Best Sound Card of All Time or So Far???

RIV@NVX · Jan 19, 2003, 10:20 AM

A3D was indeed better than EAX, maybe that's one of reasons why Creative bought it - they got scared.

LynxTwo - definitly! (it must be good for it's price)
AWE64 - old card, from the times when Creative Labs knew how to do their job well.
SB Live! - it is most frequent because of Creative's brand, not anything else (I think).

I can recommend TerraTec DMX 6fire 24/96(LT), the only thing is that it doesn't have hardware MIDI support.

Zarathustra · Jan 19, 2003, 07:43 PM

The greatest soundcard of all-time hands down is the Gravis UltraSound (GUS) and its many varients.

reno · Jan 21, 2003, 07:32 PM

I also vouche, and I know I'll get flamed, for the Audigy.

If you have good speakers, you WILL notice the difference between it and other Creative cards, even the Hercules Game Theater XP (which is pretty cool, like the breakout box). And EAX 3...wow, I can hear freaking gunshot sound reflections off walls to my side...man...turning it off DOES decrease game sound quality...Jedi Outcast sounds beautiful, and Hitman 2....all I can say is this "hear footsteps muffled in realtime, behind objects, through floors, then hear explosions from outside when it's in a concrete castle..." uh. Okay, that was long winded.

I'm proud of my stout audigy. BUT, I wish the Audigy 2 would have added more than just...minor updates. Like...emulated EAX 3 for all games would be cool...or like...EMF noise shielding to the entire card...oooo....

Gurm · Jan 21, 2003, 09:10 PM

YEAH another vote here for the GUS. I had a GUS MAX and it was AWE-SOME.

dipstick · Jan 21, 2003, 09:31 PM

Hercules GameTheater XP 0wNz

Seriously though, this is by far the best soundcard I have ever had the pleasure of owning.

Gurm · Jan 21, 2003, 11:28 PM

Game Theater XP... also known as "the card that Hercules forgot".

reno · Jan 22, 2003, 08:10 AM

also...

I like the AC97 codec, it doesn't even sound half bad for stereo (on two of my mobos). No special effects though...

RIV@NVX · Jan 22, 2003, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reno
also...

I like the AC97 codec, it doesn't even sound half bad for stereo (on two of my mobos). No special effects though...

My KT3 has Realtek ALC650... it is 5.1 - it is pretty good...

a bit off topic: VIA has decided to put Envy24PT in next generation of MoBos (very similar to Envy24HT used by TerraTec Aureon 7.1 and M-Audio Revo 7.1) - yeah (NVIDIA SoundStorm APU made them scared

)

blackdog · Jan 24, 2003, 07:17 PM

May not be the fanciest but look how long the old Soundblaster 16's have been around.

XSwiftX · Feb 12, 2003, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gurm
Game Theater XP... also known as "the card that Hercules forgot".

Actually Gurm, the latest drivers have been very very good. They have really stepped up their tech support as well.

And you can not beat the 7.1 surround sound you can get with the Hercules special version of PowerDVD and the latest drivers.

Looking forward to a time when games are using 7.1 Dolby digital!

The sound quality is excellent, and based on hearing other sound cards on friends systems, I think the sound quality is as good or superior to any other on the market.

And if you can't tell, I am a very happy Game Theatre XP owner!

RIV@NVX · Feb 12, 2003, 03:34 PM

The fact is that soundcard depends on drivers very much (even quality of it output) - only reason that I haven't got rid of my Audigy already is kX

Thikasabrik · Feb 13, 2003, 11:19 PM

Best sound card? I've used a few and I honestly couldn't say. In terms of soundcards that 'just work' with few quibbles, the SB AWE32 and AWE 64'll do that and still provide a remarkably good midi environment. Back in those days, you could record from as few or as many analog sources as you liked, upgrade the onboard midi memory, and maybe enable the onboard ide controller =). In fact.. I've often thought someone should make soundcards more like graphics cards.

Give them...

-32mb or so of on-board sound-memory (doesn't need to be that fast, 'cus sound doesn't need to be read too fast)
-As much hardware acceleration as possible - I want to see an 'SPU' here!
-Regularly updated drivers.

That way, you would eliminate the problems with crackling due to pci bus latency by buffering sounds on onboard memory. During heavy bus use by the graphics card or ide controller, sound would have no excuse for slowness. Upload the sound samples you need for games to the s-ram and have the SPU fetch 'em when needed. Like a gfx card... Just an idea. Of course, the big buffer wouldn't be used for low-latency requiring stuff...

