do i need a new sound card

[beccabob]

wife loves her music online. currently have a dell system with a soundblaster live value card in it with harman kardon speakers with a woofer. are the newer cards that much better that she would even notice the difference and if so, can you reccomend one? thanks in advance!!!

 

[silverpig]

For mp3s and what not you will not notice a difference at all. You can play mp3s with an AWE64 (OLD sb card) and it'll be the same. The limiting factor with mp3s is the format, not the card.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

 

[HammerBot]

That cetainly depends on the bitrate of those MP3s. You can code music to MP3 format so its indistinguishable from the original. In that case anything else is the limiting factor.

Back to the original qestion. Beccabob, when you say 'online' do you refer to streamed music like online radio services etc. In that case you will not gain anything with a new card. Streamed music is compressed a lot and most of the quality reduction is due to this compression.

<i><b>Engineering is the fine art of making what you want from things you can get</b></i>

 

[silverpig]

Naw, you can still tell the difference. If I listen really really closely with good headphones I've been able to tell the difference between 320 kbps CBR LAME and the original .wav (some guy on another forum did a really cool test a while back and I picked out which formats were which). There IS a difference.

Regardless, the majority of mp3s are 128 kbps anyways, definitely NOT cd quality.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

 

[Codesmith]

The newer cards offer better audio quality, but for most listeners its overkill. Mainly the new cards are for better game support, multichannel speakers, digital output, high quality recording etc.

Unless she is a musician, she probably wouldn't notice any difference with a new card. Of course with audio, what people think they are hearing is often more important that what they actually are hearing.

(Penn & Teller put different labels on NY City tap water with fictitious names and prices. Even though all the water came out of the same dirty hose behind the restaurant, people honestly though they could taste differences between brands and most honestly enjoyed the $10 bottle far more than even enjoyed tap water)

So if sound is really important to her, and she enjoys her music less knowing its form a cheap sound card, then an upgrade would not be a waste of money.

A $35 SB Live 5.1 is the budget choice giving you the most band for your buck, but a $100 M Audio 7.1 Revolution definitely says "I Love You".

BTW All of my friends thought they can tell the difference between CD-Audio and a PROPERLY ripped mp3. But when put to a double blind test none of them could! Even my friend with the $100+ sound card and $400+ speakers failed the test . (This was with a 128kps mp3 ripped form a CD mastered in the 1980s).

Of course with a digitally mastered CD, quality headphones and practice almost anyone can learn to tell the difference.

 

[TearsForFears]

I had sb live 5.1 and got audigy 2 zs some days ago. The same mp3 on the same speakers sounds much better now. the sound is more clear.




Everybody Wants To Rule The World

 

[Codesmith]

Excellent choice! If I wasn't using digital out, that's what I would get.

(The M-AUDIO offers superior processing with a 96KHz sample rate sources (Audio DVDs), but its gaming performance is awful.)


SB Live 5.1 vs Audigy2 ZS

Frequency response(20Hz to 20kHz)dB: -5.33,+0.08 Average
Noise level, dB (A): -90.2
Dynamic range, dB (A): 87.4
THD, %: 0.085
Stereo crosstalk, dB: -57.2

Front analog output SB Audigy 2 ZS 16/48
Frequency response (40Hz to 15kHz), dB: +0.01,-0.05
Noise level, dB (A): -95.6
Dynamic range, dB (A): 94.8
THD, %: 0.0049
IMD, %: 0.0077
Stereo crosstalk, dB: -92.8




<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Codesmith on 02/01/04 08:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>