High end sound card

[jlanka]

I'm not too familiar with high end sound cards these days. Friend of mine has given me the go-ahead to build him a monster. He's a serious audiophile who has a sound board (with a midi interface, it's not new) and does a lot of audio editing/whatever. He understands that he might have to scrap his current board and get one with a more modern connection. I told him we'd try the midi connection first before making that decision.

Anyay, what is the primo sound card out there right now for someone like him?

Thanks in advance

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Brute]

Creative Sound Blaster Live Audigy 2 Platinum

Internal or external it doesn't really matter, just whatever suits your need best. This card has every input and output you can think of, records at 24 bit DVD quality sound.

 

[jlanka]

Any advantage for a guy like him to step up to something like <A HREF="http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delta.php" target="_new">these?</A>

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[TKH]

You are on the right track. For a serious audiophile a professional sound card is absolutely needed. The guy upstair who recommend Audigy2, pardon me but Creative sound card is no way close to professional audio quality performance. BTW, you can also look at RME, Terratec and some other pro audio card manufacturers.

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<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[umheint0]

Yeah, ignore brute's comment. He obviously is not an audiophile

There are also Lynx and Audiotrak in addition to what THK said (though that sounds oddly like many of my previous posts. I thought I was the only RME fan here).

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--

 

[jlanka]

thanks for the info on the other manufacturers. We will check them all out, read reviews, ask other professional editors and then make a decision. Is there a well know professional audio website that reviews these boards?

AFA recommending the CL Audigy, it's the best "consumer grade" card out there, so I undestand how someone could make the mistake of recommending it. No harm done.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[jlanka]

posted at the same time. Thanks for your info as well. If we have any more questions we will post them back here.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[umheint0]

Best "consumer grade" card? Doubtful. Look at the M-Audio Revolution 7.1, Guillemot Fortissimo III and Game Theatre XP 7.1, and Terratec Sky 5.1.

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--

 

[jlanka]

there ya go. I guess I don't know much about sound cards (both high end AND low end). It's good to have these other forums to learn from. I'm more in the Motherboards, and the networking forums. Thanks for the info.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Traqr]

IIRC, the Audigy2 is about the best add-in consumer card for gaming due to the low CPU overhead. Sound quality? But if your system is lagging because the audio is <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html" target="_new">taking too much CPU time</A>, you'll appreciate this aspect of the card.

That said, your friend will <i>not</i> be happy with an Audigy2.

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