Well anyway, the older awe cards etc no longer compete in terms of quality, simultaneous channels etc.

In that respect, CL's latest range are the best I've seen for midi, A3d 3d sound cards are great for the best 3d sound, but the cpu usage is abysmal, and it won't change now Aureal are dead. Although I am not satisfied by y SB Live Player 5.1, I've seen other cards, and they've often been worse. Someone just needs to make a really good card: good drivers, no quality issues, a decent 3d engine, and a solid audio pipeline, maintaining sample rates etc. I'd also like to see a card with some better recording capabilities, and less of the software-reliant midi. Please. That's my 2 pence anyway.

XSwiftX · Feb 14, 2003, 12:08 AM

Actually the cpu usage on the Aureal cards I own is very very low. The Diamond Monster Sound 3D had less then 4% usage at it's heaviest use, and the Aureal Vortex 2 had about 6% max usage. Never did figure out why everyone thought they had so much overhead. The initial drivers did have some problems with that but it was quickly rectified.

RIV@NVX · Feb 14, 2003, 12:39 PM

Regulary updated drivers - kX compatible cards. Good quality - Envy24(HT)-based soundcards.

Thikasabrik · Feb 14, 2003, 01:07 PM

Really? Low cpu usage? Hmmm.. Well, with half-life, which had a notoriously slow a3d adaptation (based on streamed sound instead of point or something, enabling a3d has always produced dramatic slow-downs. Othe games less-so, but half-life was the main game back then.... Switching a3d on and off produced a huge frame-rate difference...

RIV@NVX · Feb 14, 2003, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Thikasabrik
Really? Low cpu usage? Hmmm.. Well, with half-life, which had a notoriously slow a3d adaptation (based on streamed sound instead of point or something, enabling a3d has always produced dramatic slow-downs. Othe games less-so, but half-life was the main game back then.... Switching a3d on and off produced a huge frame-rate difference...

kX doesn't support A3D (yet, hopefully). And Envy24-based soundcards use Sensaura to enable it. So, A3D isn't good idea to use (anymore).

Mystik · Feb 16, 2003, 11:39 AM

I'm going to have to say SB16..
Only because I have so many memories with it. =)

But right now, my Fortissimo II > Live! that i had.

Though, i am also one of the people who hate CL for buying out Aureal.

Audio is *much* behind Video because of that.. if Aureal were still alive,
i'm pretty sure we'd all piss in our pants playing games and swearing that
there was someone outside tapping on your window, laughing quietly
under his breath as hoards of demons and monsters slowly grew out
of your backyard, rumbling your house and making you feel queezy.......

Crisler · Feb 26, 2003, 02:13 AM

Best of all time has to have been the AWE. The card was AMAZING in it's day, even on a 2.1 speaker system the difference between it and other cards of it's era where amazing. Now the cards all basically sound the same until you get to the huge speaker sets. And even then the difference is not a big deal. The AWE redefined sound in it's day. A really amazing card. In my opinion the last great card creative came up with.

Edward

gigatron · Apr 15, 2003, 12:53 AM

/me pats custom built class A amp and custom built speakers; tweeters midrange and woofers based on KEF 104/2 Reference Series and Kef 109 Reference speakers

Haha, digital shmidjital

Hej nisam znao da imamo domacina ovdje

Kako ste

BONEHEAD · Apr 15, 2003, 01:37 AM

Layla 24 is the best you can get.

But it does no good to the average user it is designed for recording & studio purposes. PCI bus master interface included or connect via the *optional* CardBus

Dynamic Range of 110dB (A-weighted) on inputs, 115dB on outputs

8 Balanced +4dBu TRS inputs

8 Balanced +4dBu TRS outputs

Headphone output with volume control

Both Alesis ADAT optical and S/PDIF digital inputs and outputs

MIDI In/Out/Thru

Word clock I/O

Esync to other Echo 24-bit products

Software Console for monitoring, metering, and setting levels

Low-latency drivers

Compatible with all popular recording/editing software

Full duplex operation (simultaneously record 8 analog channels while playing back 8 analog channels)

Will record analog and digital inputs simultaneously

Includes mixer application for audio outputs, monitor assignments, volume, and metering

Includes Steinberg Cubasis VST recording/editing software for PC and Mac!

