Sound Card suggestions for my rig?

[Chewy]

humm as usual a mess up with my computer.. I installed the xtremeGamer. 32bit Vista drivers... when I go to open it in programs under start menu.. it says hardware not detected... wtf the cards in and theres a light on it near the pci slot (external) so its gettgin power.. yet its not detected right.. as usual.

dammed creative site is shit and wont open, just about ever.

 

[Wile E]

What drivers are you using with your Soundmax? If your not using them you really should try the 5.10.1.6110 drivers. When I used the ADI1988B CODEC with my Crosshair sound quality was friggin awesome, blew the crap out of a multitude of cards I compared it to, and I honestly couldnt hear the difference when I hooked my speakers up to a friends X-Fi.

Then you were listening to crappy encodes, have crappy speakers for sound quality, or you are half deaf. No onboard competes with a X-Fi, PERIOD.

 

[Ketxxx]

Like i said Nvidia, Ati too have problems, Creative isnt an exception and its as big if not bigger than both of the companies i mentioned.

Its much bigger with creative, they just dont give two shits and pass the blame anywhere else they can, at least ati and nvidia fix what they can and have an ongoing continued effort. I could go on forever about why creative are crap but for now i'll summarise things as; if you buy a creative x-fi (of any flavour) your just asking for trouble.

 

[Wile E]

Its much bigger with creative, they just dont give two shits and pass the blame anywhere else they can, at least ati and nvidia fix what they can and have an ongoing continued effort. I could go on forever about why creative are crap but for now i'll summarise things as; if you buy a creative x-fi (of any flavour) your just asking for trouble.

Never had an issue with a Creative card, here. I think the Creative "issues" are blown waaaaay out of proportion.

 

[Chewy]

ok well sorry for blowing my lid a bit lol but I expected it to work.. I had rebooted my comp after driver install.. but I just tried rebooting again and it seems to be woeking fine.. will see what options I have to play with in Audio Console..


EDIT:Its blown my onboard out of the water playing music.. I have good mids now

 

[HellasVagabond]

Same here....Only basic problems which an experience user can fix on his own.

 

[Ketxxx]

Then you were listening to crappy encodes, have crappy speakers for sound quality, or you are half deaf. No onboard competes with a X-Fi, PERIOD.

Erm.. I dont call .WAV files crap quality, do you? Harmon Kardon HKTS11s are hardly terrible either.

 

[Ketxxx]

Never had an issue with a Creative card, here. I think the Creative "issues" are blown waaaaay out of proportion.

Check their forums. Granted some are just morons who whine about an issue thats easily fixed, but there are a large number of x-fi driver related bugs, and even questionable manufacturing quality of creative soundcards. There was an example floating around TPU not all that long ago. It ranged from the audigy all the way through to the x-fi.

 

[ktr]

Check their forums. Granted some are just morons who whine about an issue thats easily fixed, but there are a large number of x-fi driver related bugs, and even questionable manufacturing quality of creative soundcards. There was an example floating around TPU not all that long ago. It ranged from the audigy all the way through to the x-fi.

support forums are meant for complaints and arguements, same thing i can see with other vendors, sound card or not. some companies have more than other, usually becuase they sold their product to more consumers.

 

[Wile E]

Erm.. I dont call .WAV files crap quality, do you? Harmon Kardon HKTS11s are hardly terrible either.

Well, I don't want to sound rude, but your hearing is failing you then, or you didn't take the time to tune the X-Fi in.

 

[Ketxxx]

Thats why I mentioned the thread that was floating around here not that long ago, highlighted the same thing ppl had been directly complaining to the manufacturer about, with one major difference, the poster of the thread here was very knowledgable and had even taken to de-soldering caps to solder the correct caps creative should of been using. When you pay $\£200+ for a soundcard, you bloody expect manufacturing quality to be flawless, not open up the box and find the manufacturer cut corners everywhere they could.

 

[Ketxxx]

Well, I don't want to sound rude, but your hearing is failing you then, or you didn't take the time to tune the X-Fi in.

By "tune" I assume you mean make use of the equalizer? Of course. Any audiophile (sp?) knows the best sound quality comes from a lazy curve, not a flat one.

 

[Shima]

Onkyo = music & creative xfi = games.

 

[HellasVagabond]

Onboard soundcards were never ment to compete with an X-fi, not even with an Audigy sound card. They were mainly created for Workstations in the beggining where an company had no need for quality sound...Samething happened with onboard GPUs.
Later it became clear that some Gamers even didnt have need for great Quality thus the 5.1 , 7.1 onboard soundcards were created.
Either way theres no onboard soundcard company that can or will claim its card is as good as an X-Fi and so far they never have even mentioned something like that.

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

I would probably recommend a creative XFi extreme music, unless your big on gaming then I would step it up to either creative xfi fagtality or the razer barracuda AC-1

 

[HellasVagabond]

The razer barracuda was an Soundcard we had all been waiting for a long time but so far every review it gets places it bellow the X-Fi series.

 

[Wile E]

By "tune" I assume you mean make use of the equalizer? Of course. Any audiophile (sp?) knows the best sound quality comes from a lazy curve, not a flat one.

EQ settings depend largely on the content being played, as well. I'm about as audiophile as they come. I mix, produce, record, and run live sound for many local bands, my ear HAS to be good for me to succeed.

No, X-Fis aren't the top of the SQ food chain (see some of my previous posts in reference to other brands and types of cards I've used), but no onboard even comes close to it. (I use M-Audio BX8a studio monitors, for mixing/recording, btw.)

And to top it all off, she wants a card for gaming. No other card has more gaming support than the X-Fi, period.

 

[Ketxxx]

The point is while onboard cant be as good as an addin board for numerous reasons, it still can be very good, as an example here is the pdf for the 1988B CODEC, pdf covers just about everything.

 

[Chewy]

The card is good.. Im happy with mine. I only tested music so far mainly Rap... Im not sure exaclty how much of an improvment because only 2.1 speakers were working with Vista sound drivers before, now I have all 5.1.. but it is better than its ever sounded before.

 

[-1nf1n1ty-]

reviews I go to tell me says its better, but you need the headsets to experience it or maybe the stereo system(mako)