Next Gen Sound Cards?

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AMD_Gamer

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I was just thinking the other day about why Creative has not come out with a new line of Audio cards since back in 2005-2006 with the Xfi series? Is there anything on the horizen or is there just no room for improvement in sound cards?
 
Windows handling of Audio with Vista & Windows 7 pretty much killed the discrete sound card industry for most people. There still are benefits to a high end soundcard, but most people can get by with the onboard these days and have no complaints.
 
Invest in a good audio receiver, and just send all your audio data through spdif or hdmi. Computers are just a rats nest of electrical interfence which muddies your sound.
 
weuntouchable said:
Windows handling of Audio with Vista & Windows 7 pretty much killed the discrete sound card industry for most people. There still are benefits to a high end soundcard, but most people can get by with the onboard these days and have no complaints.
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Discrete sound cards do not offer much to the receiver and amp powered crowd.
 
Windows 7s onboard spdif is incredibly flexible and has a huge slew of sample rates and bit depth...right now I'm running 24bit/88.2KHz...very nice :)
 
i tried playing games using my SPDIF output instead of my creative xfi.. but games seems to be only stereo when using SPDIF instead of 5.1 on my creative (using analog output, 3 mini to 2RCA connector cables)
 
SPDIF can't pass uncompressed multichannel. You need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive to get multichannel through spdif.
 
Snufykat said:
Discrete sound cards do not offer much to the receiver and amp powered crowd.
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Granted there are going to be many higher-end receiver's out there, but when I still had it, my ol' Claro+ sound card was a step up in audio over my htr5940.
 
astrallite said:
SPDIF can't pass uncompressed multichannel. You need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive to get multichannel through spdif.
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Most newer on board audio solutions do Dolby Digital Live now. My ALC889A does DDL to my receiver for 5.1 surround sound perfectly. I don't see any reason for a for a sound card now unless all you listen through is headphones.
 
so as long as the card has DD Live. you are good?

What is the difference between ones that are $80 and $200?
 
Pretty much just more features, better analog output. Like everyone else has mentioned, if you're using digital coaxial/optical to a receiver just stick to what you have if it provides Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Connect
 
My question is, does DDL detect whether you have PCM or multichannel, and switch on/off respectively, or is it always on?

It would suck if you had to manually switch it =\
 
astrallite said:
My question is, does DDL detect whether you have PCM or multichannel, and switch on/off respectively, or is it always on?

It would suck if you had to manually switch it =\
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Your receiver will determine it once it receives the DDL signal. My Yamaha auto detects it.
 
Linezilla said:
Invest in a good audio receiver, and just send all your audio data through spdif or hdmi. Computers are just a rats nest of electrical interfence which muddies your sound.
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the audio through spdif doesn't always work that way. lots of boards only output 2 channel.
 
Well, if you only care about 2 channels, then there are DAC's from even the early 90's that give better sound quality than expensive consumer grade PC soundcards (and for less money too eg: Meridian 203 or 263 on used market these things last forever).
 
AMD_Gamer said:
I was just thinking the other day about why Creative has not come out with a new line of Audio cards since back in 2005-2006 with the Xfi series? Is there anything on the horizen or is there just no room for improvement in sound cards?
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Ya, I also noticed this and did some surveys about Creative, Auzentech, and ASUS Xonar soundcards.

Compared with Auzentech and ASUS Xonar, it has been a long time since Creative launched its last model and no big progress could be detected. The reason could be that Creative seems to shift its business operation from soundcard innovation to chips vending (selling to Auzentech and, you might have noticed, some small audio-related companies).

For a Creative fan…it’s a kind of difficult to be convinced by Creative’s efforts/promises to dedication to audio cards improvement. But if it's a trend...just let it be.
 
Well... assuming the new Creative HD card is glitch-free, then I commend them for finally catching up (also assuming it performs at least as well as the auzentech / asus competition using rightmark analyzer).

But... I'd really like to see something different for the high-end home-theater market.

I have an older EMU-1820m, made by creative. It features 8 balanced analog inputs/outputs, a mic pre-amp, headphone amp, and completely re-routable inputs and outputs for custom signal processing.

What I'd like is a card whose sensitive electronics remain outside the PC with 8+ outputs, expandability for more outputs (maybe up to 18-32 total), upgraded processing power and maybe memory (maybe an upgraded version of what the X-fi line already features), and more developed (USEFUL) support for the latest HD-audio (for movies) standards.

The reasoning for such a card: It's necessary for a home theater whose signal processing must be adaptable and digital (digital x-overs, time alignment, EQ, convolution if need be... etc). If you run a 3-way front-stage, for instance, then that's 7 channels for just the Left, Right, and Bass. I'd actually want multiple bass channels for more control... I could make use of 18 channels (so 18 balanced analog outputs) for a "5.3" setup.

I'd pay $500-$1000 for a setup like that (depending upon several factors), and more for the expanded options. Obviously I'd want them to use a good DAC like the PCM 1794 creative chose for this card, or possibly an ESS Sabre DAC as found in Twisted Pear's buffalo DAC line. I'd also want the setup to be somewhat moddable (I like swappable op-amps).

heh... yea there are some products out that can do this... they cost way too much and fall short of my demands most of the time. My EMU-1820m is actually the best (and cheapest) compromise I've come across for a 2.1 or 2.2 setup.

Edit: and no... I'm not of the opinion that all this nitpicking over the DACs will actually result in a perceptible difference... I just like my equipment to be "technically better" for the sake of satisfying my OCD-leanings.
 
Windows handling of Audio with Vista & Windows 7 pretty much killed the discrete sound card industry for most people. There still are benefits to a high end soundcard, but most people can get by with the onboard these days and have no complaints.
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That's because most people probably haven't heard of OpenAL or Creative ALchemy which restores EAX and 3D for Windows Vista.
 
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