Life beyond Sound Blaster - What sound card to get?

[thatsright]

Hi Guys,

Thinking I may need to upgrade from my 7+ year old Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I'm building a Windows 7 64-Bit system and the drivers for the card are sketchy at best. I'm a snob and don't want to use the onbaord audio of the Gigabyte X58-UD3R board. I DO NOT game at all, so don't care about that. All I would use it for is CD/MP3/Video playback.

Can anyone recommend a good/great sound card in the $50-100 range? All I care about is audio fidelity and music reproduction. Hell, I'd even consider another Sound blaster card....maybe. Who else makes good cards out there?

 

[Rifter]

Come on who needs anyhting better than a SB 64 ISA, im clinging to mine for dear life!!! lol

From what i understand most onboard audio is actually pretty good nowdays so you might want to use it, im useing mine and its fine.

For add on card i hear good things about AuzenTech.

 

[0roo0roo]

asus

 

[Ika]

What are the other components of your sound setup? In other words, what speakers/headphones/sources (e.g. mp3 quality) are you using? If they're not that great or high-end, you may just be fine with onboard sound. They've come a long way since the Audigy days.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea basically if he's using some old or cheap speakers it'll be shining a turd.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd start with onboard regardless. If it works, Great! You just saved yourself a bunch of money. If it isn't acceptable, you have to live with sub par sound for a week... No big deal.

 

[thatsright]

What are the other components of your sound setup? In other words, what speakers/headphones/sources (e.g. mp3 quality) are you using? If they're not that great or high-end, you may just be fine with onboard sound. They've come a long way since the Audigy days.

I am using Creative Media Source 5 player for MP3 and Audio CD playback. I have the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speaker setup. The speakers, IMO rival the sound quality for home theater speakers costing hundreds of dollars. Without a doubt, the most pleasing aspect of my computer. If they charged 3x the price, it would still be worth it!! Crystal clear audio.

 

[0roo0roo]

they are ok for their price, but lets not go too far, they do have small sats and that robs the midrange. if they were like the klipsch ifi which were sadly discontinued you'd have a point those had sweet 3.5" midrange in the sats which came from their actual home theater line. so while your speakers are ok, they are so good you need the best sound card out there. you can cobble together some nice bookshelfs with decent sized midrange cones and a sub/amp for a couple hundred yes. but home theater for a couple hundred tends to have small speakers to reach that cost, you are taking your speaker money and dividing it by 6 instead of 3 after all. the klipsch 2.1 are worth their cost, not 3x where you'd be able to build a much nicer system or atleast have bought an ifi when it was around.

 

[PliotronX]

Daniel K's Audigy Support pack is smooth sailing with the ZS under 7x64 for me.

 

[Zap]

I'm a snob and don't want to use the onbaord audio of the Gigabyte X58-UD3R board.

LOL, well at least you admit it.

The thing is that you might be pleasantly suprised at the quality of onboard sound. Besides, it doesn't cost you anything to try it.

 

[Maximilian]

Maybe check out the asus xonar D2X or the cheaper DX?

 

[nerp]

For audio clarity, I can only recommend the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. You'll get studio quality at a decent price with solid drivers.

 

[NesuD]

I'm a big fan of HT Omega Cards. I use a Claro Plus+ myself. Look at the HT Omega line at Newegg. I don't think there is a single one of their cards that isn't showing a 5 egg rating.

 

[videogames101]

If you're using decent headphones, Asus Essence is the card to get, built in headphone amps.

 

[themisfit610]

LOL get over yourself and try your onboard. They're surprisingly good these days, unless you're really driving high end equipment (which you're NOT with a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 set).

If you're really sure your onboard is failing you, get an Asus Xonar D2. Awesome card.

~MiSfit

 

[thatsright]

Ok, can you snobs recommend a 2.1 speaker set that is BETTER than the Klipsch ProMedia's for Under $300 or so?

 

[Zap]

Ok, can you snobs recommend a 2.1 speaker set that is BETTER than the Klipsch ProMedia's for Under $300 or so?

subwoofer $95

speakers $25 (decent sounding, real wood cabinet, rubber surround on the woofer)

T-amp $20

Shipping is free.

You'll have to do some soldering of the T-amp because it is a kit, and run it off your computer's power supply +12v. Alternately they have a T-amp that's ready to go (including AC adapter) for $45.

Alternately get a cheap receiver for $100, or an A/V receiver for more (or pick up a used one).

You can also go better on the speakers such as this $110 pair (I've got those in my living room) for even better sound.

Personally as long as it puts out some sound, I haven't heard much difference among various subwoofers to have a preference, other than to just have a bit of bass fill (I don't thump my music). Once you have a subwoofer and a receiver of some sort, then just find a bookshelf pair that sounds good to your ears. I think $300 is a reasonable amount to get really good, smooth sound. Really though, it is up to your ears.

