Any experience with buying sound cards? suggest please !

[rohanbee]

Hi all,
I am in the process of buying quite a few things including a Laptop and a sound card among other for my desktop. Since i dont have the time to research i would like some one to tell me a good sound card (As i have no idea why one card is better than the other and what does 24bit or khz mean)

Price range:- Rs.4000-5000/- (you can give me $ prices as well since i will be abroad for some time)

I listen to a lot of music on my computer and i have an excellent Altec lansing 2.1 speaker system attached to it, since i have a good speaker set some one suggested to get a better card (then the one onboard my intel mobo 915gav).

Also please let me know what is the benifit of the card that you suggest?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks !!!

[suave_guy]

if i correctly remember you have altec lansing MX 5021....
see the thing is that as you have a 2.1 setup so it wont make a big difference if you go for a high end sound card....and dont understimate the high defination audio of intel 915 gav...ITS MORE THEN ENOUGH FOR YOUR CURRENT SPEAKERS

24 bit as you wanted to know is the raw bit samples per cycle which an encoder can send in a single pass....DTS uses raw 24-bit passes....and offers best uncompressed sound when coupled with a DTS decoder

ur onboard soundcard supports 192khz/24-bit encoding and hence its name...high definition audio....
so its better to save ur money on soundcard and spend it on ur laptop

ENjoy....

[rohanbee]

Originally Posted by suave_guy

if i correctly remember you have altec lansing MX 5021....

Yes you have good memory, i had myself forgotten the exact model number.

Originally Posted by suave_guy

see the thing is that as you have a 2.1 setup so it wont make a big difference if you go for a high end sound card....and dont understimate the high defination audio of intel 915 gav...ITS MORE THEN ENOUGH FOR YOUR CURRENT SPEAKERS

Well you might have a point there, but i have a different opinion. Doesn't mean that you have sound in 2.1 fomat that high end audio would not be available to you !! I have a Technics 2 channel amp and the sweet sound and powerful punch it delivers is better than any equal power denon or marantaz av 5.1 receiver.........

Originally Posted by suave_guy

24 bit as you wanted to know is the raw bit samples per cycle which an encoder can send in a single pass....DTS uses raw 24-bit passes....and offers best uncompressed sound when coupled with a DTS decoder

ur onboard soundcard supports 192khz/24-bit encoding and hence its name...high definition audio....
so its better to save ur money on soundcard and spend it on ur laptop

ENjoy....

Well thanks for saving me some money. Thats always good !!!

[suave_guy]

what i wanted to say is that the features you were looking for in a high end soundcard were themselves present in intel HD audio....

as far was audio listening quality is concerned as you urself have mentioned that it depends mainly on the sys. amplifier and that how much power it can chunk out and sustain, the basic work of soundcard is to send signals to the external amplifier/decoder and now it upto to the amp to amplify those signals and thus producing efficient sound frequency spectrum in other words good quality and balanced sound....

though i agree that by going for an external high end soundcard u get better mutichannel gaming(EAX 4 latest) and dvd movies and also less CPU usage and latest Dolby Digital EX2 but then thats relevant if you have 4.1 or 5.1 or more speakers. Since you have a 2.1 setup but fortunately a high end one with good amp so i dont think you need anything else....

get a better laptop and then use that saved money for PCMCIA audigy sound card in future for ur laptop

btw since ur a big music lover i recommend that u check out bbc radio, thats what i'm listening to rt. now on my altec lansing atp5

ENjoy....

[rohanbee]

Thanks !! your argument does make sense. I will take your advise.

Is bbc radio an online radio channel...........i was always listening to yahoo radio(there are loads of channels) or even virgin radio channel is quite good..

[anishcool]

Well do you think the onboard sound of a ASUS A8N-E (ASUS claims its 8.1) is good enough to power a 6.1 Inspire ?

[akshayt]

firstly must be 7.1 or 8ch isn't it the same?

also,qulaity of 915,are u sure it is pure quality and good base?
also,dude with sound card isn't it for good digital output,more qulaity ,better base is ch the only thing?

how abt audigy 2 zs?
may be 5.5-6 in india

[rohanbee]

Originally Posted by anishcool

Well do you think the onboard sound of a ASUS A8N-E (ASUS claims its 8.1) is good enough to power a 6.1 Inspire ?

