How to choose the right SOUND CARD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hossam]

Hello ,

what r the measure i can use to choose the right sound card " to know the defrrent between it"

like VGA card there is 16 MB, 32 MB , 64MB ..etc

what about Sound card ????

& how i can measure the Built In sound card & decide which better "Built In sound card or 128 Vibra ..... etc


hope to anyone help me

& tell me in details plz


thanks in advance

Hossam

 

[Hossam]

????

 

[TheCorm]

Need a bit more info on what you are looking for...I guess.....

Entry Level - On Board AC97/CMI-8738 Soundcard
Basic - Soundblaster 128, PCI CMI, ESS, Aztech Soundcard
Mid-range: Hercules Muse XL, Soundblaster 512, Soundblaster Live Value
Upper range: Phillips, Soundblaster 5.1, Soundblaster Audigy, Fortissimo
Professional: Audigy Platinum etc

Corm

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: TheCorm
Need a bit more info on what you are looking for...I guess.....

Entry Level - On Board AC97/CMI-8738 Soundcard
Basic - Soundblaster 128, PCI CMI, ESS, Aztech Soundcard
Mid-range: Hercules Muse XL, Soundblaster 512, Soundblaster Live Value
Upper range: Phillips, Soundblaster 5.1, Soundblaster Audigy, Fortissimo
Professional: Audigy Platinum etc

Corm

Don't forget to slip the santa Cruz in there under the "upper range"



Sweet card...

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: TheCorm

Professional: Audigy Platinum

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: TheCorm

Professional: Audigy Platinum

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My thoughts exactly.

 

[MasterHoss]

I would also agree ... the Audigy Platinum shouldn't be considered as a "professional level" sound card.

Hossam, let us know what you'll be using the sound card for (ie: music, games, DVD-video & DVD-audio, recording)

 

[ripthesystem]

this is just my opinion but for the average user who likes to play games and listen to music there are 2 choices. Both in the $50 OEM range.

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or the Soundblaster Audigy.
Both of these are very good cards with nice driver sets IMHO it all just depends on what you want most out of it. If you listen to music more- get the TBSC. If you play games more- get the Audigy.

Either card will do you well if for both though.
anything else in the same $range or lower would be a waste of $$. Anything nicer or higher price- falls into the Professional range which would probably be unnessasary unless you are pro mixing studio albums on your PC.. even then it would be overkill

hth
ripthesystem

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: TheCorm

Professional: Audigy Platinum

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Agreed absolutely!! There's lots of pro-end cards for about the same price that show CL how to REALLY make a sound card!
Hardware AND drivers!!

 

[Hossam]

thanks all 4 ur helping

but i want to know how i can decide is this SOUND card is good or not ...


example .. about the built in sound ... is it 16 or 24 or 128 bits


HOW I CAN MEASURE THE SOUND CARD "like H.D 7200 or 5400 , ATA100 Or ATA133 ...etc & VGA 32MB or 128MB , 2X or 4X,8X ...etc

WHAT ABOUT THE SOUND CARD

what r the feutare in any sound card


sorry 4 my weak language

waiting 4 ur reply

 

[bluemax]

It's hard to "measure" sound quality in any way other than just LISTENING to it.
But it's generally accepted that onboard sound is not usually as good as a decent sound card like the TB Santa Cruz, SB Audigy, or Philips Acoustic Edge (or other.)

If you have onboard sound which is C-media 4 or 6 channel, or nVidia nForce, you'll be okay. If not, get a sound card if you're concerned about audio quality.

 

[Hossam]

thanks bluemax 4 ur answer

can u tell me about this fautare "Creative 128Bit, Creative 256 , Sound 64 Bit , 16 Bit "

 

[Biggs]

Here's a good place to start,

PCAVTECH

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Hossam
thanks bluemax 4 ur answer

can u tell me about this fautare "Creative 128Bit, Creative 256 , Sound 64 Bit , 16 Bit "

That would be Creative Labs' festering, stinking marketing department. :|
THAT garbage started with the AWE32, and getting people to think it was somehow a 32-bit audio card. Even today, there's no such thing. (At least in the regualr PC arena.)
PCI 128, 256, 1024.... it's all just garbage numbers. The only thing it means is that its software MIDI synthesizer is capable of playing that many notes at once. As a musician, I can say that the software synthesizer sucks so bad you'll never use it at ALL, let alone more than 100 notes of polyphony on it. Average Joe couldn't care much less about MIDI music anymore.

Basically, ignore any number Creative Labs gives you. Its latest fiasco is the SB Audigy and its "24-bit audio!". It's not REAL 24-bit audio because the chip that processes it all cannot handle true 24-bit audio. It's good 16-bit, but they ADVERTISE 24-bit. It's another damn marketing trick.

Just buy another card and don't give them any more money. The drivers are full of holes on the Audigy anyways - at least if you're a musician. I wouldn't touch the thing. As a gamer, it's supposed to work pretty well.
If it doesn't work in audio apps, I won't use it. Piece of junk. :|

 

[Biggs]

Funny, how this list comes to live when a topic like Creative pops up


The Audigy is not capable of playing back 24 Bit - But we never
positioned
it to do so. It´s not a pure musician soundcard and it´s not a
professional studio soundcard. But it´s got the best gaming engine
you´ll find anywhere,
you get really good sound quality (Roj, mute the Mic input and you CAN
get 100dB) and beginners can try an excellent ASIO implementation,
Soundfonts, Midi etc. Btw, the drivers are the best we made so far, and
I hate bad drivers as much as you.
With the 1394 on top you´ll never find a card like that for such a
price.
Sure there are better this and better that cards but: The Audigy is for
the mass market and you all are obviously not our core target group, so
why bother with it?
I got an Audigy AND a Terratec EWX 24/96 and I love it.

Rgds,

Michael

Creative Labs
Central Europe

Taken from the MAD mailing list.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I have an SB Audigy Mp3+ and it does everything I want a soundcard to do. I have had no problems with the drivers. When Lucasarts came out with a patch for JKII to support all of the Audigy's 3D gaming features, the game improved a lot. The resulting sound had a lot of depth. When you were in a large tie-fighter hangar, you could sense the size of the room. When you walked down a small hallway, you sense the smallness of it. I don't know how the Audigy compares to the TBSC or Philips AE, but it is a big improvement over the Live!.

 

[TheMadKnightSirSlamb]

I have always had problems with Creative cards from their beginings
First the Sound Blaster 16 isnt compatable with 95 until 2 months before win 98 comes out
soundblaster 512 inherintly quiet it poped one speaker due to the card sending a power surge through the speaker
and so i learned that MOST of the time you can trust Creative cards.

My best tip for you a game muse is a good card for little cash or you can go Game Theater XP or Phillips makes good sound cards too

 

[DeRusto]

Anything by Phillips is a good card, a card based on the Crystal chip is also pretty good (read: SantaCruz Game Theater XP, etc..)

If you do want to get a Creative Labs card, I suppose they do technically have the best EAX support..but it does not matter all that much to me. I am perfectly happy with my GTXP. It is quite the upgrade from my SB512 I previously had.

btw: basically how you measure the difference between sound cards is kinda like what TheCorm said.. its just that it all depends on what you really want. The best we can do is put them into categories based on what they offer and let you choose from there...