[GCTonyHawk7]

I will start by explaining my previous audio setup. Before a few days ago, I was using my onboard soundcard. This had all the ports I needed and was working great. I had my great 5.1 speakers hooked up, my headphones and their amp hooked up, and all was fine. I got to thinking though, $600 worth of audio listening equipment and I was using the onboard soundcard? Kinda lame I would say.

Come June 5th, Woot.com had a great sale of the Razer Barracuda AC-1. ($50, and $5 shipping) Through a long string of fiasco it finally showed up on my doorstep on June 24th. I completely disabled my onboard, plugged everything in, installed the drivers, was going good. Then the shortcomings began. We will put them into a great list for you.

- Problem 1: Inputs on AC-1 are complete ****
The Razer AC-1 (at least mine) seems to have completely ****ty inputs. It has the S/PDIF input which I am unable to use, and then the Line-in and Mic jacks. I use my Wii with my computer and route the audio through the line-in port. So, naturally, this is where I plugged it in at first. I started up my Wii and noticed a speratic popping sound. This kind of faded in and out, and I got over it. I started to play Brawl and noticed it was completely clipping random parts of the audio. I talked to my friend which is in to this sort of stuff, and he said that might be the Wii's fault. So, since I don't use the microphone, I could use that as another input. I tried that and that distorting goes away, but the popping/clicking sound was still there. On top of that, a new distortion issue arose where it would randomly get really distorted about once a minute. After playing with this for about 2 hours, I straight up concluded that the input system on the Razer AC-1 is complete ****.

- Problem 2: No ability to map ports to what you want (Mic is always a Mic, Rear Speakers are always Rear speakers)
On my onboard card, I had my speakers hooked up using three analog connections, and then also was outputting my headphones over the Mic jack. (When plugging stuff in, I was able to map any port on the onboard card to any purpose.) This was great, and made me happy. The $200 retailing soundcard can not do this. It maps the ports to certain functions and that is that. Don't like it, too bad. To hell if I am going to plug in my headphones every time I use them.

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It was at this point that I started to rethink all this. Thinking about solutions. Stuff that used to work on my probably $5 audio card suddenly didn't work on my new premium audio device. So, I figured, why not use the strengths of both cards. Windows surprisingly has no issue with this.

After much time and effort, I did map out a working and functional dual soundcard setup. I used the onboard to handle all the inputs, I used the optical output on the Razer AC-1 to go to my speakers, and the analog output on he AC-1 to go to my headphones (which shockingly, do work at the same time if you don't mess with settings too much) It all sounds simple, but it really isn't. I actually mapped out a diagram of all of this in this chart:

Click to see diagram

This all works, but has a good number of cons. For one, unlike that diagram shows, splitters don't work the other way as combiners. Therefore, I have no way to use my Wii with my headphones; annoyance. Now we get into more flaws of the AC-1:
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- Problem 3: Stereo S/PDIF and no Dolby/DTS when also using Analog output as well
When outputting something over the S/PDIF, you have a number of ways to do this. You can output using Dolby, DTS, or just plain digital data. I found that using DTS or Dolby made it so the analog port just stopped working; no reason, it just doesn't work. (I am using this analog to go to my headphones) So, I am limited to using the Digital 96KHz audio, which is fine. Although, for some reason, the AC-1 wants that to always be stereo. no matter what I try, it is impossible to get 5.1 audio to go over that connection. And yes, I know a lot of the directsound output settings and configuring the media players, and so on. It just outputs over stereo.

- Problem 4: Crappy Analog sound when in conjunction with optical
This is a brand new one, but for some reason there is an odd faint buzz/chripy sound on the left side of the analog output of the AC-1. (My headphones) Not sure why, there just is. It gets louder and software with the hardware volume control. Annoying as ****.

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So now I am sitting here and thinking to myself. The inputs of the AC-1 suck. The S/PDIF of the AC-1 suck. The analog outputs of the AC-1 suck. The driver software sucks. So, what is good about the card? One thing, sound quality. The sound is miles better than my onboard, and it is the only reason I have gone through all this. Music, movies, games, they all sound so amazing when routing through this sound card. All my music seems to have new definition.

So I am now to a decision. Should I send it back on RMA and get another one to see if it is better? Should I just return it and move on? Should I get a different sound card? Are there solutions? Hopefully someone can give some input.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Enthusia]

You bought a soundcard from a mousepad company, you get what you get. I would return it and invest in a Auzentech Prelude, which I think is one of the top internal computer soundcards at the moment.

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enthusia /img/forum/go_quote.gif You bought a soundcard from a mousepad company, you get what you get. I would return it and invest in a Auzentech Prelude, which I think is one of the top internal computer soundcards at the moment.

Thanks for the input. I was looking around at other sound cards. I was looking a lot at the HT Omega Striker. It is only about $80, and seems to be top notch.

Does anyone know if these cards can have mapped in/outputs? I need to be able to send my audio to my speakers and my headphones at the same time. (The AC-1 only has one analog output possible)

 

[lordmozilla]

to be fair what where you thinking buying a silly gaming soundcard.. i'm going back to my killer NIC lol. (i have a dual port IntelPRO 1000...)

nah seriously i was harsh, i'd RMA it if i was you, or just ebay it. You should be able to get pretty much all your money back.

