best sound card [money no object]

[Spud1]

Ok I'm thinking of getting a new soundcard to replace my soundstorm stuff, but ive no idea what to get anymore

needs to have optical out, at least 5.1 and needs to be nice high quality stuff.

So, if money was no object what would people get?

Also whats good in the £50-£150 price bracket?


any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Spud/Pete

[MurphmanL]

Audigy 2 ZS
Audigy 2 Platinum
Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space
HollyWood @ Home 7.1

There are a few choice selections for high quality sound, but don't forget the speakers always count
I personally only have a standard SoundBlaster Audigy I, and it does me fine with its lovely 24bit playback. Have tried Audigy 2 which are somewhat better, but cant get them to work without popping and cackling issues on this motherboard

[Platinum]

Audigy 2 is a good chioce but as MurphmanL said make sure you pair it with a sweet set of speakers for best enjoyment

[MurphmanL]

Audigy 2 is a good chioce but as MurphmanL said make sure you pair it with a sweet set of speakers for best enjoyment

Yup couldn't agree more Platinum, I paired an Audigy II with a set of Logitech X620's and the sound was terribly flushed out compared to my current Edifier R501T's

And even so im sure there are still better sets out there than my current setup, im sure the higher end creatives and logitechs are very good indeed, but for some of us money is a very limited object, esp with no job

[myth]

2 ZS has the least amount of CPU useage out of that list... Just wanted to point that out!

[Spud1]

ok so looking at the audiogy range now - i have a top notch amp/speaker set already -

whats the best one to get considering I already have an amp with dts/dolby decoding etc? I can see 3 versions of the audiogy 2 avalable

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...oundcards.html

[MurphmanL]

I'd go for the £174 ZS Platinum PRO
The one with the remote and all the snazzy features, really meant for a music enthusiast
Just beware - There have been some few disaster cases of popping and other various mishaps due to creative's bloated and lousy software. I tend nowadays to only install the driver and use windows volume controls to control it all... all the other creative stuff is system hogging and causes more hassle than worth
The Hardware of the card itself tho is top notch

Also consider Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space, also a good card, I had no probs with their 5.1 Fun model

[myth]

ok so looking at the audiogy range now - i have a top notch amp/speaker set already -

whats the best one to get considering I already have an amp with dts/dolby decoding etc? I can see 3 versions of the audiogy 2 avalable

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...oundcards.html

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - Retail (SC-017-CL)

the others are a waste of money... they just have extra jacks...

[ToxIC tEChy]

if you wanted to use a speaker set that uses aux connectoers how would you set that up 5.1 sourround sounned origanilly for a dvd player

[BenW]

through an amp?

[Capt Doufos]

Easiest way to get the best sound is not to use PC speakers. Get yourself down to Richersounds and buy an amp and some decent bookshelf speakers.

Although this will obviously work out alot mor expensive. £300-£400. They always have plenty of decent used/Discontinued amps though. You can save a bit there.

I think I paid £150 for my speakers and £130 for the amp. Then later I added a sub which set me back anouther £100.

[Spud1]

exactly doufos thats what i;ve done

probly gonna get the audiogy2 without the boxes etc, my amp can do all the extra conections gubbins that i need and it seems to have all the right conections. cheers for the advice

[Howard]

If you have decent speakers I certainly wouldn't buy an Audigy

M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is where it's at.

What speakers have you got?