sound cards

[RadioHead84]

Everyone has been talking about the Xi creatvies being so great. My friend just told me about this card tho

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829127001

its a lot cheaper and the reviews seem good.

Anyone know the pro's and con's of these cards and which one is best to get? Thx

 

[Some1ne]

Depends on what you want it for. That card looks like it is very good for listening, but the Creative card will give you better support for gaming. Some of the Creative models will also come with better accessories, like the I/O Drive thing and the remote, if you're interested in those things.

Basically, if you mostly just want to listen to music and/or you need the Dolby encoding feature, the BlueGears thing should be good. If you mostly just want to play games though, stick with Creative.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Unless you're hooking up to a receiver, I don't think the X-Mystique would be a good pick.

For a basic to midrange set of computer speakers, an Audigy2 value or Audigy2zs would probably be a good match. If you're getting into the upper range sets for computer speakers, then an X-Fi Xtreme Music on sale would be a good bet.

The X-Mystique has Dolby Digital Live, but that isn't something that would really be beneficial on a set of speakers with 5.1 analog inputs.
The X-Fi and A2 cards have better gaming support and features.

 

[RadioHead84]

I have a set of Klipsh 5.1 Promedia speakers and a really really nice set of headphones that i got from japan..does that help at all?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you tend to use headphones for gaming, an X-Fi is probably a really good choice for you.

The output to the speakers should be very good too, and there are some options you can try out as well to see if it does anything for you.

 

[Some1ne]

I have the Klipsch 5.1 THX certified speakers, and I noticed a difference going form an Audigy 1 to an X-Fi. Not sure how an Audigy 2 would have compared though.