sound cards...

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

big lover of music but never really saw the need to get a sound card..

some of you may know that i recently bought a sound card from el wayneo :thumb:

it was a great price and i had the money at the time so i thought hell why not...

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :eek:

ok.. well if you love music you NEED A SOUND CARD

the quality difference is amazing....

via my cheap stereo speed link medusa headset so much better

my logitech x-540 speakers.. well its true that i wasnt taking full advantage of their quality in sound reproduction!

ive always ripped my cds at 320kb mp3 but i think i might start ripping at lossless WMA or WAV cos after listening to a load of CDS at full quality..

it is pretty epic..

no more hissing or faint squeals... D: its too goood (JAMMMMM)

im a person who notices very minute details and changes in everything so this is a pretty amazing experience for me and i cant see myself ever not using a sound card again.

[heavywater]

You won't notice the difference between 320 MP3s (as long as they're ripped well, I use Lame with EAC) and lossless on X-540s.

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

thanks for the heads up :P

these speakers are pretty KA for what i need. i know theyre not the best in the world but far better than most for the price.

[heavywater]

They're what I've got. Brilliant quality for the price (I got them for about £35 when Amazon mispriced them a year or so back :D) but not quite decent enough to be able notice the difference. On several grands worth of audio equipment three of us could just about hear the difference but we usually picked the mp3s as higher quality in blind tests.

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

LOL i got mine from amazon too for £45 inc free delivery bargain! lol everywhere else was £70-80 xD

[Terbinator]

Lossless is definitely noticeable to me. I find the biggest standout point between MP3 320 or otherwise is bass sounds a lot more snappier.

Anyway, no soundcard needed here, everything connected digitally :D But i have been looking at one so i can have DolbyLive mix the sound and send it as AC3 to my receiver for my PC games - but then that poses the argument why not just have the sound at 6 channel with 192kHz/24bit via analogue jacks rather than 48kHz/24bit limits of AC3.

[heavywater]

Lossless is definitely noticeable to me. I find the biggest standout point between MP3 320 or otherwise is bass sounds a lot more snappier.
Have you ever blind tested? We all thought that Flac sounded a lot nicer until we tried, could barely tell the difference, listened to some folktronica (for highs) some dubstep (for uber lows) and just some normal songs. MP3 won.

Damn placebos. :mad:

[Joey Propane]

X-Fi Crystalizer is the best thing since sliced bread for PC audio as far as i'm concerned....


Wait, sliced bread is no good for PC audio. :S

[Terbinator]

Have you ever blind tested? We all thought that Flac sounded a lot nicer until we tried, could barely tell the difference, listened to some folktronica (for highs) some dubstep (for uber lows) and just some normal songs. MP3 won.

Damn placebos. :mad:

Yes, with the same song, volume etc etc. As I pointed out there may not be a SD>HD difference but with there being a noticeable increase in quality of bass alone thats more than enough justification for me to go lossless when i can. Not to mention we're hardly short of storage now days :D

Joey i would leave that Crystaliser stuff alone, its just an overload of post-processing that distorts the original intended sound - unless of course it does sound better to you.

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

time for a 2TB purchase me thinks

i listen to a lot of different music so any improvement gained is noticed.

im starting to want a new headset now though.. D:

[heavywater]

Fair enough, if you can hear it then it's definitely worth going for. The only trouble storage wise is portables, I've got about 100GB worth of 320MP3s so I have to lower the quality anyway to get it to fit on my MP3 player. You just can't get hold of decent high capacity ones. :rageguy:

[alex24]

What card have you got then?

I use an X-Fi xtremegamer, have done for almost 4 years, it's a great bit of kit.

Now you just need some better speakers than that Logitech rubbish! This comment will be unpopular with everyone who has never tried anything better.

Also, X-Fi crystalliser is only really for low-bitrate sources. You're much better off with not turning it on almost all the time as it has a tendency to distort good quality sources, giving them too much treble and ruining the balance. If you find it actually sounds better, you probably also need better speakers or better quality audio files. Most likely speakers.

I sound like a real audio snob but a lot of PC users don't know what they're missing when using PC speakers. Doesn't even need to be that expensive and upgrade. Getting a sound card is a good first step!

[Terbinator]

Fair enough, if you can hear it then it's definitely worth going for. The only trouble storage wise is portables, I've got about 100GB worth of 320MP3s so I have to lower the quality anyway to get it to fit on my MP3 player. You just can't get hold of decent high capacity ones. :rageguy:

Yeah that is sort of a problem i have ran into. I have a Gen1 Zune 30GB and have reached the peak near enough with circa 2500 songs - mostly in WMA lossless so not quite as greedy capacity wise as WAV :)

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

lol the logitech speakers are good for their price and im not interested in speading mroe than £100 on a set of speakers.. not anytime soon though. i've not had better but i have definately heard better.

im not interested in spending out so much on speakers though. i know there are better but i can put £300-1K to better use really.

[heavywater]

Now you just need some better speakers than that Logitech rubbish! This comment will be unpopular with everyone who has never tried anything better.
I've tried far better stuff and it's unpopular with me. It's for a PC. You sit at it, play games and occasionally listen to music whilst doing work. No point in spending £2000 on speakers if you're still going to have 40dB of fan noise in the background the whole time. :S

[alex24]

I've tried far better stuff and it's unpopular with me. It's for a PC. You sit at it, play games and occasionally listen to music whilst doing work. No point in spending £2000 on speakers if you're still going to have 40dB of fan noise in the background the whole time. :S

My amp and speakers were about £200 all in, infinitely better than any PC speakers I've ever had or heard. I listen to a lot of music, play games, watch TV and more on my PC. Plus I have a quiet case with decent fans in it..... Money well spent for me, though I appreciate it's not for everyone.

[Zaim]

LOL i got mine from amazon too for £45 inc free delivery bargain! lol everywhere else was £70-80 xD

Wow that's cheap, I remember them being £55 when I got my Logitech G51 (2 yrs ago), hope logitech release another midrange 5.1 system (like the G51)

[Pullen]

I <3 my sound card and 5.1 surround home theatre from Sony :D :D.

Haven't listened to lossless yet though, might have to do that now...

[Pullen]

What audio player do you use? I normally use Winamp, but I accidently clicked it to play in CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra and it sounded much more crisp :P. Wasn't expecting that to be a good audio player lol.

[Terbinator]

What audio player do you use? I normally use Winamp, but I accidently clicked it to play in CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra and it sounded much more crisp :P. Wasn't expecting that to be a good audio player lol.

what type of media was it? It possible that Cyberlink supports a wider range of high end codecs such as 7.1 DTS-HD etc.

[Pullen]

what type of media was it? It possible that Cyberlink supports a wider range of high end codecs such as 7.1 DTS-HD etc.

WMA Lossless.

[Naphta]

I listen to FLACs in VLC. I love my Asus D2X also. Things annoying as hell to get in the case though :)

[Pullen]

I love my Asus D2X also. Things annoying as hell to get in the case though :)

How so? lol. Found it to be the same as any other card being put in.

[Naphta]

How so? lol. Found it to be the same as any other card being put in.
Mine just didnt want to stay in. (giggity.)

[Pullen]

Listening to The Lighthouse Family which I ripped onto my comp in WMA lossless and it's amazinggggggg :D.

[Terbinator]

Listening to The Lighthouse Family which I ripped onto my comp in WMA lossless and it's amazinggggggg :D.

Welcome to the real world. :D :cool: