Sound Card...so many..which is the best?

[gamerxx13]

First of all I am not sure if this is the right place to put this form..but here goes
Well there are so many sound cards out there. Creative and Maudio are the two big ones. How are you suppose to know which sound card to go with, or just go with the stock one on your board. I was looking at the creative xfi with really good reviews from people that bought one on newegg. problem is when i talk to some of my friends, they are like that card is total junk. i know nothing about sound cards other then that i want a midi cable coming in because i want to be able to plug in my piano. that is why i am leaning toward the xfi but its a lot of money for supposedly from my friends not so great of a card. what sound cards do you guys recommend and what is the best bang for your buck? newegg is giving a 50 dollar mail in rebate with the creative xfi so it might be a good deal. thanks for the help.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What are you hoping to do with the card?
What are you hooking up to it for inputs / sources?

What kind of headphones / speakers are you connecting to it?

Are you doing gaming with it, or is something else the priority?

 

[gamerxx13]

I am hoping to listen to music very clearly. i have a 5.1 logitech 5500 z. i am doing gaming with it and watching movies. i want to be able to hook up midi cord to it such as my piano. that is my input and source.

 

[Modelworks]

Creative has vista issues as well as not being financially stable.
If all I wanted was a midi input I would just use a midi to usb adapter.

http://www.americanmusical.com...m--i-EMU-XMIDI1X1.html
For 30.00 they work well and you can use it in vista, x64 and any pc, laptops.

Onboard audio is actually quite good now.
If I wanted better than onboard and cheap I would go with the chaintech av-710.
About 30.00 for the card.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

how does the chaintech compare against the turtle beach products? Im looking to replace a TB Santa Cruz in my other machine.

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
how does the chaintech compare against the turtle beach products? Im looking to replace a TB Santa Cruz in my other machine.

IDK, but I swear by AV710s.

 

[krotchy]

One option is the HT-Omega Striker 7.1 Card. It has 7.1 Analog + Toslink In/Out and Coax Out. Most importantly both the Toslink and Coax SPDIF outputs can do live DTS® Interactive or Dolby® Digital Live (DDL) for 5.1 sources, so you can go digital via optical to the 5500-Z's with the toslink output encoded as a DTS stream or DDL stream. Might save you some cabling and I personally think mine sounds sweet hooked up Coax to my Onkyo 705.

 

[biggestmuff]

M-Audio 2496 It's around $100. You get analog in and outs if you decide to do any recording and it has MIDI in and outs. It does NOT have on board MIDI soundfonts, but that can be handled with freeware software. It's a great card with very good quality.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

man, cant seem to find the caintech's to order anywhere...

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
man, cant seem to find the caintech's to order anywhere...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, only open boxes now, and those are OOS!!!

NOOOOOOOOOO