Sound card compatibility

[goobee]

I got a dual opty mobo, Tyan K8W S2875. On-board audio lacks fidelity, my old SB Live xgamer 5.1 crackles using old or latest drivers. I guess it's time for another sound card. Any suggestions for a sound card that plays well on an AMD chipset/dual Opty mobo?

Thanks.

 

[corkyg]

Consider the new SoundBlaster Audigy 2NX. It is a small, very capable external USB connect unit. It can be moved to different computers, and if you upgrade - it can be connected to the new box easily.

2NX

 

[Jolt2]

Well here is my vote; CHAINTECH AV-710 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card.

AV-710 from Chief Value

AV-710 from NewEgg

NewEgg has more reviews to read and Chief Value has abetter price.


If you want to check into it some more go to AVS Forum on the Envy24 chipset cards. You can find reviews, manufacturer, and other helpful info on Envy 24 sound cards, which the AV-710 is. The AV-710 is about the best value, but you can also find other Envy24 soundcards that go up in price. Some as much as Sound Blaster cards cost.

Here is a quote that sums you the Envy24 and the Creative Labs Audigy 2 from the above forum:

'Why should I get an VIA Envy24HT/HT-S instead of a Creative Labs Audigy 2?

There are several points to cover, but the main ones are as follows.

How important is gaming to you? The Audigy line of cards are generally considered to be better gamer's cards. They support the newer EAX versions 3.0 and 4.0, something that can't be found anywhere else at the momment. They are also essentially the reference card that developers use when making a game, so how the game sounds on an Audigy is pretty certain to be how it was intended to be heard. That isn't to say that the Envy24 cards aren't good at gaming. I personally enjoy the gaming experience on my Envy24HT-S more than I did on the Soundblaster Live it replaced. Through the Sensaura driver that they ship with, the Envy24 cards support all the regular gaming audio APIs, as well as Creative's EAX 1.0 and 2.0. Any half-way decent developer is going to make sure that their game works well on a Sensaura enabled card (pretty much everything that isn't Creative) since Sensaura based cards are a huge percentage of the market. The Audigy is a bit ahead of the Envy24 on gaming, but not by much. Point to the Audigy.

Is Bit-Perfect playback important to you? This is an area where the Envy24 based solutions destroy the Audigy line. Audigy cards are going to resample your CD Audio (and any 44.1khz source) to 48khz in hardware. There is no way around this. Ideally, audio should be played in the format it is natively in, and if it is going to be resampled, then best results are an even resample multiples. As such, 44.1khz CD Audio should be played at 44.1khz, or resampled to 88.2khz. This *is* possible on the Envy24 series of cards, as they don't resample stuff in hardware. Point to the Envy24.

Are you using analog output, or SPDIF output? If you are using SPDIF output, then this section is irrelevant to you. If you use analog though, then pay attention. The DACs found on the Audigy cards are excellent as a general rule. There may be lower quality DACs on the low-end Audigy 2 or older Audigy 1 cards, but I'm not quite sure off the top of my head. The DACs of the Envy24HT series of cards are also excellent, but I know that the DACs found on the Envy24HT-S cards are average at best. If you look at my recommendation above though, if you are using analog, you should be using an Envy24HT, not an Envy24HT-S. One could probably do alot more research and argue wether one of the contenders has better DACs, but that person isn't me. One thing for certain though is that if you get a regular Audigy 2, or an Envy24HT, then you are getting good analog. No points here, as they are pretty much tied.

Driver quality. Creative is notorious for their horrible drivers, combined with massive bloat on the driver accessory level. This was definitly a large factor for my purchase of a a non-Creative card this time around. The drivers for the Envy24HT-S are absolutely much cleaner than any Creative driver since the excellent AWE64. Even more full featured drivers like the ones for the Envy24HT based Prodigy 7.1 get you alot more (like ASIO support) for a smaller amount of control panels. Point to the Envy24.

Everything else between the cards will be essentially the same. I'm not here to make the decision for you, but this should be enough to make a buying decision based on what you need the card to do."

I would suggest that you read some of the reviews that are linked in that forum and some the post there. Also here is a link to VIA Vinyl Envy24 drivers for Windows XP 64-bit. This looks to be the second set of 64-bit drivers for the Envy24. The first set being beta drivers.