Which Sound Card

[terminator1956]

I'm in the market for a new high spec soundcard. I have the Audigy gamer but i do have some problems(via chipset?)Can anyone recommend a good one.thanks

 

[williamc]

Herculees GTXP or Turtle Beach Santa Cruz seem to be the best options for all around high quality consumer pc audio.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[ejsmith2]

XP Theater, Acoustic Edge, and Sonic Fury are good cards.

Fortissimo II is a good card too, if you're looking for a Sb live equivalent.

 

[upec]

I think Acoustic Edge is great.

 

[Tommunist]

I have a GTXP and it sounds great. Having the extra usb and game port in the break out box is nice too (along with lots of other features to make your life easier). If you don't want those things and just want a great sounding sound card than go for the turtle beach one and save some cash.

*** Duff Man says a lot of things, OH YEAH!!! ***

 

[buddry]

Yeah, what he said.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=white>bless</font color=white> <font color=blue>the</font color=blue> <font color=red>U</font color=red><font color=white>S</font color=white><font color=blue>A</font color=blue>

 

[williamc]

AE and SF are good cards but still not as well rounded for gaming purposes as the SC or GTXP....so....i'd still recommend them over the AE or SF unless you just don't play games....

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[superpsa]

The SF and SC are the same card under different names.

 

[williamc]

No, they're the same chipset.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[kinney]

Your problems are due to the VIA and have nothing to do with the audigy.
I've had my Hauppauge WinTV lockup my computer before (likely due to the terrible VIA pci bus implementation which also plagues any other pci bandwidth intensive card such as the audigy).

Ditch via and your whole computing experience will thank you.
First I would try installing the newest creative unified drivers for audigys and live based boards from compaqs ftp. Then download the newest via 4in1 drivers from viaarena.com after that.
Before the new creative drivers update your bios also just in case. Also move your audigy to pci slot2 on your board, thats the second one down from the agp slot. The agp slot shares a irq with the first pci slot so don't use it.
And the rest i believe are controlled by a seperate pci controller than the first 2 pci slots. The first two are controlled by the via chipset itself.

That stuff fixed all my problems lately but I have many a reason to hold a grudge against via so I'm buying the first available nforce2 (or a SIS745/nforce1 based board if you need one right now) and I suggest you do the same!

VIA got lucky that they are on top (no competition..but SIS and nvidia are approaching their marketshare very quickly) and I think they would already be buried if not for that and nvidia/amd not producing enough chipsets yet.

Athlon XP 1700+,KT266A,Geforce3, Audigy.. 'nuff said.

 

[williamc]

I think he knows that...

And i also think its a hell of alot easier to just change sound cards and use something other than a creative than to change out the motherboard, or dance a shindig on top of your PC with settings and drivers.

If his pc works....it works....he should use a sound card that works on it....i think thats what the origional poster was getting at. He wanted an alternative that would actually work with his pc...

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[kinney]

Well ya but I would prefer to get rid of the problem, not work around it (VIA). It sounds extreme to pull a motherboard out for a sound card but it really isn't, consider the many other via incompatiblitys and problems.. it just aint worth it. Ditch it now and you'll be able to enjoy whatever hardware you want to and have less problems overall in the future.

I was just letting him know if he does want an audigy how to get it to work on a via chipset.. because I think not getting an audigy simply because he has a via chipset is a mistake.

We differ on that point.

Athlon XP 1700+,KT266A,Geforce3, Audigy.. 'nuff said.

 

[williamc]

Didn't sound like he had any other problems.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[superpsa]

No, they're the same card under didfferent names for distribution reasons:

From VIAHardware:

"What is the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz / VideoLogic Sonic Fury?

The Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury (identical to the Santa Cruz) is a next-generation sound card based on the Cirrus Logic CS4630 chipset."

and to further this, from SoundCardCentral:

"Earlier this year Video Logic and Turtle Beach signed a cross product agreement where Turtle Beach would sell Video Logic Speakers in the US and Video Logic would sell the Santa Cruz in the UK. Video Logic simply repackaged the Santa Cruz with different software, slapped their names on the drivers and called it Sonic Fury."

Voila.

 

[superpsa]

And the SonicFury retail comes with more software as well as providing you with a nice cable so you can connect your SF to your amp (if you use one).

All infor on the SC/SF is on http://www.soundcardcentral.com/reviews/soundcards/sonicfury/page1.htm that page

 

[kinney]

besides using via?

Athlon XP 1700+,KT266A,Geforce3, Audigy.. 'nuff said.

 

[DarrenFrost]

I just got the Philips Seismic Edge 705 for $10 from that place on my thread (though 10 shipping is kinda steep when they don't even really package it) and I am loving it. No problems upon installation whatsoever and sounds much better than my old SQ2500 did in XP. You just can't beat the performance for the price, it's an amazing value.

About VIA, they are the reason I have a P4 right now instead of an athlon. My old rig was a via and the problems were immense.. I wouldn't rebuild right now just keep that in mind when you are ready to upgrade. The Intel 850 chipset has been wonderful for me, I have never had a BSOD once which is quite an achievement.

 

[williamc]

Okay i must be confused on some of these cards again, will go reread about them...thanks

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out