hey all, not sure if this is the right place to put this thread, but here goes.
I'm looking at making set of Fonken's, and probably power them with the LM1875 kits.
However, I'm planning on hooking it up to my computer, which has a creative audigy in it, which is utter crap.
So I'm looking at getting a new one but am unsure which one, so far I've looked at the Auzen X-Plosion Cinema, Bluegears B-Inspirer, and Asus DX.
I've also thought about an external DAC but had a quick look and couldn't find a decent one to fit within my budget.
Now it is going to be mainly used for music, and gaming (gaming not as much), and the odd movie chucked at it every now and then.
I'm not really sure which card i should get or what would be suitable or if I'm not even looking in the right area.
I am looking more into the Auzen X-Plosion Cinema because of the upgraded/upgradeable OpAmp's.
Any help would be very appreciated.
Cheers.
I'm looking at making set of Fonken's, and probably power them with the LM1875 kits.
However, I'm planning on hooking it up to my computer, which has a creative audigy in it, which is utter crap.
So I'm looking at getting a new one but am unsure which one, so far I've looked at the Auzen X-Plosion Cinema, Bluegears B-Inspirer, and Asus DX.
I've also thought about an external DAC but had a quick look and couldn't find a decent one to fit within my budget.
Now it is going to be mainly used for music, and gaming (gaming not as much), and the odd movie chucked at it every now and then.
I'm not really sure which card i should get or what would be suitable or if I'm not even looking in the right area.
I am looking more into the Auzen X-Plosion Cinema because of the upgraded/upgradeable OpAmp's.
Any help would be very appreciated.
Cheers.
You didn't specify which interface format - PCI, USB or firewire. Similarly, you want an idea of how many channels out you'd use - just stereo? Will you use surround sound? SPDIF? The other question is budget.
I've been using a number of different soundcards over a couple of years (consumer recording types), and as long as they work decently, they all seem about the same to me. Avoid 'off' brands like Phonic, I had one of their devices, it sucked. Bad design, bad support.
Lots of people suggest Emu 0202 or 0404, if you need stereo only, or with SPDIF, respectively. I use a M-Audio Delta 1010LT mostly right now. Soundcards are becoming cheaper and cheaper, but I'd want to read a lot of user reviews before I bought a really cheap one - when a soundcard doesn't work well, its really annoying. And its hard to fix.
My feeling is that as long as the card is made by a company that knows what its doing, for the most part, different cards will 'sound' about the same.
I've been using a number of different soundcards over a couple of years (consumer recording types), and as long as they work decently, they all seem about the same to me. Avoid 'off' brands like Phonic, I had one of their devices, it sucked. Bad design, bad support.
Lots of people suggest Emu 0202 or 0404, if you need stereo only, or with SPDIF, respectively. I use a M-Audio Delta 1010LT mostly right now. Soundcards are becoming cheaper and cheaper, but I'd want to read a lot of user reviews before I bought a really cheap one - when a soundcard doesn't work well, its really annoying. And its hard to fix.
My feeling is that as long as the card is made by a company that knows what its doing, for the most part, different cards will 'sound' about the same.
Don’t know if you are looking for multi channel or just for 2 channel stereo. For just 2 channel have a look here: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html
Sells for under $100, sounds really good and has a load of tweaking possibilities.
Cheers
Sells for under $100, sounds really good and has a load of tweaking possibilities.
Cheers
I have the M Audio 2496. I installed it over 4 years ago and have had to do nothing with it since, no driver issues or flakyness at all.
I can't say how it compares to others as I've only heard a Soundblaster Live of similar vintage and the M Audio. It plays nicely with Cubase and everything asio and the price is right
Neither sounds as good as my playstation mindst.
John
I can't say how it compares to others as I've only heard a Soundblaster Live of similar vintage and the M Audio. It plays nicely with Cubase and everything asio and the price is right
Neither sounds as good as my playstation mindst.
John
It helps a lot to keep PC related noise and spurs down by powering it from a separate powered hub. But that holds for most USB powered cards.cuibono said:
hmm, now i look at it I didn't put much info in the original post.
I would prefer PCI, but could handle a USB.
At the moment its just stereo, but would like the option of going surround sound later.
I will be using analog, since thats what the amp/s is, and i dont really see myself going with spdif for quite some time.
Budget wise, the X-Plosion is worth around $130-$150AU, i was hoping not to have to spend much more than that.
I already had all intentions of avoiding odd brands.
I have the Emu 0202 on the 'list' but wasn't sure what they are worth.
I have a Creative Audigy Value right now, and really wanna get rid of iit, it is utter crap, pathetic drivers, and its starting to break down (only 12 months old), and on top of that it doesn't do what its supposed to 'out of the box'
One main reason i was looking at the X-Plosion was that i know its a reasonably well respected brand with some people, and it has interchangeable OpAmps.
Also, would the sound quality depend more on the OpAmps or the on board processor?
