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Need a cheap soundcard

For headphones and other 2 channel situation, the Chaintech is an excellent card. Plug the headphones into the 7/8 jack and run it in hi quality mode and you'll have very nice output for $25.
 
Well I might get a set of 5.1 speakers in the future, i'm not sure. Is one better than the other overall?
 
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For headphones and other 2 channel situation, the Chaintech is an excellent card. Plug the headphones into the 7/8 jack and run it in hi quality mode and you'll have very nice output for $25.
Click to expand...

Does the source audio need to be 96KHz or can anything be sampled up to that? What will benefit from the high samplerate mode?
 
Originally posted by: SonicIce
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For headphones and other 2 channel situation, the Chaintech is an excellent card. Plug the headphones into the 7/8 jack and run it in hi quality mode and you'll have very nice output for $25.
Click to expand...

Does the source audio need to be 96KHz or can anything be sampled up to that? What will benefit from the high samplerate mode?
Click to expand...

Everything has been playing fine for me in the high quality mode.
 
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: SonicIce
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For headphones and other 2 channel situation, the Chaintech is an excellent card. Plug the headphones into the 7/8 jack and run it in hi quality mode and you'll have very nice output for $25.
Click to expand...

Does the source audio need to be 96KHz or can anything be sampled up to that? What will benefit from the high samplerate mode?
Click to expand...

Everything has been playing fine for me in the high quality mode.
Click to expand...
O
ohhh someone who acually has one 🙂. What made you buy it instead of using onboard? Also, do you notice the differance between the high sample mode and regular?
 
Originally posted by: SonicIce
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: SonicIce
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For headphones and other 2 channel situation, the Chaintech is an excellent card. Plug the headphones into the 7/8 jack and run it in hi quality mode and you'll have very nice output for $25.
Click to expand...

Does the source audio need to be 96KHz or can anything be sampled up to that? What will benefit from the high samplerate mode?
Click to expand...

Everything has been playing fine for me in the high quality mode.
Click to expand...
O
ohhh someone who acually has one 🙂. What made you buy it instead of using onboard? Also, do you notice the differance between the high sample mode and regular?
Click to expand...

I wanted something with digital output for my receiver. I actually hardly ever use it in analog mode. I have my headphones plugged into it, but I hardly use them at all at my computer since I have a pretty nice sound system right now... (soon to be better 😛).

My new board has digital out, but my old one didn't. I was using a santa cruz before I got this one and using my headphones (Sennheiser HD-280s), both sounded really nice.

I haven't fooled around with standard vs. high quality mode enough to give you a good answer on the differences. I have it in high quality mode when using my headphones and standard output for when I'm using my receiver (since it can send a DD signal in that mode).

At $25 it's been a great card. I have my new card in the mail right now though. I'm getting an HDA X-Mystique to replace the Chaintech because it's currently the only card that can encode to Dolby Digital and give you true surround sound in games.

The gaming part is my only complaint with the Chaintech card, but of course that's an issue with all digital output cards except the X-Mystique.

I haven't used the analog 5.1 or 7.1 outputs so I can't tell you how they are.
 
go chaintech. i have that sound card and it's absolutely great. its the best you can get for a budget card and performs on par with the audigy 2's.
 
Originally posted by: albumleaf

m-audio or emu
Click to expand...

Audio Processor: VIA ENVY 24HT-S (on the Chaintech). That's a similar chip to M-audio rev except that the same quality of m-audio rev is only in channels on the Chaintech. If you want all 5 channels of excellent music quality, you gotta get full-fledged 24HT chip (not S version).

For music Chaintech is better. For games, Creative, obviously. The envy chip has no hardware acceleration at all.
 
Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Originally posted by: albumleaf

m-audio or emu
Click to expand...

Audio Processor: VIA ENVY 24HT-S (on the Chaintech). That's a similar chip to M-audio rev except that the same quality of m-audio rev is only in channels on the Chaintech. If you want all 5 channels of excellent music quality, you gotta get full-fledged 24HT chip (not S version).

For music Chaintech is better. For games, Creative, obviously. The envy chip has no hardware acceleration at all.
Click to expand...

Does the Creative SB Live! 7.1 have 3D audio acceleration? Does it support EAX 4.0 and what games use EAX 4.0?
 
Does the Creative SB Live! 7.1 have 3D audio acceleration? Does it support EAX 4.0 and what games use EAX 4.0?
 
YES to the first question, NO to the second. Personally, I wouldn't recommend anything in the SBLive line. Not that it's a bad card, just really OLD. I bought my first SBLive variant back in mid 1998.

 
Go with the creative card. It's actually pretty decent with music and it has an amplified headphone out unlike the chaintech. Also the chaintech really blows for gaming...no hardware acceleration at all.
 
Originally posted by: Reck
Go with the creative card. It's actually pretty decent with music and it has an amplified headphone out unlike the chaintech. Also the chaintech really blows for gaming...no hardware acceleration at all.
Click to expand...

what is an amplified headphone out? im sorta leaning towards the creative......
 
I think worst case scenario is that you get something like a 10% performance hit... so if you're playing at about 60fps, you'd go down to mid 50s. I don't think this is as big a deal as some people make it out to be.
 
thanks for the help yoyoyo. im not going to be buying just yet though. maybe i will have enough for an audigy 2 later but the av-710 is what i'd buy soon if i wanted to
 
Originally posted by: SonicIce
thanks for the help yoyoyo. im not going to be buying just yet though. maybe i will have enough for an audigy 2 later but the av-710 is what i'd buy soon if i wanted to
Click to expand...

Sounds good :thumbsup: (hopefully literally too)

I think sound equipment is a good area to research well ahead of time for. Something like videocards, processors, etc. I don't see the point because the options and pricing changes so fast. Audio is a lot more stable and it's easier to plan ahead.

Enjoy whatever you choose 🙂
 
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