Sound Card Recommendations

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tandino
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Sound Card Recommendations

Post by tandino »

Righty ho, I did a search for this with the funky 5punk search plugin for firefox but i'm fucked if I can be arsed trawling through 72 pages of results from that particular search...

Can anyone recommend a good sound card? The price isn't a huge issue (I reckon about £40 is a good amount to spend but less or a little more is fine too) and I'm not too fussed if it's Internal or external.

I currently have a Tsunami 5.1 speaker system, which is the dog's bollocks as far as I'm concerned and is only let down by my dirt cheap Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card. I think the speakers deserve an upgrade. I'd look myself but haven't a clue as to what they'd sound like so I'd rather get a personal recommendation. Cheers folks! :)
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Dr. kitteny berk
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Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

the lives are really nice cards, if you're set on an upgrade either consider an audigy 2 (basically the same chip, but new and slightly nicer) or an X-Fi Xtreme Music.

or (if you can handle using one soundcard for gaming, and another for everything else) something along the lines of a HDA Digital X-Mystique will probably sound better.

Unfortunately, the HDA (and most audiophile-aimed soundcards) uses the CPU for most of its processing power, making them a poor choice for gaming as it'll pull system perfomance right down.


In short, keep the live or buy an audigy 2 or X-Fi Xtreme Music on the cheap.

(if you decide to buy something new, sell the live to some soundcardless muppet on here :) )
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deject
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Post by deject »

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:In short, keep the live or buy an audigy 2 or X-Fi Xtreme Music on the cheap.
:above: that
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Lateralus
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Post by Lateralus »

Dr. kitteny berk wrote: (if you decide to buy something new, sell the live to some soundcardless muppet on here :) )
Me! Me! Sell it to me! :)
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pixie pie
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Post by pixie pie »

Lateralus wrote:
Me! Me! Sell it to me! :)
This basically shows you'd be allright keeping it.
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Lateralus
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Post by Lateralus »

pixie pie wrote:
This basically shows you'd be allright keeping it.
More accurately, it shows that its better than onboard sound. However, it is a decent card for the notes.
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tandino
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Hmm

Post by tandino »

I get the impression that my card is better than I think... It just seems like it could be better. It's a standard Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1, not X-Fi or Audigy or anything.

I'd ideally like one with up to date drivers - my current drivers are the latest from 2003 and I'm having issues with sound distortion and lack of bass. Plus I'm pretty sure It's affecting performance in certain games. Unless there's a patch or something somewhere for things. Maybe I'm just itchy for an upgrade.

Either way thanks all for the input and I'll update on potential selling if it becomes an option. Though checking online, they seem pretty dirt cheap anyway.
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