Do I really need a new sound card?

[Icy]

I have a Diamond Monster Sound MX300, which is an Aureal 8830 sound chip. I have actually had no problems installing it in my Asus A7V which is quite lucky according to some of the posts that I have read. What I am wondering is will I gain anything by upgrading to a Santa Cruz, or a Phillips Accoustic Edge (which looks really good).

 

[Icy]

Ok skip the Phillips card the cpu utilization is too high. Just read a couple reviews on it and not very impressive as far a balance of all the features goes.

 

[Tominator]

I'd stick with the MX300.

 

[Oyeve]

I agree with tominator. Stick with your card and wait until the next really big technical breakthrough in sound cards before you upgrade, although I really cant see what that would be.

 

[wonder mike]

get a sb live

 

[hungrypete]

UNTIL (not if) you run into driver problems, stick with the mx300. That's the card i have in my workstation, and it rocks hard... i think those gold leads really make a difference.....

 

[Mem]

I agree with hungrypete unless you start having serious driver problems with software etc then stay with your current card,it still gives very good sound.

 

[Icy]

Thanks everyone! I thought I should stick with it also, but you know how it is, I just got that itch to upgrade. I feel that my time is probably limited though not having any updated drivers stinks.
Thanks again.
Icy

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Yea stick with it if you have no problems. When youl have problems will be the time to upgrade. Dont fic it if it aint broken.

 

[Insane3D]

I have the Philips card and it is way better than my SB Live 5.1. I am not sure about the CPU utilization, but I have had no trouble...even on my troublesome KA7-100 and Win2k. It reproduces sound more accurately than the SB Live, and it sounds soooo much better with DVD's. Not sure where you got bad reviews, all the ones I read were good. This card is brand new and I am sure newer drivers will lower that CPU utilization, but it really isn't a problem unless you have a slow CPU. The T-Bird DSP actually offloads almost all sound processing from the CPU, and much more than the SB Live does. This $76 card booted my $165 SB Live Platnium 5.1 from my system and I have not looked back.

BTW - I almost forgot, even though the card only supposedly supports A3D 1.0, I have been using A3D 2.0 in Alice and it sounds great.

 

[Tonec]

I consider my move from an mx300 to an SBlive a downgrade. Its difficult to live with eax once you've experienced a3d, but it is more stable in w2k so not much I can do about it.

 

[Icy]

You know I find it amazing that a card as old as my MX300 is, is still popular. That depresses me even more about Aureal going under.

Insane3D
Philips Acoustic Edge Review here is the review that I read. This is really the harshest one of them all, the others were actually quite good.

Thanks for all the input guys!

 

[cmaMath13]

I would stick with the MX300, which is a fantastic card!

I have had both the MX300 and SB Live! I would not consider it a downgrade to go from the MX300 to the SB Live though. I don't hear much of a difference.

If it is not broken, don't fix it!

 

[Fumiup]

I have both the MX300 and the Live! and I prefer the MX300 also. People say that it has trouble with the KT133 chipsets but it runs flawlessly on my Abit KT-7 Raid.

 

[hungrypete]

what drivers are you using? I almost sent back my A7V when I got it, because of random lockups (even in winMEs icantbelieveitsnotDOS, scary) but it turned out to be my sound card. Crashes while installing windows too, jerked the card out and presto (even though it should never have been in there while installing). That was with ME, maybe I should try it in 2k. Are you using a Aureal reference driver or the windows generic driver? I'm running mine (my workstation) in 2k on a 815 board with the defaults on the install disk, and it is just fine. My A7V would do nothing but throw a hissy fit though, so I stuck a fortissimo in it (which is ok, but not as good as mx300)

 

[Wah]

mx300 is better than sblive for gaming...or at least, that's what I've heard

 

[Insane3D]

Icy:

Two problems with that review. First, they are using a Duron 600@600, not exactly what most gamers have in their system. Second, they were using pre-release drivers, and they claim to not have recieved the official drivers yet. The CD that came with the card has the official drivers and they work great. They also talked about their being no Win2K drivers, and that they weren't sure how it would work with Win2K. I am running Win2K and I have had no such problems they mentioned. They do mention how the QMSS codecs do wonders for DVD's, and let me tell you..it's amazing. I look at it this way...I got in my opinion a much better card than my SB Live 5.1, only paid $76, and got the 6-channel full version of Power DVD that has added support for the QMSS encoding...a $49 value. This card also can output any stereo source in true 5.1...even if it is not orginally encoded for 5.1. I can't wait till I picj up a set of the 2.1 PM's and pair them up with my 4.1 PM's for a killer 6.2 set-up..:Q

I almost forgot, Firingsquad reviews are something I don't even pay attention to...try some good sites like 3D Sound Surge or Gamer's Depot...

 

[StrangeRanger]

i can second the vote for the Accoustic Edge. I have had the sb live, the SQ2500 and now the philips card. i still love the sq2500 but its support has become iffy so i switched to the philips. MUCH better than the sb live in many ways IMHO. like insane3d said, those reviews were written using pre-release drivers. i don't even notice and cpu drag and i'm only running a pII 400! Love the connections on the card, the install was a snap (running w98 & w2k) and it sounds great. and for the $76 clams i was more than happy to unload the sb live on a bud of mine. not to mention digital i/o w/out that dumb ass daughter card. that is the biggest plus for me.
j