HT Omega question

Hello,

I've decided to get a soundcard because all the interference on my on board has finally driven me crazy.

I'm looking at the HT Omega cards and I have a question about the drivers. I intend to use these with headphone and speakers. Can you set a separate volume level for the front panel audio (my headphones) from the rear line out?

The issue i have now is that i need to set the windows volume at 20% for using my headphones but I like to have it at 100% for the speakers since they sound like crap if i leave it at 20% and crank the speakers' volume.

On another note. I'm trying to decide between the striker or halo models. I figure the striker will be way better than onboard and will be fine for 5.1 optical out if i get a receiver/surround set later on, and its much cheaper. But the halo might be nice since its got those pimp RCA outs which would be cool for the MV40s I'm considering and its got better components.

One thing that puts me off the halo is that the drivers aren't as up to date as the striker (aug '08 vs jan '09)

Thanks

I'd like to hear from some knowledgeable OCP'ers out there too... I'm thinking about using an Omega card for my next media center... so what do you guys think? Thanks in advance....

I like my Striker. But I am not a knowledged OCPer so I will shut up now.

I've had two 8788 based cards, Sondigo Inferno and Xonar D2X.

Striker uses an older CMEDIA chip. I'd go with the Halo.

Don't worry about the drivers, the Halo is a CMedia 8788 chip and all drivers from all 8788 based soundcards will work. I used the Omega Claro drivers on my Sondigo, as well as the b-gears sound card's driver. They are all compatible, the key difference between 8788 sound cards are the DACs which is where the sound quality comes from. The drivers don't care what DACs you have, they care about the chipset.

I've heard of people installing other 8788 drivers on Xonars, but I've never done it. I don't know if it works the other way around (xonar drivers to other 8788s).

I would like to say that the drivers gave me a TON of problems in Vista x64. I had 192khz audio on, and I'd get BSODs just skipping tracks in foobar2k. But I would like to make it clear that changing the speaker properties made this go away. I haven't had a BSOD lately.

But if you're going to use your digital out, a nice soundcard is a waste.

Thanks for the info... I guess I really need to see if Win 7 will be compatible before I plop down $160 on one...

Had no trouble installing the HT Omega Claro drivers/control panel for Vista64bit (works flawlessly); however, I'm having a problem with Windows 7 (64bit). I guess I won't be using Windows 7 until HT Omega provides support for Windows 7. I can do without Windows7, but I can't do without my Omega Claro for its DDHeadphone use in games. Has anyone found a fix for the Windows 7 support issue?

Hmm. Thanks for the input. I think I'm going with the striker. The halo is too expensive for PCI. I'd rather wait and get a higher end PCI-E card and have it last me for a few years. Who knows how long legacy pci will last on high end mobos.

I was looking at that PCI-E Azuentech card but frankly I don't want to deal with creative drivers.

So I received my Striker 7.1 this weekend. It's pretty great. It's a night and day difference from onboard.

My only issue is that I'm still getting a slight buzzing sound from my headphones that corresponds to HDD activity. I can also hear it on my speakers if i crank em way up, but not at any level I'd be using them at.

So I'm not sure if its a mobo power regulation issue or maybe PSU related. But over all I'm much happier now.

Dephcon said:

So I received my Striker 7.1 this weekend. It's pretty great. It's a night and day difference from onboard.

My only issue is that I'm still getting a slight buzzing sound from my headphones that corresponds to HDD activity. I can also hear it on my speakers if i crank em way up, but not at any level I'd be using them at.

So I'm not sure if its a mobo power regulation issue or maybe PSU related. But over all I'm much happier now.

Click to expand...

Hmmm. Weird. Never had that issue with my Striker when I had one.

I use the Claro drivers on my X-Meridian card.