[-pete-]

So at the moment I have a creative audigy 2 zs and its alright but I have a few problems with creatives lousy driver support. This is a basic checklist of what I'm after:

1. Must have optical or coax out, I use a nice sony STR-DE400 amp for both my xbox 360 and my PC so it has to be able to connect to that amp.

2. Must have x64 support, either XP (preferable) or Vista

3. Must be able to play in 5.1 on that operating system, my creative will work but only in 2.1, i want something that will play DTS streams as DTS not ProLogic II

4. A good DAC would be nice too. XD

Anyone know if such a card exists?

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Almost all mid-high end soundcards have spdif (optical, coaxial) out, and all soundcards will be able to connect to your amp.

I'm guessing X-fi here, although I don't know about the whole DTS thing.

 

[MrFaust]

I still have a brand new Audiophile 192 card for sale...

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=208972

info from m-audio's website about the card...

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...192-focus.html

 

[emericanchaos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrFaust /img/forum/go_quote.gif I still have a brand new Audiophile 192 card for sale... http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=208972 info from m-audio's website about the card... http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...192-focus.html

i don't think surround is going to work so well with that card. the big weakenss about the m-audio cards is surroind encoding. as a company m-audio is more about music editing and creation rather than media playback.

creative has always had better products for surround sound at the price of: quality DAC's and ADC's, quality drivers, and product support in general.

 

[Iceroid]

Auzentech X-Meridian.
supports 7.1 digital output.
not sure how the dac is but the opamps are replaceable.

 

[-pete-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emericanchaos /img/forum/go_quote.gif creative has always had better products for surround sound at the price of: quality DAC's and ADC's, quality drivers, and product support in general.

Hahahaha! thats a good one! Creatives x64 support so far has being woeful, I love the products, they are well made and have a feel of quality but the driver support is letting them down, I think its partly due to me wanting every feature under the sun but the hardware should support that, its only the dodgy drivers that stop it.

That X-Meridian looks pretty awesome, seems to do everything i want in a card, might think about upgrading to that.

 

[emericanchaos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -pete- /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hahahaha! thats a good one! Creatives x64 support so far has being woeful, I love the products, they are well made and have a feel of quality but the driver support is letting them down, I think its partly due to me wanting every feature under the sun but the hardware should support that, its only the dodgy drivers that stop it. That X-Meridian looks pretty awesome, seems to do everything i want in a card, might think about upgrading to that.

yeah that's creative in a nutshell. mediocre quality hardware and tons of features but everything else is sub par.

googling this X-Meridian thing right now.

 

[Denim]

Have you looked at Turtle Beach cards? I don't know what their current line is, but they have had great cards in the past.

 

[-pete-]

Those turtle beach cards aren't supported in x64

 

[Kibblesnbits]

Off-topic a bit, but why are you running a 64-bit OS?

 

[emericanchaos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kibblesnbits /img/forum/go_quote.gif Off-topic a bit, but why are you running a 64-bit OS?

to take advantage of 64bit processors and 2.0GB of RAM.

that's why i do it.

 

[Zenja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emericanchaos /img/forum/go_quote.gif to take advantage of 64bit processors and 2.0GB of RAM. that's why i do it.

You don't need a 64bit OS for either

 

[Ahriman4891]

*EDITED FOR CLARITY*

>32-bit memory addressing is needed for >4 GB of RAM. Windows XP, for whatever reason, is limited to 3 GB, so you need x64 for >3 GB, not >4.

*EDITED AGAIN TO ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE TOPIC*

If you are planning to get Vista, your best bet is probably an X-fi, with an outboard DAC later on. If you don't game, X-Meridian might do as well; I think I heard somewhere that they'll have Vista support really soon, but don't quote me on that.

 

[ChaseD13]

or you could save and get the xplosion, just doesnt do 192kz output, but CDs are 44.1, so i dont see a need to upsample