Layla24 is now shipping with drivers for Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Mac/WDM/ASIO/GSIF

Jan 19, 2003, 10:20 AM	#31
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	A3D was indeed better than EAX, maybe that's one of reasons why Creative bought it - they got scared. LynxTwo - definitly! (it must be good for it's price) AWE64 - old card, from the times when Creative Labs knew how to do their job well. SB Live! - it is most frequent because of Creative's brand, not anything else (I think). I can recommend TerraTec DMX 6fire 24/96(LT), the only thing is that it doesn't have hardware MIDI support. __________________ -- Vedran

Jan 21, 2003, 07:32 PM	#33
reno Painlord of Ichor Join Date: May 2002 Location: bloinkin! Posts: 1,610 Rep Power: 0	asd I also vouche, and I know I'll get flamed, for the Audigy. If you have good speakers, you WILL notice the difference between it and other Creative cards, even the Hercules Game Theater XP (which is pretty cool, like the breakout box). And EAX 3...wow, I can hear freaking gunshot sound reflections off walls to my side...man...turning it off DOES decrease game sound quality...Jedi Outcast sounds beautiful, and Hitman 2....all I can say is this "hear footsteps muffled in realtime, behind objects, through floors, then hear explosions from outside when it's in a concrete castle..." uh. Okay, that was long winded. I'm proud of my stout audigy. BUT, I wish the Audigy 2 would have added more than just...minor updates. Like...emulated EAX 3 for all games would be cool...or like...EMF noise shielding to the entire card...oooo....

Jan 21, 2003, 09:10 PM	#34
Gurm Hail to the King, Baby! Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: This World AND The Next Posts: 193 Rep Power: 0	YEAH another vote here for the GUS. I had a GUS MAX and it was AWE-SOME. __________________ <Insert random "Army of Darkness" quote here...>

Jan 21, 2003, 11:28 PM	#36
Gurm Hail to the King, Baby! Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: This World AND The Next Posts: 193 Rep Power: 0	Game Theater XP... also known as "the card that Hercules forgot". __________________ <Insert random "Army of Darkness" quote here...>

Jan 22, 2003, 08:10 AM	#37
reno Painlord of Ichor Join Date: May 2002 Location: bloinkin! Posts: 1,610 Rep Power: 0	fg also... I like the AC97 codec, it doesn't even sound half bad for stereo (on two of my mobos). No special effects though...

Jan 19, 2003, 07:43 PM	#32
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	The greatest soundcard of all-time hands down is the Gravis UltraSound (GUS) and its many varients.

Jan 21, 2003, 09:31 PM	#35
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 70 System Specs	Hercules GameTheater XP 0wNz Seriously though, this is by far the best soundcard I have ever had the pleasure of owning.

Jan 24, 2003, 07:17 PM	#39
blackdog HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Frozen North of 49 Posts: 104 Rep Power: 0	May not be the fanciest but look how long the old Soundblaster 16's have been around.

Feb 12, 2003, 03:34 PM	#41
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	The fact is that soundcard depends on drivers very much (even quality of it output) - only reason that I haven't got rid of my Audigy already is kX __________________ -- Vedran

Feb 13, 2003, 11:19 PM	#42
Thikasabrik DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Best sound card? I've used a few and I honestly couldn't say. In terms of soundcards that 'just work' with few quibbles, the SB AWE32 and AWE 64'll do that and still provide a remarkably good midi environment. Back in those days, you could record from as few or as many analog sources as you liked, upgrade the onboard midi memory, and maybe enable the onboard ide controller =). In fact.. I've often thought someone should make soundcards more like graphics cards. Give them... -32mb or so of on-board sound-memory (doesn't need to be that fast, 'cus sound doesn't need to be read too fast) -As much hardware acceleration as possible - I want to see an 'SPU' here! -Regularly updated drivers. That way, you would eliminate the problems with crackling due to pci bus latency by buffering sounds on onboard memory. During heavy bus use by the graphics card or ide controller, sound would have no excuse for slowness. Upload the sound samples you need for games to the s-ram and have the SPU fetch 'em when needed. Like a gfx card... Just an idea. Of course, the big buffer wouldn't be used for low-latency requiring stuff... Well anyway, the older awe cards etc no longer compete in terms of quality, simultaneous channels etc. In that respect, CL's latest range are the best I've seen for midi, A3d 3d sound cards are great for the best 3d sound, but the cpu usage is abysmal, and it won't change now Aureal are dead. Although I am not satisfied by y SB Live Player 5.1, I've seen other cards, and they've often been worse. Someone just needs to make a really good card: good drivers, no quality issues, a decent 3d engine, and a solid audio pipeline, maintaining sample rates etc. I'd also like to see a card with some better recording capabilities, and less of the software-reliant midi. Please. That's my 2 pence anyway.

