Good quality soundcard?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:32 pm

Hiya,

I need to buy a good PCI sound card -- my current motherboard doesn't have onboard sound, and the ancient SoundBlaster I have works in both Windows and Ubuntu, but it's sound quality leaves a little to be desired.

I will use it for 2 channel A/D -- I want good 96kHz performance; and I'm hoping for a connector for the front audio plugs on my Evercase 4252 (mic and headphones) -- and if it works in Ubuntu that would be excellent.

Any suggestions?

Ethyriel · Post by **Ethyriel** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:09 pm

I absolutely love my HT Omega Striker. It works great in Linux and Windows, and does have I think hd audio compatible pin outs. It has optical in and out, and digital coax out. Very nice sound quality, too, but no shielding like some of the new Asus cards, so it does suffer badly from EMI when you mount a fan right over the expansion slots.

about $88 from Newegg

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:21 pm

I love my Chaintech AV-710. It's out of production now, but you can still find it on eBay. It has been around long enough that it works in Ubuntu (At least in Feisty Faun). It uses the ENVY24 HT-S chipset + Wolfson WM8728 DAC and supports:

Â» Analog 20-bit/48KHz I/Os
Â» Digital I/Os supporting 24-bit/192KHz I/Os

-D

nightmorph · Post by **nightmorph** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:13 pm

Aard · Post by **Aard** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:08 am

I second and an 8788 based card, I have a B-gears b-enspirer and I'm perfectly happy with it. It can be slightly quirky with some games in windows (BSOD at wrong hardware acceleration levels) but its an easily avoided problem (not a problem if its solely for music/movies).

N.B. I would NOT however recommend the b-enspirer itself as b-gears drivers seem slightly inadequate and I end up using HT Omega Claro drivers (despite they both originally come from Cmedia...

)

Tez · Post by **Tez** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:52 am

The best bang for buck, professional quality soundcards are the ESI Juli@ (which I own) and the Audiotrak Prodigy HD2. Both can only do stereo over analogue but thats all you need

. The Audiotrak has removable opamps also so you can swap them out and try different configurations to suit your tastes. They go all the way up to 192KHz. Don't think you can hook them up to your front panel, could be wrong and no idea about Ubuntu performance although they both have Linux drivers.

I am very pleased with the Juli@, the drivers are very minimalistic and work great. It sounds great too. However, if you will be using headphones with it you will need a headphone amp.

Good reviews here:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/esi ... index.html

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mul ... page1.html

Emyr · Post by **Emyr** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:54 am

Will you be wanting high-quality input, or just output?

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:12 am

Hello Neil, you may also like to consider a USB DAC. The advantages are that no drivers are required, it's external and therefore immune from interference from the PC's circuitry, and it's easily moved from one system to another - especially good if you also have a laptop as a music source.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:22 am

Hi,

Emyr wrote:Will you be wanting high-quality input, or just output?

Yes, both! I do some recording (often transcriptions from analog) as well as listen to music. Next to no gaming, and I still only use 2 speakers (maybe in the future, 2.1).

Emyr · Post by **Emyr** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:01 am

I've was considering the E-MU 0404 for this PC, but I ran out of budget; Can't remember what the specs are, but for Â£80 at the time it would have been awesome quality.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:48 pm

Emyr wrote:Will you be wanting high-quality input, or just output?

Excellent question, especially when you consider that a lot of 24/192 bit cards won't record at that level.

Getting rid of electrolytic caps is also important, so the choices dwindle really fast at that point.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829271003

This would be my choice. Before going to balanced outputs and pro equipment. (Not all pro equipment sounds good, some is made mainly for more channels.)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/1222 ... s_PCI.html

Apogee has a great rep and Juli@ is also here.

Why aren't these cards shielded? They don't get hot.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/forum/ar ... t-196.html

What you don't want is a card that will resample whatever you have to 48KHz regardless.

Neil forgot to mention - He needs a sound card that folds, perferably SMP