Good luck!

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordmozilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif to be fair what where you thinking buying a silly gaming soundcard.. i'm going back to my killer NIC lol. (i have a dual port IntelPRO 1000...) nah seriously i was harsh, i'd RMA it if i was you, or just ebay it. You should be able to get pretty much all your money back. Good luck!

That is what I'm leaning towards, but what do I replace it with? I just need a quality Line-in input for my Wii, and Stereo output for my headphones, and a 5.1 output for my speakers. (And they all need to work together) Doesn't seem like it should be that hard, eh?

 

[lordmozilla]

the only thing i can think of is a creative audigy 2. Those cards might not be the best in terms of gaming or in terms of audiophile grade sound, but feature wise they are awesome and still sound pretty good. I'm biased because i hate X-fi for it's crap linux support.

have a look at m-audio cards they might be a bit more expensive but they are very nice. What about EMU cards?

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordmozilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif the only thing i can think of is a creative audigy 2. Those cards might not be the best in terms of gaming or in terms of audiophile grade sound, but feature wise they are awesome and still sound pretty good. I'm biased because i hate X-fi for it's crap linux support. have a look at m-audio cards they might be a bit more expensive but they are very nice. What about EMU cards?

So why can't high end cards like the Asus D2 and the Azentek Prelude do this? I don't get what is so complicated about outputting to speakers and headphones at the same time.

 

[lordmozilla]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GCTonyHawk7 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So why can't high end cards like the Asus D2 and the Azentek Prelude do this? I don't get what is so complicated about outputting to speakers and headphones at the same time.

actually doing it well to both is really quite hard, because the impedance is bound to be different, and so you'd need two bits of circuitry. A cheap card just does it splitter style, an expensive card will just refuse to do it.

If you really want that, you want a pro card made by m-audio/turtle beach/EMU as they have cards that are made to output to two things at once. But to be honest if you dont care about SQ, which if you've been using splitter style seperation from your onboard audio, then you might as well keep your original setup.

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordmozilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif actually doing it well to both is really quite hard, because the impedance is bound to be different, and so you'd need two bits of circuitry. A cheap card just does it splitter style, an expensive card will just refuse to do it. If you really want that, you want a pro card made by m-audio/turtle beach/EMU as they have cards that are made to output to two things at once. But to be honest if you dont care about SQ, which if you've been using splitter style seperation from your onboard audio, then you might as well keep your original setup.

You're being very helpful, thank you so much. Although, as I have it set up on my onboard, my speakers are set as the Front/Rear/CSub, and then the headphones are plugged in and selected as headphones. So, do you think maybe my onboard card does have a built in two outputs?

Also, could you give me some examples of some of those pro cards that would do this. Their websites are rather confusing and I'm not finding anything about such a feature. Better yet, does this have a name? Dual-Output, Multi-Output?

 

[lordmozilla]

This is the kind of card that i am talking about :
M-AUDIO - Audiophile 192 - High-Definition 4-In/4-Out Audio Card with Digital I/O and MIDI
E-MU Systems - 0404 PCI - PCI Digital Audio System

They basically have 4 stereo inputs and 4 stereo outputs. (they usually just call in inputs and outputs and it's always 2 channels for stereo with a shared ground) Unfortunately these cards do not do 5.1 surround sound, you could just depending on what you want to listen to change which soundcard the PC is using on the fly,

I'm not sure what your onboard card does, what is your motherboard? you have an E6600 so i'm guessing a 965/P35/X38 board? These have Intel HD audio, well the 965 might have an AC97. I know my board in windows can basically swap the output channels round, this is basically because all the processing is done in software and so the output do not actually differ. In order to get sound out of both systems independently your card must have 2 different channels then, maybe it has a headphone and a line out?

Have a look at this card, it might be what you are looking more what you are looking for.They don't sell it anymore but you can get it cheap on ebay. Actually i'm selling one but it doesnt have the front IO panel which is really needed to get the full capabilities out of the card.
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS review @ TechSpot

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordmozilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is the kind of card that i am talking about : M-AUDIO - Audiophile 192 - High-Definition 4-In/4-Out Audio Card with Digital I/O and MIDI E-MU Systems - 0404 PCI - PCI Digital Audio System They basically have 4 stereo inputs and 4 stereo outputs. (they usually just call in inputs and outputs and it's always 2 channels for stereo with a shared ground) Unfortunately these cards do not do 5.1 surround sound, you could just depending on what you want to listen to change which soundcard the PC is using on the fly, I'm not sure what your onboard card does, what is your motherboard? you have an E6600 so i'm guessing a 965/P35/X38 board? These have Intel HD audio, well the 965 might have an AC97. I know my board in windows can basically swap the output channels round, this is basically because all the processing is done in software and so the output do not actually differ. In order to get sound out of both systems independently your card must have 2 different channels then, maybe it has a headphone and a line out? Have a look at this card, it might be what you are looking more what you are looking for.They don't sell it anymore but you can get it cheap on ebay. Actually i'm selling one but it doesnt have the front IO panel which is really needed to get the full capabilities out of the card. Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS review @ TechSpot

Hmmm, those high end ones aren't what I'm looking for really. I don't game or anything, just music, movies, and console gaming. (Wii is rigged with my computer)

I have an MSI P6N motherboard, and it has a Realtek HD audio device. It is decent, but it just doesn't pump the sound as nicely as the AC-1 does. I kind of just want what I have but with better quality.

