[thebigcanman]

Hello Head-fiers,


I am looking for a decent soundcard to upgrade from my stock motherboard soundcard.


When i say budget i mean in the sam price range of an Asus Xonar DX

whats important? Audio quality. I dont really care for any gaming features, just as good of audio i can get from the soundcard. I will be mainly using Shure SE530s and Audio technica ES7s

I have heard the Xonar DX is a good card (and has front audio plugs) but the headphone amplifier on it is quite bad.

I have also have struggled to find specific reviews and information on the Creative range. Every soundcard seems directed at gamers these days.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[ROBSCIX]

Not a bad card considering the price. IIRC, this card has NO headphone amplifier.
All of Creative cards are aimed at gamers. Their newly annouced card seems to be targeting a wider audience though .

 

[thebigcanman]

how about the Auzentech X-Studio 5.1?

they seem to be quite cheap and i have read a few good things

 

[bixby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not a bad card considering the price. IIRC, this card has NO headphone amplifier. All of Creative cards are aimed at gamers. Their newly annouced card seems to be targeting a wider audience though .

Not exactly true. Creative owns E-mu and they make cards geared for semi pro musicians.

depending on what you plan to do with the card an 0404 pci card from e-mu can transport bit perfect audio to an external dac for example or give you decent starter level audio from its analog outs. the 1212m is a bit smoother with analog outs and not a whole lot more expensive.

The software interface is a bit of a pain but not too hard to figure out for getting two channel audio working.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Yes but that is EMU branded gear.

 

[Bassbindevil]

Various Creative cards can do bit-perfect audio in and out over S/PDIF. Some can be hacked to turn them into Emus and add features. In fact, any sound card that can pass through Dolby Digital and DTS bitstreams should be capable of bit-perfect output. Check the bins at computer recyclers or ask local stores if they have any pulls. I picked up a Live Drive module for $15, which was compatible with a Live! that I'd previously rescued from a scrapped computer. That adds a 1/4" headphone jack among other I/O on the front of a computer, which is handy. If you spot one, an Audigy 2 is more desirable, since they don't insist on resampling everything to 48k, and can do bit-perfect digital capture.

Still, if you ever spot an M-Audio card cheap, go for it. When I saw a Delta 410 in a local pawn, I checked out the docs, and it looked nearly ideal for HTPC use. Too bad they confused it with the Firewire version and overpriced it and won't drop it to something reasonable.

 

[ROBSCIX]

Yes and the cards share similarites. EMU technology is pretty muchwhere CL got the DSP it uses on their gamign cards right now. They are just DSP's for recording cards offering harware effects. If your into these older CL cards try out the KX drivers...they can gove some good sound in comparison to stock drivers and have awsome routing and effect capabilities for recording.