Best Sound Quality with decent gaming sound card..

[Wile E]

i dont know if azeuntech will have much of a say over drivers. if they want eax 5, they will just use creative's drivers.

No, it was posted earlier that Auzentech and Creative are collaborating on the drivers.

 

[niko084]

i dont know if azeuntech will have much of a say over drivers. if they want eax 5, they will just use creative's drivers.

They are the ONLY company that gets Creatives newest stuff, and they are well known to make extremely high quality sound cards.....

I very highly doubt they will resort to Creatives standard drivers simply because they have a strong reputation to keep. It will probably be based on them with some of their own tweaks.

No, it was posted earlier that Auzentech and Creative are collaborating on the drivers.

Well there we go then.

 

[Solaris17]

go for a mad sweet turtle beach card.

 

[niko084]

go for a mad sweet turtle beach card.

****
Okay I'll stop they aren't that bad, but far from what I'm looking for.

 

[HellasVagabond]

Actually Auzentech will use Creative drivers and that for now is a verified thing.

Wille i know better capacitors and amps make a difference but almost double the price ????
I think my ears can handle a 5% inferior sound when i can save about 100$ between the standard X-Fi and the standard Auzentech if not more

 

[niko084]

Actually Auzentech will use Creative drivers and that for now is a verified thing.

Wille i know better capacitors and amps make a difference but almost double the price ????
I think my ears can handle a 5% inferior sound when i can save about 100$ between the standard X-Fi and the standard Auzentech if not more

Yes for most even a simple Audigy is a nice enough card... But for us audiophiles, they just cannot get good enough and its that simple

 

[Munkyman587]

Well, I cam curious about sound cards as well. I have been wanting to get the marginal performance increase from having a dedicated card to sound, but also.. I have never had more than integrated sound before. People have been complaining a lot on creative's site about various issues, including complete sound drop out. If I lost a small amount of "quality," I guess it is no big deal. What is a big deal is popping and loss of sound. I am talking about vista of course, and plan on going to 64 bit in a few weeks.

 

[niko084]

Well, I cam curious about sound cards as well. I have been wanting to get the marginal performance increase from having a dedicated card to sound, but also.. I have never had more than integrated sound before. People have been complaining a lot on creative's site about various issues, including complete sound drop out. If I lost a small amount of "quality," I guess it is no big deal. What is a big deal is popping and loss of sound. I am talking about vista of course, and plan on going to 64 bit in a few weeks.

Creative makes the best cards for gaming for the most part, that is what they are best known for.. I have had a handful of different Creative cards, and they do have issues from time to time, I have not had one with any of my cards.

Now I'm not in it for the gaming aspect, I literally want the sound quality, and EAX support for my games would be nice, but I could care less about EAX 3-4-5, EAX 2 is what i have now and its perfectly fine for me.

I don't know much about the issues with creative cards and vista, but I have heard about them, but not recently so I figure they fixed most of them...

It's not that they make "bad" cards, it that they are just kinda of a pain company to deal with, then some of us complain and throw a fit about the 200mb install for drivers and support software of course or as we call *bloatware*...

 

[Wile E]

Actually Auzentech will use Creative drivers and that for now is a verified thing.

Site your sources, otherwise it's just FUD.

http://forum.ncixus.com/forums/inde...d=1392866&pagenumber=5&msgcount=140&subpage=1

Wille i know better capacitors and amps make a difference but almost double the price ????
I think my ears can handle a 5% inferior sound when i can save about 100$ between the standard X-Fi and the standard Auzentech if not more

The difference is worth it to some of us. My $300 Shure in-ears or my studio monitors will bring that difference thru like you were comparing a Memorex boombox to to an Onkyo/Infinity home theater setup.

 

[J-Man]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132001

1st sound card to have a HS

looks nice DTS beats dolby in my boo top of your price range though

Expensive mother ****er

 

[HellasVagabond]

Site your sources, otherwise it's just FUD.

http://forum.ncixus.com/forums/inde...d=1392866&pagenumber=5&msgcount=140&subpage=1

"Driver updates are scheduled to add both Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect and NEO PC once licensing agreements are finalized in Q4 07 and Q1 08."