I'm not after the 'best', just something that can bring some justice to these speakers.
Pjotr said:Don’t know if you are looking for multi channel or just for 2 channel stereo. For just 2 channel have a look here: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html
Sells for under $100, sounds really good and has a load of tweaking possibilities.
Cheers
nice, thanks.
Another one on my list was actually their Revolution 5.1, but hadn't read too much of them yet.
what it would be used for is, Music 50%, Games 40%, Movies 10%, or there abouts, sometimes more music sometimes less, but it is the main thing it would be used for.
I have no plans for recording at all.
The 'list'...
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (if i can get it for a good price)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
E-MU 0202 (depending on price)
Auzentech X-Plosion Cinema
Trends UD-10 USB (depending on price)
Bluegears B-Inspirer
thats all i can think of right now.
Thanks.
Sh1mmy said:
I've never seen that option on a board before - pretty interesting that they would cater to the DIY crowd. Some people claim swapping opamps makes no difference, others say they can hear it. I don't know, but with that card you could try it. Its really interesting they use LM4562 opamps for the frontend, and 5532's in the other channels - sounds to me like one of their designers pays attention to the audiophile world. Those two chips are on opposite ends of the 'cool in audio' world, having them both in there would make comparison pretty easy.
In your list, some of those cards are for people who record, others, like the AuzenTech, are meant for playback only. Seems like you get more of what you'll want when you buy in the latter category.
In my experience, the designers follow very closely the chip manufactures suggested circuits, so different cards tend to be very similar in design. I'd doubt I could tell a lot of the ones I've heard apart.
IMO, capacitors and opamps are a ways down the list when it comes to what makes for good sound quality. In my Delta, I put in a clean power supply, and built a better clock circuit. At some point, I'll bypass the analog section, and build discrete class A I/V and buffers for the in/out right at the DACs. I'll also probably build a separate box for the PCI card, to isolate it from the computer's electrical noise. All those would come before opamp and capacitor swaps, but are a bit more trouble.
It is interesting about the swappable opamps, and i would be curious about it. however I'm not really sure if i would change them if i got the card, especially if it did the job well enough. I would still be curious about changing them though.
They do have/had a few cards that had interchangeable opamps, and they all followed the same pattern, with the front channel have a different/better opamp than any other.
So it seems that without going for a dac or something, a card like an Auzentech might be best for me especially value and feature wise.
There are a few cards i have looked at made by different people and use the same/similar processor and they are virtually identical.
Going by your last paragraph, (if i understood it right), the circuitry, power supply and interference play a bigger par in quality control?
I do agree with the interference, and have seen threads where people have made shields for their cards and reported an difference in sound, in particular noise, general quality and warmth, which is what i like to hear.
In a way, I can't quite grasp the idea of caps making much of a difference when using an amp to power the speakers. Don't know if its just me or something i don't understand or what.
Had a another look around, and found the Asus Xonar D2/X and DX, i could lash out a bit more $$ (about $70 i think) and grab one, these come with a shield (although only on one side), and offer higher SNR and from a small review good quality, this would be a good bundle as it would also support games better too.
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1769&l1=25&l2=144&l3=0&l4=0
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1989&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=2015&modelmenu=1
I think the only difference between the D2 and D2X is just the PCI-E 1x and normal PCI. If i was to get one, would it be a more wiser idea to go for the normal PCI model, as it has less in the circuitry (some adaptor chip for the processor to get it to work on PCI-E 1x) and would have the option to mount it further away from my video card (ATI 3870)?
Thanks.
They do have/had a few cards that had interchangeable opamps, and they all followed the same pattern, with the front channel have a different/better opamp than any other.
So it seems that without going for a dac or something, a card like an Auzentech might be best for me especially value and feature wise.
There are a few cards i have looked at made by different people and use the same/similar processor and they are virtually identical.
Going by your last paragraph, (if i understood it right), the circuitry, power supply and interference play a bigger par in quality control?
I do agree with the interference, and have seen threads where people have made shields for their cards and reported an difference in sound, in particular noise, general quality and warmth, which is what i like to hear.
In a way, I can't quite grasp the idea of caps making much of a difference when using an amp to power the speakers. Don't know if its just me or something i don't understand or what.
Had a another look around, and found the Asus Xonar D2/X and DX, i could lash out a bit more $$ (about $70 i think) and grab one, these come with a shield (although only on one side), and offer higher SNR and from a small review good quality, this would be a good bundle as it would also support games better too.
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1769&l1=25&l2=144&l3=0&l4=0
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1989&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=2015&modelmenu=1
I think the only difference between the D2 and D2X is just the PCI-E 1x and normal PCI. If i was to get one, would it be a more wiser idea to go for the normal PCI model, as it has less in the circuitry (some adaptor chip for the processor to get it to work on PCI-E 1x) and would have the option to mount it further away from my video card (ATI 3870)?
