Top Sound Card vs. MCP-T (Southbridge)

[dr150]

The mobo I purchased is a nForce2 (North Bridge) board with MCP-T and AC'97.

I understand the MCP-T/AC97 offers among the best sound fidelity.

Should I buy a top-line sound card from Turtle Beach (i.e. Santa Cruz) or Creative or stick with the mobo's audio?.......
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(I have no budget, but it a soundcard purchase has to make sense. I'm more interested in sound fidelity instead of bells & whistles.)

 

[NokiaDude]

Creative's Audigy 2 ZS completely blows away the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. TBSC is an older generation card that just cannot compete with the Audigy 2 ZS. The Soundstorm audio on your southbridge is on par with the TBSC. But if you play DVD-Audio or CD's alot, it's better to get the Audigy 2 ZS. "Sound fidelity" is not going to help one bit if all you listen to is mp3's.

 

[Slick5150]

It depends. The nForce sound is really very good. The DAC is not as good as an Audigy card, but it has a lot of features (the Dolby encoding being the top of them). Unless you have a REALLY good set of speakers that use analog inputs, I wouldn't worry about spending the money on an Audigy 2

 

[Brian48]

I absolutely love my A2 ZS, however I'd recommend you hold off buying anything until you've tried the on-board for awhile. If you're satisfied with the audio quality, I see no reason to upgrade from it.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: PinwiZ I wouldn't worry about spending the money on an Audigy 2

Eh, it depends on how interested you are in 3D sound. Only Audigies support EAX 3/4, and the differences are pretty stark at times, so if you want that, you have to buy an Audigy.

 

[ponyo]

If you're going to use SDPIF optical out on your Soundstorm motherboard, then I would skip the soundcard. However if you're going to use the analog connectors on your motherboard, then I would get a separate soundcard.

BTW, I use the Soundstorm optical out on my motherboard and the sound quality is very good in music, games, and movies.