Sometimes something happens and you just gotta speak up.. yup, you guessed it, I had one of them times. I'm in the process of building a new rig (see sig) and know it's going to fill multiple rolls, but the main task will be that of a home theater system. For that reason, I'm getting the ATI 8500DV to handle the video chores, a nice LCD screen, etc... but I couldn't find much on good HT soundcards. I already have a fairly nice system (about $3000 in preamps and amps, another $2500 in speakers, etc..) and I wanted a soundcard that could take full advantage. Obviously, I did the requset reading on sound cards here and Toms Hardware, with a few glances at sites that rank lower on my scale (looking for devils advocates to ferrit out all the bad). Nothing really caught my eye till I hit the review for the Maya 7.1 Gold (Linky to Toms review) - it pretty much fit what I was looking for - almost exactly. Well, after hemming and hawing for a few days (couldn't find any other reviews), I decided to go for it. Ordered off their web-page (looking for the best price of the 3 shops that sold online - off the website give free shipping, with the card price the same at every store) at like 3am EST last Thursday morning (going into Friday). The web order form screwed up a little and gave me back a confirmed order with double the price so I instantally fired off an e-mail to confirm there was a mistake and have it fixed. Within 30 minutes I had a reply (remember, this is like 3:30am) and a screen-shot of my order at the correct price along with confirmation of the free shipping. Ok, so I forget about it - thinking I'll see the card this Friday or maybe next Monday. Heh, nope - come home and the box is waiting for me... and it came from Seoul, Korea.. with FREE SHIPPING (the US based places don't even do that!).
Ego-Systems/Audiotrak defintally get a BIG thumbs up for their customer service and shipping. Now I have to wait till the 15th when I order the rest of my stuff before I can put it all together and see how it sounds.
If you're looking to make a HTPC, this is an option you shouldn't overlook if you like good service.
Ok, enough rambling.. heh, time to read the manual cover to cover.....
Brian
Ego-Systems/Audiotrak defintally get a BIG thumbs up for their customer service and shipping. Now I have to wait till the 15th when I order the rest of my stuff before I can put it all together and see how it sounds.
If you're looking to make a HTPC, this is an option you shouldn't overlook if you like good service.
Ok, enough rambling.. heh, time to read the manual cover to cover.....
Brian