So by the time { AND IF Creative agrees to allow them to create their own drivers } Auzentech gets approval for making their own drivers and getting to release their own drivers there will be at least 6 months if not more and by then Creative will have released a better sound chip...Nice......

 

[HAL7000]

Creative makes the best cards for gaming for the most part, that is what they are best known for.. I have had a handful of different Creative cards, and they do have issues from time to time, I have not had one with any of my cards.

Now I'm not in it for the gaming aspect, I literally want the sound quality, and EAX support for my games would be nice, but I could care less about EAX 3-4-5, EAX 2 is what i have now and its perfectly fine for me.

I don't know much about the issues with creative cards and vista, but I have heard about them, but not recently so I figure they fixed most of them...

It's not that they make "bad" cards, it that they are just kinda of a pain company to deal with, then some of us complain and throw a fit about the 200mb install for drivers and support software of course or as we call *bloatware*...

Why not consider the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard?
It will have the features of the Auzen X-Meridian but with EAX 5.0

 

[HAL7000]

niko084 you do know that E-MU is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. since March 1993 of E-MU Systems.

I agree about the bloated software of creative, I always avoided them until one day when I got tired of using a old diamond MX400 way back when, So with them owning E-MU it gets the market segment of the professional musician/ audio buff on their table.

Now with Auzentech using there X-FI chipset in the upcoming Prelude, creative will hold the market once again. So whatever you look at creative has their sticky fingers in the pie...

Company longevity/ support is the key to a purchase for me nowadays. Fan base buys are coming a thing of the past, IMO

 

[LiveOrDie]

yep go for a Razer Barracuda's there the best gaming sound card out atm i got mine this week hears some info
The Razer Barracuda? AC-1 Gaming Audio Card features a 7.1 channel output, 24 bit audio technology and unprecedented 117dB SNR (output).
The 117dB Signal to Noise Ratio (output) specification clearly outperforms all current soundcards in the market that only perform up to an average of 105dB.

The Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming Audio Card is the world?s first gaming audio card that performs up to a 117dB SNR. Gaming-specific positional audio, Powered by Razer Fidelity?, allows gamers to take advantage of an expanded dynamic soundstage for gaming tuned frequencies with Razer ESP? (Enhanced Sonic Perception?). The in-built audio chip processes and optimizes audio signals from games to provide the ultimate positional gaming audio experience through the Razer 3D (720?) Positional Gaming Audio Engine?.

The Passive EMI shield? minimizes electromagnetic interference (EMI) by preventing unwanted interference from graphics cards and other electrical devices that may affect the gaming audio performance. The Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming Audio Card also features optimized proprietary software drivers to provide for the prioritization of enhanced gaming audio signals while leaving as small a memory footprint as possible.

Razer HD-DAI? (High Definition?Dedicated Audio Interface) further optimizes the Razer Barracuda IAS gaming audio experience by allowing for a proprietary connection for optimized signal transmission when used with the Razer Barracuda HP-1 Gaming Headphones

 

[niko084]

I cannot seem to say it enough...

I want moderate gaming performance, EAX5 is FAR from a requirement...

I want a sound quality geared card that will make my amps/preamp/speakers sound pristine.
I am an audiophile, I own things like a $1300 reference DVD/SAcd player, I bought a green marker for the index of my cd's because it makes the laser focus slightly different and takes off the natural shrillness of 24khz+ waves on digital audio.

Yes I know creative has their hands om a few different places...

The E-Mu card would be for recording, and the Auzentech or Asus in this case would be mainly for music output to my preamp.

It's pretty much a known fact that even the best "gaming" cards just don't do elite "sound quality."

 

[bassmasta]

you know, i never understood what exactly eax is for. i know that alot of games get pissed when i try to set 5.1 speakers on my barracuda, whereas they would work on my x-fi. i read that the x-meridian would do eax on bf2 and be detected as an x-fi. any reason why barracuda, with the same chip as the meridian, can't do that?

