Aqua-Soft ForumsOne that is cheap, WORKS WELL WITH BF1942 :joystick: , and one that got a decent ammount of features...
Any ideas?
Recommend Soundcard?
for me Creative ones have been always the best, you have several models (and prices), I don't know anything about the new models but the last one I bought was a Sound Blaster Live! 1024 with the Cambridge Works subwoopher and it worked pretty well, well it still works
Im not a sound expert, but I can give you my experience.
I have the Sound Blaster Audigy (1, not 2), and it works WONDERFUL. It sounds great, on my decent 4 speaker set up, its got Dolby Digital I believe and 5.1 sound, and its got a built in Firewire port.
Also, its got really good driver support, and its not too expensive, under $100.
I just bought this http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/s...producthome.asp on the recommendation of many people. I also researched it. I dont have it yet to give my own review. The support sux but everyone said the card sounds awesome.
Audigy and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz are pretty similar cards.
I heard a lot of people claim that Santa Cruz is a better choice but I guess it's a matter of personal choice.
I have the Audigy 1 and honestly it sounds the same as the Creative Live Value I bought a couple of years ago.
Probably because I don't have the best speakers (I have Z640s) or I'm not a sound expert or anything.
My suggestion would be to go with either Audigy or Santa Cruz.
They are both around $60 and produce decent sound.
if u are a gamer get the audigy from creative but it will cost u
if u want something practical and won't cost u much i would go for creative soundblaster 5.1
i think thats around 50
In the last 3 generations of models these 2 get the best reviews Audigy and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz . There is a little difference in the types of ports you get between the 2 but they say both are great cards.
You know I read in the last 4 months that there is a movement to place a vacuum tube on a sound card so that the sounds come out analog after all the digital processing giving more realistic sound. The problem is that you may have to change the vacuum tube every so often once every year or two. They burn just like a light bulb. I don't see them on sale so maybe it is more for specialized audio gear. It was an interesting tidbit, since vacuum tubes went out in the 50's in radio and 60s in TV.
you can have a soundblaster live card off me for free if you like 
Yeah, sound-blaster live seems to do really well, even for most audiophiles. Either something from Creative or Santa Cruz. Whatedgar.
OK i think I'm gonna get the Audigy its only 65$ at newegg, i'll give that a shot, thanks (Y)
I like my FREE SoundBlaster Live 
I ripped it out of a computer that i'm turning into a server, it goes great with my aiwa amp. The "aiwa amp" is a 1993 aiwa NSX-3500 with a cd player that works sometimes. I use it for the amp and tuner mostly since i'm too cheap to get a decent system and the aiwa was also free because of the cd player. I have 2 cd roms and a 40 gig hd. Now why do I need a 3 disc cd player???
you can get an audigy "value" from a lot of computer stores for very cheap I got mine for $30 canadian and it does everything the rest of the audigy ones do, except for the platinum of course.
C-Media's sound chips have been getting allot of praise lately. They offer six-chanel sound at a fairly good quality. At least equal to the Audigy cards and there cheaper. If you hunty around you may be able to find a few cards that use the chipset.
I myself use the built-in soundchip in my NVidia Nforce motherboard. It is an equal to the SoundBlaster Audigy in almost every way and better in a few others. It depends on what features you are looking for.
Frankly I got tiered of playing hunt and seek for the full installer updates for Creatives cards. They only make the drivers and selected software available for download form there sites. I ended up going to Compaq's web site and downloading the full 150mb upgrade packs from them because Creative just wants you to spend money on new upgrade CD's. I am not playing that game. When Windows XP came out all they would give you was the drivers and updates for the mixer and Creative PlayCenter. By going to the Compaq site I was able to upgrade all the softwarre that came with my card from the begining and I didn't have to pay Creative a penny for it. This is what happens when all the competeing sound card manufactures get eaten up by Creative. Lets face it. Creative is the Microsoft of the sound card industry. Just my 2 cents.
Creative stinks.
Their cards have a crappy IRQ handling. Constantly gives problems with my SCSI Card. NO other card (Sound, TV, etc.) ever made problems.
Not to mention their crappy first drivers for WinXP eating all the memory.
Have fun,
McTrinsic
P.S.: Before another flamewar starts here: for most of the users, I assume Creatives cards are ok. The sound quality is good, though I am no real audiphile to judge.
I have AC'97 built in to my Cogmac Motherboard... has everthing with it, line in, out, mic in....
I love it... great sound!
Originally posted by ihartmacz@Jun 10 2003, 11:23 AMI have AC'97 built in to my Cogmac Motherboard... has everthing with it, line in, out, mic in....
I love it... great sound!
yea thats what i'm using, but it can only handle about 32 sounds at a time in bf1942 so when i'm talking on a mic on teamspeak i cant hear the guns shooting >.<
Try M-Audio - Revolution 7.1, it's cheaper than SB audigy 2 and sounds better, and it cost only $90@ at newegg.
Except the Revolution doesnt have its own DSP!! :6
And it seriously hurts your frames in games (like 15 frames), unless you got a 3Ghz processor or something.
Ok, I must agree there. There was a review in the German c't, a computer- tech magazine recently, judging some soundcards according to their performance / speed with games.
The Soundblasters came out as winners, needing the least CPU load. The Terratec cards were close behind if i remember correctly, don't know if they are available in the US, though.
Have fun,
McTrinsic
You need to get a Soundmaster 6000-X. Best card ever.
Soundmaster 6000-X Vivatone card is enexpensive, supports Dolby 7.1 and lower, has 6 speaker jacks and dual RCA, amazing performance and sound quality, all for under $100 US.
Of course, I just made the damn thing up.
Damn, You had me going dz, I was on ebay before I finished the post. <_