Need a sound card...what are my options beides sb live????

[StrangeRanger]

I've got an Aureal sq2500 right now that i love, but it keeps causing problems. I do a fair amount of gaming, a LOT of music stuff, and want 4 spkr support. Anyone got something the like out there besides sb live series cards????
j

 

[Prodigy^]

none 🙂

seriously, there's no point in looking into anything else than the Live cards.....sad to say, but it's the best and only thing worth buying at the moment. The SB Live! 1024 Player is a great card, and will give you support for 5.1 (ie 5 speakers) setup (and 4 speakers as well, of course). Digital out makes a huge difference, which the card includes.

how serious is this "music stuff"? Are you a musician? Many amateur musicians love the SB Live! Platinum which is priced very reasonably compared to "real" pro sound cards

 

[Maximus1]

Prodigy is right on the money. I couldn't have said it better myself. There is just no reason anymore not to own a SBLive if you are looking for a new sound card. Pick one out of the series....you really can't go wrong. 😉

 

[Homerboy]

live is no doubt the way to go now-a-days.... it seems CL has once again claimed a near monopoly on quality soundcards....

If you REFUSE to get a Live! card, then may I suggest the Diamond MX300? Diamond's support for this card is all but dead, but since it useds the aureal chipset, you can always use the refernce drivers from Aureal. For $30 you really can't go wrong... IF and only IF Live! is out of the question.

 

[StanTheMan]

but now even aureal itseld has gone for good

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=195783

 

[PowerJoe]

Homerboy: The MX300 is very similar to the SQ2500 he has now - same chipset, maybe different connectors.

StrangeRanger: Before buying a new card, how about starting a thread describing your problems with the SQ2500? Remember to include:
-Hardware description (MB, CPU, RAM, other cards)
-Driver info (version)
-Windows version
-Current IRQ assignment
-Steps taken so far


-PJ

 

[Bagheera]

You may consider soundcards from Diamond if you don't want Creative cards.

I persoanlly wouldn't recommend the new MonsterSound MX400, altho it has an onboard SPDF outlet, the card itself isn't anything special.

I would actually suggest the older but better MX300, which is available on OEM dealers at around $30 (Retail price at $99), MX300 has a very user-friendly interface, a better support for Dolby Digital than SB Live!, and an onboard equalizer. The only downside about it now is that the sound feature it supports, the A3D by Aureal, will probably be no longer in use due to the bankrupcy of Aureal recently. But MX300 is still a great card to be recommended.

Well, SB Live! isn't bad either, tho. Especially if you are a computer musician, it has a very powerful synthesizer.