As you can see by my post count, I'm new to the site. I've been a lurker for about three months, and finally decided to register. This site has a lot of useful information on it!

Anyway, I did a search for this, and didn't really find all that much. My question is this: can someone give me a few good soundcards to look into for my PC? I have a Dell, so I have the SigmaTel soundcard. I've read that these aren't that good, so I was looking to upgrade. I have been ripping my CD collection onto my computer over the past year or so, bought a new stereo and all that jazz, so I was also looking to find a better soundcard. The only information I found on my search of the forums is about the M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496. Can anyone point me in the right direction of a few others? Money isn't really an object, although I don't know if I'd want to spend more than $200-$300.

Thanks in advance for your help.

E-MU 0404. I like how it allows you to choose signal routes and build (arrange) the card's control panel to suit specific needs. It has large jack analog I/O, optical and electrical SPDIF, MIDI (untested).

..if you want some technical information, this is a (slightly outdated) but still comprehensive site:

http://www.pcavtech.com/


I personally tried some Turtle Beach and Terratecs (Pinnacle, Montego II, Six Pack, Aureon Space, Phase 22) during the last 10 years and could recommend 4 of them for music & simple recording purposes.

For newer mainboards, only the last 2 mentioned would make sense.

It depends, it you like really high quality you will spend some money, but for home stereo, saround sound how perfect do you need it. if you are using mp3 format with less than a 128kbs bitrate then you don't need perfect because the audio is as good as he weakest/lowest quality part. (Hi-fi audio pros do not recommend using Ipod format because of the low quality, lossy format (often 96kbs) so If you saved you files at 128kbs or better than I would say that a sound card upgrade is worth a little money.

$100 to $150 - Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX (with remote and externel I/O bus)
$50 to $100 Sound Blaster X-Fi (internal only, no remote, 7.1)
$15 to $20 DYNEX DX-SC51 5.1 (No frills)

Another thing to remember is the Sample rate of a sound card the higher the better (44100 Hz and up is CD quality and better) Most People will not notice any difference between a slightly better FM channel at 22050 Hz and low quality CD at 36000 Hz. to see the sound difference, listen to the radio and switch over to the same song on a CD, the clarity is what you are looking for. Almost all after market Sound Cards play 44100 Hz and better.

Last thing I look at is overall multi functional. Are you looking to expand to a home theater from you PC in the future?? or Multi Room audio?? If so then maybe you want to be looking into a higher priced card with expandability. some cards offer a number of optional/purchase later add on's, plug and play remotes, additional patch bays etc. the best places to find what works for you are geek sites. and local retailers

NewEgg.com (paypal certified)
PCMag.com (reviews)
Geeks.com (tips/reviews)
OfficeDepot
BestBuy
CurcuitCity

Walmart, K-mart, Target, some guy selling out of a minivan... Don't even think about it, they don't have the quality you need lol

Hope this helps...

Thanks for all the responses....I guess I should have said this in my original post, but when ripping my CDs to MP3s, I am creating 320kbps MP3s. Originally, I bought a 320GB HD last year and started 192VBR, but soon realized I had the space to do 320, so I re-ripped. I don't have the best stereo equipment, but it's not bad - I have a Pioneer receiver (770 or 820 watts?), Klipsch 300 watt speakers, and a Klipsch 420W subwoofer.

I could be wrong, but I thought I've read to stay away from Sound Blaster cards....

I wouldn't say I'm looking to have a home theatre from my PC in the future, but it will be where I play all my music.

I'm not really looking for technical info, as I don't understand all of it. I mean, to me, this sound card sounds OK, but I know I don't have anything to compare it to. I trust other opinions, and have read that I will notice a difference between my Sigma Tel and a new card. The problem is figuring out the new card without getting into the technical side too much...which is why I turned to this forum.

Keep the suggestions coming

If you don't game or want surround sound, the MAudio 24/96 is a fine choice (and dirt cheap compared to other options).

I wouldn't recommend any sb card for listening to music (but that doesn't mean someone else might). If you want to do "other" things with the computer, then I really don't have any advice.

THe EMU 0202 ancd 0404 are plenty capable.

I am asuuming you are using a desktop and not a laptop?

Either way, going with usb will give you more options in the future and can be had in your price range.

This is roughly 10 years old. Interesting but anything listed there offers modest quality by today's standards.



That's fine, but it is worth to make an effort so that you get most of your money I think...
M-Audio, E-MU, ESI Julia etc these are all great cards and probably technically superior but they are pro level. Need to correctly set proprietary software to get it to work and there are settings buried deep in that software. This perfectly fine for complex professional product (I use E-Mu 1616 for mixing sound) but when you want something simple to just rip CDs and play music, perhaps watch a movie sometimes, have a chat on skype, and play games every now and then look at: sound blaster, terratec or turtle beach.

If you want versatility for future I'd say sound blaster X-Fi cards are actually the best.
I have X-Fi Fatal1ty - but there is a cheaper X-Fi Xtreme Gamer that is better value I think. I use it mostly for listening to music and watching movies. Sound is great.
Mine came with a remote control, that's always handy. Vista compatible as well, many sound cards are still not, so check this before you buy. Hope that helps.

I happened to own a X-Fi. The card was built to deliver a good impression: chip with heatsink, golden color connectors, a remote control (!). But you can't tune it's DSP at all. If you don't need proper surround multichannel the additional outputs just sit there unused. The Pro level cards on the other hand let you customize how each i/o port will be used in different situations. You can have several mono ins, for example.

