# AOpen
# Auzentech
# Bluegears
# Chaintech Inc.
# Creative Labs
# Diamond
# M-AUDIO
# Sabrent
# Turtle Beach/Voyetra

Today I went looking for a new Sound card to replace my old SB live! card. And I found a huge list of cards from Creative and many other cards from other manufactures, some of which I don't know anything about... I would like to see a big benchmark/review done like we see for video cards...

Cover a huge list of concerns or questions like...

Audio quality,
CPU taxing during EAX, DTS, Gaming w/ dif. audio settings...
Special feature to clean up audio if any...
DTS/Dolby Digital, HD Audio Compatibility with home theaters.

It'd be nice to compare on-board (and/or daughterboard) mobo sound as well.

hi.
for sound cards there is only one name.
creative cards nothing else.
do not buy a card that even her mother doesn't know.

Uh, I would like to dispute that, since M-Audio, Lynx, and a couple others make professional grade sound-cards that will put anything Creative has to shame.

Auzentech makes a damn nice home theater card. Turtle beach used to be nice, but they've been behind these days. The others ones I could care less about. Creative is the best card for gaming with EAX. Thats it. Anything else, any other card can match or beat them.

Surely it depends on what you want to use it for?

M-Audio make some very tasty kit but are more audio than gamer orientated.

Why do you say that? How many other brands have you tried?

Bacis,

I am open to your opinion, but if you can't back anything up, then just read.... and try to learn what people with experience have to say... If you do have a good back ground then please share it!!!!

I was on newegg.com and I was looking for a good soundcard with optical and Digital out with DX9 - 10(none yet) support when I noticed cards that had chips from VIA and Realtek. I also noticed that most of the boards had virtually no circuits compared to ones from Creative... Most of the reviews from the buyers were positive for these none creative cards but none of them explained what they noticed, features or anything that I could use to help make a good decision on my next purchase....

So if you guys have any experience share it here please...
Maybe this might help w/ the info you guys give here...

I am a gamer that plays a wide variety of games, from BF2, Sims, Freelancer and many more..
I love listening to my MP3s and anything that can make them sound fuller or more rich is welcomed...
I have my PC plugged in to my 1080p Westinghouse LCD and I use it for DVDs so, if there is a card that could accurately decode DTS and DD2 that is a BIG plus!! I am open to most suggestions but I also don't want to buy a audio card that cost more than $100. Unless it can be justified. This is just my opinion, but most creative audio cards are over priced... and should be in the 45-100 price range.

Can't necessarily offer actual benchies or statistics, but I can offer years of computing and gaming experience as well as a musically trained ear...for whatever that's worth...

Out of the branded sound card and onboard sound that I've used, I would rank them in the following order based on sound quality, driver compatibility, and overall system performance.
1) M-Audio
2) Creative
3) Turtle Beach
4) Onboard Sound

One thing worth noting, if you have a dual core processor, the argument that having an onboard DSP (Creative) offers more fps and better system performance compared to other brands (M-Audio, Auzentech, etc...) is a moot point. If your dual core system can't handle the additional 1-3% cpu utilization from the sound card, then you've got bigger issues with your system than the sound card.

Just my opinion...put that in your pipe and smoke it!

If your a gamer, then Creative is the way to go. Might be a bit pricier, but you are getting the most out of your gaming with EAX, especially if you have a 5.1 sounds system. Otherwise, onboard audio will be fine for everything else.

Music and everything else, sound cards will nearly always be better than on-board, but won't be worth the price difference or premium unless you have ultra-hi quality speakers (to me at least, maybe your ears are better).

Basically, I would suggest Creative if you want the most of gaming, and a good sound card all around. On-board if you don't want to take the jump for money.

Wait wait, I take that back. What on-board audio do you have? The new ones can decode DTS and Dolby Digital with Optical out, but if you have an older model, might invest in a sound card. Creative doesn't have optical out unless you step up to Platinum version with the break-out box. Guess a lot of it depends on your setup. If you want a great home theater card, the Auzentech Xplosion is nice:

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com [...] ion_1.html

This is most definitely terrible advice!

If you want to buy high quality audio components these are some pretty important specs to look at.

1. Noise Floor
2. Cross Talk - which is highly correlated with the next one.
3. Balanced/Unbalanced Inputs/Outputs
4. Total harmonic distortion
5. Transient Intermodulation Distortion
6. Signal to noise ratio

Maybe not necessarily in this order, but Signal to Noise ratio can be deceiving... they may give you a theortical SNR for 24 bit audio, when the actual will be quite different with 16 bit sources.

