looking for a great sound card, not a recording interface

[jrt12]

does that make sense? I know there's a dozen threads about "which sound card should i buy," but they all deal with using it as a recording interface for DI, etc. I already have a recording interface setup with my mbox and A/D/A converter and solid mic pre. so this is just is to be used as a good, hifi audio card so i can enjoy my music collection on my computer.

a plus if it has cool inputs/outputs (spdif, rca, optical, 1/4", etc), but i'm not looking to drop $500 or $1000 on a pro studio interface. just looking for a good prosumer card. anyone have some they'd recommend, if not i'll just go get some creative lab card.

 

[tobin1]

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...ophile-2496-PCI-Digital-Audio-Card?sku=701341


Great card for the price

 

[cobhc]

What's your budget? I'd look into the Asus Xonar cards at a higher end of the scale, not sure about Creative these days, I've heard horror stories in the past as far as driver updates are concerned.

 

[jrt12]

that Asus looks pretty cool... i'm gonna read up on that today. budget-wise i'm looking to go $200 max, but only if its truly worth it. i had a Soundblaster Audigy pro in my last computer (which just died, which is why i'm looking for new compnents) and was OK with that. Mostly because I liked the input/output options:

But this things gotta be like 4 years old or so. I've never had any problems with Creative, but i was wondering if there were better options out there. Worst case scenario i'll plug this back in.

 

[cobhc]

To be honest, if the Creative still works fine, and has drivers for your current OS, then I'd just stick with it and save your money.

 

[ahjteam]

depends what you are connecting it to. If you are connecting it into a hifistereosystem, go for something with cinch-connectors or spdif connection, but if you are connecing into a near field monitors, get a soundcard with balanced TRS connectors

 

[jrt12]

oh yea, i hadnt considered that (the balanced outputs for monitors). I've considered getting some decent monitors down the road as my main audio setup, so thats definitely something to think about.

as for this setup, i was content with it till my computer died last week. but i'm putting a new one together, i'm looking at each component to see if there's great values out there, worth stepping up to. i have always felt that the Creative stuff was artificially enhanced with all these settings (gaming settings, movie settings, etc) that pull some things off well, but sound really fake on others.

i dunno, i might just throw it back in... just checking to see if anyone loves their card for listening purposes, but not necessarily mixing. i say that cuz i've had some headphones that i think make a great listening experience. but they make everythign sound "too good" to actually mix with.

thanks for theinput so far, if anyone else has any suggestions, let me know

 

[Fox Mulder]

i have always felt that the Creative stuff was artificially enhanced with all these settings (gaming settings, movie settings, etc) that pull some things off well, but sound really fake on others.

In the world of digital audio it's all 0s and 1s [binary code]. there's no avoiding that.
Regarding the game settings, movie settings, etc you mentioned - as far as I can recall using my Audigy they were basically a bunch of EQ settings. Other than that, I had the option of adjusting the parameters of all 6 channels. Now, that's nothing much to ponder upon.