Best audio card for gaming, music, editing?, In that order of importance.. Options

[translux]

Building a new box with all the current best bits and can't decide on a sound card.
Have 4 Genelec 6010's l,r,sur and a JL sub-all balanced inputs.
Mostly gaming and listening with some content creation-voice over for family videos.

Currently have a Lynx Two B that sounds great but is overkill/complicated, lacks enough inputs and is not ideal for gaming.
Love the native balanced connections.

Have looked and looked and it appears that there is not a one card fits all solution.
I find this odd as pc's are inherently such multi-use devices.

Ideally would have balanced outs and ins or at least rca -Would like to avoid mini to RCA as its such a pita.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by db1989: May 19 2012, 09:08

Reason for edit: previous account was auto-banned (oops!); adding content from its version of the thread

[onkl]

What exactly do you consider ideal for gaming? EAX is dead and you don't use headphones, so any soundcard will do.

[Brand]

Will you be using a headset or headphones?
Will you be using a condenser mic? Do you have a separate preamp for it or would you want phantom power on the interface?
Let us know all the required inputs and outputs.

[translux]

First thanks for the response and mods thanks for unbanning me

What exactly do you consider ideal for gaming? EAX is dead and you don't use headphones, so any soundcard will do.

My kids have been using this rig more often for gaming and its just too complicated for them re: managing sound.
The Lynx 2b is a bit of pain when including a subwoofer and surround channels in either a 2.1 or 5.1 system. You have to adjust the levels independently and manually of the mains. I have tried using my keyboards settings and macros for this but it does not work. I want to set the levels and forget. Maybe I'm missing something or I need to find another volume input app??

Will you be using a headset or headphones?
Will you be using a condenser mic? Do you have a separate preamp for it or would you want phantom power on the interface?
Let us know all the required inputs and outputs.

I have an external mic preamp that has power for a condenser mic that I use with the Lynx.
This takes up one of the two analog inputs.
I guess I could come in digital...
I do not use headphones.

Wanted something PCIe and something easier to use...
I think its going to be hard to beat the performance and quality of the Lynx.

[RonaldDumsfeld]

I do not use headphones.

How do you avoid problems with the speakers bleeding into the microphone when gaming?

I found you either risked not hearing what was going on in the game or having no friends because you were annoying on the comms system.

I'm not familiar with the Lynx but I do have a outboard multichannel interface and find it a breeze to use. It's easy to set up pre-sets and one click between applications. So I dunno?

Maybe, if you like to do things hands on, get yourself an 8 channel mixer or one of those MIDI boxes that lets you twiddle digital knobs analogissly.

[translux]

I do not use headphones.

How do you avoid problems with the speakers bleeding into the microphone when gaming?

For gaming, skype, webex etc. I use a a little USB mic from Samson.
Its amazing how well this works.
http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/...rophones/gomic/

[YellowOnion]

I do not use headphones.

How do you avoid problems with the speakers bleeding into the microphone when gaming?

I have a pair of PC-131's and a Logitech Z5500 surround I get worse feedback if I'm on Headphones, than them around the neak and the mic on an odd angle because of crosstalk, it's easier to filter out the delayed sound of the speakers than the crosstalk with Echo cancellation.

I'm using Mumble if you're curious about the app.