[Viperx116]

I'll use it mostly for music and some movies so it needs to do 5.1. I play little to no games so that's not really a factor. Suggestions?

 

[Alai]

Wanna buy my HT Omega Striker for $65 shipped? It's pretty good for the under $100 range. The Asus DX or D1 is decent. Another option is the EMU soundcards, ESI Juli@, Chaintech AV-710 if you can find one, and M-Audio 2496

 

[obobskivich]

M-Audio 2496, ESI Juli@, and all E-MU cards in his budget cannot do 5.1 output

good suggestion, would read again A+++++


@ op:
Asus Xonar DX is a good pick, so is Diamond XS71, Auzen X-Plosion, and perhaps Creative's X-Fi on sale

 

[Alai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif M-Audio 2496, ESI Juli@, and all E-MU cards in his budget cannot do 5.1 output good suggestion, would read again A+++++ @ op: Asus Xonar DX is a good pick, so is Diamond XS71, Auzen X-Plosion, and perhaps Creative's X-Fi on sale

Oh yeah, hahaha. I keep forgetting since I always use external DACs.

Heeeey why did you exclude the HT Omega Striker?

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alai /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh yeah, hahaha. I keep forgetting since I always use external DACs. Heeeey why did you exclude the HT Omega Striker?

because you already mentioned, so why re-hash? theres nothing wrong with it

and an external D/A doesn't gurantee multi-channel either, in other words, you can't get 5.1 out of most of those boards regardless of what you do, some of the higher end M-Audio and E-MU solutions do offer DTS and AC-3 passthrough, but it requires an external AC-3/DTS source, and external AC-3/DTS decoder

 

[Alai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif because you already mentioned, so why re-hash? theres nothing wrong with it and an external D/A doesn't gurantee multi-channel either, in other words, you can't get 5.1 out of most of those boards regardless of what you do, some of the higher end M-Audio and E-MU solutions do offer DTS and AC-3 passthrough, but it requires an external AC-3/DTS source, and external AC-3/DTS decoder

Oh really? Didn't know that... I thought multi-channel processing has been a standard within the past decade or so. Good to know.

Asus, Auzentech, HT Omega, and Creative cards do multi-channel for sure. But try to avoid Creative cards unless you're using an external DAC like a receiver or surround sound processor. And even then... iffy... Also, avoid Asus for multi-channel analog since their surround DACs aren't as good as their mains.

 

[Viperx116]

Just figured out my mobo only has one pci-e slot so I'll go with the HT Omega Striker.

 

[atx 6speed]

Did you ever go for the Omega Striker? How did you like it?

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alai /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh really? Didn't know that... I thought multi-channel processing has been a standard within the past decade or so. Good to know. Asus, Auzentech, HT Omega, and Creative cards do multi-channel for sure. But try to avoid Creative cards unless you're using an external DAC like a receiver or surround sound processor. And even then... iffy... Also, avoid Asus for multi-channel analog since their surround DACs aren't as good as their mains.

theres nothing at all wrong with Creative, so stop filling his head with worthless nonsense

 

[atx 6speed]

I've never had any trouble with the drivers for my Audigy 2 ZS, and it's a pretty old card running with a relatively new OS (Vista x64). The good thing is that nowadays Creative has some competition that is worth giving a second look.