I think we all have a very weird idea about sound and the channels it gets distribuited in. 2.1 is not lower than 4.1 or 5.1 or 7.1, it's just that a 2.1 gives 2 channel sound and 1 channel in sub-woofer.

5.1-- Has 2 front, 2 rear (for ambient sounds) and 1 center channel for only vocals + .1 which is the sub.

The 7.1 i have just experienced that type of a system once and frankly it was good but i did not know what difference to make out over a 5.1 system.

This 8 channel thing you have to describe in detail as i've never heard of it. How many channels we can break down sound in.........i wonder?? and then to make it seem like it is coming from one place would be even harder, so if a mobo pretends to do that.............i don't think it will have quality.

Some of the good a/v 7.1 sound receivers cost 35,000/- upwards so go figure how a mobo would do the same??

[akshayt]

dude as if i don't know of the 5 speakers and 1 sub woofer.

didn't you understand

if you have good speakers what goes in investing in decent sound card

if you don't have too much money

then go for creative sb live 24bit for abt 2k ,there is fake stuff around and if it comes to 1.4 it may/might be fishy

1.4k part is by Digit magazine

[anishcool]

Originally Posted by rohanbee

This 8 channel thing you have to describe in detail as i've never heard of it. How many channels we can break down sound in.........i wonder??

Not too sure but all the site says is it has onboard 8 channel sound.

Guess it must be 7.1 ( 7+1=8 )

[rohanbee]

Originally Posted by anishcool

Not too sure but all the site says is it has onboard 8 channel sound.

Guess it must be 7.1 ( 7+1=8 )

Better be sure otherwise you might actually have sounds coming from 8 different directions without any base..........

[akshayt]

8ch must be 7.1ch

[suave_guy]

dont worry it is 7.1 with 8 descrete channels, 2 for front, two for sides, two for rear, one for center and one for subwoofer....

ENjoy...

[rohanbee]

I would like to understand this concept, As far as i know we have:-
Center channel -- vocals i.e 1k
Subwoofer .1 -- base and low frequencies
Side channels -- For medium range frequencies
Rear channels -- For all ambient and other sounds

what are the side channels for??
What kind of sound do they distribute?

Is it worth really, going in for a 7.1 on a computer system, i am of the opinion not.

[suave_guy]

Center channel is mainly for dialogues and cenrtic sounds..
front channels are the one consisting most of the front ambient sounds....
rear channels are used for the soundtrack and rear audio
side channels act as an extension of the front and rear channels....they act as bridge b/w front and rear channels...
for eg. with side channels u'll be able to feel the sound of the car passing you more realistically....
5.1 setup is slightly weak in producing effects when the object in question is in parallel to the listener's ears...thats what side channel enhances and hence u feel more realistic when car passes u in a 7.1 setup....in 5.1 setup you may feel a slight delay when b/w the sound of the car coming towards you to the sound of the car going away from you....but in 7.1 setup there will be continous flow of sound from front to mid to rear....
subwoofer or .1 channel is obviously for the LFE(low frequency effects) channel....

ENjoy...

ENjoy....

[rohanbee]

yes that does make sense, that is where the true power of a 7.1 surround system would lie.
But at the moment i think investing in that kind of a home theater would be useless wouldn't it??
Are all movies recording their soundtrack in that format?

[suave_guy]

yes i also think so...investing on an expensive 5.1 setup is more logical rather then going for an average 7.1 setup....
reasons:
1. Very few dvds support 6.1 let alone 7.1
2. No gaming support yet for this format....it can only be emulated but no discretion
3. You need a big room for a 7.1 setup otherwise the effects wont be notiecable within different channels
4. The only excellent 7.1 model available is creative gigaworks, rest is just plain ordinary so its better to spend that much money on getting an excellent 5.1 setup
5. The 7.1 decoders are very expensive starts from 40K....so its very very expensive to think of digital feed in 7.1 setup as of yet....

but having said that i'm sure 7.1 setup will be common in 2-3 yrs...

ENjoy....