Anyway, If you really want to get high quality audio without spending too much money on gimmicky overpriced "Audiophile" marketing BS (here's looking at you Bose, Bang and Olufson, and all you guys that listen to vinyl chained through seperate tube pre-amps and power amps because it "sounds warmer" ), I suggest that you look to interfaces and cards in the recording market segment. These people know their audio. Just look at the specs and compare. Check out Sweetwater, Musiciansfriend, and ZZounds - maybe you'll get lucky and find something on sale.

Of course someone is going to argue that this is no good for "Gamers", but this is foolish. Good audio is good audio (period) The more accurate system is going to give you good results with any source material.

Finally there is one more thing. Speakers are argueably the most important piece in the chain. Think about it. They are the only thing that you actually hear.

The gamer part relates to EAX, which provieds positional audio, which is what gamers really want. Not music quality usually.

I doubt he wants a professional grade sound-recording solution, so I don't even know why balanced/unbalanced ports factor in...

It's good advice, but your preaching to the wrong demographic. He wants to game, he will want EAX, which = creative. He wants home theater, he wants a standard card with 7.1 channel out or optical out with DTS and DD decoding, Auzentech will handle that. I don't hear him recording music for his whole garage band...

This is a person, not a block of money and ears...

The card that will replace my current one will be plugged into my headphone when I feel like keeping my music\gaming to my self... But when I feel like sharing my music/explosions or movies with everyone I will have it setup w/ my Denon 5.1 surround sound system using optical.

System Specs (till vista comes out)
ASUS A8V MOBO w/ 3200+ 1GB ram

Realtek ALC850 8-channel CODEC
Audio Sensing and S/PDIF out

SB Live! Value (currently being used)

This is most definitely terrible advice!

If you want to buy high quality audio components these are some pretty important specs to look at.

1. Noise Floor
2. Cross Talk - which is highly correlated with the next one.
3. Balanced/Unbalanced Inputs/Outputs
4. Total harmonic distortion
5. Transient Intermodulation Distortion
6. Signal to noise ratio

Maybe not necessarily in this order, but Signal to Noise ratio can be deceiving... they may give you a theortical SNR for 24 bit audio, when the actual will be quite different with 16 bit sources.
SNIP
.

Great advice, although many of the neophytes don't understand what you mentioned. All you need to know is THX!!!! This says it all.

I've been in the sound card arena since the days of the original AdLib sound card. Ironically, a good sound card back in 1992 cost $265. Although the original Sound blaster set the standard for all other sound cards, Creative spent several years chasing the market by releasing products that were technically mediocre. Case in point, the SB Pro and 16, were both FM synthisized while everyone else was using sophisticated wave table. Mixing was poor and behind the curve of the first generation TBs and Sierra semi based sound cards. Although the AWE32, AWE64, and Live were progressively good products, it's my opinion that Creative's leap forward was initiated by the release of the Audigy series of 24 bit sound cards. Why 24 bits? Because DVD audio requires it, and most Mo-Bo integrated A'97 sound systems (I don't care about how many channels!!!) don't go beyond 16 bit. The Audigy also used a sophiticated DSP engine that reduced some of the CPU utilization.

As many pointed out, there are several high-end brands aimed primarily at professional mixing that are superior to Creative. For gaming and Home Theater, Creative has this market cornered. The THX certification on some Creative sound cards bare testament to superior quality.


Regards,

Rick

This might be misleading. I believe most Creative cards are capable of digital output. There is not much difference between an optical digital and a coaxial (electrical) digital signal, unless your equipment only supports one or the other. The X-Fi products with the front panel (Fatal1ty FPS and Platinum) have digital optical and coaxial ports (in and out) . As for the other X-Fi cards, they claim to have a FlexiJack that handles "3-in-1 function (Digital I/O / Line In / Microphone) via 3.50mm mini jack" ... I haven't done the research to find out if you give up functionality when you use that I/O. (As in, hopefully you can still use a case front mic input in when you use the rear for digital out..?)

The caveat is that Creative X-Fi products (at this time) only support multi-channel (>2) digital output from sources such as DVDs. If the X-Fi card is doing the decoding, it can only output to stereo unless you use the analog outputs instead. SOURCE


There is also some interesting information about Vista progress HERE ...

...though I don't expect to move from XP until there are conclusive benefits in doing so.