Sound card to compliment speakers

[pwain]

Last night I bought a altec lansing 641 speacker system. I tested it out and its great, so much better than what I am used to. However I have a CREATIVE LABS SOUND BLASTER LIVE! 5.1 sound cad and I was wondering if thi was holding my sound back any. Should I upgrade my card, and if so, which one should I get? Thanks for any help ;)

[Gluegun]

You should get the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

[n2tweakin]

Check this article out and decide for yourself:
Sound alternatives - Pick a peck of sound cards (http://tech-report.com/reviews/2002q2/soundcards/index.x?pg=1)
Personally I have no problems with SB 5.1. But always remember, sound is subjective. I use the Logitech z560's and love them. Others whine about too much bass. ( I got kicked out of BestBuy for testing them!)
One tip: Try turning down the volume coming from the computer and turning up the volume on the speakers.

[Gluegun]

And, of course, you link to one of the worst reviews out there...

let me pick apart this review....

1.) he used one of the games with the most nonstandard audio out there. That game doesnt even use DirectSound3D, for chrissakes!
2.) He used crappy speakers. I mean, COME ON, the z560's are a good value, but talk about the epitome of inaccuracy... they don't even have tweeters!
3.) He used mp3's. And *two* of them. There was no mention of the quality of the mp3's, or why he simply didn't use CD's or .wav rips from the CD's. There was no mention of LAME to encode them at high bitrate, no mention of coolplayer or anything like it to make the mp3's sound accurate..

You should read these critiques of this roundup...

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=1150963594

http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=Forum1&Number=76782

and read this review. it compares sound quality in these cards a *LOT* better!!

http://www.epinions.com/content_55647309444

[n2tweakin]

I will say it again; Sound Is Subjective.
I still know people who insist "LP's" sound better than CD's.
Personally I think the entire Klipsch line sounds horrible but most people would differ.
I couldn't care less what the SoundBlaster sux crowd has to say because he didn't pick their beloved Santa Cruz as the best. I threw the article out there because it is the most recent I know of.
In reply to your list:
1)I am not much of a gamer, so I can't speak as an expert about that. The few times I have played Quake and Unreal it sounded pretty good to me and my cats wouldn't come out of hiding for hours!

2)I listened to the z560's, the altec lansing 641's and the Klipsch Promedia 4.1's side-by-side. I prefer the sound of the z560's. Of course I am a bit of a head-banger.

3)as to mp3's, why not use what most people actually listen to as a way of testing the speakers?

[Gluegun]

If you read the epinions review, roj *did* use mp3's... he simply tweaked the speaker system and the mp3's for quality, to provide a more accurate description of which sound card is more accurate, and therefore, higher fidelity...

[pwain]

Do you think I could tell much of a difference by changing sound cards? Thanks for all the info ;)

[Gluegun]

With the 641's?! My *GOD* yes, you could tell a difference between these sound cards and the 641's, and the Cruz would DEFINITELY be the best!!

Also, if you want to tell an even *greater* difference, ICQ or AIM or send me an MSN message, and we can talk about how to optimize your mp3's to sound best.....

[Fig]

Originally posted by Gluegun
And, of course, you link to one of the worst reviews out there...


That was pretty much my response when somebody referenced this review a couple weeks ago.

[rlemieux]

I would say the best for sound quality would be the audigy series or the Hercules Gamer XP 6.1 hands down.

[Gluegun]

Originally posted by rlemieux
I would say the best for sound quality would be the audigy series or the Hercules Gamer XP 6.1 hands down.

And I would say the sound quality of cards that do EAX goes like this:

Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 > Turtle Beach Santa Cruz > Philips Acoustic Edge > Hercules Game Theater XP > Sound Blaster Audigy > Nvidia NForce > Sound Blaster Live

And, the Cruz is the most stable, one of the least expensive, and the Terratec has pretty bad gaming drivers.... but it *DOES* do EAX, if you can get it to work!

[Scolecite]

I just got a santa cruz, but I havenet listned to it yet, because my speakers are broken! :mad:

Just ordered a z-560 tho

[Deathjag]

I wuv my Audigy Gamer, it sounds great :) ;)

[1ctabor]

Originally posted by pwain
Last night I bought a altec lansing 641 speacker system. I tested it out and its great, so much better than what I am used to. However I have a CREATIVE LABS SOUND BLASTER LIVE! 5.1 sound cad and I was wondering if thi was holding my sound back any. Should I upgrade my card, and if so, which one should I get? Thanks for any help ;) Your card isn't holding your speakers back. They will pretty much sound the same with music but the audigy do better at games. If you are happy with the sound then why bother upgrading? The Live5.1 is a perfectly good soundcard.