New cheap sound card with good sound quality.

[endrebjorsvik]

I am really fed up with the bad, boring and noisy sound from the integrated sound-circuit on my Abit NF7-M mainboard. I use analog tranfer from the soundcard to the amplifier (my Nikko NA-700II were produced before CD-players were affordable ), and I am therefore looking for a cheap soundcard with a pretty good built-in DAC and overall good sound quality and sound picture.

The only cheap cards I have available is TerraTec SoundSystem Aureon 5.1, Sunsway/ST Lab 6 channel (C-Media 8738LX) and Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit.

Can anyone tell me which of these cards that has the best analog sound (high-quality DAC, and a sparkling/delicate sound picture)?
I do not care about gaming-performance, fancy 3D-sound-things or awesome standards.

Is there anyone from Norway here who knows about better alternatives in Norway (100-200 NOK)?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Welcome to AT.

If you only need 2 channel, the Chaintech AV-710 is a nice card. It has 1 nice wolfsen DAC and three mediocre ones. You can set it up to use the nice one for stereo output.

Info on it and other via envy cards

 

[endrebjorsvik]

Yes, I have been recommended that Chaintech-card, but I am not able to get hold of it in Norway without import it from foreign countries.
The only card that could bo found in Norway i those listed here.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm not really familiar with most of those.

A SB Live! is a decent budget card.