Is a Yamaha XG PCI any good?

[Rifter]

Found a old one laying around at work that i grabbed for my G/f's comp. Is it any good? what are the specs on it? i cant seem to find them anywhere on yamaha's site, for that matter i couldent find drivers there either, thank god for windrivers.com Anyways all i know is it says XG on the main chipset on the card, its PCI, it has line-in, line-out, mic-in, and a RCA looking out on the back. thanks for your help.

 

[Rifter]

come on guys someone has to know!!!!

 

[Choralone]

It's better than nothing but it's pretty much the same as onboard AC-97 sound. I have one in my system and the DOS legacy sound support is pretty much non-existant. It's also really a "soft" soundcard. But better than nothing...

 

[hifimaster]

Try looking at Hoontech this might be where its from.

 

[uncouth]

this is what I'm running for a card. Would people recommend an upgrade? Would I really feel the difference? Thanks for info

 

[Kingofcomputer]

If it uses the same chip as Yamaha WF192 sound card, it's not a bad card. It's much better than chipset embedded AC97, even better than SB Live in sound quality. It's a real hardware wavetable synthesis pci multi-voice sound card like SB Live.

 

[Dan]

I've got one in the wife's system. It's not a high end sound card but it's not a dog either.

 

[Rifter]

seems to be conflicting reports on it BTW i got a SB live in my system and the yamaha seems to sound just as good if not better for music playback(is that normal?)

 

[TimeKeeper]

I am sure it is better than my CL 64 AWE ISA !?

 

[mrbios]

I had a Yamaha Y740 PCI sound card before, and it had great sound quality. Also, if MIDI is your thing, then this is the card to get. And, if you need drivers and spec, go to http://www.yamahayst.com/ and you'll find it.

Russell "Mr.Bios" Sampson

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Those cheapy generic sound card using Yamaha 724, 740, 744 chip may not have good sound quality, depends on how good the manufacturer makes the card.

If you buy the real Yamaha WF192, you'd get definitely high quality.

 

[oldfart]

Yeah, depends on which chip is used. Some of them are pretty decent. Use the Yamaha ref drivers.

 

[Fandu]

Is it the same as this one? Guillemot Maxi Sound Muse

If so, the AC97 audio codec on the SoyoK7VTA smacked the Muse every which way to friday. Only good part is 4 speaker output.

 

[Rifter]

It doesnt have 4 speaker support, it is pretty old, and it is a actual yamaha card. Thats about all i know about it, and it says XG on the chipset.

 

[generalgman]

I bought the AOPEN AW744 PRO for only $26 from www.mwave.com. I do have the SBLIVE 5.1 Platnium and have come to the conclusion that this yamaha XG powered card is as good or better than the SBLIVE when it comes to value and price. The big plus for the Aopen aw744 pro is that is has an onbaord spdif output toslink connnector. This is exactly what I was looking for since the card is being used in my new project, mp3 home audio player. The card also supports 4 channel output, 2 front outputs, 2 rear just like the SBLIVE.
Here are the specs of the card if you guys are interested.

Yamaha YMF744 PCI 4 channel
Digital Audio Interface support 48 KHz SPDIF in and out
64-voice wavetable
676 instruments Sondius-XG capital synthesizer
Supports Microsoft DirectSound and Direct Music ADPCM data compression

18 Bit stereo ADC and DAC
Programmable independent sample rate from 8KHz up to 48 KHz for record/playback
Full Duplex operation for simultaneous Record and Playback

DOS compatible, DDMA under windows 95/98, NT4.0, 2000
OPLS, MP3, Sound Blaster PRO and windows Sound System
SPDIF In/Out
WDM streaming driver support