anyone use c-media 6 channel based audio?

[nortexoid]

either onboard or separate audio card.

i wanna know how the drivers are...feature wise at least

for example, how does multi-channel work?...also, can u select the audio to play out of specific outs? (i.e. only the rear channel)

 

[CrackRabbit]

I havent used the six channel c-media chip but i say thier 4 channel is comparable to the Aureal Vortex 2 based cards. The sound was clean and decently crisp, the first versions of thier win 2k/XP driver had bad crackling problems but they seemed to of fixed it in later versions. The drivers are pretty plain jane compared to Creative's or Turtle Beach's, no selections to put sound to single speakers, it was pretty much just your plain old windows sound mixer with C-media smacked onto it.
As for speaker outs, the 4 channel i had seemed to be controled by windows, you change how many speakers you have in multimedia properties and it used the mic jack as your rear speaker jack instead.

Overal good for the money you pay for it, but not as good as a Santa Cruz or an Audigy.



CrackRabbit

 

[nortexoid]

of course of course....thanks.

acceptable i suppose, for a budget 6 channel sound card...wish i had some screenshots of the driver/mixer options though

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I use the 8738 6channel on my Dragon+ and I can't tell any difference between it and my SB live MP3+ 5.1 on z-560's. Sounds very nice

As far as the control panel...

Pic of everything the driver has

Some versions of the drivers have a bit of crackling, but this can be fixed by getting newer drivers.

 

[Insane3D]

I just picked up a Hercules Muse XL from Newegg for $17 because my 8KHA+'s onboard audio was goofy @ 160mhz FSB. It would speed everything up. Anyway, I use the CMI on my Iwill XP333-R and my Iwill KK266-R also, and they all offer clean sound with decent features...especially for the price. I was using a GTXP on this PC but I bring it in to work with me a lot and it was a pain lugging around that huge cable and breakout box. I primarily light game and mostly listen to streaming Trance on this rig, and I just use two speakers, some Labtec Spin 70's. The Muse XL has the 8738 chip, but it is only a 4 channel card. Most boards with the CMI make you buy an optional add on card for the full 6 channels and SPDIF.

Anyway, I took some screen shots of the mixer options for my Hercules card. I'm not sure if Herc's own drivers offer any more options as I just downloaded CMI latest drivers right from them. The new XP drivers now include soundfields too. Here is a link to the four options windows for my card.


CMI 8738 Mixer Options

Also, I'm using the latest 0632XP drivers right from CMI. You can get them here. It looks like they have an Audio Rack program too, but I haven't tried it yet. Good luck.