[evillamer]

Well this is mine:

1) 1995 Opti ISA soundcard: hopeless, noisy POS

2) 1997 Creative AWE32 ISA: EMU8000 and Soundfonts changed my PC MIDI! Wow! ISA bus is still very noisy.

2) 1999 Creative Soundblaster Live: with DSP! EAX and Hardware 3D Acceleration wow! , but it was the start of the 48KHz resampling issue and system Freezing problems. Crappy drivers and bloatwares.

3) 2001 Audigy 2 Platinium Int: Improved DAC over the Live, Firewire! And optical out! But still 16bit 48KHz. Ditched Creative drivers for KX Project.

3a) 2001 Intel integrated ADI Soundmax: Quite good for a integrated solution, quite on par with SBLive, but more cpu taxing, average sounding.

4) 2002 M-Audio Audiophile 24/96: it was the non-resampling 16bit 44KHz which I was looking for. 24bit 96KHz and sounds really good. Although it has zero hardware/software support for 3D games.

4a) 2003 Realtek ALC650: Not bad sound for AC97, but taxes cpu. Not good for 3D Games.

5) 2004 EMU 0404: The best soundcard I have heard, matching CDPlayers that cost >US$500.

 

[breez]

Sound Blaster 2.0 -> Sound Blaster 16 -> Aureal Vortex 2 -> Hercules MuseXL -> Realtek ALC650 -> Chaintech AV710

Oh and acquired a Gravis Ultrasound MAX a year ago for the DOS gaming / scene demos machine.

edit: Regarding sound quality, Chaintech was an improvement over the Realtek, but prior to that I didn't care about sound quality (wasn't a serious music listener for some time).

 

[dallasstar]

Soundblaster 16, Soundblaster Audigy, Turtle Beach SantaCruz, Realtek AC97, Philips Aurilium, Echo Indigo.

 

[Jahn]

Ol' Busted: 1999 Creative Soundblaster Live: with DSP! EAX and Hardware 3D Acceleration wow! , but it was the start of the 48KHz resampling issue and system Freezing problems. Crappy drivers and bloatwares.

New Hotness: 2004 E-MU 0404. Man this thing is making me debate keeping the Tushi around. Maybe I'll sell the 3960 to my friend, or have it serve DVD duty in the other room and pop it out for emergency source requirements lol.

 

[djooky]

Sound Blaster Pro,
Gravis Ultrasound(cute!! Very nice card at that time, especially for the demo scene),
Sound Blaster AWE,
Hercules Fortissimo,
Audigy 2,
Terratec Aureon Sky,
EMU 0404.

 

[bg4533]

Onboard crap
Creative Sound Blaster 512 PCI
Realtek ALC650
Chaintech AV-710
E-MU 1212M
E-MU 0404

 

[Asmo]

My list of soundcards since 1994

Adlib
SoundBlaster 16
Gravis Ultra Sound
Soundblaster 32
Soundblaster 64AWE
Soundblaster Live!
Phillips Seismic Edge
Hercules Gametheatre XP
Santa Cruz Turtle Beach
Soundblaster Audigy
Soundblaster Audigy 2
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
E-MU 1212m

 

[neueziel]

Packard Bell integrated sound/modem
Diamond Multimedia MX300
Soundblaster Live Value
Soundblater Live Value 5.1
Chaintech AV-710
EMU 0404

 

[ixeo]

mmm
for me its
1995 > unknown stereo soundcard
1999 > sound Blaster Live 5.1 + Platinum Module
2003 > nVidia Soundstorm
2004 > M-Audio Sonica + Black Gate Caps

next, M-Audio Audiophile USB? 0404m?

 

[lan]

Sound Blaster Pro
Gravis Ultrasound MAX
Sound Blaster Live! (had 3 of these)
M-Audio Audiophile 24/96
Hercules Fortissimo III
M-Audio Sonica
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
M-Audio Audiophile USB
RME Digi96/8 PST
emu 1820m
emu 1212m
emu 0404

 

[MD1032]

Sound Blaster 16 (I still remember the good old OPL2 midi output this thing had. good times.)
SBLive 4.1 Value (endless problems, piece of total crap)
TBSC (good gaming card that offered decent sound)
AV-710 (current. good sound, amp improves it a lot)

 

[Patrickhat2001]

On board sound -> Revolution 7.1 -> Terratec EWX 2496 -> Audiophile 24/96 -> Chaintech AV-710 -> EMU 1212M -> EMU 0404

And that's just the order I got them in. I still own them all! Tests have begun and my giant soundcard review is forthcoming.

 

[kalzone]

original sound blaster 1.0, soundblaster 16, turtle beach tropez, soundblaster awe64 gold, sound blaster live, audigy, audigy 2 platinum, m-audio revolution 7.1, and emu 1212m.

i bought my 1st sound blaster when the the intel 386 processor was the mainstream and the 486 processors were starting to become popular.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

nVidia Soundstorm Onboard ->
Hercules Game Theater XP ->
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ->
M-Audio Delta 410 ->
RME Digi 96/8 PAD ->
EMU 1212M ->
Chaintech AV710

 

[nierika]

Sound Blaster Pro (original 8 bit!) -> Aureal Vortex -> Sound Blaster Live! -> Sound Blaster Audigy 1 -> M-Audio Audiophile USB -> E-MU 1212m