Sound Card Advice: Music

KingCobra2001

Junior Member
Jun 22, 2001
14
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Hi, I have currently a Sound Blaster 16, and have the Altec Lansing ACS 48 speakers. I notice some hiss when I turn up the speakers when hooked up to the Line Out port on the sound card, but when I move them to another room and hook them up to a discman, there is no more hiss, and the sound quality seems a little better.
I use my speakers mostly for listening to music (MP3's and CDs), and since there are only 2 speakers, I do not really care about 3d effects or surround sound.

I was basicly wondering if I would get any better audio quality or less hiss if I were to upgrade to a new sound card, and if so, which one? Also, I would not like to spend too much on it.

Thanks for your help,
-=King Cobra=-
 

swanky

Member
May 22, 2001
191
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Check out the cards from TerraTec, good value for money - and the DMX XFire 1024's got digital out - handy if you want to make minidiscs. Costs around $50 here in Norway - my guess is you can get it a lot cheaper in the US.

What you really need to figure out is if you need Surround Sound. If you do, it'll cost a bit more.

Swanky
 

stockjock

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2000
4,205
2
76
Go with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or the Philips Acoustic Edge. They are about $60 -$70 but well worth it. Here is a LINK for the Turtle Beach card.
 

whitelight

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2001
3,505
0
71
sometimes a hiss is caused when speaker cables are too close to power cables. and naturally, some hiss comes out of speakers when they are cranked up. so, it might not be a sound card problem.
 

sak

Senior member
Feb 2, 2001
713
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I think the hiss is inhearent is all speakers. or is that not true
 

snidy

Senior member
Jan 30, 2001
822
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I agree with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or the Philips Acoustic Edge, I would stay away from Sound Blaster, I've had nothing but headaches with there drivers.
 

erikiksaz

Diamond Member
Nov 3, 1999
5,486
0
76
dood, that sound blaster 16 is ancient. spend 25 bucks (assuming you have win98), and get yourself a vortex 2 sound card if all you do is listen to music. do NOT touch any of those cruddy lives. although the santa cruz is a nice card (not sure if it's better than the vortex2), it costs 2-3X as much.
 

henmaster

Member
Jun 4, 2001
175
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0
If you have your cd-rom drive connected to your soundcard try disconnecting it or mute cd-rom in volume controls. I was getting static noise a while ago and this fixed it for me.
 

JellyBaby

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2000
9,159
1
81
<< sometimes a hiss is caused when speaker cables are too close to power cables. >>

And occassionally hiss just &quot;occurs&quot; at least with my Live! 5.1. A simple reboot, without touching anything (I don't even break wind), solves the problem.