Hi,

I have a MSI motherboard with a Nforce2 audio chipset. I wanted a real sound card and I'd bought a Creative Soundblaster 24bit (not Live!), but the sound is worse than the Nforce2... I would like to buy a good soundcard but something affordable, not for audio expert. I will use it for (from the most important):

1- Listening DVD and music
2- Recording/converting old audio tapes into mp3
3- Sometimes playing (I would like to ear EAX, and, is possible, to lower my CPU usage)

I won't do anything else with it.

My audio equipment is very basic: most often I use a stereo headphone, or stereo speakers, Altec Lansing 220. I have no 5.1 system and do not plan to buy one for now, but I may buy a better headphone. The most important for me is to have a very clear, high-quality sound in my headphones while listening to DVD movie (especially for voices) and music (classical). For now, with my Creative sound card has a quite bad sound quality (while watching movies, it's not very good, voices are not very clear and sound is rather low).

Also very important: I like stable, updated drivers, easy install, nice GUI and do not need many settings.

I have noticed 3 sound cards:
- Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1
- Terratec Aureon Space 7.1
- M-Audio Revolution 7.1

I've read that Audigy cards are better for games, so I guess it's not the best choice for my need. I've also read that Prodigy and Terratec are better for directly connecting/plug-in headphones than M-audio. But Prodigy has a higher CPU usage (but maybe fixed by recent drivers update?), and Terratec seems to have a few problems with drivers/stability... So I don't know which one to choose...

Thank you for any advise!
PS: I would also welcome any suggestion for other brand card (if possible, no more than 68£).

The Prodigy 7.1 LT if it's available in Europe should be considered.

http://www.audiotrak.net/prodigy7.1LT.htm

It has many improvements over the original Prodigy 7.1. As you can see, you can simultaneously use 5.1 speakers and headphones(on the 7/8 connector with built-in headphone amp), very good design imho. And Audiotrak regularly updates their drivers, so far M-Audio has not updated their drivers since last year, so I wouldn't recommend them until they start releasing updated drivers.

i cant really give advice on which would be the best card but overclockers.co.uk seem to stock all the cards your looking at at reasonable prices, just 6-9 months ago i had trouble finding someone who stocked audiotrak cards in the uk so kept my audigy.

Thank you. After having searched on the web, it seems that those cards have almost the same quality (Envy24HT), but they are differences with driver/GUI/settings and options. Terratec drivers are neither often updated. M-audio and Audiotrak GUI also looks better... but I did not find more info.

Yes, the card is avalaible in Europe... and the The Prodigy 7.1 LT is only 89€ (61£) !!! In France it is 180 € !!!
But I am not sure overclockers.co.uk can deliver to France, I am inquiring... anyway, thank for this great link!

Except if I see good reasons to not buy this card... at this price, my choice is done!

Here is an intersting answer I got from headfi forum (I also mentionned the Chaintech AV-710 card, which is also Envy24HT, and very very cheap: 25 US$, but not avalaible in Europe):



Overclockers.co.uk does accept internantional orders. I ordered it !
Thank you all !

maybe it will be helpfull for others to have first-hand feedback when it arives

Yes, with pleasure. But I have been told that all this cards, included the M-Audio Revolution 7.1, have almost the same sound quality (some review claim that the Prodigy has a better sound, but use more CPU). The major difference is their drivers (updated or not), their installation (Chaintech is more difficult to set for amateur) and their GUI (M-Audio and Audiotrak have the best GUI). So major difference beetween this cards is about software/drivers.

Another best value is the M-Audio revo 5.1, with the same sound quality, and may be a better DAC.

I will report as soon as I'd tried it.

Can anyone tell me which card from Audiotrack is better for music playing quality? The Prodigy 7.1? the Prodigy 7.1 LT? or the Maya 1010?

I want to use the soundcard for listening music, both on headphones and speakers, and i would like to know the differences...


Thanks, i'm waiting your answers!

IIRC Soundstorm (nf2 audio, if it isn't realtek shit) was rated as ok :/

But I get terrible noise from my fans D:

It is almost non available in Europe
I found a shop in Europe and bought one for 22 €.

For anyone who would like to buy a Chaintech av-710 in Europe, this is the page with the card
http://www.ordi.ee/pood/sbch71.html
and this kristin@ordi.ee is the e-mail address you can contact them.

The site is in estonian but they can take e-mail in english.