which sound card for pc

[sandeepmdas]

Revolution is good...it uses the same CMedia chipset that the Xonar has..

read more on revolution:
Customer Reviews Of M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1 5.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface High-Definition Sound Card - Retail

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by revvedup

Being a proud owner of an MX 5021 who has had an opportunity to listen to this Bose stuff I can safely insure you that the opposite of what you have said above might be true, atleast thats what my ears seemed to suggest during the BOSE audition where they clearly were outclassed by the Altec in the LFE, mid bass departments along with the fact that the Altec was a tad louder as well. Regarding the sound card bit like Thad said it is better to get a stereo sound card rather than 5.1 ones, Onkyo offers one. However if one still wants a 5.1 souncard I would recommend the M-audio revolution series.

I think you misunderstood me. what i meant was that the MX will be so much better than the bose , that it would hurt to think that one bought a bose instead

Rest assured, I'm a fellow bose basher

[greenhorn]

update : DailyTech - ASUS Xonar DX 5.0 Sound Card Debuts for Only $89

looks yummy!

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'd still buy a sound card from a sound company, not a mother-board company.

If you want that bit extra, go to a specialist.

[reignofchaos]

Get an entry level card from EMU or ESI or RME/Echo. They are certainly better than the consumer 5.1/7.1 stuff.

[Amey]

Even a Creative Sound Blaster Live ! 7.1 or whatever it is, is decent enough at 1500 bucks

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'd still buy a sound card from a sound company, not a mother-board company.

If you want that bit extra, go to a specialist.

Thad, Apple is not a sound company, yet iPod is the de facto standard...?

EMU is a division of Creative; in fact the X-Fi processor is designed by EMU.
M-Audio is a division of Avid, the pioneer of non-linear video editing.

It is the attitude, not the lineage that matters...dont you think so ?

[greenhorn]

the only reason i even considered the ASUS is because it uses the Cirrus CS4398 DAC -which is quite good , and used by more exotic cards.

I couldnt care less about what DSP it has- I know I'll bypass it anway. but the DAC's and the op amps at its output is what matters

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Thad, Apple is not a sound company, yet iPod is the de facto standard...?

EMU is a division of Creative; in fact the X-Fi processor is designed by EMU.
M-Audio is a division of Avid, the pioneer of non-linear video editing.

It is the attitude, not the lineage that matters...dont you think so ?

Yes I do, and I am not all familiar with who owns whom these days, so I'm happy to be corrected.

One thing I'd disagree about, though, is the ipod.

It is the de facto standard for ...design and marketing; not for music quality! I'm not saying it's bad, just that it is not its HiFi performance that sells it.

Greenhorn, again you are better informed than I am.

When I was shopping for a sound card, I remember there being one that cost over £1,000 (GBP --- approx Rs80,000), I forget the name. Nothing fancy or complex, just two channels. On another forum I enquired if it could possibly be worth it. I was assured by a couple of pros that if I wanted studio-quality sound, the answer was an undoubted yes.

Whatever... my budget was 10% of that, which is still quite a lot to spend on a sound card. I also put sound-proofing on the PC case, and installed a quiet power supply for that machine, which had been quite noisy. It had stereo in and out to the hifi, and digital in and out to the minidisc. I could listen to good music at low volume without being disturbed by the fan. No remote control, though! But even that is possible.

[revvedup]

This maybe a little off the topic-But talking about PC sound what is the difference between the Volume and wave control with respect to computer systems. I mean are they both kind of gain controls or are they different ?

[greenhorn]

yup. they're both gain controls. wave controls most of the sound that is played back on the pc- music , movies , websites and the like.

the windows mixer is a software mixer . you have various inputs coming into it- like wave, midi, mic, line in etc. all these have their induvidual gain controls , as well as a master volume control. the latter is the volume control .

if you change wav volume , only music/ movies etc will be affected.

if you reduce the master volume - teh volume of all channels- mic, wave, everything will be reduced.

[greenhorn]

Asus' Xonar DX sound card - The Tech Report - Page 1
another reason to get the DX. pity they arent available in india yet :(

[shrivz]

My two cents:
I'm using a Creative Soundblaster Audigy2 NX USB soundcard.
The improvement in terms of sound quality from an Audigy to this Audigy2 NX was very significant. My creative inspires sound really sweet when they're fed by this card. They churn out a LOT more detail!

[greenhorn]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/759595-post12.html (which sound card for pc)
shrivz, do read this. And i think you should get better stuff than the inspires

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

When I was shopping for a sound card, I remember there being one that cost over £1,000 (GBP --- approx Rs80,000), I forget the name. Nothing fancy or complex, just two channels. On another forum I enquired if it could possibly be worth it. I was assured by a couple of pros that if I wanted studio-quality sound, the answer was an undoubted yes.

Whatever... my budget was 10% of that, which is still quite a lot to spend on a sound card. I also put sound-proofing on the PC case, and installed a quiet power supply for that machine, which had been quite noisy. It had stereo in and out to the hifi, and digital in and out to the minidisc. I could listen to good music at low volume without being disturbed by the fan. No remote control, though! But even that is possible.

Was that a LynxTWO? Heard it and its kinda overrated. I'd choose an outbound DAC with an entry level SPDIF source over it.