Author Topic: Sound Cards Help? (Read 475 times)

aknimitz · « **on:** April 03, 2003, 06:29:41 AM »

Hiyas everyone,

I posted this in hardware and did not receive much feedback at all, so I thought I would check here.

I have a little birthday money to spend, and I was thinking of upgrading my SBLive! soundcard. I was wondering would I really notice a difference in gaming sound in AH? Sound of mp3s?

What would you all recommend for under $100?

Thanks for the input!

S!
Nim

Martlet · « **Reply #1 on:** April 03, 2003, 06:59:46 AM »

It really depends on the quality of speakers you have. SBLive isn't a bad card at all. Do you have surround sound speakers?

Unless you've got a really good speaker system, you won't notice the difference, most likely. If that money is really burning a hole in your pocket, and you want to spend it on your computer sound, I'd make sure I had the speakers first. You can get a really good set at a wholesaler or online for cheap.

aSTAR · « **Reply #2 on:** April 03, 2003, 08:36:12 AM »

I love my Audigy 2, it performs well, the squad can hear me
clearly, and at times I need to reduce the out put which I
never did with my SB LIVE.
It's a great card, you'll like it. The price is reasonable also.

SE

gofaster · « **Reply #3 on:** April 03, 2003, 09:17:32 AM »

Funny you should bring this up...

I just recently ditched my Soundblaster Live! card because DX 9.0 messed it up horribly. Soundblaster Live! is a good card and I loved using it, but I missed not being able to use my radio in AH after the DX9 install. I ended up buying the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz from http://www.newegg.com for less than $100 and I gotta admit - the difference is noticable. The Soundblaster card was good, but the Turtle Beach is better. Came with some pretty cool software utilities, too.

The other half of the equation is the speakers. I use headphones for better stereo effect.

aknimitz · « **Reply #4 on:** April 03, 2003, 10:02:57 AM »

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have great speakers (I think) - Altec Lansing ADA890 Surround Sound.

I just do not seem to get great sound with the SBLive! Value card.

Nim

Sox62 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 03, 2003, 11:09:46 AM »

What motherboard do you have?

Some Creative cards like the Audigy have been known to have issues with motherboards that have the via chipset.

aknimitz · « **Reply #6 on:** April 03, 2003, 12:35:27 PM »

Mboard is ASUS P4TE.

Nim

Sox62 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 03, 2003, 12:58:33 PM »

Cool....I personally have a Turtle beach Sants Cruz.It's definitely better than my old Soundblaster Live!

I've heard good things about the about both Audigy cards from Creative-the only bad here is the poor record of updating drivers.

Here is a link to Tomshardware audio and video reviews.

http://www.tomshardware.com/video/index.html

gofaster · « **Reply #8 on:** April 03, 2003, 01:09:04 PM »

I should also mention that the only time I'm really concerned about sound is when I'm gaming on Aces High. I've installed Mitsu's soundpack plus some other sounds that I think are better than the stock sounds, if that makes a difference to you.

funkedup · « **Reply #9 on:** April 03, 2003, 03:23:52 PM »

I thought SBLive sucked ass, but I'm happy with Audigy. I'm using an analog 5.1 speaker system, with analog FM tuner input and optical Dolby Digital input from my DirecTiVo, and it performs great. I hear Audigy2 is even better. You can get the white box (OEM) versions of these at mwave.com for about $60.

AdmRose · « **Reply #10 on:** April 03, 2003, 05:43:52 PM »

I have a Philips Dynamic Edge 4.1 with Creative Inspire 4.1 surround sound speakers. I have no complaints.