Sound cards

topbanana · 17 Nov 2009 at 17:52

Does anyone bother any more?

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 17:57

Yep. Strokes his Asus xonar d2x which sounds fantastic and only cost £30

Marsman · 17 Nov 2009 at 18:30

£30!

The popular auction site?

topbanana · 17 Nov 2009 at 19:13

So Greebo does it sound better than the on-board device? I've bought some high end Sennheiser headphones but it actually sounds worse because the bass is so loose and uncontrolled

Marsman · 17 Nov 2009 at 19:49

Certainly. My Xonar DS sounds better than onboard, and I would bet the D2X sounds better than that.

Ducky Spud · 17 Nov 2009 at 19:55

What card you using topbanana? Im using a cheapish Asus D1 and sounds much better than onboard through my speakers

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 20:23

Marsman said:
£30!

The popular auction site?

No on MM here

They crop up every so often. A fully complete one sold for £45 the same week. Mine was a bare card oem one, hence the price but the card is the most important bit anyway so accessories and box didn't bother me.

topbanana said:
So Greebo does it sound better than the on-board device? I've bought some high end Sennheiser headphones but it actually sounds worse because the bass is so loose and uncontrolled

Ceratinly does. My DR-150 sounds much better on the xonar by miles. What's your card?

topbanana · 17 Nov 2009 at 21:16

I'm currently using the on board audio of my motherboard. It's just some generic chipset.

Darkmatters · 17 Nov 2009 at 22:12

Old and Deef

I have kept a Creative soundblaster card and Cambridge speaker system from a machine I got ages ago, about 2000, running Win ME. Stuck it in new machine, got a driver update and it works fine with xp pro. I am probably going deaf though as I am old! :eek:

R088ieS86 · 17 Nov 2009 at 22:22

I've got a C-Media USB Sound Card to run my Z5500's and im definately thinking of buying a decent card, sound quality crashes way before max volume!! (and even further before boost!)

Marsman · 17 Nov 2009 at 22:24

Darkmatters said:
I have kept a Creative soundblaster card and Cambridge speaker system from a machine I got ages ago, about 2000, running Win ME. Stuck it in new machine, got a driver update and it works fine with xp pro. I am probably going deaf though as I am old!

I remember back in 1999 I bought a PC with a Sound Blaster PCI 64v. I remember the Sound Blaster Live! was about then, and it did look good, or more to the point would have sounded good. But having spent £450 on a stereo the year before and then a PC a year later, my wallet was totally obliterated!

I did buy the SB Live! about 5 years later. It was a ridiculously cheap with the I/O front bay, and it blew the PCI 64v out of the water. I didn't think the PCI 64v was too bad at the time, I thought my speakers were crap. But as soon as I paired those same speaker with the SB Live! My god they sounded much better!

Guest2 · 18 Nov 2009 at 09:47

Yes. Strokes his Asus Xonar Essence ST

SfnX · 18 Nov 2009 at 10:34

still got my Xonar 7.1 for £28, but lately ive loved the sound quality aspect, especially if youve put your own music on GTA4 and listen to it compared to the ingame ones. tbh it is worth it if youhave the spare bosh!

siege2 · 23 Nov 2009 at 15:13

Greebo said:
Yep. Strokes his Asus xonar d2x which sounds fantastic and only cost £30

just bought mine this morning, did google then now have just looked on here? silly me "looking forward to getting this" :-)