I posted a similar topic on GamingForce's forum but the site has been down last few days. Just my luck.
So i decided to post this topic here as well
i have a TerraTec Aureon Space (Envy24HT).

1. I read that to get the best possible audio quality with a 24 bit card i need to use the Shibatch123 input plug-in with 24 mode selected. When i select this mode i get a sudden drop in high frequencies. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

2. On the box of tha sound card is written that it supports Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital EX. Would i need a set of speakers with Dolby Digital decoder to enjoy it or just ordinary would be enough?

3. I know the TerraTec's drivers suck. On this forum i found a topic describing how to change a Aureon Space into a Prodigy. As there is a chance to make my card unworkable i ask what are my chances of this conversion? Are there more than 50%?

1. Dunno. You're using Winamp?

2. I think that just means it has 8 discrete output channels. It does not do any decoding itself. You can either pass the undecoded signal to your receiver/speakers with dolby digital support and let them handle it. Or the decoding is done on your computer and the audio is sent to the eight channels.

3. I've done it. All you do is change a product ID number. You don't flash a different firmware. The drivers will only work if the product ID matches their internal ID.
edit: Oh, and I'm not saying it's harmless! Lots of things could go wrong! In the end, maybe neither driver will work (but I guess you can just try again). Or your PC could come alive and start killing kittens. Don't blame me!

I seriously doubt wether you will be able to hear a difference between 16 bit decoding and 24 bit decoding. If you are interested in a double blind test of decoding sound, then download foobar2000 and use it's dither setting, diskwriter and foo_abx module to set up your own test.

Unless you are listening on extremely good equipment in an extremely quiet environment and you know what you are listening for then you are unlikely to be able to ABX this successfully.

If you want 24 bit output, winamp is not the way to go. The program is not designed for that kind of thing.

Use Foobar, select 24 bit decode, kernel streaming output. That way you have a 24 bit path all the way to the soundcard. But as cabbagerat said, you probably won't hear any difference. Let us know if you can actually ABX the difference between 16 and 24 bit decode.

The "support" it has listed probably means it comes with some software that can decode & play DD from a DVD or whatever. But most cards with digital output, including Envy ones, have the ability to do "passthrough" of Dolby Digital and DTS, particularly when you are watching a DVD. That means the sound track is read from the DVD and passed with no alterations straight to the digital output. If you want to use that feature you need a receiver (or multimedia speakers) that have digital input and DD/DTS decoding capability.

Can you point a link to the thread where it describes the process? In general, if the "mod" is only doing stuff with editing some files or replacing some dlls, if can't hurt the card itself. You might have to reinstall windows to get it back to normal, but the hardware will be fine. If the instructions involve flashing a bios or soldering things, you start to run an increasing large risk.

Asuming that he is listening to 16bit/44khz tracks, wouldn't that mean that the quality (perceivable or not) can only become worse but not better by forcing 24bit output? Just curious.

- Lyx

Yup. At best it could only be the same.

Not really true - it's got to do with the internal accuracy of the decoder. 24bit MP3 decoders work to a higher than standard accuracy internally and put out a signal with more bits. This has been successfully ABXd before (I searched, but cannot find) but with significant difficulty.

OK, i did flash my sound card and then installed the Prodigy drivers. I'm very happy now. Everything works stable. Now i don't have to reboot to turn Sensaura on or off.
The equilizer feature is great and the Qsizzle and Qrumble are fantastic.

Now about the other things. I don't think i'll hear the difference between 16 and 24 bit. I have a set of 2.1 Creative Inspire T3000 and i seriously doubt to hear this difference on them. I'll try, though.
About the Dolby Digital speakers. Well on the box is written Dolby Digtal and Dolby Digital EX, so i guess it supports them. I wanted to know if i could have Dolby Digital without having to buy speakers with a decoder - i had the Creative Inspire T5900 or T7700 in mind. Because i don't need those high-end and expensive speakers and these budget ones would fit nicely.

It's worth a try, but if you can successfully ABX 16bit versus 24bit on those speakers (or most any speakers), then I'll be more than happy to buy you a beer next time you are in Cape Town.