Chaintech 7.1 Channel PCI Sound Card w/Optical Digital Out

[SonicIce]

i just want this card to use with my sennheiser hd-497 headphones. would this sound good or is there a card that would sound better since this one only has 48khz playback?

 

[BaNzaiDags]

can someone help? I'm using card and I use optical out to receiver on HTPC. sound works fine from all speakers (including surrount) but when i watch HD channels from HDTV wonder card (and only on some programs that come in HD) the surround sound is really loud and i have to turn way up to hear them talk.. but the surround sound almost drowns out the show. this only happens when I pick up a show that is broadcasted in HD and only on some of the channels. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[tlechaos]

This may be a dumb question but OP stated that this card was not designed for gaming, does that mean it will not work correctly for games such as UT2004 or Doom3? Ok, let the bashing of the newb begin.

 

[razor2025]

Originally posted by: tlechaos
This may be a dumb question but OP stated that this card was not designed for gaming, does that mean it will not work correctly for games such as UT2004 or Doom3? Ok, let the bashing of the newb begin.

No, it will work, but if you enable the 3D sound (which is practically a must for FPS, especially for Doom3), your CPU gets taxed alot. The reason is that the DSP on the Via Envy24 doesn't do the calculation for EAX/3D audio. The calculation have to be done by the CPU and that eats cycles, thus lowers your FPS...

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
i just want this card to use with my sennheiser hd-497 headphones. would this sound good or is there a card that would sound better since this one only has 48khz playback?

Reread the thread, this one doesn't "only have 48KHz playback".
If you want to get good sound you have to pay attention to details.

FOr optimal sound with your headphones, ANy sound cards will need an amp after it, at least a headphone amp. This CHaintech card needs the amp more than some, BUT it's because the rear channels have no amp after the DAC. That actually makes it BETTER once you do add an amp. In other words, any way you look at it for best sound any sound card's output should only be treated as line-level out that needs amplified, even when the card claims "amp", an opamp does not perform optimally directly driving headphones either.

 

[JatMan]

Newer version of driver released. Click the link below to get the zipped drivers.
Link.

 

[kyparrish]

Originally posted by: JatMan
Newer version of driver released. Click the link below to get the zipped drivers.
Link.

are the drivers good?

 

[hansmuff]

This card, with headphones and a headphone amp, in 24/96 mode on the rears, is really really awesome. I love the sound that comes from it. Strongly recommended for headphone music listeners on a budget. This is as good as it gets.
Gamers: be aware, 24/96 mode is only for the special 2-channel mode. EAX/any 3D sound is going to put a strain on your CPU, causing lower frames/sec. How much lower depends on the game. I'd wager 10-15% on a modern chip. Then again, current environmental audio pretty much sucks anyway, so I stick with Stereo for which this card is just dandy.

 

[hansmuff]

The drivers work well and aren't bloatware. I like them.
Just to re-iterate: This card has two "modes". 16/48 and 24/96. 24/96 is only available in 2-channel mode. Noise/Interference in 24/96 is extremely low for such a budget card. You can listen to classical music without hearing mouse move, hard drive access data, or network sending stuff. It's very clean. I like it better than my Audigy 1 card, quality wise, in 2-channel. In 16/48 mode, I get more noise/interference. Still pretty low, borderline acceptable, but 24/96 is just a whole lot better. You probably will need a headphone amp. I am using a Headsave Go-Vibe, and everything's beautiful.

I can't vouch for surround. I don't have a surround setup.

 

[Wedge1]

Any new features with this set?

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: mindless1

Originally posted by: VanillaH
why would you want to force the sound out of the rear channel when it was recorded and meant to be listened thru just two channels?

A better question might be, "why would one want to hook the two front channel speakers up to the two front channels at all (when the source is only 2 channel) on a AV-710 with it's better rear channel output?"

That is, for best front left and right analog output from two channel source, one would hook up their front left and right speakers to the card's REAR output. Main problem witht hat is if that someone also wanted to use it in true surround mode occasionally, then they'd have to swap the front and rear outputs back and forth (which the right switchbox would do easily enough but it shall be assumed no switchbox due to no mention of one).

I was trying to figure out what the hell you were talking about when I stumbled upon this site:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75655

Worked like a charm and sounds absolutely amazing for $27.

 

[JatMan]

Dave,
I don't know if you got an answer to you question but I was facing a similar problem and fixed it. My problem was the Windows Media Player will not give good sound through the SPDIF connection to my logitech z-680 receiver. The sound was stuttering. So, the answer that someone has already given but not so clearly is that you would need SPDIF passthrough. For that you could install AC3Filter (search on google, its free). This software will have an option to passthrough the SPDIF as is. So, make sure the WMP is using this filter, you can go the the WMP and click options/dvd/advanced. Here you will see the ac3 filter options. The way I found that this is the solution to my problem was that DVD sound great on Nero Showtime before installing ac3filter. So, that means Nero has its own Audio decoder(functionality of the ac3filter) but WMP will not use Nero's filter for some reason. So, I had to install AC3 filter. I hope this helps. I wanted to post this answer since I couldn't find a straight answer to my problem in layman's language. Cheers.

 

[Legolas2]

Originally posted by: JGunther
Just got this card and set it up using the digital out and a TOSLink cable running to my reciever. I've installed the latest drivers and it sounds great: only problem is I can't get anything other than the right and left channels to output ANYTHING from the VIA Vinyl Audio Control Panel. The whole 5.1 setup is properly connected to the reciever and works beautifully with other inputs, but I'm having trouble getting this card to work properly with it.

I'll go into the VIA control panel, click on Speaker Config tab, and use the sound test provided there. The right and left channels sound, but nothing else.

Also, manipulating the "Master Volume" control has no effect on volume. Only changing the "Wave" and "PCM SPDIF" controls on the master speaker volume control panel has any effect.

Anyone else experienced anything similar? Can someone help me out?

Hi Gunther
I just bought a chaintech AV-710, installed the 1.43d version of the drivers and
had the same problem as you. I upgraded to the latest version (4.51c) from
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1010&SubCatID=107
but still can't get sound to center/bass/surround when I click on the speaker icon
in the speaker config tab.

I was wondering if you have solved this problem on your end , as it has been more
than 7 months since you posted this message. Any info is appreciated.

 

[Legolas2]

okay, I figured it out. It was working all along!!. The
speaker config cannot produce the test tone through
the surround/lfe/center (it's a feature )

I setup my driver to SPDIF, my video decoder (PowerDVD6)
to the same and played a DVD (LOTR II) and I have heard
beautiful sound through all speakers.

Chaintech AV-710 rules My A8V-E onboard audio, ALC850, sucks!!

 

[KristopherKubicki]

Never heard of of the merchant before... but for a couple bucks more you can get it from a better merchant:

http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=chaintech+sound

Kristopher

 

[Dangerer]

I'm hooking it up via optical out. This thing sounds AMAZING on my Athena F2's. Can't wait to see how it sounds with analog

Btw what is this flashing thing everyone is talking about? I'm eventually going to read the flash thread anyway, but if anyone can dumb it down to a paragraph, I'd appreciate it much!