Although, I was thinking, most of these cards have support for the front audio ports. If that is the case, and my case does have a mic/headphone port on the front, would that allow me to use the 5.1 out (From the card) and the headphone port on the front? I've not actually successfully gotten that working, so not sure if it works. My case uses a 9-port thing for the front audio.

Maybe that is the solution to my problems?

(I am avoiding Creative because of their crappy Vista 64 support)

 

[BadassBob]

What you need is a sound system overhaul. It looks to me that everything in your sound system is geared towards gaming, but you dont game. Since you dont game, you can start off by making money selling off some of the 6GB of memory you have. A movie/music system will never need that much. Sell your Z-5500s too, theyre good computer speakers, but for music and movies, a couple of decent bookshelves would be a lot better. Lets start off by making a list of things you can sell.

4GB of memory
Razer AC-1
Logitech Z-5500

That alone should net you around $300+.

From there, you could buy a second hand stereo amp/receiver. That will have plenty of inputs for you Wii, music, etc. My advice is to go the vintage route, they sound much better and put out more power per watt. You can find em for under $100 on craigslist. Look at stuff from the 60s, 70s, or 80s. Pioneer, Onkyo, Kenwood, Marantz...those are all good. For speakers, the best ones under $150 would be Infinity Primus P152 or the Insignia bookshelves from Best Buy. As far as a soundcard goes, Id look into a USB DAC...the Fubar II is a great one for the money, or you could get a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. Youd be surprised at how good 2 bookshelves would put your Z-5500s to shame. Before I joined this forum I had an X-Fi and Klipsch Promedia 5.1s...stuff I thought was good for what I did (same as you), and boy was I wrong. Better to make money off that stuff now while its still worth something and start from scratch.

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadassBob /img/forum/go_quote.gif What you need is a sound system overhaul. It looks to me that everything in your sound system is geared towards gaming, but you dont game. Since you dont game, you can start off by making money selling off some of the 6GB of memory you have. A movie/music system will never need that much. Sell your Z-5500s too, theyre good computer speakers, but for music and movies, a couple of decent bookshelves would be a lot better. Lets start off by making a list of things you can sell. 4GB of memory Razer AC-1 Logitech Z-5500 That alone should net you around $300+. From there, you could buy a second hand stereo amp/receiver. That will have plenty of inputs for you Wii, music, etc. My advice is to go the vintage route, they sound much better and put out more power per watt. You can find em for under $100 on craigslist. Look at stuff from the 60s, 70s, or 80s. Pioneer, Onkyo, Kenwood, Marantz...those are all good. For speakers, the best ones under $150 would be Infinity Primus P152 or the Insignia bookshelves from Best Buy. As far as a soundcard goes, Id look into a USB DAC...the Fubar II is a great one for the money, or you could get a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. Youd be surprised at how good 2 bookshelves would put your Z-5500s to shame. Before I joined this forum I had an X-Fi and Klipsch Promedia 5.1s...stuff I thought was good for what I did (same as you), and boy was I wrong. Better to make money off that stuff now while its still worth something and start from scratch.

Heh, thanks for all that advice, but I'm affraid I'm gonna have to debunk a lot of it. For one, bookshelves would suck for me because I am a self-proclaimed bass-head. If I don't have a 200 watt subwoofer to shake my room, what's the point? Also not going to sell the RAM, in fact I bought more and now have 8GB. I do a lot of graphic design and video editing; very RAM intensive stuff. So, at that point, all I can sell is the AC-1, and I can only get about $50 for that anyways. :-\

Again, thanks for all the advice, but I love my speakers and I love my RAM.

 

[BadassBob]

You can always add a sub later on down the road if you wish no problem at all. You could get a decent 10" Velodyne for ~$150 that will shake your walls down. Most of the subs out there have speaker level inputs so you can connect them to a stereo receiver. The biggest problem with the Logitechs is that youre missing all of the midrange. Midrange is what makes the music so musical. The little full range drivers hit the highs nice, and the sub gets the bass, but there are no mids to really speak of.

 

[Toe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordmozilla /img/forum/go_quote.gif nah seriously i was harsh, i'd RMA it if i was you, or just ebay it. You should be able to get pretty much all your money back.

Depends what the OP paid for it. If he paid something around the retail cost for one of these cards (Newegg currently has it for $130 + $16 shipping), he ain't gonna get anywhere near that price on eBay. There's been several sales on these things for around $60. I just grabbed one off eBay for a bit under $40 shipped.