 

[Wile E]

"Driver updates are scheduled to add both Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect and NEO PC once licensing agreements are finalized in Q4 07 and Q1 08."

So by the time { AND IF Creative agrees to allow them to create their own drivers } Auzentech gets approval for making their own drivers and getting to release their own drivers there will be at least 6 months if not more and by then Creative will have released a better sound chip...Nice......

Licensing of a technology has nothing to do with whether or not Auzentech's team is working on the drivers. That just means they can't release those technologies to the public, until the licensing clears. That doesn't mean they aren't writting the things as we speak.

And, like it was already posted, Creative is allowing Auzentech to have their hands in it. I seriously doubt Auzentech would've agreed to buy a X-Fi license, if they weren't allowed to code for the drivers. Auzentech has a reputation to maintain, they aren't gonna throw it away over Creative's X-Fi.

 

[niko084]

Licensing of a technology has nothing to do with whether or not Auzentech's team is working on the drivers. That just means they can't release those technologies to the public, until the licensing clears. That doesn't mean they aren't writting the things as we speak.

And, like it was already posted, Creative is allowing Auzentech to have their hands in it. I seriously doubt Auzentech would've agreed to buy a X-Fi license, if they weren't allowed to code for the drivers. Auzentech has a reputation to maintain, they aren't gonna throw it away over Creative's X-Fi.

Exactly... A company with high standing thats not in any financial trouble is not going to give up their way of doing business to sell out and destroy their name.

Although I have never personally used or heard a Auzentech card, I have heard that name come up quite often when discussing high end sound cards. When it comes to the high end companies normally things are pretty much just done right, and these types of companies don't really start throwing crap out just because they want an extra buck, they pay very good engineers very good money to do good work, they want to do a good job as much if not more than the company wants them to do it simply for self satisfaction.

In the rare case that Creative didn't let them in on the drivers, I am willing to bet Auzentech would be filling a lawsuit against them for not writing proper drivers and killing their business, and hurting their name.

 

[HellasVagabond]

after contacting Auzentech we had it confirmed that Auzen X-FI Prelude 7.1 will use Creative's drivers and not drivers from or made by Auzentech. The reason is simply because Creative is unwilling to hand over the source code. We're certain that a loft of people will be disappointed, but they shouldn't forget about what the card has to offer overall. Auzentech has a really interesting card coming and it will hopefully not be crippled by the drivers.

So Auzentech lied to NordicHardware 18 days ago ??? Nice....

 

[DaMulta]

Actually Auzentech will use Creative drivers and that for now is a verified thing.

Wille i know better capacitors and amps make a difference but almost double the price ????
I think my ears can handle a 5% inferior sound when i can save about 100$ between the standard X-Fi and the standard Auzentech if not more

If it doesnt make the Snap Crackle Pop sounds on all motherboards it's worth the extra $$$$/IMO

 

[Wile E]

So Auzentech lied to NordicHardware 18 days ago ??? Nice....

link please? I'll be very disappointed if this were true. Essentially would tell me Auzentech has sold out.

 

[HellasVagabond]

Link

 

[Wile E]

Link

http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6690.html

Looks like they want to, but Creative is being a bunch of dicks. Creative should just give them the source, under the agreement that Creative is allowed to us eany changes Auzentech make, or something like that. Or just plain out make Auzentech, and every individual on Auzentech's X-Fi driver team, sign an NDA.

Boooooooooo for Creative. Douche bags.

 

[HellasVagabond]

So since they have even yet to get their hands to the source code i think it is a safe bet that for now and the next months Auzentech will use creative drivers if not for ever.

 

[niko084]

So since they have even yet to get their hands to the source code i think it is a safe bet that for now and the next months Auzentech will use creative drivers if not for ever.

That makes me cringe.... Well either you will see a creative turn around or Asus it is no doubt. But I'm pretty close to writing it off already.

Not like my current M-audio sucks in the SQ department.