Which Sound Card?

[htmlmasterdave]

I have an Ensoniq 128 PCI, but, I also have onboard sound, i think it's just the standard VIA (K7T Turbo LE). Which would give me the highest sound quality? Also, which would be faster? TIA

 

[Shooters]

Which would be faster?.....do you want one to play your music faster than the other? 😕 The onboard sound will take more cpu cycles than the PCI sound card if that makes a difference to you. As far as quality goes, I would normally say that anything is better than integrated sound, but onboard sound has gotten a lot better recently, and the Ensoniq 128 is quite old. I've never heard either; maybe someone else here has.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Ok, no i don't want to play stuff faster 😉 I just wanted to confirm about it using more cpu cycles...oh well, hopefully someone has actually tried these 😉

 

[AppleTalking]

It depends on how much of an audiophile you really are. For example, I have somewhat of a discerning ear when it comes to music, so I use a Santa Cruz sound card connected to a pair of Boston Acoustics BA790 Digital speakers. The rest of my family doesn't have quite the ear that I do, so they use the onboard sound on a Via KM133 board connected to some Altec Lansing ACS33 speakers. My sister told me that she can't really tell much of a difference between their setup and mine, but I certainly can. That said, the onboard sound definitely use more CPU cycles. I would try the PCI card first and see what you think. If you doesn't sound good enough, switch to the onboard sound and see what you think. If neither suffice, then you're probably in the same boat I am: get a Santa Cruz. 😉

Good luck!
Nick

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Ok, thanks, I don't think I'll worry too much about it until I get some nicer speakers anyways.... might as well stick to the pci for now, since it's faster 😀

 

[millsy]

Is the Santa Cruz the same as the Sonic Fury in UK??

 

[DSTA]

As far as quality goes, I would normally say that anything is better than integrated sound, but onboard sound has gotten a lot better recently, and the Ensoniq 128 is quite old. I've never heard either; maybe someone else here has.

Agreed about the qualitiy improvements of on-board sound - was greatly needed too, since so many boards had worse than awfull quality.

But the Ensoniq 128 will IME be better than even good on-board sound. Old age with this card is actually a Good Thing [tm], because if there's still reference to Ensoniq on it (Creative bought them a few years ago) it's got one of the better Codecs. The SB128/64/16 line got worse over time since Creative decided to market them as budget cards, using cheaper parts etc.

@ htmlmasterdave: give it a try, I think you'll like it 🙂.