Help choosing a sound card

A

alexthebored

Weaksauce
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Feb 4, 2008
Messages
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To be paired with the Senn 280 pros I'm ordering.

Needs to be sub $70CAD. I've been told to ignore anything Creative and go for something Envy24 based, while others have said that it's worth getting an Audigy 2 or 4 off of Ebay.

So, my choices at the moment are
TurtleBeach Montego
Chaintech AV-710
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 (can't find one in my budget however)
Audigy 2 ZS (most likely used off of EBay)
Audigy 4 (again used)

Input appreciated. Thanks :)
 
From the list you've provided, and If running XP I'd go for the Audigy 2zs, if running Vista I'd go AV-710.
 
All of those cards suck, really. They either use way outdated chipsets and have poor audio quality or does not comply with your needs.

You want a 70$ sound card ? get a Ht Omega Striker with the CMI8770 chipset.

The Chaintech card is so old, you can't find it anymore. If you want a really cheap card, get this with the CMI8768+ chipset. However, there is possibility than your motherboard may have equivalent or better sound than this dinausor card.

However, if you can find a Sondigo Inferno or a Bluegear B-Inspirer, I would go for it.
 
noxlord said:
All of those cards suck, really. They either use way outdated chipsets and have poor audio quality or does not comply with your needs.
Click to expand...
The EMU10K2 is hardly outdated. It can only handle 64 hardware voices unlike the 20K1's 128, it doesn't have the 20K1's logic-expensive resampling engine, and it can't handle all of the (rarely and/or never used) EAX 5.0-exclusive effects like EAX Voice and PurePath, but nearly everything else is still there, functional, and still good.

The 10K2 is only outdated if you believe the 20K1 is as well. The Audigy 2 is still a decent card that offers similar capability and analog quality as the X-Fi. Creative would just rather you didn't know that.
 
is this for music or gaming? for gaming no contest- get the audigy. otherwise, an envy based card is good.
p.s. the av-710 is no longer supported and current drivers dont give it 3d sound or an eq
 
It will be for both music and gaming. More emphasis on music however, as that's what gets more of my time.
 
Oh and for what it's worth , I'm upgrading from onboard sound on a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra. From what I've read, people have seen noticeable increases even jumping to the Audigy SE.
 
I like my Revolution 7.1, the sound quality is superb. I find the drivers to be a bit lacking in the features department, but if you don't mind that then the Revolution might be for you. Unlike Creative the drivers and software are rock solid - it could be worth the few extra dollars to pick up a Revolution 5.1.

Update:

It seems like Via has continued support for the Envy24T chipset, where M-Audio has not kept up to date. The latest drivers are here:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1010&SubCatID=107
 
Unfortunately the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 seems to steep for my budget after shipping and tax. It's about $20 more expensive in Canada than in the US. What's the next best thing?
 
alexthebored said:
Unfortunately the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 seems to steep for my budget after shipping and tax. It's about $20 more expensive in Canada than in the US. What's the next best thing?
Click to expand...

I see the 5.1 around for CDN$85, which isn't too shabby. You can get the 7.1 for about $20 more. I guess for anything less then that you're considering an Audigy of some sort, it's the only option.

http://www.savedbytechnology.com/cgi-bin/prodsearchlcnew.pl?text_string=revolution%205.1
 
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