[v.ils]

Hi, I've just been lurking around reading things and decided to register. I'm really new to these things and apologize ahead of time for my ignorance.

I'm looking to upgrade from my on board SigmaTel audio to a pci sound card in preparation for the new headphones I'm getting. My main priorities are music and movies/tv shows, but I do a little gaming on the side.

I'm just curious if it's worth getting the prelude for the gaming I do and having a (supposed) loss in music sound quality in comparison to just getting the e-mu 1212m. A local computer store carries both of these cards for roughly the same price.

Thanks.

 

[dwong]

I just ordered the Prelude to build in a new rig, I'll let you know how it sounds once it's all set up, hopefully by next week. I think the Prelude would be a much more versatile card for gaming and movies with its EAX 5.0 and Dolby features, but for pure sound quality for music the E-MU would probably win.

 

[davvy]

I have owned both and honestly can't tell any difference between them.

In my experience sound quality with soundcards and DACs reaches a ceiling above which I can't hear any improvement. To me, both of these cards are above this ceiling.

If you're going to do some gaming, or you're interested in multichannel at all, I would just get the prelude. It has great sound quality as well as much greater versatility than the 1212m.