Thanks.
Good review of the DX2 card here: http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=496&Itemid=27
Looks to be a nice audio card BUT it uses Windoz VISTA - and do you really want to go there?
Also looks to be a good game card running under Vista - and I believe that a gaming card was one of your desires.
Looks to be a nice audio card BUT it uses Windoz VISTA - and do you really want to go there?
Also looks to be a good game card running under Vista - and I believe that a gaming card was one of your desires.
Sh1mmy
Here is some hard comparative testing done by none other than John Atwood and his Audio Precision. Backs up Brett's intuitive choice....
http://www.clarisonus.com/Research Reports/RR001-SoundCardEval/RR001-PCsoundCards.html
Bud
Here is some hard comparative testing done by none other than John Atwood and his Audio Precision. Backs up Brett's intuitive choice....
http://www.clarisonus.com/Research Reports/RR001-SoundCardEval/RR001-PCsoundCards.html
Bud
c2cthomas said:Good review of the DX2 card here: http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=496&Itemid=27
Looks to be a nice audio card BUT it uses Windoz VISTA - and do you really want to go there?
Also looks to be a good game card running under Vista - and I believe that a gaming card was one of your desires.
There are drivers that allow it to be used in XP, I think.
it does seem like a pretty good card, and seems like a mixture of all the things i wanted.
Brett said:
M-Audio 2496, theres one of these on ebay right now for $90+$15 S/H. Still got a couple of days left, no bids on it yet either.
BudP said:
Thanks, taking a gander at it now.
BudP, thanks for the site. Its always interesting when someone actually does some good comparative measurements.
This is another site, although with older soundcards. The RMAA (rightmark audio) forum might be another decent place to look up actual users specs for their soundcards. I never believe manufacturer's published specs, they're usually wrong, and they don't show any graphs either. On the other hand, I don't know if there is a strong correlation between specs and sound anyways. The gaming cards sure like to boast about S/N.
WRT the Asus card, I wouldn't buy any of them, they look like a fledgling manufacturer. Driver updates are critical, and I read they don't keep up on them, which is typical for companies that make soundcards as a side project.
WRT PCI versus PCIe, get whichever works easier in your computer. Less complicated = less hassles. Similarly, get a card that is meant for your OS, not one which had the drivers written as an afterthought...
This is another site, although with older soundcards. The RMAA (rightmark audio) forum might be another decent place to look up actual users specs for their soundcards. I never believe manufacturer's published specs, they're usually wrong, and they don't show any graphs either. On the other hand, I don't know if there is a strong correlation between specs and sound anyways. The gaming cards sure like to boast about S/N.
WRT the Asus card, I wouldn't buy any of them, they look like a fledgling manufacturer. Driver updates are critical, and I read they don't keep up on them, which is typical for companies that make soundcards as a side project.
WRT PCI versus PCIe, get whichever works easier in your computer. Less complicated = less hassles. Similarly, get a card that is meant for your OS, not one which had the drivers written as an afterthought...
cuibono said:BudP, thanks for the site. Its always interesting when someone actually does some good comparative measurements.
This is another site, although with older soundcards. The RMAA (rightmark audio) forum might be another decent place to look up actual users specs for their soundcards. I never believe manufacturer's published specs, they're usually wrong, and they don't show any graphs either. On the other hand, I don't know if there is a strong correlation between specs and sound anyways. The gaming cards sure like to boast about S/N.
WRT the Asus card, I wouldn't buy any of them, they look like a fledgling manufacturer. Driver updates are critical, and I read they don't keep up on them, which is typical for companies that make soundcards as a side project.
WRT PCI versus PCIe, get whichever works easier in your computer. Less complicated = less hassles. Similarly, get a card that is meant for your OS, not one which had the drivers written as an afterthought...
Yeah, they do boast a bit about a few things, and you do have a point about specs not meaning sound quality.
As much as I know, they have recently released a new set of drivers, and they seem pretty good, (only by what ive read though, dont know about the truth).
While I would prefer to get a card from a more dedicated brand, but the Asus card seems to have a mixture of what I'd like to have.
From what I've read, they drivers are pretty good for both XP and Vista, but again, I'm not sure about the truth there either.
Have looked around a bit more and have found a DAC that may be a bit more suitable/usable for me.
Zhaolu D2.5
(http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/177/)
What are peoples opinion on these?
I've done a couple of searches, google didn't seem to reveal much and the forum was mainly just modding it.
Also, theres a couple of others i was looking at also, same price also.
Lite DAC-AH
http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/184/)
KingRex UD-01
http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/195/
Thanks.
Zhaolu D2.5
(http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/177/)
What are peoples opinion on these?
I've done a couple of searches, google didn't seem to reveal much and the forum was mainly just modding it.
Also, theres a couple of others i was looking at also, same price also.
Lite DAC-AH
http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/184/)
KingRex UD-01
http://www.coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/195/
Thanks.
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