Sound card recomendation (1 Viewer)

[funkstar]

I replaced my opboard sound with a Hercules Game Theatre XP i had stashed away in a cupboard because i wanted both optical and stereo out.

I want to replace this with an actual PCI card, instead of having a massive breakout box and thick, long, pain-in-the-ass cable.

What is recomended in this department? I don't want to spend silly money and just want a PCI card with optical and stereo outs. I've heard of creative drivers causing problems. Someone on another forum said that Terratec drivers are pretty shoddy too. Unfortunitely that is about the only two brands i can find that have what i'm after at a decent price.

Any others i should look at?

Chears guys.

 

[Hancoque]

You may look here: M-AUDIO - PCI interfaces.

 

[BugsBunny]

Maybe look here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/showthread.php?t=10524

 

[funkstar]

thanks for the links. Looks like i'm going to end up spending more than i had planned on

got it down to either the Juli@ or the X-Maridian as recomended else where.

both lovely looking cards i have to say

 

[knutinh]

Will you use this card for gaming?

Will you use this card only for digital out stereo/surroud?

Will you use this card for analog outs (stereo/multichannel)?


I guess that the recommodation depends on the questions above. Audiophiles that are to connect their PC to an analog amplifier might want something like this:

http://www.lynxstudio.com/lynxtwo.html

200kHz sample rate / 100kHz analog bandwidth (Supported with all drivers)
Four 24-bit balanced analog inputs and outputs ("A" Model)
Two 24-bit balanced analog inputs and six 24-bit balanced analog outputs ("B" Model)
Six 24-bit balanced analog inputs and two 24-bit balanced analog outputs ("C" Model)
+4dBu or -10dBV line levels selectable per channel pair
24-bit AES3 or S/PDIF I/O with full status and subcode support
Sample rate conversion on digital input
Non-audio digital I/O support for Dolby Digital® and HDCD
32-channel / 32-bit digital mixer with 16 sub outputs
Multiple dither algorithms per channel
SMPTE time code reader and generator with MTC conversion
Composite video genlock
Word, 256 Word, 13.5MHz or 27MHz clock sync
Extremely low-jitter tunable sample clock generator
Dedicated clock frequency diagnostic hardware
Multiple-board audio data routing and sync
Two LStream™ ports support 8 additional I/O channels each
Compatible with LStream modules for ADAT and AES/EBU standards
Zero-wait state, 16-channel, scatter-gather DMA engine
Windows NT/2000/XP Drivers
Macintosh ASIO 2.0 Drivers
Macintosh Core Audio Drivers
LynxTWO-A Suggested US List Price $1095
LynxTWO-B Suggested US List Price $995
LynxTWO-C Suggested US List Price $1195


For spdif-only, I would just use the internal mobo audio or some cheap no-name card capable of bit-perfect playback.

I use an old m-audio audiophile 24/96 PCI card. I am waiting for HDMI-based soundcards or even better, combined audio/graphics cards with internally synchronised clocks so that I can feed my surround-amp 8 channels of lossless hirez PCM.


-k

 

[funkstar]

Will you use this card for gaming?

no

Will you use this card only for digital out stereo/surroud?

yes

Will you use this card for analog outs (stereo/multichannel)?

yes - stereo

All i want is decent quality direct optical output, and stereo output without internal re-sampling to 48Khz first. I know this is easy, but i also want stable drivers that aren't going to interfere with MediaPortal or anything else in my system.

 

[pannivas]

you can find lots of good reviews of auzentech x-meridian and auzentech x-plosion over at www.avsforums.com. Those two cards are very very good for an HTPC. they dont do so good for games when compared with X-Fi but on the other hand you dont care about games from your HTPC. I myself order the X-Plosion one and will be testing it during the next few days.

Also guru3d.com has reviews on both of those cards.
X-Meridian here http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/399/
X-Plioson here http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/363/