Sound Card For Vista 64

[KurtD]

This question may belong in a hardware forum, but I am sure this is probably a reasonable question for the Operating System forum.

I am looking at a SB Titanium and Asus Xonar DX, both PCI-E cards. I do some gaming, but mainly listen to music on a set of Logitech Z-5500 (nice) speakers.

As a side note, does it mean anything to system performance to keep all my cards as PCI-E and not use any legacy PCI cards?

 

[Cogman]

I'm no audiophile, (i happily listen to sound through my $20 speakers and onboard sound card), so I won't give a recommendation on what sound card to choose, All should have vista drivers if that was your question.

As for the question of if PCI sound card will make your computer slower, the answer is no, sound has a pretty low bandwidth requirement, so using a PCI-E vs PCI vs On board sound card will not show up in your system performance.

(Though I do remember a few years ago, back in the duron days, my brother in law had problems running some games which he ultimately traced down to the onboard sound card eating too many cpu cycles. We've come a long way from there)

 

[Scotteq]

I have to admit to a certain amount of bias on this subject, as in my eyes Creative handled the Vista release very very badly: They end of life'd a very large portion of their product line, were well over a year past Vista's release before they came out with functional drivers (which still had issues - a common one being the failure to flush sound effects when in surround sound mode - resulting in a gargantuan memory leak), and in the meantime sued an enthusiast who hacked drivers that actually *worked*.

I am currently running an Asus Xonar D2: It's not really a gamer's card, and the instructions are abysmal. But it works well, and sounds great.

 

[hclarkjr]

i am running a creative card with no trouble at all, look at signature below to see the model. i have been running vista 64 bit for about 1.5 years or so and have had the card that whole time with 0 problems.

 

[KurtD]

I'm wondering... If I am using the coax (digital) output to my high-end speaker system, does it even matter which sound card I use since there is no digital to analog conversion in this scenario?

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: KurtD
I'm wondering... If I am using the coax (digital) output to my high-end speaker system, does it even matter which sound card I use since there is no digital to analog conversion in this scenario?

I'm not an audiophile, but I don't think it makes a difference with digital out.

I'm using a xfi fatal1ty, and I'm pretty happy with it(analog out)

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: KurtD
I'm wondering... If I am using the coax (digital) output to my high-end speaker system, does it even matter which sound card I use since there is no digital to analog conversion in this scenario?

Yes it does. Contrary to belief the SPDIF interface WILL "carry" any noise from the sound card right through your external DAC. So a cheap (onboard audio) SPDIF definitely WILL sound inferior to a higher quality interface. Will you notice it? Probably not for casual use. If you record or produce music it will certainly be noticeable. (of course if you're doing pro audio you won't be using onboard and SPDIF anyways.)

 

[KurtD]

My new MB has the Realtek HD audio chip and I previously used an Audigy II ZS. I suspect that the new Realtek is not any worse than the 4+ year old Audigy technology? It wouldn't hurt to try it out before dropping another $100+ on a sound card.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: KurtD
I'm wondering... If I am using the coax (digital) output to my high-end speaker system, does it even matter which sound card I use since there is no digital to analog conversion in this scenario?

Yes it does. Contrary to belief the SPDIF interface WILL "carry" any noise from the sound card right through your external DAC. So a cheap (onboard audio) SPDIF definitely WILL sound inferior to a higher quality interface. Will you notice it? Probably not for casual use. If you record or produce music it will certainly be noticeable. (of course if you're doing pro audio you won't be using onboard and SPDIF anyways.)

Seriously? How does that work?

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: KurtD
My new MB has the Realtek HD audio chip and I previously used an Audigy II ZS. I suspect that the new Realtek is not any worse than the 4+ year old Audigy technology? It wouldn't hurt to try it out before dropping another $100+ on a sound card.

That's the approach I'd take. There's a million different opinions regarding PC sound, but in the end it's your ears that are going to listen to it. Try the onboard first to see how you like it. If that doesn't work go to the Audigy2ZS. If that doesn't satisfy you, come back and get advice based on the perceived deficiencies of what you've already tried.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: KurtD
My new MB has the Realtek HD audio chip and I previously used an Audigy II ZS. I suspect that the new Realtek is not any worse than the 4+ year old Audigy technology? It wouldn't hurt to try it out before dropping another $100+ on a sound card.

That's the approach I'd take. There's a million different opinions regarding PC sound, but in the end it's your ears that are going to listen to it. Try the onboard first to see how you like it. If that doesn't work go to the Audigy2ZS. If that doesn't satisfy you, come back and get advice based on the perceived deficiencies of what you've already tried.

I had an Audigy 2 and I can't tell a difference between it and the onboard Realtek HD Audio. It sounds good enough to me.

 

[Modelworks]

You can get noise in SPDIF from onboard sound , it is called jitter.
http://www.audiocraftersguild....ndE/npt.on.jitter2.htm

You really have to be an audiophile though to hear it.

 

[KurtD]

OK, I believe my Audigy2 ZS has been a major source of problems with my new build - I don't think it plays nice with Vista 64. Random freezes and lately BSOD. I pulled the sound card and activated the onboard Realtek HD. Using an optical cable the sound is, at a minimum, as good as the old Audigy. I have a new system with 8gb of ram, AM3 MB, AMD PhenomII 810 - so system resources should not be radically stretched by the sound processing. Time will tell if this is the real source of my system issues.

If I get back into gaming again I will probably do something, but music sounds as good (if not better) using the on board sound via optical.

Kurt