[chia-pet]

What are the implications involved in using two soundcards? Physically, it's possible to insert two soundcards into your PC, but are there any software implications? I consulted my friend about this, and he tells me it may be tricky to do. Those of you who have successfully implemented two soundcards, is there any advice related to this process that you may have for me?

I'm thinking about sticking in an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 to compliment my Soundblaster Live. The Soundblaster is just too amazing for games to let go of.

 

[minya]

None. I had an Audigy for a long time, and I recently popped in an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 (I use the Audigy for games and 'general' sound output, whereas I use the Audiophile for its digital out and to record vinyl). Works perfectly. No problems at all, as long as you set everything up right.

I'm using Win XP, BTW.

- Chris

 

[lan]

To use 2 soundcards for music and games, set the default card to the soundblaster card because you can't select cards in a game. In your audio app, specify that you want to use the Revo. All should be well.

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

Originally posted by chia-pet What are the implications involved in using two soundcards? Physically, it's possible to insert two soundcards into your PC, but are there any software implications? I consulted my friend about this, and he tells me it may be tricky to do. Those of you who have successfully implemented two soundcards, is there any advice related to this process that you may have for me? I'm thinking about sticking in an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 to compliment my Soundblaster Live. The Soundblaster is just too amazing for games to let go of.

Why would you keep an SB live in there at all? It's got next to zero hardware acceleration, just like the Revo, and far less software support (as well as far inferior sound on all fronts). You shouldn't lose much if ANY performance going to the Revo, and gain nothing but sound quality. The performance difference is evident between say an Audigy2, but not a live.

The dual cards can work (sometimes is tricky) - I myself have run an Audigy with my Revo, but later removed it because the performance difference (in the games I play) was literally 3fps out of 100, not worth it.

-dd3mon

 

[chia-pet]

Well my friend let me borrow his Turtle Beach Santa Cruz recently, and I used that instead of my Sound Blaster Live for a short period of time. I notice a huge impact, but I tend to be hyper sensitive to minor changes. The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz lags my computer--it's very minor, but I notice it. I play competative Counter Strike, and I probably play 30% better with the Sound Blaster Live than the Turtle Beach, which I attribute to the lag created by Turtle Beach's dependency on my CPU. I hear M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is like the Turtle Beach, but more severe.

My computer specs: 1.8 P4, 512mb DDR, Geforce3ti200

Hope that explains it.

 

[PMorph]

I'm running a SB Live/Aureon Sky combo with 98SE (Aureon doesn't got 3D HW).
I didn't really expect it to work, but it seems Redmond boys got it right - never had any problems.

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

I play competative Counter Strike

Oh? what leagues? I played two seasons of cal-m a couple of seasons ago.. coulda gone cal-i had I stuck with it, but I got bored with it.

-dd3mon

 

[lini]

PMorph: I've already recommended the Aureon 5.1 Sky and Aureon 7.1 Space over here quite a few times, as I think it is an interesting alternative to the Revo - especially for headphone listeners on a budget due to the nicely integrated headphone amp section. But it's always good to know how other owners think (and whether they came across any quirks), so how do you like your Aureon 5.1 Sky?

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: I especially like the compact all-in-one control panel for the Aureons. And I'm also very fond of the fact, that the installation doesn't crap Windows with all kind of useless splash screens and stuff - Terratec is favourably un-creative in that respect...

 

[PMorph]

lini: it's easy to like this card - excellent build quality, straightforward to install and use, and the most important thing: great sound.

The simplistic control panel maybe isn't pretty to look at, but does the job without hassle.
There are, however, certain bugs with current drivers/CP - nothing fatal, but annoying (e.g. some level sliders in CP affect each other illogically).

I've been using it only for MP3 playback, so i don't know how things work with recording (well, i did run RMAA, just to be sure all is ok; and also tested recording from CDP via toslink).

Apart from CP/driver bugs i can only praise this piece of HW

Cheers!

 

[lini]

PMorph: It's just a pity, that Terratec has also included a third soundcard in the Aureon series - the cheap Aureon 5.1 Fun. It's entirely different than the Aureon 5.1 Sky and 7.1 Space plus it's suffering from compatibility problems with quite a few surround receivers when you want to transfer 5.1 sound digitally...*sigh*

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini