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Best 7.1 sound card?

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  • Components
  • Sound Cards
Last response: in Components
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May 17, 2013 2:23:35 AM

Hello

Im currently using a Creative Audigy 2 ZS but support for it just went completely downhill after Vista and Im tired of little workaround for it to work (period) and for MP3s to sound thru all 7.1 audio system.

What is the best card out there which is more or less equivilent to the Audigy 2 ZS that supports 7.1? To be used in games and movies.

Thanks

More about : sound card

May 17, 2013 2:36:17 AM

check The XONAR, lots of sound card in every price segment
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May 17, 2013 2:55:15 AM

Obviously, I perfer the Asus Xonar Essence STX but I dont see it supporting 7.1
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May 17, 2013 3:27:14 AM

isn't there a xonar that supports 7.1?
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May 17, 2013 3:31:42 AM

Yes there is i thought i linked it just noticed i gave the wrong link my apologies.
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May 17, 2013 5:19:10 AM

But is that ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 decent? There are a bunch of 7.1 cards but some are just cheap. I want something a little better (nothing audiophile but...)
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May 17, 2013 2:33:31 PM

I personally have never used it.I would not know for sure.I am just going by what proessional reviews say so...
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May 18, 2013 1:53:30 AM

Reading about the card and the review just tells me its a cheap card that supports 7.1 Even the chip is inferior to a card that does not support 7.1

Like I said, I had a Audigy 2 ZS went it came out and it was the best card out period. Now I want the same expirence. I dont mind paying more but.....I just dont want a cheap card that basically has nothing.

Also, any PCI cards? I see this is PCI-E (which I think I have a slot) but would rather save it for something else (double video card or something)
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May 23, 2013 2:35:02 AM

Any other suggestions to post?
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May 23, 2013 12:13:56 PM

Not from me maybe others can help.
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May 24, 2013 2:29:37 AM

bigcyco1 said:
Not from me maybe others can help.


OK, thank you anyways...
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May 24, 2013 3:15:47 AM

riahc3 said:
bigcyco1 said:
Not from me maybe others can help.


OK, thank you anyways...
No problem.You're welcome sorry i couldn't help good luck!:) 

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May 25, 2013 8:03:16 AM

riahc3 said:
Hello

Im currently using a Creative Audigy 2 ZS but support for it just went completely downhill after Vista and Im tired of little workaround for it to work (period) and for MP3s to sound thru all 7.1 audio system.

What is the best card out there which is more or less equivilent to the Audigy 2 ZS that supports 7.1? To be used in games and movies.

Thanks


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May 25, 2013 8:31:57 AM

If your looking to go 5.1 or 7.1 with MP3 it's not going to work. MP3 don't support surround sound. MP3 will only work on you 2 front speakers which is 2.1. In order to go 5.1 you need a sound system that supports surround then you need a 7.1 sound card then you need music that supports surround sound like flac format. Then you need to find 24bit 96 ghz 6 channel music. Plus and I forgot to mention is a flac player maybe try foo bar so after all this you'll enjoy true 5.1 surround
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May 25, 2013 10:08:41 AM

Download and install the SRS Audio Sandbox. Then Configure your sound card and srs to use 8 channells (provided you do have 8 discrete speakers to hear that :)  ) and configure the srs to use the "Circle Surround" mode. Your old sound card will deliver the mp3 sound to all those speakers with a pleasant tweak. But for actual 5.1/7.1 channel audio you"ll need to play ac3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS 5.1 audio tracks. MP3 is stereo (2 channels) and will remain so even if you buy the world's costliest sound card. Bottom line, if your sound card isn't damaged, stick to it. It's great! :) 

Also, for listening to MP3 audio etc, download and install the Cowon JetAudio.
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May 25, 2013 10:51:10 AM

Nabarun Roy said:
Download and install the SRS Audio Sandbox. Then Configure your sound card and srs to use 8 channells (provided you do have 8 discrete speakers to hear that :)  ) and configure the srs to use the "Circle Surround" mode. Your old sound card will deliver the mp3 sound to all those speakers with a pleasant tweak. But for actual 5.1/7.1 channel audio you"ll need to play ac3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS 5.1 audio tracks. MP3 is stereo (2 channels) and will remain so even if you buy the world's costliest sound card. Bottom line, if your sound card isn't damaged, stick to it. It's great! :) 

Also, for listening to MP3 audio etc, download and install the Cowon JetAudio.


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May 25, 2013 11:09:40 AM

Myself I like real HD 5.1 surround in my music this is why I keep away from MP3..MP3 puts out tops 320 KBP/s while I listen to 24 bit 96 KHz 6 channel flac with the Kbp/s over 8000 and its a process to get this quality of sound. It starts with the motherboard then the sound card which I use the Asus Xonar essence STX to my logitech 5500 by optical cable. Tell you there lot that has to be done to get that quality even down to the right flac player and speaker location on stands and I can go one but at the end you end up with a audiophile set up.....it's amazing
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May 25, 2013 11:17:54 AM

Nabarun Roy said:
Download and install the SRS Audio Sandbox. Then Configure your sound card and srs to use 8 channells (provided you do have 8 discrete speakers to hear that :)  ) and configure the srs to use the "Circle Surround" mode. Your old sound card will deliver the mp3 sound to all those speakers with a pleasant tweak. But for actual 5.1/7.1 channel audio you"ll need to play ac3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS 5.1 audio tracks. MP3 is stereo (2 channels) and will remain so even if you buy the world's costliest sound card. Bottom line, if your sound card isn't damaged, stick to it. It's great! :) 

Also, for listening to MP3 audio etc, download and install the Cowon JetAudio.


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May 25, 2013 11:27:39 AM

Adding on to what I said its a process to get true 5.1. When it comes to choosing music what I do is I go on e-bay and look for affordable DVD audio music which is some cases extremely expensive I've seen bands like Fleetwood Mac go for $170 a disc but this music is extreme HD quality then what I do is extract the music from the disc using DVD extractor that covert them to flac format so this is how you get the extreme Kbp/s. When you listen to this type of music you think your on a cloud.
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May 27, 2013 9:34:35 AM

douglasw said:
If your looking to go 5.1 or 7.1 with MP3 it's not going to work. MP3 don't support surround sound. MP3 will only work on you 2 front speakers which is 2.1. In order to go 5.1 you need a sound system that supports surround then you need a 7.1 sound card then you need music that supports surround sound like flac format. Then you need to find 24bit 96 ghz 6 channel music. Plus and I forgot to mention is a flac player maybe try foo bar so after all this you'll enjoy true 5.1 surround

Yes, I know its neccesary to have several channels in the audio but I just want it to "repeat" or mirror the channels over the rest of the speakers....

Nabarun Roy said:
Download and install the SRS Audio Sandbox. Then Configure your sound card and srs to use 8 channells (provided you do have 8 discrete speakers to hear that :)  ) and configure the srs to use the "Circle Surround" mode. Your old sound card will deliver the mp3 sound to all those speakers with a pleasant tweak. But for actual 5.1/7.1 channel audio you"ll need to play ac3 (Dolby Digital) or DTS 5.1 audio tracks. MP3 is stereo (2 channels) and will remain so even if you buy the world's costliest sound card. Bottom line, if your sound card isn't damaged, stick to it. It's great! :) 

Also, for listening to MP3 audio etc, download and install the Cowon JetAudio.

Is this SRS a software solution for reproducing/mirroring/etc the stereo channels over the other speakres?

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May 27, 2013 11:27:18 AM

riahc3 said:
Obviously, I perfer the Asus Xonar Essence STX but I dont see it supporting 7.1

Initially the Asus Essence STX is a 7.1 card you can either go 5 or 7.1 in the settings.My choice is 5.1 because of the noticeable sound change up in the speakers meaning true 5.1..Only con I have with this care is if you want to listen to 5.1 music you have to hunt for flac 6 channel music in order to get true 5.1.. But I also have another card the HT Omege Claro plus which is new still in the box.What this card can do is convert any Mp3 2 channel to true 5.1...advantage to that I already have a 5000 MP3 collection. Why I don't use it its a pci card and just before installing it my motherboard took a dump and my new board only has Pcie slots
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May 28, 2013 10:01:25 AM

SRS Audio Sandox is a plugin which comes with it's own front-end and driver. (Currently it's called SRS Audio Lab , but I still prefer the oldie...) But you do need your card's drivers installed. It does have the capability to play MP3s over a number of channels with a "virtual" surround feel, in addition to HUGE improvement over the quality of audio. You can dynamically switch it on and off even during playback of audio - not just MP3 - ANY audio that you hear from your speakers - games, movies, windows sounds ....etc. But the thing is, you really don't need this to hear mp3 sound on ALL the speakers. Your sound card is more than good enough to do that already. May be you haven't configured it properly, or I didn't understand your problem at all. In any case, try your EAX settings (not just the speaker settings). There should be some option there to help you out. And I repeat again - ALSO download and install the JetAudio (You can have your problem solved with the free version itself). There's an option in Jetaudio to enable surround sound, and also to tweak it in the preferences. Why don't you just give these two a try? I'm 100% sure you"ll be satisfied with the results :) 

You can even buy these two for MUCH less than a new sound card...
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June 24, 2013 7:01:43 AM

Nabarun Roy said:
SRS Audio Sandox is a plugin which comes with it's own front-end and driver. (Currently it's called SRS Audio Lab , but I still prefer the oldie...) But you do need your card's drivers installed. It does have the capability to play MP3s over a number of channels with a "virtual" surround feel, in addition to HUGE improvement over the quality of audio. You can dynamically switch it on and off even during playback of audio - not just MP3 - ANY audio that you hear from your speakers - games, movies, windows sounds ....etc. But the thing is, you really don't need this to hear mp3 sound on ALL the speakers. Your sound card is more than good enough to do that already. May be you haven't configured it properly, or I didn't understand your problem at all. In any case, try your EAX settings (not just the speaker settings). There should be some option there to help you out. And I repeat again - ALSO download and install the JetAudio (You can have your problem solved with the free version itself). There's an option in Jetaudio to enable surround sound, and also to tweak it in the preferences. Why don't you just give these two a try? I'm 100% sure you"ll be satisfied with the results :) 

You can even buy these two for MUCH less than a new sound card...


Already tried to enable it in the settings for the Audigy 2 ZS. It does not work.
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June 24, 2013 10:20:46 AM

Well, my older, cheaper SB Live! 24Bit works just fine in 7/linux/solaris... ;) . All you need to do is enable CMSS 3D in the EAX settings and select stereo or cmss and adjust front/rear separation slider. If you think you have tried every settings correctly but surround doesn't work with mp3, it might be a driver issue. I haven't found any official fixes, but I hear many are satisfied (related to various problems) with an UNOFFICIAL solution. Try this at your own risk. Here's the link: http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=698949


P.S. CMSS for 7 is fixed in this driver.

Good luck :) 
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