PC head-fi'ers
Jan 16, 2002 at 3:35 PM Post #17 of 35
Quote:

Originally posted by Snufkin
Hahah, anyone else want to suggest another card not so far listed, just for added confusion?
wink.gif


Perhaps the Philips Acoustic Edge?


Nah. How about Hoontech Digital XG? Yamaha XG chipset, Sensaura software, optical and coax digital I/O, doesn't resample digital input, very clean analog i/o, at about $80.
 
Jan 16, 2002 at 9:36 PM Post #19 of 35
I suggest that you get the Audigy retail version. The difference between the retail and the OEM is that the retail has gold plated ports and software package. In my opinion it seem to be build better.

The Audigy sounds great for music I don't have any hiss and it is a 24bit card none of the other cards mentioned above are 24bit. The Audigy also has a built in firewire port. If you like gaming this card is the best gaming card out there. If I am not mistaken it is the only card with EAX and EAX2 support and the lowest CPU utilization out there.
I also think that the headphone out is a little more amplified than the SB live card at leas the sound seams more specious than with the other cards.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jan 16, 2002 at 9:53 PM Post #20 of 35
Btw, the 24/96 stuff on the Audigy is fake, it isn't really 24/96, and the TBSC sounds better, and the TBSC has better headphone algorithms, ESPECIALLY for games, and the software on the Audigy is a joke; just get the cheapest, most software-free version.

But if you are doing mostly or only 4.1 or 5.1 gaming, the audigy is the only choice out there, because of EAX and EAX2.

And a lot of the cards we recommended are 24/96 cards, that whoop both the Audigy and the TBSC in sound quality, but not for gaming, such as the Audiophile 24/96 that a few people mentioned.
 
Jan 16, 2002 at 11:17 PM Post #22 of 35
Hirsch - see now there's an acceptable "gaming" card when it comes to audio quality. If he's interested in EAX, that would be a good choice.

carlosgp - I have the same sound card, just with more I/Os. Yes, they are great.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jan 16, 2002 at 11:26 PM Post #23 of 35
If anyone wants to listen to audio only on their PC using a $100 sound card their wasting their time and money any pcdp would probably be better then a $100 sound card.

I know that Audigy is not a true 24 bit card even though it is advertised as one but it is a good all around card audio + gaming.
 
Jan 17, 2002 at 5:00 AM Post #26 of 35
You may want to check this review of the Philips cards.
It includes subjective (blind) listening test between several of the cards mentioned above.
There are other sound card reviews on the site with subjective listening assessments and technical measurements.
 
Feb 15, 2002 at 11:13 PM Post #27 of 35
Hey guys, this interesting. Here is a review of the Santa Cruz: http://www.ixbt-labs.com/articles/sa...ch/index.html, and it seems to favor the sb live. An excerpt from the review:

"At first differences can be heard at once and without any stupid "blind" tests. In general, I liked the Live more although it reproduces music more noisy and "dirty" but sound is true and natural. The Santa Crus reproduces music without noises but lifelessly and unnaturally as synthesizer does. Instruments timbers differ significantly from the real ones. Sound is too "flat". That's all."

So what's up with that? Is that totally subjective?
 
Feb 16, 2002 at 4:42 PM Post #30 of 35
Mumrik: thanks

Audio&Me: The problem is I have a pretty tight budget, and those 24 bit soundcards you wrote about don't fit in it. Perhaps the Terratec DMX XFire 1024, but it's still more expensive than the Santa Cruz/SonicFury. The question is, will I really here an improvement, if I change my SB Live to a SonicFury (I have pretty good headphones). I wish I could compare them somewhere with my own headphones, and ears
smily_headphones1.gif
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