Looking for a soundcard

9

940guy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2007
Messages
131
Hi im looking for a good but lower price sound card my friend has a xf-i and i love it.
The uses would be for gaming a music and a few movies but that is all. No sound recording or studio work.
Could you you guys show me some good cards?
price range is 0~150
thanks
 
I would say go with the Auzentech Forte since that card is good for gaming, gets very good reviews, and costs $150. I just recently purchased the HT Omega Claro+ from Newegg but that costs $175 which is better for music than anything else.
 
+1 on the Auzen Forte, I use it for music and gaming, drives my jvc harx700's quite well with the headphone amp, sounds great. I replaced my older X-Fi Xtreme Music with the Forte and was impressed, though I must admit the older X-Fi was by no means a crap card for 40-50 bucks. Cheers.
 
940guy said:
Hi im looking for a good but lower price sound card my friend has a xf-i and i love it.
The uses would be for gaming a music and a few movies but that is all. No sound recording or studio work.
Could you you guys show me some good cards?
price range is 0~150
thanks
Click to expand...

asus xonar d2x and essence stx can both be had for under $120 if you don't mind open box.
 
Kraeshok said:
Seriously, stay off the X-FI series unless you plan on using Windows XP for 1-2 more years (not that you should). They are outdated and with Vista and W7 not needed at all as you lose much of the "hype" and "goodness" when it comes to gaming.
Click to expand...

That's not true at all, I've been using an X-Fi Xtreme Music (and more recently a Forte) since Vista came out. Creative's ALchemy program makes it easy to turn on EAX in games in both Vista and 7.

Creative certainly has issues with software bloat, but they keep their products updated.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
That's not true at all, I've been using an X-Fi Xtreme Music (and more recently a Forte) since Vista came out. Creative's ALchemy program makes it easy to turn on EAX in games in both Vista and 7.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Works great just like it does under Win XP
 
DeathFromBelow said:
That's not true at all, I've been using an X-Fi Xtreme Music (and more recently a Forte) since Vista came out. Creative's ALchemy program makes it easy to turn on EAX in games in both Vista and 7.

Creative certainly has issues with software bloat, but they keep their products updated.
Click to expand...

Do new games even support EAX any more? I haven't really looked, but I can't seem to recall that option on some of the newer titles I've played. Maybe I just need to pay better attention...
 
Forceman said:
Do new games even support EAX any more? I haven't really looked, but I can't seem to recall that option on some of the newer titles I've played. Maybe I just need to pay better attention...
Click to expand...

EAX is considered deprecated for new development, Creative suggests developers to move to OpenAL and go that route

there are "modern" games which support EAX 4/5, but not every game supports EAX (they never had/will have 100% coverage)

this isn't to say that X-Fi has no more advantages over onboard, its still a very powerful DSP, and can still demonstrate a performance lead over onboard solutions in applications where it can leverage that power (just like Xonar can), not to mention that generally you're talking about a higher quality board than onboard sound (again, just like Xonar)

honestly through all of the audio cluster**** that is Vista (and this is 110% Microsoft's fault, not Creative's, because it bit everyone else too (and Creative isn't the slowest to fix it either)), one "advantage" is that leveled everything, Xonar and X-Fi can basically exist on the same playing field, neither is a bad choice, its basically like ATI vs nVidia, each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but overall, I'd put them more or less on the same level (and if anyone wants to continue that analogy, Auzentech is Gainward :D)
 
Asus Xonar DX - cheap, high quality DACs and will let you equalize/adjust the wazzu out of your sound waves to get settings you like.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
That's not true at all, I've been using an X-Fi Xtreme Music (and more recently a Forte) since Vista came out. Creative's ALchemy program makes it easy to turn on EAX in games in both Vista and 7.

Creative certainly has issues with software bloat, but they keep their products updated.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that you have to mode switch, ALchemy does not work properly in any other mode then Game (causes huge memory leaks in Entertainment mode and OpenAL refuses to initialize properly). By switching to Game mode you lose fidelity (you can easily hear the difference on good quality music). Also to switch you really need to turn off every audio based program first or suffer driver possibly going crap on you and e.g. forgetting what a crossover signal is. In XP at least you can get hardware acceleration for games in Entertainment mode e.g. ( 64 vs 128 channels for 3d audio).
Now how often does a gamer remember to turn of his/her music and swap between modes to get it to work properly without screwing over the driver and creative software. I am trying to say you are adding an additional 30 seconds of fixing before you can turn a game on, is ALchemy really worth that much to anyone?
The Xonar's are just much less hassle and can do emulated EAX 3/4/5 if that matters (yes it's not as good as the pure stuff from Creative but it's there) and doesn't need to "mode switch" if you want best quality for watching movies or listening to music while you have your game minimized.
 
Kraeshok said:
You're forgetting that you have to mode switch, ALchemy does not work properly in any other mode then Game (causes huge memory leaks in Entertainment mode and OpenAL refuses to initialize properly). By switching to Game mode you lose fidelity (you can easily hear the difference on good quality music).
Click to expand...

