sound card advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter DotCom
  • Start date Start date
What would be your recommendation on a medium to good sound card?
TIA dot
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For what uses?

What kind and number of outputs do you need?

Generic answers:

- If you need not only to game, but have a weaker CPU than
video card and WILL be using 3D (rear channel)
speakers/sound, get a midrange Creative Labs card. The
hardware EAX will offload the 3D processing from the video
card but is of no benefit if you use only front speakers.

- If you want audiophile (approaching that as an ideal at
least) sound for music, don't buy any Creative labs card.
However, it still comes back to how many channels you need
and (sometimes) what the primary source hardware is. For
example if you listen to CDs a lot, you might want a card
with native 44KHz sampling rate, not a card that can only do
48KHz. If you want to directly drive headphones, you might
want a card with a buffer onboard, not just an opamp output
stage. These are vague details but narrowing things down
further instead of giving hints on how to select, depends on
details only you know about the needs, uses, and budget.
 
The Soundblaster X-Fi series of sound cards. Pick the model appropriate for
your use. They sound MUCH better than any of the competition and better
than earlier SoundBlaster cards.
 
The Soundblaster X-Fi series of sound cards. Pick the model appropriate for
your use. They sound MUCH better than any of the competition and better
than earlier SoundBlaster cards.
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Nope, you can't even play an audio CD without it resampling
it.
 
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