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Wow!

C

Craftish

Gawd
Joined
Jul 24, 2002
Messages
675
I just bought a Chaintech AV710: by FAR the best $25 I've ever spent! Upgrading from an Audigy ZS 2 this thing sounds absolutely amazing! I highly, highly recommend this card. You absolutely will notice a huge difference with a good output setup (I have HD 580s, amped of course).
 
i didndt know the 710 is suppose to sound better than the audigy 2 i just ordered one of ebay a few days ago
upgrading from an audigy 1
 
It sounds much better, in fact. If only it were better suited to gaming as well.
 
Quality goes up even more if you enable the high quality output on the AV710 which uses the Wolfson DAC to output to the rears. It is by far, the cleanest sounding soundcard up to the $125 range. these are just my opinions though, you'll have people say the audigy2 is better sound quality wise.
 
so is it fair to say the av 710 and audigy 2 sounds are about even?
where does the E emu 4040 fall ?
 
Can you adjust the volume of the individual sound channels on that chaintech sound card?
 
stunna said:
so is it fair to say the av 710 and audigy 2 sounds are about even?
where does the E emu 4040 fall ?
Click to expand...

its not really fair to compare these two cards. the av710 has really awesome sound quality and if all you want is to listen to music in stereo (2 channels), this card is great, especially if you have a nice amp/headphone setup.

the audigy2 is great for games. it has hardware accelerated eax that makes it good for gaming. when i use my av710 in counterstrike, i experience a 3-5 fps drop, for what its worth. i keep my audigy 1 in my computer for that reason.
 
ericlikeseatin said:
Quality goes up even more if you enable the high quality output on the AV710 which uses the Wolfson DAC to output to the rears. It is by far, the cleanest sounding soundcard up to the $125 range. these are just my opinions though, you'll have people say the audigy2 is better sound quality wise.
Click to expand...
How do you enable high quality output? Just plug the phones into the rear channel and switch the front and rear channels? How does one go about switching the channels? I haven't investigated the drivers for the AV710 really at all, is it simply an option in there (I'm not at home atm to check)?
 
There is a high-sample rate option in the drivers.

BTW, I just reinstalled my M-Audio Revo. While the AV-710 is an excellent bang/buck stereo source, the M-audio smokes it, regarding quality. The AV 710 is good, but it's not a miracle. Things can always get better.
 
stunna said:
so is it fair to say the av 710 and audigy 2 sounds are about even?
where does the E emu 4040 fall ?
Click to expand...

I thought the A2 ZS was a bit better. I used it through a pair of Beyerdynamic DT440s and a Pimeta. Thought the AV710 was a bit flat and boring compared to the A2 ZS. After the mods on the A2 though, it was no contest. I wanted to see what the hype was about and for ~25, it was hard not to. For the price though, it's definitely a bargain for straight up music listening.
 
strid3r said:
I thought the A2 ZS was a bit better. I used it through a pair of Beyerdynamic DT440s and a Pimeta. Thought the AV710 was a bit flat and boring compared to the A2 ZS. After the mods on the A2 though, it was no contest. I wanted to see what the hype was about and for ~25, it was hard not to. For the price though, it's definitely a bargain for straight up music listening.
Click to expand...
Could be setup/music dependent. While the A2 is certainly brighter, I personally find the AV710 has a depth of sound and really captures subtleties better. If you listen to/like a lot of bass and/or power (so all you Grado owners) I could definitely see the A2 being preferable.
 
Craftish said:
I just bought a Chaintech AV710: by FAR the best $25 I've ever spent! Upgrading from an Audigy ZS 2 this thing sounds absolutely amazing! I highly, highly recommend this card. You absolutely will notice a huge difference with a good output setup (I have HD 580s, amped of course).
Click to expand...


psh, it's all in your head. i've owned both, and there really isn't much of a difference. in fact, the a2zs is a bit more refined, and less cloudly in the midrage, but the lows are a bit emphasized.
 
ericlikeseatin said:
Quality goes up even more if you enable the high quality output on the AV710 which uses the Wolfson DAC to output to the rears. It is by far, the cleanest sounding soundcard up to the $125 range. these are just my opinions though, you'll have people say the audigy2 is better sound quality wise.
Click to expand...

hah, yeah right. emu0404, maudio revos, audigy2zs all sound better than the av710. don't be silly.
 
hmm..maybe i should have been more conservative with my pricey range; the emu is indeed better. but to compare the audigy2s with the av710 isnt really fair since they are soundcards that serve different purposes. in any event, for $25 you cant go wrong. :)
 
ok so the audigy cards are brighter than some of the emu cards
what sound card just plays the music back with a flat response
i dont see the point of gettin monitor speakers/headphones if the sound card doenst reproduce the music back as it was recorded

and i want to only compare in music listening(dont really care much for gaming)
 
The point of getting good speakers is that they have teh most difficult job to do technically. They are the actual thing that you listen to, and if they aren't of a decent quality, none of the components upstream matter. Even average onboard sound will sound pretty good on a quality pair of speakers/headphones. At average budget levels, it is generally best to get the best speakers/headphones that you can, and try to scrape by on the remainder.
 
