Whats the best? Sound card of all time!!!!!

[Guest]

Hi,
My friend just asked me to build him a PC, he is a DJ and wants to create music on a PC, rather than just mixing it on the decks.
Well any way he says he wants the very best professional sound card, but really I don't think he can afford any thing more than £300/£350.

I don't really know what sound cards are the best as I don't play games or make music. I think it’s probably something like the SBLive platinum or something. But as I don't know I thought I would ask your expert opinions.

Thanks for your Time.
Akiera .

 

[Guest]

by all meens the sb platinum is a great card and i consider it the best for the everyday user. but there is something called turtle beach line of cards and from the sound creaters i ahve ever known prefer it for music recording and that line of stuff i would look into them as well as the platinum 5.1

 

[jg38141]

Instead of live platinum I'd go for the Hercules Game theater XP. Not only does it have more in lines and outs, but it also works as a USB 4 port hub. It sounds godly- can do both EAX and A3D in games, it costs less, it looks cool, and hercules tech support and driver updates are second to none.

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[Guest]

im sure that that is a good card but hes asking for the best and so far i havent seen anything better then the sb live platinum. im sure some people care about usb but im not one of them. and alot of people only use it for lack of something better to use. and realy how many in and out lines are you going to use i have 3 outs for speakers 8 lines in for god knows what else. so realy if u can use more then that and want a second best card by all meens go for it

Computer Shop owner and Head tech.

 

[jg38141]

I think you missed the point- it is better than the live platinum. It costs less, sounds as good if not better, does all the same environmental audio plus A3D (which I still don't think any soundblaster card can do) and is a recorders dream. No the XP is no second best candidate- It's number one on my list followed closely by the live platinum 5.1

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[blah]

"Whats the best? Sound card of all time!!!!! " - MX300.

Post, we'll do the "search"...

 

[jg38141]

Just got rid of the mx300 love it still, but drivers are finicky under 2000.

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[Guest]

i must agree. i wish i hadn't bought my sb live 5.1 card. many people have had the crackling noise problem with sound blaster cards. the game theater xp from hercules is probably the best right now.

 

[jg38141]

Crackling is due to 2 things- First the problem itself is that there is electromagnetic interference caused by the high speeds of the agp bus and most boards older than 1-1.5 years aren't shielded well enough. Newer boards incorporate shielding of the bus on the board and some can even enable extra shielding in the bios. Getting a new mother board will almost certainly fix your problem.
That being said problem 2- Creative lab's cards are too poorly made to handle the AGP bus, they are made to the bare minimum of specs for stability and rely on other hardware to take up their slack- their sound is great if you have a new board, but it's not better than the mx300 or the new hercules line of cards, and the herc. cards are sheilded within them selves and are not corrupted by AGP noise. Also they generally cost less.
I hope this all helps- I know because I've delt with/ owned quite a few sb products- no more for me. My game theater XP is flawless and sounds insane. (that's a good thing)

Josh

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[rd382]

if the hercules is the best how would it work with creative FPS2000? still offer the same features as PLAT 5.1 would with the same spaekers?

<b><font color=red><^></font color=red></b>

 

[blah]

That was a good thing to know, I will get XP (I wonder what's up with that name - MS Windows XP, Game theater XP...) as soon as my MX300 will give up on me (was faithfull for more than 2 years now, heh).

Post, we'll do the "search"...

 

[Guest]

jg38141

i'm running on an asus cusl2-c. if that's not new, i don't know what is.

 

[jg38141]

It will work awsome and yes it still offers the same surround options as the 5.1 plat.

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[jg38141]

No surprise. Do check in your bios for a shielding option, but either way it is a problem with creative. Ever try getting tech support from them? Good luck



My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[BunnyStroker]

I don't care what anyone says, the best soundcard of all time was the Soundblaster 16. I'll never forget the day I got mine...Wing Commander sounded *so* freaking cool!

Adlib cards were always pale shadows of the mighty Soundblaster line.

<b>ßunn¥§troker 0wn§ j00!</b>

 

[rd382]

thats a good question anyone know the answer. i know the XP in widows xp stands for experiance dont know about the hercules

<b><font color=red><^></font color=red></b>

 

[Crashman]

I have owed a lot of them, my favorite is the Aureal SQ2500. It sounds much better than my SB LIve Platinum. It has a hardware equalizer built in, which probably accounts for it's incredible sound.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Secretninja]

ive just got a gamer xp. its the best thing since the wheel!!! is just great. look athe the sound card forum. i was gonna get a plat but so many people have problems with them i thought NO. and boy was i right. also its gonna be good for your mate as he could link his decks right in and record every thing he does streight in to mp3. also if hes after soft ware tell him to get sound forge 5. its oneof the best pices of software ive used in my life. (and ive used a lot.) ive also played around wits cubase vst 5 which is also good for puting together loops that you make. any way back to the thread GET THE GAMER XP.

SecretNinja


ps i got my card from dabs,com and it cos £117 xvat
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by secretninja on 05/04/01 12:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Thanks.
By Gamer XP You mean Game theater XP right?
I think That will be the card then.

 

[BuGaLoU]

Hum... The SB crakles? I haven't heard ne thing from my Sound blaster x-gamer 5.1 but awesome sound... Not knocking any other card, but I haven't had any problems out of my Sound Blaster live and Soundworks digital four point surround... *shrug*

Computer: $2000 Internet Access: $40 Registering for forums: Free A good signature: Priceless

 

[James35]

i agree i dont get what they are talking on i have had to sb lives now and neither give me a headache. only thing i need was one patch for my remote center for 2000 and thats because its 2000. i been reading these problems and have yet to even experience any of them. what crackling are u talking on?

 

[jg38141]

Actually- the problem was well documented for quite a while on creatives website until they moved the site. The problem is not uncommon, however, for the majority of people running newer boards it works fine. Of course it doesn't crackle for everyone- what were you thinking? I can't believe you actually wrote that. I mean seriously if you get a car and it works and someone else gets the same car and it doesn't do you asume they're lying? Or are you just showing off? Oh yeah, mine works great. How could creative stay in business if everyone's crackled? But it does crackle for a lot of people and you are lucky enough to not be one of them, but don't account it to others stupidity, because I asure you you would be very wrong. On my mb a sound blaster works fine, though I prefer my game theater XP, on my brothers new mother board his works fine, but on his old board, nope. The card crackled all over the place, and you can't blame it on the mb because my old mx300 worked great in his system with the old board. So the card is just to picky and lame. If you have the perfect system that it happens to run well on, great. Otherwise go with something else, or if you don't know for sure, go with something else, because as far as I know, no other cards have this problem.

My Jesus is whiter than your Jesus.

 

[Makaveli]

The noise cracking is an issue with Via based Motherboards!
It's a known issue and many ppl have had this problem. There is a patch built into the new Via 4in1 4.31 drivers
or separate on www.viahardware.com. Go there is u noticed u have this problem!