I've been replaying Star Wars: KotoR I/II over the last couple of days, there are no problems playing games in entertainment mode for extended periods as far as I can tell. Perhaps there was at one point, but I haven't seen any of the problems you're talking about with the latest drivers and ALchemy.

obobski said:
honestly through all of the audio cluster**** that is Vista (and this is 110% Microsoft's fault, not Creative's, because it bit everyone else too (and Creative isn't the slowest to fix it either))
Click to expand...

How the hell is Vista an "audio clusterfuck?" Its more stable, and EAX still works just fine. It took Creative a couple months to get out a decent Vista driver, but I think we all know that wasn't Microsoft's fault.

Getting back to the original point of the thread:
940guy said:
Hi im looking for a good but lower price sound card my friend has a xf-i and i love it.
The uses would be for gaming a music and a few movies but that is all. No sound recording or studio work.
Could you you guys show me some good cards?
price range is 0~150
thanks
Click to expand...
Get an X-Fi (check out the Auzentech Forte) if you're going to mostly be playing games. If you're more interested in music and movies there are other options like the HT Omega Claro or the Asus Xonar cards (but the Forte is still a great card).
 
DeathFromBelow said:
I've been replaying Star Wars: KotoR I/II over the last couple of days, there are no problems playing games in entertainment mode for extended periods as far as I can tell. Perhaps there was at one point, but I haven't seen any of the problems you're talking about with the latest drivers and ALchemy.
Click to expand...
Look at the DSound.log in your SW:KotoR DIRs if you're not in Game mode it will look like this.
Code: 
Failed to init OpenAL

Using Creative Software 3D Library
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Also keep track of your KotoR's memory use over and hour or two and compare it to what it looks like when you're in Game mode and actually getting hardware sound.
 
Kraeshok said:
Also to switch you really need to turn off every audio based program first or suffer driver possibly going crap on you and e.g. forgetting what a crossover signal is.
Click to expand...

Can honestly say I have never had that issue with my own X-Fi and Vista. I did have a problem back on XP when I switched modes, Teamspeak 2 needed to be closed and reopened before it would work again.
 
How the hell is Vista an "audio clusterfuck?"
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I think he's alluding the a certain feature XP has that Vista doesnt, cant remember what its called though.
 
Met-AL said:
Can honestly say I have never had that issue with my own X-Fi and Vista. I did have a problem back on XP when I switched modes, Teamspeak 2 needed to be closed and reopened before it would work again.
Click to expand...
I think you haven't run the base test (with and without crossover) in the THX console and tested your 5.1 speaker setup after switching etc.. If you dare to play around with the card (not saying purposely breaking it, just normal use and checking for fidelity on every mode) I am sure you'll find a lot of funny things happening. Also don't use the latest driver unless you want a delayed shutdown of up to 5 minutes (15 page thread about it).
 
If anyone is interested I have an Auzentech X-Meridian with upgraded opamp that I am looking to get rid of. Doesn't work in OSX so I got an EMU 0404. Sound quality is excellent, the best Auzentech card for music in fact.
 
Kraeshok said:
Look at the DSound.log in your SW:KotoR DIRs if you're not in Game mode it will look like this.
Code: 
Failed to init OpenAL

Using Creative Software 3D Library
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Failed to init OpenAL
Also keep track of your KotoR's memory use over and hour or two and compare it to what it looks like when you're in Game mode and actually getting hardware sound.
Click to expand...

I'm not seeing those errors, and I must have played for 4+ hours (god KOTOR is fun) in entertainment mode with no issues. If there is a memory leak it isn't a big deal. The only real differences I've noticed between the game and entertainment modes is that entertainment mode doesn't support EAX 4/5.

I just noticed that the Forte (and I assume the newer Creative cards) come with a utility called "Creative AutoMode Switcher" to automatically switch to game mode whenever specified applications are started, so you don't ever have to switch modes if you can be bothered to spend a couple minutes setting it up.
 
What does your dsound.log say when you're in entertainment mode then (or maybe you think you are in entertainment mode but actually are in Game mode when you play the game)? :eek:
 
Kraeshok said:
You're forgetting that you have to mode switch, ALchemy does not work properly in any other mode then Game (causes huge memory leaks in Entertainment mode and OpenAL refuses to initialize properly). By switching to Game mode you lose fidelity (you can easily hear the difference on good quality music). Also to switch you really need to turn off every audio based program first or suffer driver possibly going crap on you and e.g. forgetting what a crossover signal is. In XP at least you can get hardware acceleration for games in Entertainment mode e.g. ( 64 vs 128 channels for 3d audio).
Now how often does a gamer remember to turn of his/her music and swap between modes to get it to work properly without screwing over the driver and creative software. I am trying to say you are adding an additional 30 seconds of fixing before you can turn a game on, is ALchemy really worth that much to anyone?
The Xonar's are just much less hassle and can do emulated EAX 3/4/5 if that matters (yes it's not as good as the pure stuff from Creative but it's there) and doesn't need to "mode switch" if you want best quality for watching movies or listening to music while you have your game minimized.
Click to expand...

So true! I've had an x-fi before and had to deal with that shit way too much.
 
+1 Xonar DX...sounds way better than my x-fi titanium pro did.
 
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