Hello, all

Title says it all... I was just checking to make sure a very old (solid state, I believe--it sounds damn good) Pioneer SX-6000 still worked, and plugged it up to my SoundBlaster Live! Value, which I purchased for $25 in 1997. It's been trucking for a long time.

Well I also plugged an equalizer into this reciever in a very, very wrong fashion. I knew it was a wrong fashion when I was deafened by what seemed to be not quite feedback , even though the volume was all the way down. Now I can't seem to get the card to do... anything.


Swell, hun! Woo. I think I may cry. If it did in fact suffer a loud death, believe you me do I need a new one. The onboard audio on my NF7 is flimsy, hollow, with a very normalized feel that creates a sound stage the size of a postage stamp.

I do, have, and always will use a reciever--mostly with headphones, but with speakers from time to time...

do I need a Chaintech AV-710, that M-Audio Audophile card (my brother uses the 66 model for recording, and it sounds banging), or would a digital audio converter be best for me? What really is a DA converter, anyway?

All I ever do is playback ape on the foo, or maybe some MPCs from time to time... my onboard mic will do just fine for all I use it for (UT2K4, anyone?).

Any advice? I can't believe I killed it

Thanks,
alex

Sure go ahead and get a Chaintech AV-710. The Audiophile 2496 would not be the best sollution for what you will use it for. External DAC would be meaningless.

i have the Chaintech AV-710, could not be happier

Is your board the vanilla NF7 or the NF7-S? If the -S it should have damn good sound with Soundstorm. If not, i would also recommend the av-710.

It has Soundstorm, but I don’t think too highly of Soundstorm. Just a smudge better then AC97 onboard--which is saying not too much—to me.

I really do enjoy my music; I have a Pioneer amp from 1972 which sounds as good as anything I've heard, and a pair of inconceivably expensive headphones to go with it. A little Schubert on right now. What I'm trying to say is that I really want if not the best, among the best method of getting music from my computer into my receiver. That SB Live! Value card lasted 7 years; I want my next gizmo to last 14.

That Chaintech looks appealing, especially the price, but I just don't know about it. I like the component outs offered by the 2496 M-Audio, which I could snag for about $80 ebay. But I love the look and idea of the SL-1200, which would set me back 1-150:

http://www.stereo-link.com/Stereo/Catalog/root.html

I really don't know a lot about this; why would an external DAC be useless to me?

And/or for my needs (really pretty Hi-fi; I listen to almost all my music through my computer), would I notice the difference between the M-Audio, the $25 Chaintech, and the $150 DAC?

TAIA (Thanks again in advance? New one there)

alex

Hmmm, soundstorm has always been pretty good for me.

The difference between the Audiophile 2496, the Chaintech AV-710, and the $150 DAC would be much smaller than the differance bettween the SB live and all the above.