Best sound-card? need one fast...

[kylef]

I do not own a Philips AcousticEdge. But there was a thread about two weeks ago (and I apologize that I could not find it) in which several people were touting the card's near flawless Win2k drivers. I doubt that they were spreading misinformation.

RGN: Has your friend checked back to see if the issue has been addressed? Because I just checked Philips' site, and they have a nice driver "auto-update" feature that looks at your current drivers and determines if new ones have been released and automatically installs them. The drivers page also states that drivers are available for Windows 95, 98, 98SE, Millenium, NT 4.0, and 2000. That's a nice list.

As for the whole silly vacuum tube/transistor thing, here's a pretty good paper on the subject.
Tube vs. Transistor paper here

Personally, I feel that tubes are primarily for those concerned with getting pleasing distortion sounds, but others tend to disagree. On paper, MOSFETS seem to be superior to just about anything else for two reasons: 1) they are very configurable by means of the silicon process techonlogy and 2) the gate current is virtually nonexistent for real applications, in contrast to, say, the base current of BJT's.

But, regardless, I don't think anyone is going to be putting a vacuum tube into a sound card any time soon

Kyle

 

[Leo V]

OuterSquare, you're right that the SBLive! as well as the Vortex2 are both "officially" rated at 96dB noise floor. This is like NVIDIA's 1600Mtexels official performance figure! The actual floor was indeed measured around 70-75dB after some tweaking. From my personal experience, the Vortex2 (MX300) had a better signal/noise ratio than the Live, but I could've gotten a sub-par Live. The AP2496 was indeed measured at an actual 96dB noise floor (it's officially ~104dB).

On the subject of sound expenses: why do people spend hundreds of dollars on "digital" PC speakers and a Platinum card? My setup (Klipsch PM2.1 with the AP2496) cost no more than that--$190 + $165 = $355 for both, and the sound isn't even comparable. Of course, when you add $260 for the line-conditioning SmartUPS 700 and $85 for Lovan steel speaker stands, and $50 for DIY silver wire (haven't finished them yet), my spending figures go up a bit...

But still... regular people don't mind spending that much on videocards/monitors!

 

[mylam]

Im looking forward to their next generation of soundcards

 

[Sohcan]

CL is supposed to have a new generation sound card in the fourth quarter (check the January 24th news)


<< To maintain its lead in the sound card market, Creative said it's on schedule to unveil a new version of its SoundBlaster sound card in its fourth quarter, the first upgrade in three years. >>


They've been sitting on the same core technology for over two years....it's time they got off their arses.

 

[dougjnn]

Well, I've ordered the BA-4800s.

But I'm going back the other way on the sound card issue.

I'm about to decide which sound card I get for my abuilding system, a live x-gamer (I want the games) or a Phillips Acoustic Edge. I was convinced to go Phillips, but then I read a review which got me thinking about the complexities in gaming, what with patches and what they come out for.

I gather the Accoustic edge is gonna sound better probably playing CD's or MP3's, or DVD's (maybe). But I also gather from a VERY long and detailed review which I read recently, that the Acoustic Edge has some more game compatibility problems than the Live cards do.

Not because of the quality of the card, but just because of who the games direct their support efforts at. It all seemed remarkably complicated. Especially it seems that patches to 3D sound problems with released games are gonna be a lot easier to get with the Live series.

What's your experience? Have you had your Phillips card long.

 

[oldfart]

Leo V, since you seem to be an expert in sound cards, what do you think of the Yamaha AW744 XG based cards? You can get them for $20 here. I put one in a PC I'm working on for a friend. Seems like a pretty decent budget card.

 

[CHINESE]

GO WITH THE CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE VALUE, AND THEN USE THE EXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXTRA MONEY TO BUY A SET OF KLIPSCH PROMEIDA 4.1 SPEAKER SYSTEM.

I AM SURE ALMOST EVERYONE WILL AGREE THAT THE KLIPSCH IS PROBABLY THE BEST COMP SPEAKERS OUT THERE (OKAY , I KNOW IT IS NOT 5.1 SYSTEM). HAD MY SYSTEM FOR A WHILE, AND LAST WEEK ALMOST GOT KICKED OUT OF MY DORM B/C I WAS BEING TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOUD. HEHE

 

[wyvrn]

another thread