Which Soundcard??

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

Hi evry1, I need advice on buying a new soundcard and i thought with evry1's opinions i might be able to get all the ideas together and be sure i've made the right choice.

As you can see I hav gone pretty wild with my PC but that's cause i've been saving up BIG :grinthumb Anyway I'm thinking of getting a 7.1 card and i've heard of the m-audio revolution card. Is that any good? Also for £50 there is a Hercules Digifire 7.1 card, is that a bad card due to the low price or is just as good as others? Lastly, i dunno much about the audigy cards so if anyone could tell me about those i'd appreciate it.

 

[young&wild]

The Best Soundcard? IMHO, i don't think there's such a thing like the best soundcard. It all boils down to how much you are willing to use, what's the purpose and etc.

What your budget anyway? Are you planning to buy good quality speakers?

 

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

Errrrr, I'll mostly be using it for gaming and listening to mp3's off of media player.

The speakers I'm gunna get are Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 surround speakers.
They're here > http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=17010&cat=268

My budget is around £75 but I want to get the best card for the money really.


Thanks for you reply

 

[young&wild]

I am pretty curious. Why is there a need to get a 7.1 system when you only listen to mp3's and play games with it?

 

[BrownPaper]

past inspire speakers had paper cones. it's relatively cheap but i'm not really confident in the sound quality.

 

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

Well I want to get one now cause I like the surround sound. Also it won't be a long time until 7.1 is on games. Doom 3 has 5.1. But my main target is not so much the speakers but the soundcard.

 

[young&wild]

If i were you, i'll try to get a balance between the soundcard and the speakers. If one of them is too good and the other is of lower than average quality, each can't take full advantage of one another. Therefore, you can't get the best out of the two. I would try to stay as far as possible away from the Inspire range, you don't get what you pay for, at certain times, it even worse than the older Cambrigde Soundworks.

Most games are still 4.1 if i m not mistaken 5.1 is a new thing, it will a very long time before games get to 7.1(correct me if im wrong) as there is 6.1.

The Hercules Digitfire is just another Hercules Fortissimo 3 slapped with an additional firewire feature. For that price, its really a bargain.

I own a Hercules Fortissimo 3, the sound quality is just superb when used with my Altec Lansing 641.

 

[Greeno]

Audigy 2

 

[young&wild]

Audigy 2 doesn't support 7.1, but Audigy 2 ZS does .

 

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

ummmm well...................where can i find good speakers to match the fortissimo 3?

 

[young&wild]

I would recommend a 5.1 as there are not many range of good 6.1 and 7.1 speakers out there in the mean time. A 5.1 should last you pretty long.

Here a list of recommended speakers, however i m not too sure about the price back in England, hopefully at least one of them is within your budget.

i)
Logitech Z-680
ii) Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550
iii) Altec Lansing 5100

 

[TS | Thomas]

If you want 7.1 support in games then you need a Soundcard that supports 7.1 in games, only the Audigy 2 ZS does this (Doom 3 uses its own custom 3D audio engine, which will ironically "only" do 5.1 at most).
As a result any of your games that support DirectSound 3D/OpenAL will be able to use it "now", e.g. Soldier of Fortune 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, etc.

 

[InsaneMonkeyBoy]

Ok

Ok thanks for all the info evry1, I'll check out those links too young & wild.


Cheers!
:grinthumb