all the changes in coding automatically.

Cons: you loose outputs other than SPDIF. Only good if you use an external DAC.

 

[retic3nt]

you can get the X-fi xtreme music for $63 shipped after rebate.

Can anyone tell me how much better for music the m-audio 5.1 is compared to the x-fi? Is it a huge difference?

 

[skeeder]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...120-103&depa=0
newegg has it...not sure how you couldn't find it.

 

[s0matic]

Just a head's up but, it seems like the new AV710's have a Envy24PT chip instead of the Envy24HT-S found in the previous ones.

Specification comparison of the different Envy models.

 

[bungle]

ZipZoomFly says "Chaintech AV710 VIA ENVY 24PT". NewEgg says "Audio Chipset-VIA ENVY24 HT-S". I wonder if NewEgg has old ones, or just hasn't updated it. How much of a difference do you think there is?

 

[binkgle]

i just received my av710 from zipzoomfly. though i haven't installed it yet, the card has an envy24 ht-s chip on it, not a pt. zipzoomfly seems to have labelled it incorrectly

 

[bungle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by s0matic Just a head's up but, it seems like the new AV710's have a Envy24PT chip instead of the Envy24HT-S found in the previous ones.

Is that statement based on ZipZoomFly's listing, or something else?

If I remember correctly, the AV710 is recommended for digital out and line-out to an amp (via 7-8 Wolfson), but not for amped headphone out, right? Is it likely to be better than onboard sound for the last situation? (It would be a nice upgrade path - better headphone out right off, then add an amp later, then a DAC later...)

 

[Xakepa]

I played with few AV-710, the chip is HT-S. Both digital out and "Hi-Res" out are excellent, but Hi-Res can't run unamped.

 

[dsmith06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkgle i just received my av710 from zipzoomfly. though i haven't installed it yet, the card has an envy24 ht-s chip on it, not a pt. zipzoomfly seems to have labelled it incorrectly

I got mine from ZZF too. Invoice says pt, but the UPC label says HT-S, and the actual Via chip on the card is labeled HT-S.
By the way, this is my virgin post on head-fi (someone hold me, please!)

 

[s0matic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bungle Is that statement based on ZipZoomFly's listing, or something else? If I remember correctly, the AV710 is recommended for digital out and line-out to an amp (via 7-8 Wolfson), but not for amped headphone out, right? Is it likely to be better than onboard sound for the last situation? (It would be a nice upgrade path - better headphone out right off, then add an amp later, then a DAC later...)

On Chaintech's site, it lists ENVY24PT as the AV710's chipset:
http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/p...o=16&PISNo=199

In addition, while Newegg's Product specifcations still state it has a Envy24HT-S, the picture with the User Guide says "ENVY24 PT":
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggIma...120-103-02.JPG

Although I do not own an AV710 myself, my best guess is that those receiving AV710's with the Envy24HT-S chip are old ones being cleared out, with all new AV710's made from now on using the Envy24PT chip.

Considering this, the only differentiating factor with the new AV710's to the old ones (in a digital-out or similar situation) should be the chipset, but even then I don't think there would be substantial difference in overall sound-quality. I could be wrong though. Maybe someone knows more about this issue?