 

[NesuD]

Ok, can you snobs recommend a 2.1 speaker set that is BETTER than the Klipsch ProMedia's for Under $300 or so?

Ignore those snobs. if you like how the Klipsch sound that is all that matters. Onboard sound is still crap and can't hold a candle to a discrete card for clean quality sound. There isn't an onboard audio solution out there that uses anything approaching decent quality opamps. You have to go Auzentech or HT omega to get that and decent driver sets.

 

[LikeLinus]

Ignore those snobs. if you like how the Klipsch sound that is all that matters. Onboard sound is still crap and can't hold a candle to a discrete card for clean quality sound. There isn't an onboard audio solution out there that uses anything approaching decent quality opamps. You have to go Auzentech or HT omega to get that and decent driver sets.

Ignore these snobs = onboard audio is crap.

Gotta love the irony.

 

[nerp]

Onboard isn't crap these days, but a good soundcard (not creative) will give you higher fidelity and yes, it is noticable on Klipsch speakers, too. Not all people can tell the difference but some can, especially those who are used to playing with studio gear and quality equipment.

 

[Ivor]

Another option is sticking with onboard (provided you have some sort of SPDIF digital out, nearly universal these days) and route it into a home-theatre 5.1 AV amplifier with 24bit / 96kHz DAC's.

The sad truth with computer audio is that changing sound cards makes only a modest audible improvement, much of what you gain is imperceptible due to very bad quality speakers and amplification. At present I just use the digital coax out of my Audigy 2-ZS, into an external DAC, running into a seperates hi-fi amplifier w/ two full size stereo speakers.
Better to get two very good channels of audio, than six mediocre one's I say!

My plan for 2010, along with a new gaming rig is to upgrade to full surround, the home cinema way. Used high-end Marantz, Denon or Onkyo etc. recievers on eBay sell for prices that make me scratch my head, considering the sheer size, weight and technology inside them. (only explanation I can think of is home cinema buffs selling their outdated 5.1 recievers for newer 7.1 one's that can handle the new BluRay format and audio/video over HDMI)

€1000 just for sound seems crazy to some but hey, the latest and greatest gfx card solutions cost that too..
Here are the speakers that I've got my heart set on:

 

[Ivor]

Hi Guys,

Thinking I may need to upgrade from my 7+ year old Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I'm building a Windows 7 64-Bit system and the drivers for the card are sketchy at best. I'm a snob and don't want to use the onbaord audio of the Gigabyte X58-UD3R board. I DO NOT game at all, so don't care about that. All I would use it for is CD/MP3/Video playback.

Can anyone recommend a good/great sound card in the $50-100 range? All I care about is audio fidelity and music reproduction.

My Audigy works just fine under 64-bit Windows 7, to be honest the Audigy is more than a fine card and I think you will be in for a big disappointment if you try to improve upon it.. probably not even be able to tell the difference.

You will want to change your speakers to get a real appreciable difference in quality, they are the crucial factor in the enjoyment of audio.

 

[Puffnstuff]

If you use the optical out on your onboard it's actually pretty decent then you can spend the money on a set of logitech z5500's with optical in and you'll have some decent sound. BTW I was using an asus xonar d2x and the optical out died a couple of days ago so I'm using the optical out from my onboard sound which isn't too bad but not up to xonar standards.

 

[AdamK47]

If you're using decent headphones, Asus Essence is the card to get, built in headphone amps.

I had a Xonar Essence STX and really liked it. I'd still be using it if it didn't knock one of my SLI cards down to PCI-E 8X. If you have good headphones and love gaming this is the card to get. It has a built in headphone amp that works great. It does require a molex connection because of this though. It sounded great with medium amplification on my 64 ohm Sennheiser 280 HDs. The card would be a great combo with even higher end headphones.

After putting my X-Fi back in I've been trying to get the same quality audio out of it. The X-Fi sounds flat compared to this card. I did tweak it to the point where I'm happy with it, but it will never sound as good as this card does.

 

[Ivor]

@ AdamK47

Very true, re: Xonar Essence.
Listening to its dedicated headphone output stage with my Sennheiser HD 650's was a revelation, the quality of that card rivals dedicated amplifers costing a few hundred euro.

This card belongs to my friend as I already own a dedicated headphone setup, he also modified his Xonar by upgrading the OP-AMP's (ASUS make this easy for the user to do, no tools needed..) he is also in the process of upgrading all the capacitor's to high-end hi-fi parts.

There's a wonderful indepth thread about this soundcard here:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/xonar-essence-stx-q-tweaking-impressions-thread-421890/