GodsMadClown said:
The point of getting good speakers is that they have teh most difficult job to do technically. They are the actual thing that you listen to, and if they aren't of a decent quality, none of the components upstream matter. Even average onboard sound will sound pretty good on a quality pair of speakers/headphones. At average budget levels, it is generally best to get the best speakers/headphones that you can, and try to scrape by on the remainder.
Click to expand...
those top dollar speakers aren't gonna shine without a good signal though. But you're right, it is a balancing act and it'll be different for everyone's different needs/wants

Just to clarify, this sound card (av710) is not good in games? I have a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Gamer and I would like something better to go with my future HD-485's.
 
Since listening to anything on headphones sounds like its playing in a closet, I always have a little reverb on globally with the Audigy 2 ZS...it makes all the sounds have depth and just sounds better than without.
 
Yeah, I'm confused by the Av710 being said that its not good for gaming. What does this mean? Just a simple FPS drop? Or is there something else?

My cousin needs a new soundcard, he plays some games (Soldier of Fortune 2, and CS Source) but mainly listens to music. Would it be worthy upgrade over his SB Live?
 
Skrying said:
Yeah, I'm confused by the Av710 being said that its not good for gaming. What does this mean? Just a simple FPS drop? Or is there something else?

My cousin needs a new soundcard, he plays some games (Soldier of Fortune 2, and CS Source) but mainly listens to music. Would it be worthy upgrade over his SB Live?
Click to expand...

at least on my system, using the av710, i had a slight fps drop when i ran the cs:source benchmarking tool. it was around 2-4 fps if i remember correctly.
 
ericlikeseatin said:
at least on my system, using the av710, i had a slight fps drop when i ran the cs:source benchmarking tool. it was around 2-4 fps if i remember correctly.
Click to expand...
fps isn't a problem....i'll have a 6800GT soon but i wanna know how it sounds in CS:S.
 
if you use the High output on the AV710 while playing CSS, its going to sound weird.... atleast on mine it does. since i still have my A2ZS, i decided to run dual soundcards, and it works quite nicely. i have my AV-710 for music, then i have my A2ZS for playing CSS :D.
 
Bleed said:
if you use the High output on the AV710 while playing CSS, its going to sound weird.... atleast on mine it does. since i still have my A2ZS, i decided to run dual soundcards, and it works quite nicely. i have my AV-710 for music, then i have my A2ZS for playing CSS :D.
Click to expand...

so basically have a fps drop means the sounds will be noticeably weird/hallow/lower tone? i was thinking of the av710 too but i don't want my sound to be weird when i play games. should i look elsewhere?
 
LunchboX3904 said:
fps isn't a problem....i'll have a 6800GT soon but i wanna know how it sounds in CS:S.
Click to expand...

FWIW, the fps drop due to the AV-710 is because the CPU has to work harder, it has nothing to do with your GPU.

Also, PSA: the av-710 needs to be amped or it will sound worse then the a2.
 
Talonz said:
FWIW, the fps drop due to the AV-710 is because the CPU has to work harder, it has nothing to do with your GPU.

Also, PSA: the av-710 needs to be amped or it will sound worse then the a2.
Click to expand...

thats not necessarily true - the av710 only has to be amped if you use enable the high sample mode (which then outputs to a line-out out of speakers 7,8 and the digital out). if you use the regular mode, the signal is then amped like an ordinary sound card.
 
Talonz said:
FWIW, the fps drop due to the AV-710 is because the CPU has to work harder, it has nothing to do with your GPU.

Also, PSA: the av-710 needs to be amped or it will sound worse then the a2.
Click to expand...

i know.....but how high do you think the fps is gonna be on a 6800GT. I think there will be some room for a few fps.
 
rightnow the main reason I bought an audigy 2 zs was DVD-audio decoding...soundcard's cheaper than buying a DVD-A deck.
 
ericlikeseatin said:
thats not necessarily true - the av710 only has to be amped if you use enable the high sample mode (which then outputs to a line-out out of speakers 7,8 and the digital out). if you use the regular mode, the signal is then amped like an ordinary sound card.
Click to expand...

There's honestly little other reason to buy the card, but yes, you're right.

LunchboX3904 said:
i know.....but how high do you think the fps is gonna be on a 6800GT. I think there will be some room for a few fps.
Click to expand...

True, but lets say you have a 2.0a P4, the fps drop is gonna hurt.
 
very true.....no need to worry, i have an A64 3000+ winchester that is showing itself to be a rather good overclocker. :) I still think i'm gonna stick with an Audigy 2 though. I want a well rounded card rather than one that will do better on some things but not good in others.
 
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