Suggestions for soundcard

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rivacom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
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I am in the market for a sound card that will suit my needs. It will be used for gaming mostly. I am currently looking at the Creative X-FI Xtreme Music Refurb from creative's site. But I'm curious, the port on that card, is it the same as the port that is used on the Razor barracuda 5.1 headset? I ultimately looking for the best gaming card, that is under $100 and if possible handle both the analog 5.1 speaker set(Logtiech x540) and the barracuda Headphones without switching them back and forth.
 
Try to find an X-Fi Titanium for about 100 bucks, much better than the music version. Also, there's a good number of threads on the first page of this forum with a wealth of information on sound cards.
 
I looked at teh music because of the port(which looks like a gameport) is that the same thing as the port for the Razor barracuda headphones? I'm just trying to figure out a way to plug two 5.1 one devices in at the time, other wise I'd probably pick up something like the titanium.
 
I just received the Striker today for $63 used and it is absolutely amazing. I just finished a 15 minute session of TF2. Wow. The virtual surround sound is absolutely mind boggling. How the hell do they do that??!?! I can seriously envision the enemy and allies around me in a 3D field. I wonder if it gets better with the Claro...
 
Hmm, I would never have really considered an HT Omega card for gaming. I'll have to take a more serious look now.
 
I just got my omega stiker hooked up and its alot better than onboard.I havn't messed around with all the settings yet but just default the sountage is alot better.Clarity has increased and bass has tightened and increased.So far a very nice soundcard for under $100.
 
Btw, I just want to put a disclaimer on my HT Omega Striker eval... I have a really really awesome headphone and headphone amp. If you have lesser headphones, then you might not feel it as much.
 
It can be...if the games you're playing use EAX higher than 2.0 to begin with. Valve games don't, and plenty of others don't either.
 
Basically, a soundcard is good for games and movies if it has a good (virtual) surround sound capability AND if it has a good quality DAC (for above average audio fidelity).

If you're playing games with EAX, X-Fi is definitely the chipset you want to look into (X-Fi Forte or X-Fi Prelude should be pretty amazing... stay away from Creative).
 
hey all, i was thinking about replacing my old soundcard sound blaster live 24bit with OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 Channels 24-bit.
My question is that, how much of difference will i notice with Logitech X-530 speakers. i am assuming that the speakers are analog in this case.
 
Anything by HT Omega or Auzentech is beautiful. I've owned both, never the high end of HT Omega but I have Auzentech. However IMO the Auzen's are a bit overprocessed for my liking, though I'm sure that's tunable via their swapable OPAmps(Infact I promise it) However the sound quality I get from my Striker is among the best I've heard, period. I can only imagine the higher end cards are better.
 
rivacom said:
I looked at teh music because of the port(which looks like a gameport) is that the same thing as the port for the Razor barracuda headphones? I'm just trying to figure out a way to plug two 5.1 one devices in at the time, other wise I'd probably pick up something like the titanium.
Click to expand...

The port on the X-Fi is not a gameport. It's for a proprietary breakout box like the one bundled with the X-Fi Elite Pro. If you're getting an X-Fi, skip the 5.1 headsets and get a good set of stereo headphones. The X-Fi is known for its virtual headphone surround algorithm.

The best of both worlds for soundcards (music and gaming) would be an X-Fi based Auzentech card, such as the Prelude. You get all the benefits that the X-Fi has in gaming AND good analog circuitry. My opinion anyway ;)
 
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