Suggestions for a sound card

[MplsBob]

I have been away from the arena of sound cards for quite some time and am unfamiliar with what is out there. I would be buying "in the blind" and there's no point in buying a card that everybody knows is junk. So here goes:

I only need stereo left and right channels. I have absolutely no need for 5 channels, or worse yet 7. I almost never play computer games, but I will occassionally pop in a music CD for background music (my current favorite is Bob Seger's Night Moves).

The card would be installed in my brand new AMD 2700 Athlon XP 2700 333 based computer with 1 gig of matched pair Corsair memory chips, two 36 GB Raptor drives in a RAID 0 array, 54x CDROM reader, 250MB Zip drive, and 1.4 MB Floppy. There's also an external disk chasis that can be run via Firewire or USB for backup. I haven't ordered that drive yet. And, oh yes, Windows 2000 Professional for the OS, with Linux a probable addition in the future.

My speakers are Cambridge Soundworks speakers, left channel + right channel + woofer. This is sufficent for my needs.

I don't feel that I need leading edge technology with a price tag to match. Something practical and reasonably good would fit the bill. I am willing to pay extra if it produces a noticable bump up in sound quality.

The sound card in my old computer was a Creative Labs Sound Blaster of many years ago.

What would you suggest?

 

[Alptraum]

I am quite happy with my Audigy 2 ZS. They are $89 at NewEgg right now. Good quality sound in the games I play and the music I listen to.

 

[MDE]

Try the onboard sound first and see if you like it. VIA's Envy chip is supposed to be very good, as is Nvidia's nForce2 sound (as long as crappy codecs aren't used).

 

[Algere]

Regular Audigy 2 OEM @ $74 esp. if you don't need the 7.1 feature although if you decide later to get a 7.1 speaker setup then a Audigy 2 ZS.

 

[MplsBob]

MonkeyDriveExpress:

Thank you for that observation. I had just assumed that the on-board stuff was second rate. Don't know how I came by that. So thanks for opening my eyes on that one.

If the on-board stuff doesn't leave me happy, I can always try one of the sound cards that other people suggest. I will print out their suggestions for future reference.

MplsBob

 

[Nebor]

Onboard IS second rate. The thing is, you might not be able to notice it.

 

[beatle]

I've got the same speaker setup in my bedroom hooked to an old sblive 5.1. With the speakers mounted on the wall and the sub on the floor, it sounds great. It's not as immersive as the setup on my main rig, but for a soundcard/speaker setup that cost me less than $50, I'm very impressed.

 

[CptObvious]

For your speakers onboard sound should work fine. You only really need a separate sound card if you are a gamer or an audiophile

 

[Brian48]

My thoughts exactly. Based on your need (the way you described it). You're probably just fine using whatever on-board solution comes with your motherboard. I certainly wouldn't bother with a stand-alone sound card.

However, if you must have a stand alone card for whatever reason, a $10 CMI8738 would probably suffice.