Which Sound Card?

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21-12-2003, 09:53 PM
Byatt

Which Sound Card?

OK, so I've convinced myself that the rear speaker output on my NF7-s is borked somehow - any rear output comes out of the front left speaker...frankly bizarre.

So I'm looking for a 5.1 sound card, preferably cheap, and preferably not an audigy 2, since they're £60, and I have some recollection of some senior member being very good at bashing creative.

Budget is around £50ish, would prefer much lower, I am *not* enough of an audiophile to spend £250 on speakers, so I'm obviously not keen on spending money on a soundcard either.

Anything above 5.1 is superfluous to requirements.
21-12-2003, 10:28 PM
unrealrocks

At the mo Im doing a little roundup - from a cheap POV the Fortissimo GameSurround III for around £35 is good card to go for! Its 7.1 but doesn't have to be ;)
21-12-2003, 10:50 PM
Ravens Nest

NF7-S has soundstorm have you tried any different drivers, the latest unified drivers are 3.13?

Here's a guide for the NF7 & S, there might be some advice there that might help you.
http://www.motherboardfaqs.com/article.php?4.255
22-12-2003, 12:06 AM
Byatt

Quote:

Originally posted by Ravens Nest
NF7-S has soundstorm have you tried any different drivers, the latest unified drivers are 3.13?

Here's a guide for the NF7 & S, there might be some advice there that might help you.
http://www.motherboardfaqs.com/article.php?4.255

I've tried all of those - sadly no rear output still...I know the soundstorm is good, just the 5.1 implementation seems to be broken on my rev1.2 board.
22-12-2003, 12:10 AM
3Dfx

SB Audigy 1
22-12-2003, 03:19 AM
SilentDeath

any thing creative is rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe imo. soundstorm is good if you can get it working :)
have you tryed the jumpers just below the ago slot? i dont know exactly what they do but they do change the sound outputs somehow..
22-12-2003, 10:18 AM
Gunbuster

I'd be tempted by the Hercules Digifire:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...aSC_2d005_2dHE
If only because I don't have any firewire ports and I don't trust Creative's drivers. Personally I use a Sonicfury I bought ages ago, its still going strong and I only have two speakers.
22-12-2003, 10:32 AM
Firelord

I've got a Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 thats a great little card :) Cost £36 from Dabs and ha Opti Out (which was why I brought it :)) and sounds great :)

Might be selling it soon ;)
22-12-2003, 11:02 AM
Ferral

You can get the Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 for around £30 now. Really nice card, have it in my machine and no problems at all with it.
22-12-2003, 01:40 PM
3Dfx

Why does everyone diss creative? ive never had a problem and ive used their sound cards for the past 4 years!
22-12-2003, 02:52 PM
Gunbuster

Well it took a new motherboard, chip, OS and X number of drivers before my mates Live! would work correctly. Even then the mixer doesn't work right. I used to have an SB AWE 64 after the problems he had and friends had I haven't touched Creative. I've heard good things of the Audigys, but I still have that niggling doubt in my mind. If they work well for you pucka, but I can only go on what I know 1st hand.
22-12-2003, 03:43 PM
bmh.01

Re: Which Sound Card?

Quote:

Originally posted by Byatt
OK, so I've convinced myself that the rear speaker output on my NF7-s is borked somehow - any rear output comes out of the front left speaker...frankly bizarre.

So I'm looking for a 5.1 sound card, preferably cheap, and preferably not an audigy 2, since they're £60, and I have some recollection of some senior member being very good at bashing creative.

Budget is around £50ish, would prefer much lower, I am *not* enough of an audiophile to spend £250 on speakers, so I'm obviously not keen on spending money on a soundcard either.

Anything above 5.1 is superfluous to requirements.

Is Dolby (R) Surround Encoding checked in the soundstorm control panel ?, as this caused my rear speakers to come from the front when checked.
22-12-2003, 05:45 PM
Byatt

Re: Re: Which Sound Card?

Quote:

Originally posted by bmh.01
Is Dolby (R) Surround Encoding checked in the soundstorm control panel ?, as this caused my rear speakers to come from the front when checked.

Yes, but when it's off that sends the "center" output to the left rear speaker, and no rear outputs get sent out at all.
22-12-2003, 06:21 PM
floppybootstomp

I've used the Philips 4.1 Dynamic Edge card for a little over a year, really good Sound quality, imo. Costs around 20 - 25.

It's definitely better quality than my Creative 5.1 Soundblaster.

Only problem is the output from the Philips is less than the SB, which sometimes becomes a prob if I'm recording from low level sources. That is, most vinyl I've recorded has ample level but some older discs have low output, especially those that have crammed a lot of tracks on.
22-12-2003, 06:57 PM
5cupa

i use the philips acoustic edge 5.1 and it certainly knocked the socks off the soundblaster live. i have been very happy with it.
23-12-2003, 01:17 AM
misae

I have the Acoustic Edge 5.1 as well.
It has a wealth of connections and the positional sound on it is second to none.

The downside is the extra performance it requires to run compared to other soundcards when playing games. However it is stable and QSound really is brilliant. It is miles better than the Audigy for positional sound (have tried both).

In fact the Audigy originally had a Philips DAC which is what made it stand out from the crowd.

For excusiiely games etc I wouldnt recommend the Acoustic Edge however for more general usage it is still unbeaten (IMHO).

The Dynamic Edge uses an older chip, whilst the Seismic Edge (less outputs) and Acoustic Edge (outputs galore) are absolutely stonking wonderful.

There is also the Envy 24T to think about and comes at only £36 from ebuyer.com (look for Gainward model). However the chip is great.. 24bit sound etc, but if it uses poor quality DAC's then forget it.