Sound Card suggestion !

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lykkedk

lykkedk

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Joined 2002
#1
Anyone know a cheap sound-card, for playing MP3.. etc.. through an Passlab line-stage, and a poweramp ? I just want to have nice sounding music.

I was thinking of an sound-card with digital out, so I could upgrade in the future with an external DAC, but for now, I will just use the anolog out.

I would really apprciate if someone know a card, which will not give me too much "THUMB's" and "Klicks"....

I have something like Soundblaster LIVE! 5.1 bulk, which have digital in/out, but how do it sound on the analogue out ???
 
#2
Soundblaster 5.1 digital

I would not recommend the soundblaster
5.1 digital for anything serious, even with
an external DAC for the following reasons :-

[1] it only operates at fixed 48k/16 and will
up-sample digital data from your CDROM.
This sounds real bad ...

[2] I also have some issues with the SPDIF
output from this card - I have 2 DACs that
work well at 48k from DVDs but neither will
work compleatly reliably with the SB live
(and this is after I had the original card
replaced - that one was even worse).

[3] The SPDIF output is on a 4 pole 3.5mm
jack. Have your magnifying glass handy
when you solder up the leads ...

Still good value for money ?
Dave
 
#3
I agree with DRC and in fact any creative sound card is not a good choice if you want good sound quality.

You should try to find some small 24bit/96khz sound card. I've extensivly used a m-audio(I d'ont have one but made quit alot of recording on one) audiophile 2496. Sound quality is excellent and a great difference can be heard between this card and standard one.
 
#4
If you want good sound for little money, you can use Philips Rhythmic Edge, which has digital out and 4.0 surround.

If you want the best sound from your computer, go for TerraTec AudioSystem EWX 24/96. It is the best for using digital out, because the signal is passed almost directly through (no upsampling, which the Philips sadly does do).
 
#5
The brand new M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is the way to go, no question! A beautiful card from a company known for very high quality sound cards. 7.1 channels for Dolby Digital ES etc, and it's 24/192. Not only is the hardware top-notch, the software is as well... it's all put together by a company accustomed to doing things to professional recording standards. Low-latency drivers and no re-sampling funny-business should be standard for all sound cards, but are actually very difficult to find. Features like this are what put the M-Audio stuff that extra notch higher.

I guarantee this will blow away any Creative labs stuff like the over-hyped Audigy etc... Check it out - very affordable, too, at around $110!

Unless you need some serious professional features, you'll be very hard pressed to find a better card than this.
 
#6
lykkedk said:
Anyone know a cheap sound-card, for playing MP3.. etc.. through an Passlab line-stage, and a poweramp ? I just want to have nice sounding music.

I was thinking of an sound-card with digital out, so I could upgrade in the future with an external DAC, but for now, I will just use the anolog out.

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Depends what you mean by cheap. They are all cheap compared to a Pass Preamp. Buy the most expensive one you can afford with decent analogue and digital chips, not lower end CS and AKM chips. Don't believe the computer based reviews either.

If you want good sound and are not interested in surround, buy a 'music ' card such as the Terratec EWX 2496 with decent phono connectors.

Don't buy Creative; even the Audigy 2 does not perform for hifi music, pollutes your computer with at least 100Mb of software, has the worst spdif output waveform I have ever seen and the inputs overload at above 60% adjustment.
Click to expand...
 
#7
What soundcard sounds better, M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or Terratec EWX 2496?

I'm going to upgrade my SB Live 4.1 since the highs are pretty dirty :-(. The audiosystem I have now is speakers Aegis Evo 3 ($650) and almost completed Zen Penultimate +BOSOZ.

Also interesting if we can compare the sound quality of Terratec vs sound quality of $500-$700 CD players... May be I just need to collect some money and buy CD player?

And sorry for my english 🙂
 
#12
mandat said:
Try the following link
http://www.diyaudio.tk/
then click ENTER SITE and Hardware from the menu.
Maya44USB, MIA, PHASE 26&28, US_428 and SB Live soundcards were tested with RightMark Audio Analyzer. There are tables and diagrams with the results and marks.
And http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml for your own.
Click to expand...
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Rightmarks gives apparently good results for most cards, inclusding SBlive.

We really need to have thd+noise and the spectrum diagram to see inics are generated.
 
#14
Hej Lykke

I can see many pople here advocating for the M-Audio stuff. I have owned a Audiophile USB from M-Audio for about 10 months now and are very pleased with it's performance. Basicly it's a USB version of their 24/96 card. I think it's a good thing that the 'card' has its own seperate PSU (E-core trafo) instead of using the computer SMPS. Also, it uses ASIO drivers, thus avoiding the windows mixer. Good thing too, you don't have to run the audio in long cables or have to have the computer next to the stereo.

I couldn't resist opening it to check out whats inside. This is what I found:

S/PDIF Tranciever chip: CS8427 96kHz
DAC/ADC : AKM AK4528, 24 Bit 96Khz
USB Streaming controller: TI TUSB3200 codec / I2S interface
OPAMP’s used: 5532

It looks like it would be possible to tweak this little box. There is no integrated multfunction chip here, all seperate chips, and the datasheet can be found at their respective manufacturers hp. The opamps could easily be changed to something better, possible a clock upgrade too. The I2S could be taken directly for a total DAC upgrade later....

The little box is lookin good on top of my gainclone too.😎
 

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#16
Slash said:
I just downloaded KX driver for my SB live. I feel significant improvement in quality! This driver also suitable for all creative sound cards including audigy 2.

Now it is interesting for me if Audigy 2 with KX driver installed can outperform Terratec or M-audio... What do you think guys?

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No way. It is the SRC that converts everthing to 48kHz that is at the heart of its problem. Others have no SRC or auto SRC.
Click to expand...
 
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