I currently own a mainboard which has an CMI8738 chip on it. I have been using this for sound output for quite some time, but I do not find the output good enough as there seem to be "bugs" with the chip/drivers. For example, I can tell the difference between CD Audio played directly from the drive through the sound card and a WAV file doing blind tests (i.e. closing my eyes and guessing). However I cannot ABX a WAV file and say a high quality MP3/MPC. CD audio seems to have much better treble and sounds better overall, I do not know what the problem is.

I want to purchase a rather low end soundcard that should be better than my on board chip, also I want to have digital output, and the only <$50 ones available here were Terratec DMX XFire 1024 and SB Live DE soundcards. Game support and 5.1 quality etc is not really important, I'm looking at pure audio quality here (esp. with headphones). I would appreciate if anybody could help me.

terratec!

Definately Terratec, no one should even buy anymore Sound Mangler Death(Live).

As for the 8738, try using the latest WDM6.43 drivers for it if your OS is Win2k/XP.

The headphone-amp of the XFire is really terrible because it introduces a big amount of noise.

I would really like to hear more about this problem because I can't really afford a headphone amp right now..

There's something weird going on with my DMX Xfire 1024 as well:
Using the first channel (from left) I have this noise too. When using the second channel
there's no noise anymore ...?! But vol. is very high (too loud for headphones I think). I enabled the headphone with
jumpers on the soundcard, maybe this is the reason it works without noise when using second channel?

so userXYZ, would you recommend the card overall?

Hhmmmm, I don't like to really recommend things to others. But I can say that I would buy that soundcard again. I use it only for hearing music with headphones and to watch videos -> with the sound output going through my stereo amplifier (multichannel-sound downmixed to stereo through Software). It served me well but there are definately cards which are better (I assume that this is mostly due to better DACs/ADCs).

There are threads on HA where all this stuff about quality is discussed by people with more knowledge than I can provide. Some recommend using the digital output with external hq DACs ... As you wrote, you're out for pure audio quality, so maybe you should search the www if there are soundcards with higher quality than TerraTec's Xfire available at reduced prices. Hope this helped a little.

Regards,
David

Maybe Thinky can try this jumper thing too? So he could comment on if it works or not...

I activated the amp of course via jumpersettings.
The front channel is the amplified one and the rear channel is not amplified by the headphone amp. The noise is only present in the amplified (front) channel. Without the amp the volume is too low for (my) headphones.


Did I understand you right? The channel with the lower volume is the noisy one?
That would be really weird.

Yes, exactly. From left to right:
First channel - noise when volume is raised to a certain level
Second channel - no noise but good amplification ...
Third and fourth channel got never used ...

It's really weird.

I think there is a missunderstanding.
I am speaking of two channels, the front and the rear one. (OK, channel is not the right word for this, from now i will call it front line-out and rear line-out )

You are speaking of the two channels of the front line-out?
If not, then your XFire has two line-outs more than mine.

Yes. But aren't these the first two channels or line-outs?!

Regards,
David

OK, again.
There are two line-outs (the two green connectors at the back of the soundcard). One is for the front speakers and one is for the rear speakers.
Each of them has (because they are stereo) two channels.
That's what I'm talking about.

A friend of mine upgraded from SB Live to the Terratec recently. He claims the audio quality is better, but the drivers are terrible.

Example: When he tries to play two audio files at different sample rates simultaneously, the sound card makes a LOUD awful sound, that might kill the amplifier. This might not be a proper setup, but I would not take the risk with my amplifier...

Edit: Sorry, the card he purchased was the 6fire, not the Xfire.

Ok, I understood .

I used the second line-out; should be the one for the rear speakers. If I remember correct than this line-out is the one to use with headphones when you used the jumper on the soundcard.

I regret to have used the term channels instead of line-out but as I wrote it, I didn't remember the correct term, although it is mentioned in every mixerpanels etc. - The language barrier.

Hopefully I could express myself a bit better this time