X-Fi does have ASIO support so I think you can use outputs whichever way you like... Not that I would bother but an option is there.

Golden connectors *and* the useless "F" red logo on my card are there indeed.
I am sure if I was just 20 years younger I'd be impressed.

On the other side the remote control is actually quite handy when you use PC for listening music/watching movies etc. This is what Matt says he wants to use the sound card for, right? I think for general "passive" audio the X-Fi is a very good value. No doubt musicians, producers, mixers should look elsewhere, but Matt does not make music on his PC, he listens to it, so he'd be better off with non-pro gear I think?

Correct - I just want it for listening to music. But, if pro gear sounds better, while it may have a lot of features I don't use, I don't care. I just want a card that makes my music sound as good and crisp as possible.

Looks like the suggestions so far are:

E-MU 0404
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum EX (with remote and externel I/O bus)
Sound Blaster X-Fi (internal only, no remote, 7.1)
MAudio 24/96
X-Fi Fatal1ty
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

Again, I read that the cards that are designed for gaming are better left for gaming, but if you all agree that's not that case, I would trust your opinion more.

Stupid question - what do you possibly need a remote for for a soundcard?

Gaming cards do not compromise on sound quality but I would not buy Audigy for a different reason.
It is relatively old tech so you might be left with no driver updates. This happened a lot with many different sound cards this is why no one recommends e.g. turtle beach any more. Also there were issues with Audigies resampling audio with artifacts.

X-Fi is a safe buy.

Sound-quality-wise there is not much difference between all 3 X-Fi's that you listed. The difference is there only
when you shell out more for X-Fi Elite Pro. But that's an overkill for what you need it I think.

Back to your list:

Skip Fatal1ty model - won't bring you anything (games)
Skip X-Fi XtremeAudio - this is a poor performer

You are left with:

Emu0404,
M-Audio2496,
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

I use E-Mu for professional work and X-Fi for home entertainment. I have two separate PCs hence 2 separte products and can only comment on these. I do not use M-Audio 2496 possibly it is as good.



I do not have remote ctrl with my speakers. So I use the sound card one for volume control. And skipping songs on a playlist. Xtreme Gamer does not come with a remote. X-Fi Platinum does though.

Hmm, reading this topic I'm surprised no Auzentech cards have been mentioned at all. I'm far from an expert, but I've often read their X-Meridian is one of the best cards around - their new X-Fi chip based card is also supposed to be good, better atleast than Creative's own cards!

So I'd like to suggest the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude, as it supports EAX 5 if you're interested in gaming and should otherwise be a high quality product. It is a bit pricy though, at I believe around $200..

Auzentech products look solid. Didn't know about this company. How are their drivers? My main problem with creative hardware is their awful support and drivers.

This should be helpful:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/terrat...fire/index.html

I am very happy with my audiophile 24/96. It is not great for gaming though. No microphone input.
I don't use it on my gaming computer.

What about a outboard USB DAC?
You can hook it up to any PC.
A very flexible solution.

If your stereo has a digital input buy a USB audio device with a digital out. There is absolutely zero benefit in buying anything else.

As for Creative cards read:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....amp;hl=creative

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....amp;hl=creative

Then run away and buy something cheaper from a company that doesn't have a history of lying to its customers, and yes they have been convicted of making false advertising claims in court and had to pay damages.

If you absolutely must have an internal sound card then something based on an Envy24 chipset such as

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (Consumer card no Vista drivers)
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution71-main.html

ESI Juli@ (semi-pro card has Vista driver)
http://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/

Terratec Aureon 7.1 PCI (Consumer card no Vista drivers)
http://www.terratec.net/en/products/Aureon_7.1_PCI_2252.html

Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 (enthusiast consumer card has Vista drivers)
http://www.audiotrak.net/products/prodigy71hifi/

Audiotrak HD2 (enthusisast consumer card has Vista drivers)
http://audiotrak.net/products/prodigyhd2/

is always a good bet.

It should be noted that the cards without Vista drivers will work with the VIA reference drivers, however due to DRM stuff in Vista you may not get full functionality.

The problem with most soundcards is the resampling to 48K which is god awful. I just finished a 2500 CD collection to FLAC format. I was lucky in that over the last couple of weeks I got my local computer retailer to lend me soundcards to try. The best of the bunch IMO was the Auzentech X Fi Prelude. It allows you to select bit perfect output if you have an external DAC (I have a Bryston SP2). I did however take the opportunity to try the DACs on the card itself and I was impressed. There were other cards of what I would call equal performance BUT what swayed me was the easu of use, wide support of IO options and most importantly the build quality. I work in the electronics manufacturing sector and can tell you that build quality is very important. You can get cheap Chinese HW that sounds good but may hiccup or die a premature death and will have poor SW. There used to be a company called Carver that built decent sounding electronics for cheap but the parts and design were elcheapo, my Carver Sunfire didn't last long. On the other hand I have a Treshold S/300 built in 1982, still going strong, only thing that ever went was a couple of fuses. The Auzentech SW was dirt sample. Select 44.1 K and bit perfect. Interestingly enough Linn Sondek and Logitech make digital media players that cost several times what I put into my system and have no better performance. I went Raid with 3 drives, on is the backup. Once a month I pull one drive from the system and put the spare in, allowing it to resync.