Noob Thread: Sound Card Suggestion Help!

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Killdozer

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 1, 2002
Messages
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For the longest time I've used addin soundcards on my systems, but after the last card I had (Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platnium) I decided to give onboard audio a try.

Asus P6T Del
Core i7 920 @ 3.8GHz
6GB DDR3
300GB VR
4870X2
Win XP 32 (XP 64 was a disaster, going to Win 7 as soon as it comes out)

Bottom line:
On board audio is still super ultra terrible.

What are my non-Creative alternatives that supports (maybe this sounds dumb) hardware decoding of the Dolby stuff? I'm going to be playing games so I hope my alternative is widely supported and compatible.

Also, will there be any snag when moving to Windows 7? I remember there was a lot talk about Vista and sound cards and bad things happening. I don't know exactly went down, but I don't want to be in a bad situation when Windows 7 comes out.

It's been a long time since I've looked for a sound card, so I'm really out of the loop and need your professional opinion.
 
I'm with you there. I find on board audio to be an absolutely unpleasant experience. It just takes great music and turns it into muffled jargon that sounds like it's coming from behind closed doors. An even using an eq is like putting a thumbnail bandaid on a foot long open wound.

Before they started making usb/pci laptop addon cards, when I was stuck with a laptop for over a year that's all I had was onboard sound and man it's damn painful.

I think a lot of guys are going to recommend Asus, Auzentech, HT Omega, and M Audio. Those are ones I've seen around for some big hitting. I have no experience with either of the 4 YET. But I'm going to be getting into some stuff soon finally, so I am also wondering the same the differences between them, etc. Tech stuff is easily readable. But how about the sound :D Which sounds the absolute best! hahah
 
Worry not about the Forte. Auzentech took the X-Fi chip and made it far superior to anything Creative produced.
 
With either card, the Asus Xonar or the Auzentech X-Fi Forte, should I have any worries with Windows 7?
 
Most things that work for Vista work for Windows 7. But no one can give you definitive answers regarding compatibility with a pre-release operating system.
 
Are the Xonar and Auzentech both good for someone who is primarily gaming? I honestly don't wish to throw any money at Creative anymore but I really just want the cheapest best gaming sound card. Would these two still be the top pick for someone who's just gaming?
 
Auzentech's Forte, or its PCI brother the Prelude, are the top gaming sound cards. They have X-Fi and true EAX 5.0. The Asus Xonar cards don't. Still, lots of people game with Xonar cards and are pleased with the performance.
 
Question about the Auzentech:
I would have to use the DSUB breakout to use my desktop mic, right?

I asked the Windows question because it seemed like people were upset about some of the changes in Vista in regard to audio. I don't know what the details are, but I do know people were freaking out. I was just checking to see if Windows 7 was going to bring some other drastic changes.
 
Anyone have any comments about those HT Omega sound cards you can find on Newegg?
 
Killdozer said:
I was just checking to see if Windows 7 was going to bring some other drastic changes.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 is basically an improved version of Vista with no major architecture/model changes.

Killdozer said:
Anyone have any comments about those HT Omega sound cards you can find on Newegg?
Click to expand...

They're good for what they are. I use my computer too much for too many things so I wouldn't ever buy one, but maybe you use yours for fewer tasks or whatever and it might make sense. Normally I have music or a movie or whatever going 8-12 hours a day, every day. With that kind of use it doesn't make sense to use sub-par parts, even aside from the quality of playback it will become tiring very easily over the day. I didn't spend an arm and a leg either...just an E-MU USB for stereo D-to-A conversion and a receiver for surround sources, source selection, and speaker amplification. There's cost parity as well, but of course the E-MUs are again only stereo devices. If you want surround, a sound card might make more sense, at least short of getting a receiver. But better surround sound generally means passive speakers, which means a receiver is the cheapest way to handle them.

Again, they are what they are. If you're doing something that only a sound card can do, then, only a sound card can do it. If you're doing surround but (paradoxically) short on space, it might make sense too. But I don't think sound cards in general are a great value proposition otherwise. If you want a sound card, the HT Omegas have pretty good quality considering the limitations of a sound card.
 
Atech said:
So an unaltered chip is better...
Gotcha...
Click to expand...

Put away your finger paints and do a little research on Creative's X-Fi cards compared to the X-Fi cards produced by Auzentech. Google, Bing are very easy to use and you'll learn something new today.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
Put away your finger paints and do a little research on Creative's X-Fi cards compared to the X-Fi cards produced by Auzentech. Google, Bing are very easy to use and you'll learn something new today.
Click to expand...

Chip != soundcard.
 
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