Best 'audiophile' sound card for $100 or less?

[nerp]

He's right.

Maybe you are craving that "Bose sound" haha.

I have a pair of companion II speakers on my desk here. I love them. I was all "clean audio onlyz" for years. Maybe I'm getting old but I like the way these sound.

 

[mnewsham]

He's right.

Maybe you are craving that "Bose sound" haha.

I have a pair of companion II speakers on my desk here. I love them. I was all "clean audio onlyz" for years. Maybe I'm getting old but I like the way these sound.

There is nothing wrong with that, people tend to forget audiophile sound equipment generally is going for transparency and neutrality, and being analytical for reference mastering. NOT for enjoyment or pleasure listening. Though audiophile equipment can certainly still be used for those purposes.

A cheap sound card with a bit more bass and midrange will probably sound a lot more fun to most people than a flat neutral clean sound from a $400 DAC.

 

[thesmokingman]

There is nothing wrong with that, people tend to forget audiophile sound equipment generally is going for transparency and neutrality, and being analytical for reference mastering. NOT for enjoyment or pleasure listening. Though audiophile equipment can certainly still be used for those purposes.

A cheap sound card with a bit more bass and midrange will probably sound a lot more fun to most people than a flat neutral clean sound from a $400 DAC.

Most casuals do love that V sound signature.

 

[thatsright]

So, a bit of a quick update. I got the Modi and paired with my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers. It was hard to tell if it sounded 'better' than before I built the new PC. I played with a million different settings and the bass response seemed a bit better. But really, I think that was in my head. I disabled the Modi and put in a brand new Audigy 2 Rx sound card. Sounded about the same, BUT there was a constant low level hiss when nothing was playing. Even with that, I couldn't really tell much difference between the two. One issue from about 2 years or so ago was that my Pro Media speakers had one of the wire clips sheared off. So I MacGuyvered it and they still played, but both played with lots of distortion. I decided to buy a new set of the ProMedia 2.1 speakers. The difference was extraordinary! The improvement was dramatic with both the Modi and Sound Blaster card. I switched back and forth and there was a bit more accurate bass with the Modi. So that's where I am. When I started I was thinking that the on board Mobo audio with the new setup would be fine. Now $300 later (meep) I have noticeably better sound than my last PC.

 

[StrangerGuy]

You're baiting us. You realize you could potentially uncork a 10-page argument about fidelity.

But no, if the content is 16/441, it shouldn't sound better at 24/192.

All that 192KHz content does is to introduce unnecessary harmonic/intermodulation distortion into the audible frequencies thanks to the usual unavoidable non-linearities of the audio system but hey now placebophiles can claim the sound is purer.