Sound off on sound cards

[Archean]

Mathew Murray has put together an excellent article about the probability i.e. death of the sound card.

Having used various discrete sound card solutions over the years, and then switching to onboard solution in my current rig(s); I believe the days of discrete sound card are numbered.

 

[Route44]

Interesting article. My take on the whole thing is that besides room and slot issues with motherboard and case are the issues of driver updates and speaker systems.

For example, M-Audio makes great equipment including sound cards but their driver support is terrible. IMO this is like shooting yourself in the foot because you are hurting your own product. Just look at M-Audio's community forums and the large number of driver complaints and M-Audio's continuing deaf ear to their own customers.

The other issue are the speakers themselves. Finding a decent mid-priced 5.1 system is difficult if not impossible. The mid-range is almost lacking. Few can afford the Logitec Z-5500.

The good news is that Asus and HT Omega are making some very nice sound cards with drivers for XP, Vista and 7 for both 32 and 64-bit.

Call me "old fashion" but the next system build I do I'm getting myself one of the HT Omega offerings.

 

[Archean]

Fair enough, and good luck

I am not really convinced at the moment that dishing out 'reasonable' amount on a discrete sound actually have any returns of significant value.

 

[Route44]

I am not really convinced at the moment that dishing out 'reasonable' amount on a discrete sound actually have any returns of significant value.

I agree with you if the speaker system is the norm being used by most people. One would have to shell out a chunk of $ to have a solid noticible difference.

I would love to know how to connect a good dedicated sound card and a speaker system that isn't the normal configuration such as you see in the Logitech, Creative, Altec Lansing, etc. offerings.