sound card

[JoeC00L]

what's the best soundcard?
I saw this new thing called Sounblaster 512 PCI
what's that?
any better than the SB Live Full?

[Titan]

I don't know if it is better, but, I just got the pci512 last week, it rocks. Crystal clear sound, I have a subwoofer system, what an enhancement. The utilities take a little getting used to as far as where you want your sound to be, I highly recommend it.

P.S. It is quite a bit cheaper than the Live! also. Good luck with your decision.

[JoeC00L]

does the SB Live! have 256 or 512 simultaneous channels? some places describe it as having 256 and others say it has 512.
which is which?

[Titan]

I do know the pci512 and the Live! use the same sound processor, other than that I'm no expert on the details of sound cards, but I do know it does the job and then some. The only downfall, I can't find any info on the pci512 on their website, I compared the boxes when I bought it.

[This message has been edited by Titan (edited 05-17-99).]

[harddisk]

should be 256 simutaneous channel...
256/2 for left and right speakers
might be 256/4 for front and rear speakers

[JoshVV]

You should check out the Yamaha Waveforce Digital as well, I have one and I think it's pretty darn funky ( with the right set of speakers - JBL's - that is )

[Vladimir]

I always thought that anything more than your standard 32 bit pci soundblaster was a waste of money. What you should really worry about
are your speakers.

[MadMax]

Hey Vlad~Have you ever heard a crappy sound card hiss at you all day/night? I drives some of us insane and makes us want to climb up on towers with our rifles and start....oh, I'm sorry. I really dislike crappy sound cards. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

[Veil]

What sound card has the best "bang" for the buck. I am building a new system and my old sound "card" was build on to my motherboard. Should I go with the SB Live, Diamond MX300, Montegro I or Montegro II?Or is there another really good sound card for a fairly reasonable price?

[JoshVV]

Veil, I'd go for a Yamaha Waveforce Digital
it's not as well known or hyped as the others but it's a very good card; has excellent acceleration (minimal cpu usage), great 3d support, yamaha quality sound, the whole nine.

[bub]

If you're a gamer, you won't be sorry with the Aureal Vortex2 A3D cards from Multiwave. $35 or for $55 you get 4 speaker output + digital. Both have software equilizers. Best sound card I've ever used.
http://192.216.185.10/mwave/ProdSOUNDCARD-AUREAL.hmx?UID=XX%2D3551368%2D26979&CID=

If you're into serious hifi stuff, most say they use the Sound Blaster Live which has digital IN and OUT.

[Drifter]

If you are heavily into games then you may want to consider an a3d based card like the mx300. A3d titles are readily available and many people say that A3d sounds better than eax for games (although this may no longer be true now that liveware 2.0 was released). The advantages of the sblive are.
1. midi (with support for over 1024 midi voices, midis sound better than on any other card).
2. digital spdif connection for cd-rom (this allows your cd-rom to use the sblive dac rather than the cd-roms built in dac...making it sound MUCH better).
3. New features are added all the time through the ongoing liveware program.
4. Creative has pledged to support the upcoming industry standard for environmental sound modeling (which is actually based off of eax and not a3d).
3. General better quality of dac. (This may be a matter of judgement, but many people say the sblive sounds just a bit better).

So, as you see the choice is not simple, the a3d may be better at games right now, but the sblive may still catch up (some say it has already) and is already better in other areas.