If two soundcards share the same chipset can it be assumed that the quality is very similar?

[slackerinabox]

I'm in the market for a soundcard and noticed that two very differently price sound cards (the $90 M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card and the $25 chaintech 7.1 card) share the same VIA Envy 24 chipset... Does it mean that they offer about the same sound quality?

 

[sciencewhiz]

Not necessarily. There are many components on the sound card that contribute to the sound quality besides just the chipset.

It's very much like the 2d problems that some nvidia cards were having a few years ago.

 

[Darien]

Different DACs. The M-Audio Revolution sounds a lot better.

While researching sound cards I stumbled upon the Terratec DMX 6Fire LT. According to many reviews it surpasses the Revolution when it comes to sound quality. Just bought one Hope to have it by the end of the week.