help!! what is a good sound card?

[h2sammo]

i want to replace my sound card and I cant decide which one to get, what do you think?

 

[Luv2Teach]

I am a fan of the live! series by Creative... They have to be the best.. Creative is king in audio industry.. Platinum being the king of the LIVE with X-Gamer being the best bang for buck choice LIVE...

 

[divinemartyr]

There are a lot of good sound cards out these days, which IMHO, sound better than the Live! series of cards. The Live! cards are good for compatibility etc but as far as all out sound quality the Santa Cruz card is awesome, the Philips Acoustic Edge card is one of the best, as well, the card I own the AOpen AW744 PRO (which has an optical out) is fantastic!

If you want the best for the money, the Aopen cards run $20-25 depending on if you want the standard or the Pro.

The AE and Santa Cruz cards run in the $75 range and also offer top of the line sound quality. The AOpen AW744pro is great if you have a receiver with optical input to use, and I recommend this over any other card if that's the setup you're using as you will bypass the DAC of the audio card, to your receiver's.

dm