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Soundcard advice

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I've been considering getting a decent soundcard recently (creative x-fi probably), main question is - how much difference do they actually make?

I have pretty decent speakers and will probably get some Sennheiser PCxx (depends how much i feel like spending =P) headphones, so I wanta make the most of them. I listen to far more music than a lot of people, plus record bass onto my pc a bit.

at the min I have soundMAX digital something or other (integrated soudn), and while it's not shit I reckon I could get a lot more out of decent equipment with a decent card..

Worth spending 50quid on a soundcard or not?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I got a Trust USB soundcard and it sounds good, you don't pick up any static when you use a USB Sound card.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It can make a difference if all you've previously had is 2 channel stereo and you move to surround sound.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    my speakers aren't surround... the headphones would be what you consider 'surround' but im not sure if that has anything to do with the soundcard, just the way they work.

    It was more a question of sound quality... listening to music on a random cd players and listening on an awesome hi-fi makes a massive difference to enjoyment imo! Plus with an x-fi you can upgrade your mp3s/wma etc to a better quality file (dvd quality i think), its just im not sure if its all promotional talk to sell the product or if it would make a real difference.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's promotional talk, I imagine
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    muse- wrote: »
    Plus with an x-fi you can upgrade your mp3s/wma etc to a better quality file (dvd quality i think), its just im not sure if its all promotional talk to sell the product or if it would make a real difference.

    That is probably promotional. It can only play the mp3 files at the quality at which they were recorded. Doing anything other than that would be upsampling, which could potentially add something, but you wouldn't be listening to what was actually put down in the track.

    Where it might help is if you have a high quality source that it can play back without downgrading it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i think it's to do with noise reduction, can't be anything substantial even if it is.

    Think i'll just buy a new comp in a few months :/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i doubt there will be much difference. I also have a soundmax card and can't really say anything bad about it. The human ear only hears up to certain quality anyway so im not sure you would notice the difference between some
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Same as above, you might notice a clearer overall image but don't expect it to be a case of "WOW THIS DA SHIZ".

    Instead of buying a new comp, why not buy some decent speakers and a good sound card? before moving to a laptop my of my PCs had some Alesis M1 Active monitors and a Terratec DMX6 Fire soundcard which gave such crystal sound quality, now these Soundstation speakers sound like music being played through double glazing.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    fuck off spammer.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Makoto wrote: »
    fuck off spammer.

    Think he's fucked off now. :p
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