So - if not a Creative, then what soundcards are recommended?

Hi all,

I just upgraded to Vista Home Premium x64 and as we all know, Creative's drivers are appaling. I've lost various bits of functionality from my original Audigy which I'm still using. I had been thinking about getting an X-Fi before I discovered how much Creative's drivers suck but I don't want them getting any more of my money now.

I run a 5.1 speaker setup but the connectors are analog (this may get upgraded later) so it will need to support both of those. I do play some games so EAX support would be nice. I also use Media Center. I will need a line input. If possible, I'd like to be able to set "profiles" in the software so I can easily set up the front/rear balance depending on whether I'm sitting right at the machine to play games, or on the sofa watching TV/movies.

Any recommendations?

Cheers in advance,
8

I'm interested in trying the Asus Xonar..

auzuntech...
but spelt properly

It looks as if Creative have reacted to the backlash against the action they took against daniel_k, so his vista drivers might be available again. (But I haven't looked)

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Originally Posted by peterb

It looks as if Creative have reacted to the backlash against the action they took against daniel_k, so his vista drivers might be available again. (But I haven't looked)

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The phrase "too little, too late" leaps all unbidden to mind. Along with "**** 'em anyway", naturally... Terratec have a reasonably good rep from what I've seen, and M-audio are supposed to be good for the money.

Go for Auzentech, though I don't recommend the X-Fi Prelude as it uses Creative drivers :crazy:

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Originally Posted by nichomach

The phrase "too little, too late" leaps all unbidden to mind. Along with "**** 'em anyway", naturally... Terratec have a reasonably good rep from what I've seen, and M-audio are supposed to be good for the money.

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True - but it might help 8bit who says he is having problems with a creative card and Vista (so it might save him from buying a new card)

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Originally Posted by nichomach

The phrase "too little, too late" leaps all unbidden to mind. Along with "**** 'em anyway", naturally... Terratec have a reasonably good rep from what I've seen, and M-audio are supposed to be good for the money.

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If you think creative are bad for supporting older models, then you most certainly want to stay well clear of terratec.

Still got a perfectly good DMX 6Fire gathering dust because of driver support.

auzentech every time these days :)

The fact that consumer creative cards like the XFI cant do very simple things like upmix stereo to 5.1/7.1 just totally takes them out of the running in my mind. That and that they are way overpriced for what they can do, due to their brand name.

There was a time when I would only buy creative sound cards as they really were best bang for buck when it came to audio, but XFi was a huge let down, and I bought an auzentech for my last card..which was awesome as far as sound cards go. Proper DTS output, and the ability to upmix stereo signals to a 5.1 DTs signal was pretty cool, made MP3s and movies sound better :)

If only you could put PCI sound cards in Mac Pros :( Need to wait for a decent PCI-E set of sound cards.

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Originally Posted by shaithis

If you think creative are bad for supporting older models, then you most certainly want to stay well clear of terratec.
Still got a perfectly good DMX 6Fire gathering dust because of driver support.

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Don't know if you're interested, but there's what looks like a beta Vista driver for the DMX 6Fire 24/96 up on Terratec's FTP server at ftp://ftp.terratec.net/Audio/DMX6fire2496/Update/Beta . Point taken, however, that's slow. Damn slow.