[XtremeD]

At the moment I have a Creative Audigy 2 and DT770pro, and also a Pinoeer or Yamaha power/pre amp.

I can hear the static when using my headphones at large volumes and in my speakers. I tried the KXproject and it helped my front speakers but still my centre speaker was hissing loads.

I have about £100 to spend, but I am unsure what to go for. The M Audio Revo 7.1 has nice features like the unsampling and such things but its game performance isnt as fast as the Audigy 2 is it. The EAX HD support is better on the creative surely?

To eliminate the hiss sound should I go for something like the Sonica theater? That seems like a good package -anyone had experience with it? Could I take the Digital Out from my SbAudigy then run it into the Sonica Theatre Line In? Would that act as a DAC?

Or instead would I be best getting a separate DAC, like a Cambridge S700 or so? Also how good is the http://www.xitel.com/ range? Not so good as the sonica?

 

[deekay]

Audigy 1 was crap with its sigmatel codecs
Audigy 2 is much better because of crystal codec installed

I think any other 7.1 card won't be significant better than Audigy 2

 

[lini]

Most of the hiss is probably computer induced emi - you won't escape that that much even with a better internal soundcard. So for better quality an optically connected external dac (or maybe a ht receiver) or an external usb sound solution (like the Sonica Theater, you've mentioned) would be the best way to go.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Wodgy]

The Xitel range isn't as good as the Sonica, especially in bass performance. The Hi-Fi Link's bass rolls off at about 35-40Hz.

 

[Asmo]

I went crazy tryin to get rid of 'hiss' from computer source soundcards too, it just isn't possible w/out goin to a pro high end internal soundcard -- or an external DAC/soundcard solution, which I would suggest if its botherin you that much, I just learned to live with it.. for now.

 

[Orpheus]

"Most of the hiss is probably computer induced emi - you won't escape that that much even with a better !!!INTERNAL!!! soundcard."

--well, i guess when people post here about a "soundcard" they mean any audio interface for the computer, and not literally a "card." for instance, many prosumer "soundcards" incorporate break-out boxes that draw power separate from the computer power supply. a lot of the maudio products are semi-breakout boxes too.... so they might actually have much lower noise floors compared to other soundcards.

but it is possible to get very fine quality sound for a "soundcard." though not an internal soundcard. many of your CDs were recorded/edited on PCs and Mac's.... thus requiring a "sound card." though, if you look at those systems, they hardly are cards.....

but anyway.... the point is.... yes, you can get a soundcard that works great. just don't get an internal one.

also.................... when you use a soundcard, open that audio mixer app in windows and mute everything (especially the CD in) but the wav channels.... usually this will dramatically decrease the noise.

orpheus

 

[XtremeD]

Ok thanks for your opinions. But does no one have the Soniac Theatre? If so how does it sound compared to what you used to have.

I will be getting £50 from microsoft soon and some other money from my jumble sale of computer parts (anyone want a 56k v.92, sblive or SoF II + Hitman2 PM me). Yea so hopefully that'll reach up to £100.

But again what would you recommend more?

USB Port ---> Sonica Theatre ---> Headphone Amp ---> Dt770pro

or

SBliveAudigy2 Digital Out ---> External Prof. DAC ---> Digital COAX ---> Headphone Amp ---> Dt770pro

Is it just me or doesnt USB compared to Audigy2digital out sound much worse? Surely the audigy must be better sound or?

 

[stallion11msu]

consider the M-Audio Revolution over the Audigy 2. It's specs are better and it's cheaper. It's drivers are getting better.

 

[XtremeD]

No i'm sorry I'll have to disagree there. The audigy 2 has both EAX3 and EAX HD, faster processing by a mile (benchmarks prove it to be massive increase) and gold contacts rather than plastic cheap ones.

Only benefit of the Rev. is that it has unsampling, but I dont know why I would want that. But atm it is only my centre speaker, and headphones (when driven through a amp) that are hissing. Dunno if I wanna spend £99 just to get rid of it.

What else could I spend £99 on?

 

[SumB]

Mute the source outputs you don't use and leave the master volume at its default position. I for one have bad hiss with the CD analogue output enabled, but when disabled, it vanishes.

The card should not be introducing a significantly audible amount of noise under any circumstance.

 

[lini]

XtremeD: No, the main advantage of the Revolution would be that it's a non-resampling card, so it doesn't mess up cd audio.

Also I wouldn't be so sure that the Audigy 2 sounds better than the Sonica Theater. If you are into gaming, though, usb solutions are not that ideal because of the load.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Orpheus]

Quote:

If you are into gaming, though, usb solutions are not that ideal because of the load.

load? i don't understand. do you mean as opposed to something faster like firewire (if we're talking USB 1)?--or as opposed to a "card" housed in the computer case?

well, either way it wouldn't really matter. USB is plenty fast to handle 2-channel audio. You will very likely get higher performance out of a USB breakout box.... it's just a better way to do things. there are no high-performance "sound cards" i know of that are real "sound cards." they are all break-out boxes connected via firewire, usb, or by proprietory means.

if you have a chance to buy anything that's a breakout box as opposed to a sound card, then buy it... be it this maudio usb box or whatever else there is.

 

[raif]

1.)Has anyone here actually used the sonica theater? Does it actually eliminate the computer noise **hiss**?

2.)Also, I heard someone mention that the sonica theater slows the computer down when playing games. Is that significantly, or just based on those nanosecond comparisons used on websights in controlled tests that don't mean anything in real computer use.

3.)Is the revolution really better sounding(quality) than the audigy 2 in normal applications like games, dvd's and mp3s.(I will use a cd player to listen to my music not my computer.) If the sonica theater doesn't eliminate the computer hiss then my next priority is support and it sounds as if the revolution has problems there.

I have read all the back threads on these subjects but it seems like no one gives any real straight answers based on experience . Its more like "I hate everything soundblaster" or "m-audio doesn't resample." I have relied on you guys for every audio purchase I have made in the last two years so hopefully someone can help out.

 

[kcits]

... Quote:

Most of the hiss is probably computer induced emi - you won't escape that that much even with a better internal soundcard. So for better quality an optically connected external dac (or maybe a ht receiver) or an external usb sound solution (like the Sonica Theater, you've mentioned) would be the best way to go.

i think the hiss coming out of cheap sound cards is more to do with the op-amp used on the card than computer interference (provided that all inputs are muted.)

for instance, when i plug headphones into the front out of my sblive, there's a noticeable hiss, but when i switch to 4-speaker mode and plug them into the rear out which doesn't use the noisy philips TDA1308 amp, there is no hiss whatsoever. (unfortunately, the rear out isn't powerful enough to drive most cans....)

anyway, just thought i'd throw that in if it'd be of any help

 

[Orpheus]

yes... that's also true. but i used to have a Digidesign Audiomedia III PCI card.... it retailed for $800 at the time (5-10 years ago.... hell, i sold it 2 years ago for $250 still!) that card generated NO hiss at all!!! both playback and recording. however, if you try recording with it, you can zoom in all the way into the waveform with Soundforge or whatever, and you can see that the card actually produces a strange waveform as low-level noise (causing a noise floor around 80-70db in soundforge). it is not noise typical to bad components (hiss).... it is actually a true waveform. i would assume that wave was caused by electrical noise....

anyway, it's well known that using internal sound cards are bad... almost no pro recording computer interface is internal nowadays. almost all the high quality ones are break-out boxes.