Feb 14, 2003, 12:08 AM	#43
XSwiftX DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 64 Rep Power: 0	Actually the cpu usage on the Aureal cards I own is very very low. The Diamond Monster Sound 3D had less then 4% usage at it's heaviest use, and the Aureal Vortex 2 had about 6% max usage. Never did figure out why everyone thought they had so much overhead. The initial drivers did have some problems with that but it was quickly rectified.

Feb 14, 2003, 12:39 PM	#44
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	Regulary updated drivers - kX compatible cards. Good quality - Envy24(HT)-based soundcards. __________________ -- Vedran

Feb 14, 2003, 01:07 PM	#45
Thikasabrik DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Really? Low cpu usage? Hmmm.. Well, with half-life, which had a notoriously slow a3d adaptation (based on streamed sound instead of point or something, enabling a3d has always produced dramatic slow-downs. Othe games less-so, but half-life was the main game back then.... Switching a3d on and off produced a huge frame-rate difference...

Feb 16, 2003, 11:39 AM	#47
Mystik i'm an errand. Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 237 Rep Power: 0	I'm going to have to say SB16.. Only because I have so many memories with it. =) But right now, my Fortissimo II > Live! that i had. Though, i am also one of the people who hate CL for buying out Aureal. Audio is much behind Video because of that.. if Aureal were still alive, i'm pretty sure we'd all piss in our pants playing games and swearing that there was someone outside tapping on your window, laughing quietly under his breath as hoards of demons and monsters slowly grew out of your backyard, rumbling your house and making you feel queezy....... __________________ For as long as the sun shines, there will always be darkness. -- me.

Feb 26, 2003, 02:13 AM	#48
Crisler DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Desoto, IL Posts: 15 Rep Power: 0	Best of all time has to have been the AWE. The card was AMAZING in it's day, even on a 2.1 speaker system the difference between it and other cards of it's era where amazing. Now the cards all basically sound the same until you get to the huge speaker sets. And even then the difference is not a big deal. The AWE redefined sound in it's day. A really amazing card. In my opinion the last great card creative came up with. Edward

Apr 15, 2003, 12:53 AM	#49
gigatron DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada Posts: 44 Rep Power: 0	/me pats custom built class A amp and custom built speakers; tweeters midrange and woofers based on KEF 104/2 Reference Series and Kef 109 Reference speakers Haha, digital shmidjital Hej nisam znao da imamo domacina ovdje Kako ste

Apr 15, 2003, 01:37 AM	#50
BONEHEAD DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: TEXAS Posts: 182 Rep Power: 0	Layla 24 is the best you can get. But it does no good to the average user it is designed for recording & studio purposes. PCI bus master interface included or connect via the optional CardBus Dynamic Range of 110dB (A-weighted) on inputs, 115dB on outputs 8 Balanced +4dBu TRS inputs 8 Balanced +4dBu TRS outputs Headphone output with volume control Both Alesis ADAT optical and S/PDIF digital inputs and outputs MIDI In/Out/Thru Word clock I/O Esync to other Echo 24-bit products Software Console for monitoring, metering, and setting levels Low-latency drivers Compatible with all popular recording/editing software Full duplex operation (simultaneously record 8 analog channels while playing back 8 analog channels) Will record analog and digital inputs simultaneously Includes mixer application for audio outputs, monitor assignments, volume, and metering Includes Steinberg Cubasis VST recording/editing software for PC and Mac! Layla24 is now shipping with drivers for Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Mac/WDM/ASIO/GSIF __________________ [COLOR=red]Xp Pro Sp2 Amd Athlon 2400+ O/C 2800+ (2250 GHZ)Antec True 550 ps Dragon Orb 3 7000rpm 2 80mm Case fans [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]2 40mm case fans[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]1.5 Gig Ecc Ram Msi KT2 COMBO[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]Adaptec 29320A-R[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]8 Seagate 36 gig ultra 320 10k [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]1 Toshiba SD-M1401 [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]1 Plextor 124TS cdrw [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]2 Nec4551a 1 Samsung TS-H552U 1 Nec3520a[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]Ati AIW Radeon 8500 128mb SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]Midiland sm7401 5.1 Hp 4C scanner VPR 17'' Lcd[/COLOR] [COLOR=red]Apc Back-ups RS1500[/COLOR] [COLOR=#ff0000][/COLOR] [COLOR=#ff0000]Taken by the ex maybe to return soon[/COLOR]