[Jono3642]

I want to know the best way to do sound on a computer for $300 or so.

Whatever happens, I need Audigy 2 to be my internal sound card, I play games and the Audigy2 is the only one versatile enough to play them without destroying fps.

So I was considering using TBithead for music and Audigy 2 for games, the question is will the Bithead sound better than just A2+adapter+good amp+headphone

I am not 100% sure which headphone I will use, it won't be Senns, my sr60's just broke, so it may be another pair of those, or maybe I'll buy Akg 501's, DT880's, I'm not sure right now.

Any other suggestions for sound with the caveat that A2 must be soundcard are very welcome.

Thanks.

 

[isp]

Have you considered throwing another soundcard in? Perhaps an av710 or 0404 just for your music?

A lot of people have 2 soundcards in their machines for reasons much like you have (gaming).

 

[Jono3642]

I have thought about that, but then I would have to pay for soundcard + another amp, anyway what about A2 vs. Bithead question

 

[Distroyed]

Pick up an emu 0404 and some adapters and run both cards in your system. The emu's are capable of powering nearly all high impedance headphones without an amp.

 

[ixeo]

i wouldn't touch the total bithead cause several users reported hissssssssssing with it. using a soundcard is mid-fi enough..dont need to add hissssssssss to it. thats me of course..i find hiss very irritating.

with $300 dollars.. you can get a EMU0404m and a used PIMETA/gilmore/perreaux sxh1

me thinks EMU 0404m will beat the bithead with a stick and more.. so if its up to me the choice is obvious...

 

[Jono3642]

Thanks for the replies.

Sadly, for gaming performance its a well known fact that two sound cards running in your system is a BIG NO NO. Many times you get driver conflicts, and if not, having to switch between soundcards to play games, then listen to music. Overall, you may not notice it, but problems can happen on games and programs you werern't expecting.

I know the Bithead is also a sound card, but the fact that its USB and not internal makes a difference.

Has anyone heard both the A2 and bithead for comparison?

 

[blueice]

I own a total bithead and I hear no hiss at all. I think there was a problem about the hiss in the production stage but they made some changes to that. music sounds excellent though i dont have a chance to compare it to any other computer cards.

FYI i use ety4s which should be sensitive enough to detect hiss.

 

[isp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jono3642 Sadly, for gaming performance its a well known fact that two sound cards running in your system is a BIG NO NO.

I've not heard of any driver conflicts with the av710 and an audigy. Infact I plan to run both of them into my amp that will be able to switch between the two on the fly. The audigy will be my default sound for gaming and the 710 my foobar output source...

hmmm, I guess I better look into it a little more to be sure that it will be as simple as I believe

 

[maarek99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jono3642 Sadly, for gaming performance its a well known fact that two sound cards running in your system is a BIG NO NO. Many times you get driver conflicts, and if not, having to switch between soundcards to play games, then listen to music.

No it's not. The only problem comes with the emu + audigy line (they use the same drivers) but everything else is hitch free. And you can get those two to work well if you just install'em the right way.

You don't have to switch between cards to play games and to listen to music. Just set foobar to playback to your other soundcard (for example, emu) and set Audigy as your windows default. That way foobar -> emu, games -> audigy.

And even if you did have to switch, it would only take a couple of seconds.

 

[Distroyed]

I've got the emu and audigy2 platinum running just fine on my current system. Some of the a2 software doesnt work right, but Im actually very happy it became broken; I was able to find the hidden creative software that allows access to all the features without the bloatware normally used to access it. There's no reason not to.

 

[Scrith]

Switching between music and games with E-Mu and Audigy2 sound cards shouldn't be a problem, because you can send the music to ASIO using foobar2000 (for example), and then have the E-Mu PatchMix software mix the ASIO and the output from your A2 (which can be routed to one of the inputs of the E-Mu). All Windows/game sounds will go to the A2, and all music (via Foobar using ASIO output to the E-Mu) will go to the E-Mu automatically. This is the setup I used when I had an A2 and 1212M a few months ago.

I should note that I ended up pulling out the A2 and just using the 1212M for everything. I didn't notice any slowdown in games without the A2...and they sounded better. I did this because using two sound cards was causing IRQ conflicts which seemed to be the source of some problems in my games. I've been running with just the 1212M for several months now, and have been playing games like Half Life 2, Doom 3, and Far Cry quite happily with just my E-Mu sound card.

Regarding the Total Bithead...I don't know, but I'm going to be getting one (for use at work, where I'm stuck with a Soundblaster sound card) any day now...I'll report back and let you know how it sounds compared to the 1212M in my home system.

 

[dwin902]

A few months ago I was considering the TBH, but the Headroom sales guy told me that my A2 did "a pretty good job" supplying clean audio. He didn't recommend the TBH as a replacement.

 

[Scrith]

I received my Total Bithead today and started using at work (with a Dell computer that has a standard Soundblaster). There is a definite improvement in sound quality...similar (but not as dramatic) as when I upgraded my home computer from an Audigy2 to an E-Mu 1212M.

I think it basically comes down to the fact that the DAC in any Soundblaster card is just absolute crap. I was already resampling to 48K in Foobar to overcome the poor resampling of the Soundblaster, but it still sounded just awful even compared to the one in the Total Bithead (I've removed the resampling, and the crossfeed DSP plug-in, from the Foobar DSP Manager now that I'm using the Total Bithead).

If you want to listen to music from your computer, I strongly recommend that you use a high-quality sound card (such as an E-Mu) or some external solution (such as the Bithead).

I would rate the 1212M as having higher sound quality that the Total Bithead, but I have not done as direct side-by-side comparison. I am still tyring to figure out the optimal way to set up Foobar for the Total Bithead, by the way (current using Wave out because Kernel streaming doesn't seem to work).

 

[ixeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwin902 A few months ago I was considering the TBH, but the Headroom sales guy told me that my A2 did "a pretty good job" supplying clean audio. He didn't recommend the TBH as a replacement.

TBH not recommended as replacement to A2? interesting.. then i guess the AV710 would do much better in SQ than TBH.. ofc tbh is also an amp..