Best Sound Card?

[LiLRiceBoi]

There are a couple that I am thinking about getting. Which of these are the best overall? Also please give some pros/cons

SB Live!
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Philips Acustic Edge

Thanks http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Thud]

There are reviews on all three at Maximum PC (http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/index.html) and user reviews (http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/products/sound.html) on the SB and Yamaha here at Sysopt that might help you a little.

Best of luck!

[gyoung]

Why have I never seen the user reviews?! Thanks for the link!

[NDC]

You already have some quality speakers, right? If not, don't bother spending money on a high-end sound card until you do.

Good Sound Card + Cheap Speakers = waste of money!

Cheap Sound Card + Quality Speakers = Well spent.



[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 06-27-2001).]

[msbrown2]

While on this topic... I have a very nice component system at home that cost me about $2500 (I know its not "uber" but **** good for me) and I play almost all music through my PC. I was wondering what soundcard is best for simply feeding a clear digital (or as close as possible) line from the PC to the receiver. Like a fiber optic line out or something with 2 channel outs. THe soundcard i see seem to have a simple jack for plugging in a PC speaker set insted of 2 RCA plugs to hook it up to a real stereo. Any suggestions on a card?

[K6'er]

The philips card has a digital output

[K6'er]

You can also get a 1/4' to rca adapter at radio shack

[eagle1]

Personally I bought recently the SB Live and it is great..!!
Now, There are two new sound cards out too.!! One I think it's name Nightingale Pro(I think it has a C-Media chip) and the Hercules Game Theather.. I've read reviews and it seems that both are good and can compete with creative's offering.!

[mds]

I have to agree with NDC your sound system is only as good as the quality of your speaker system. Also if you run audio out of your computer into a home reciever/amp make sure that the amp doesn't send a surge down the line to your sound card becouse it will blow them in a hurry(and I mean blow the IC completely apart. I use a Kenwood 250w per channel home reciever/amp pushing my Bose 501's and the amp is drivin by a sound blaster platium.It really rocks the house, but it is more than most user's really need.

[LiLRiceBoi]

What about compatibility issues?

I've heard that SB has had a lot of thoes.

[alphageek]

I've got an Acustic Edge and it is great. From the reviews I've read the sound quality is slightly better than the SB Live. However the Live X-Gamer and MP3+ come with more software for about the same price ($89).

[Warthog]

Compatibility with what??

Most people use the SB Live. Personally, I think the speakers matter a lot more than the sound card. I didn't notice much of a difference (if any) going from the Creative AWE64 to the SB Live. Although, I did notice a difference going from cheap Pioneer speakers to Boston Acoustics http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

What speakers do you have??

Warthog

[LiLRiceBoi]

I'm looking at my options because i'm going to build another comp soon. I'm still not sure about the speakers i want to get yet. Right now i'm thinking that i wanna hook up my reciever to it and use REAL speakers

[msbrown2]

Well my receiver is a Yamaha HTR-5250 and the speakers are JBL S-312's. I will Have the S-Center and S-38 bookshelves in a couple months. I use the best monster cables for the speakers and Interlink cables for RCA (best i could find at Best Buy that is). I currently have a 2-1 splitter on some crappy yamaha 16bit soundcard that goes to dinky PC speakers and to my receiver (which is again split to get the 2 RCA channels, but really does nothing).