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Topic: Sound Card Recommendations? (Read 7951 times) previous topic - next topic
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Sound Card Recommendations?

Hello.

I was thinking that perhaps I might buy a new sound card. My current one is Terratec's DMX Xfire 1024.

I would like to get some good for listening MUSIC. What kind of technological systems can good soundcards have? Do they have overall better sound quality? Are they able to playback all higher frequencies etc...So the main point is QUALITY for listening MUSIC (and it would be nice if it had an internal headphone amp like this sound card has ). Price should be something like 100-200 e/$...

Thank you.

PS. A sound card able to do 24 bit playback, is it a better for listening music than a sound card with able to play max 16 bit...? 

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #1 –
hmm, I think the soundcard you have is pretty good already.  imo you'd be wasting money if you spent $200 on a new one.  better off maybe buying a nice seperate headphone amp, and it sounds like you might not even need that with the Terratec.

24-bit vs 16-bit is pretty inconclusive.  I would venture that for listening to lossy formats, it doesn't help whatsoever, but who knows?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #2 –
Don't know about the quality of the Terratec but I use a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP card to drive my HD600s. Volume levels are more than enough and the sound quality is at least as good as the headphone amp on my Sony XA-3ES CD player. The Santa Cruz plays back 16-bit files only, which I have yet to find limiting. It can record up to 48KHz 18bit audio.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #3 –
Hmm...

well, a good heaphone amp would be nice. Maybe I should buy one first. Any suggestions of the type/model?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #4 –
I heard that Envy24HT chips have very good sound quality.
Look at M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #5 –
Quote
I heard that Envy24HT chips have very good sound quality.
Look at M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1.

Both M-Audio Revolution 7.1 and Terratec Aureon 7.1 has Envy24HT chips? How about Aureon 5.1 Sky and DMX 6fire 24/96 (and DMX 6fire LT), do they have the same chip?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #7 –
NOT a ShitBlaster, that should do the trick
[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\']"We will restore chaos"-Bush on Iraq[/span]

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #8 –
Quote
Quote
I heard that Envy24HT chips have very good sound quality.
Look at M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1.

Both M-Audio Revolution 7.1 and Terratec Aureon 7.1 has Envy24HT chips? How about Aureon 5.1 Sky and DMX 6fire 24/96 (and DMX 6fire LT), do they have the same chip?

DMX 6fire 24/96 (LT) has Envy24 (not HT).
Aureon 5.1 Sky has Envy24HT.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #9 –
The TerraTec DMX Xfire 1024 comes with an DSP which is quite similar in quality
as the one the TBSZ has. Both DSPs are from Crystal:
TBSZ -> CS4630
DMX Xfire 1024 -> CS4624

As far as I know the CS4630's main advantage over CS4624 is 'processing-power',
which is not necessary for play back of 'normal' audio-files.
Newer soundcards with Envy24 or Envy24HT chips are surely capable
of higher quality playback but I doubt that you would notice any
differences with encoded audio/music from CDs. DVD-Audio would be an good
argument for the soundcards with Envy24 or Envy24HT DSPs.
I can't guarantee (or prove) it but I think the TBSZ and the DMX Xfire 1024 are
as good as the newer soundcards for your 'everyday-music-sessions'.

Mayby you can test the souncards in case you still want to buy one... ?

best regards,
David

P.S. what's wrong with headphone amp from the DMX Xfire 1024?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #10 –
Quote
Don't know about the quality of the Terratec but I use a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP card to drive my HD600s.

I got similar setup (HD 580 instead of HD 600) and I have to agree. The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is a really nice sound card. It's not too expansive either. The only problem I had that it doesn't seem to be popular here and is wasn't easiest to get it.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #11 –
Quote
P.S. what's wrong with headphone amp from the DMX Xfire 1024?

I haven't said there anything wrong with it(?).  But I think the amp should be a little bit more powerful for my headphones.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #12 –
Quote
P.S. what's wrong with headphone amp from the DMX Xfire 1024?

I haven't said there's anything wrong with it(?).  But there's should be a little more powerful amp for my headphones.

...if I buy a new sound card, there's no amp at all.  But of course in many sound cards you can tweak bass and treble.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #13 –
Quote
well, a good heaphone amp would be nice. Maybe I should buy one first.

After I read this I thought you wanted to buy a new headphone amp instead of a new soundcard.
Therefore I asked ...

best regards,
David

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #14 –
I found the HD600 sounds quite wonderful with an Earmax Pro headphone amp. Updating the cables also makes quite an audible difference. I am using the Clue Blue but there are other cable options. That combination will make you hear even the slightest imperfections in your source.

One benefit of the Envy chips is that they do not resample to 48Khz. For Windows XP users you also can use the ASIO drivers to bypass the bit mangling happening in waveout or direct sound.

