Best sound card for about $30-$50? Music Encoding

cmp1223

Senior member
Jun 7, 2004
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Right now i have onboard MSI mobo RealTek ALC850 audio. I don't really mind it for music or games, but i would like a better sound card as will be doing alot of line out music recording ( converting wma/ogg to mp3 then to line-out recording device). I hear the Chaintech AV710 is the best to get. Anything else i should consider? It will be used for gaming but as i said i don't mind the onboard now so the chaintech is fine as long is it is not WORSE at gaming! Especially since i only have a 2.1 setup.

Thanks
-C
 

cmp1223

Senior member
Jun 7, 2004
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I think the Audigy 2 value might be overkill. Even though it has EAX4.0HD compared to the chaintec's EAX2.0, i will always be using 2.1, so the EAX probably won't matter, will it?
Also, what I'm most concrned about, the audigy states that in stereo mode "24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion during playback with sampling rates of up to 192kHz in stereo mode"

A chaintec review stated, "The Wolfson 2 channel DAC can handle a high sample rate, capable of a much more robust 192KHz, and full 24 bit resolution"

They both have the similar high quality stereo DAC i'm looking for to record my music.



So basically i think the audigy is more than i need, unless i'm missing something here
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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So you're just looking for high quality analog stereo output?

I think you're right about the AV-710. I'm using it in digital mode mainly but hook my headphones up to the wolfson jack and it's quite nice.

For $25, it's quite the bargain.
 

cmp1223

Senior member
Jun 7, 2004
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Thanks, my big question now is if the AV-710 is capable of recording from the output wave signal on the wolfson jack (so there is no need for wolfson-out to line-in recording).

Thanks
-c
 

mshan

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2004
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Your profile isn't enabled, otherwise I would have sent this to you via PM:

I have an extra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz 5.1 sound card for sale. I think the consensus is that the Chaintech AV-710 sounds much, much better for music playback, but the Santa Cruz may be a nice balance of gaming performance and music encoding abilities (?). If you have any interest, LMK.

Also, this is a really informative forum about computer sound cards: Head-Fi.org



(if this posting is inappropriate for this forum, please tell me and I will delete it).
 

cmp1223

Senior member
Jun 7, 2004
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Thanks, for the offer and the link, but the Santa Cruz i don't think is much of an improvement for me, it states it has "stereo 20 bit D/A converters" thats about what i have now.

BTW, my PMs should work, i recieved a few today in fact, could it be on your end?
 

mshan

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2004
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Oh, sorry.

I usually access PM's by clicking on your profile. Just realized that I can just click on the PM icon too.

:)