Should I get a sound card? (1 Viewer)

Dubyahjay

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  • October 1, 2007
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    If you are going to use PC speakers might I recommend http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-THX-Certified-505-Watt-Digital-Surround/dp/B0002WPSBC/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198184378&sr=8-1 the Logitech Z5500 has coaxial digital and optical inputs plus a slew of analog. The sound quality is fantastic for the price point.

    If you want to spend a bit more I would recommend http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-SR800S-Theater-Entertainment-System/dp/B000O9T2YW/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198184467&sr=1-6 for a 7.1 solution


    Hang on! Check the special on this!!!
    http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-SR600-Theater-Entertainment-System/dp/B000NZ6JE8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198184467&sr=1-4

    Pretty crazy for the price. I have not seen it that low before. You really cant go wrong with any of those systems if you are looking for an entry level system.

    WOW!
    http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S990THX-Theater-Entertainment-System/dp/B000FNFU16/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198184467&sr=1-8

    I may just have to put in an order for one of those! (sorry to blow this post to pieces with links)
     

    giantjoebot

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    October 30, 2006
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    I've been looking at sound cards, and since I have never bought one before I am having a bit of trouble. Right now what I'm wondering is if I would be fine with 96KHz or if I should go with 196KHz.

    So far these are the cards that I have narrowed it down to

    96KHz

    HT OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz

    192KHz

    E-MU 0404
    M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1
    HT OMEGA CLARO 7.1

    The HT OMEGA STRIKER has great reviews, and the price is right at $80, but its only 96KHz. I would like to keep it under $100, which the last one I linked to (HT OMEGA CLARO) is $160, and a lot more than I would like to spend, but the reviews are amazing, and it uses solid capacitors. The price on the M-Audio is great at $70, but it uses a VIA chip. The reviews say that it has great sound, but the drivers are old, and it can be hard to install them. The emu one is runs about $100, and it is the same brand that was suggested earlier.

    Ugh, I just don't know. Well at least I have time to deiced, but I'll be debating this stuff until I get it figured out. Just the way that I am. So any advice is greatly appreciated.
     

    giantjoebot

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    October 30, 2006
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    Actually with those, the power comes from the sub. Basically the sub has an amp built in.

    The only problem that I could see is if the wires are too short, then you may have to splice more wire (cable) on to the satellites.

    A few PC speaker 5.1 sets have digital inputs, but there usually analog, so you will probably want to get a sound card. A Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card would probaly work good. I hear they have good sound, and there cheap. I plan to get one for my desktop, and my 2.1.
     

    giantjoebot

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    Its cool

    I would probably go with the PCI version over the USB one though.

    I was looking into it, and I think the Emu 0404 might be only 96KHz.
     

    giantjoebot

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    Just found out that there is a Diamond card that might work perfect. It uses a cmedia chip, and there are some open source drivers that are suppose to make it work really good. Plus its only $30

    here is a description of the open source drivers:

    This project aims at developing drivers for C-Media 8738 / 8768 based soundcards, focusing on providing a compact, bloat-free and stable alternative to the official drivers in order to squeeze the most out of the hardware.

    One of the key aspects is to support bitperfect lossless digital transmission through S/PDIF, meaning that there is no tampering with the signal whatsoever. Currently, this works for 16 bit sound streams with 44.1/48/88.2/96 kHz sample rate using DSound/WaveOut/kernel streaming.

    Why should I use your driver?

    If you have an amplifier/receiver with a digital input, it may be a good solution.
    Nowadays most consumer market sound devices (Creative, AC97, HDA) alter the sound in one way or the other and thus induce a significant loss of quality - this renders them almost completely unusable for audiophile Hi-Fi enthusiasts. Not so with this driver: lossless bitperfect playback over the external digital ports is fully supported. Also, the sample rate is dynamically adjusted to the current playback source. This may sound simple, but even lots of "professional grade" soundcards lack such capabilities.
    This driver is completely bloat-free (no annoying tray icon), small (100kB), fast (due to the lack of sound processing) and stable. Unlike the official drivers, it supports true 16 bit output and dts/AC3 passthrough. Also, it runs on all the major Windows flavors (including the Media Center Edition/MCE and 64 bit systems) and the source code is fully available. Thus it's especially well suited for HTPC usage.

    So what do you guys think?

    The only problems that I can find so far, is that it only sems to support 16bit, and thatI'm suppose to enable dts/AC3 passthrough, which I'm not sure if I can do that in Media Portal.
     

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