With the HD600 this makes quite a difference!

Obviously, you can't use ABX to find that out since that is using waveout and is therefore only playing modified bits anyway.

Cheers

  Thomas

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #15 –
Unless your actual cables are broken, I don't think updating cables will make any difference. 'Special' or 'expensive' cables are a ripoff. Nobody has proved otherwise in a blind test.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #16 –
As far as headphone amps go, I can't recommend Headroom enough (Headroom).  I have the Home and Little amps (for work and home computer, respectively).  The Home is used with Sennheiser 600s and sounds awfully good.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #17 –
Quote
The TerraTec DMX Xfire 1024 comes with an DSP which is quite similar in quality
as the one the TBSZ has. Both DSPs are from Crystal:
TBSZ -> CS4630
DMX Xfire 1024 -> CS4624

As far as I know the CS4630's main advantage over CS4624 is 'processing-power',
which is not necessary for play back of 'normal' audio-files.
Newer soundcards with Envy24 or Envy24HT chips are surely capable
of higher quality playback but I doubt that you would notice any
differences with encoded audio/music from CDs. DVD-Audio would be an good
argument for the soundcards with Envy24 or Envy24HT DSPs.
I can't guarantee (or prove) it but I think the TBSZ and the DMX Xfire 1024 are
as good as the newer soundcards for your 'everyday-music-sessions'.

Mayby you can test the souncards in case you still want to buy one... ?

best regards,
David

P.S. what's wrong with headphone amp from the DMX Xfire 1024?

My brother has one.
Using newest 6.07 Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II drivers (actuall unified Crystal driver), it is very good soundcard for gaming and listening to music.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #18 –
Another note...  If you're concerned purely about sound quality, you can get a soundcard that outputs 16/44.1 digital and use an external DAC.  In my work setup, I have a very cheap C-Media 8738-based sound card (Chaintech AV515M) outputting via S/PDIF to an MSB Link III DAC.  This feeds my Headroom Home amplifier, which drives the Sennheiser HD600s.  Not the least expensive setup, but hard to match for sound quality.

An external, audiophile DAC will probably always beat a soundcard in terms of sound quality.  It will (probably) have a better power supply to work from and is clearly doing the D/A conversion in a much less noisy environment.  Many external DACs will handle 24/96 data, too, so you'd be fairly future-proof.  Of course, if you're looking for 6-channel audio, this approach doesn't work.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #19 –
Quote
As far as headphone amps go, I can't recommend Headroom enough (Headroom).  I have the Home and Little amps (for work and home computer, respectively).  The Home is used with Sennheiser 600s and sounds awfully good.

Agree on the Headroom recommendation.  Great products specifically designed for headphones, and a very good company to do business with.  I use the Cosmic amplifier with Sennheiser 580s - very good.
Was that a 1 or a 0?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #20 –
Hmm, has anyone of you tested that Headroom Little amp? The Price seems to be pretty decent with it.

I've also heard that Musical Fidelity X-can V2 (although not sure does this one have crossfeeding) and Corda HeadAmp1 were good, anyone tested them? Or all of these 3...?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #21 –
Quote
One benefit of the Envy chips is that they do not resample to 48Khz. For Windows XP users you also can use the ASIO drivers to bypass the bit mangling happening in waveout or direct sound.

Hmm, what do you exactly mean with this "bit mangling (happening in waveout or direct sound)"?

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #22 –
Quote
Another note...  If you're concerned purely about sound quality, you can get a soundcard that outputs 16/44.1 digital and use an external DAC.  In my work setup, I have a very cheap C-Media 8738-based sound card (Chaintech AV515M) outputting via S/PDIF to an MSB Link III DAC.

Can anyone recommend a nice cheap DAC?

EDIT: Something already commercially available that is still cheap without DIY or constructing it. If the price difference is really big, I'll consider a cheap DIY that is sold complete.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #23 –
Any good 24/96 semi-pro sound card will probably be better than a cheap DIY DAC, or even than a crappy cheap DAC. M-Audio Audiophile 2496 is good, seems that the new M-Audio Revolution too, but I don't know much about it. Internal electric noise of a pc is not an issue if the card is well designed.

Also, you can have a nice headphone amplifier attaching some resistors to the speaker output of a hi-fi amplifier.

And to finish, according to my tests, at least if playing a single stream, WinXP kmixer doesn't alter the bits played.

Sound Card Recommendations?

Reply #24 –
What about if you have a receiver with digital inputs? Some have 44.1 kHz DAC, but most newer receivers have 96 kHz or 192 kHz DAC. Does anybody know how the signal is resampled from 44.1 to 96 kHz by a receiver?