All-In-One audio card?

T

tdx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
154
Hey everyone,

I'm getting eady to upgrade my soundcard, and I was wondering if there is one that is good for everything: gaming, movies, music, professional audio work, etc. I know the X-Fi is considered a good all-around card, but on the other hand it does resample audio, so it's a nono for pro work. And the more professional cards (M-Audio etc) ave very solid sound reproduction, but are not as powerful as the X-Fi for entertainment and gaming.

Since PCs are better using only one sound card (less config headaches), is there a single soundcard that would be good for every scenario?

TDX
 
Audigy zs 2 you don't have to switch modes. If you game I would pick up the x-fi platinum since the remote lets you switch modes, they also have EAX 5 wich is a main reason to pick this up. I don't really recommend other brands because not all games are fully suported. If you wanna try another brand you can always get an Beach santacruz, but to my knowledge all non audigy cards have eax 2 or is it 4? well I forget, anyways good luck. Someone will probably post how creative labs card suck, these are the same people who hate microsoft yet they still buy windows.
 
well it would be best for seperate cards and rigs for that matter. the xfi cards are very high quality or so ive heard but im currently using a audigy 2zs. i love my card and the sound is hard to beat. but if the xfi's will not work for pro audio then you either have to live with the resampling or live without the eax support.
 
Forewarning, this post is dripping with bias.

Now, are you planning on doing pro-audio? If you just plan on listening to music I highly doubt the resampling is going to affect you. In fact, you should be more worried about your speakers or headphones for sound quality.

If you plan on gaming, I'm sure you won't be able to live without the latest trite sound-effects, in which case you'd be better off with a gaming soundcard.

Now if you do plan on doing audio production or any in depth work with music you should get an Emu or M-Audio card and let the X-Fi or Audigy rot...

So, the question is, do you want to work in depth with audio, or play soldier and search for phat loot?

And as mentioned by yourself and others, there will be plenty of headaches if you try to run two soundcards in the same system, unless you get lucky. Or you could leave one disabled all the time, and only have the one you are currently using operational. But that solution is itself a headache.
 
So i take it from these answers that my dream soundcard which does everything perfectly doesn't exist. I kinda expected that, but i was just hoping there was one anyway.

So then let me readjust my objectives: If none of the big brands (Creative, Emu, M-Audio) has a card that's perfect at everything, which one is at least good enough for most things? Like, which card does reasonable pro work and can also handle more general tasks?
 
Let's put it this way, which do you value more, Work or Gaming and Music? It's one or other, creative card can do some audio work but I dunno how much pro work.
 
Actually, i did some research about this this afternoon, and found a combo that might work: a X-Fi Elite Pro (because apparently it has the best sound reproduction of the X-Fi family) plus a M-audio transit USB stick soundcard (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html).

I could use the X-Fi for general use, and as soon as i need more professional stuff, I could plug in the M-Uadio in the USB port - it even supports ProTools (which is a big plus for me). If this setup doesn't result in too many conflicts (but with the X-fi on a PCI slot and the M-Audio in a USB slot, I don't think it should), then I'll have the best of both worlds, or at least something close enough.

Waddya guys think?
 
Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1XT (LT is out in NA now and is aging; XT should be out...sometime this year?)
 
Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1XT (LT is out in NA now and is aging; XT should be out...sometime this year?)
Click to expand...

I looked around and couldn't find much info about this. Why do you recommend it? Is it the best all-around card? And what does it have that Creative, Emu, M-Audio don't?

Thanks
 
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