Home Theater PC Sound Card Advice

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by Mencius, Sep 1, 2010.

  1. Mencius

    Mencius New Member

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    Hi everyone,

    First post and glad to be here! I'm after some advice about picking a sound card for a home theater PC I have set up with my flatmates, we use it to listen to a lot of music. The speakers are a cobbled together collection of early 90's Sonys and 70's Toshibas. The amp itself is a basic early 90's Sony home stereo.

    We have the PC running straight into the amp and the sound from the on-board VIA chip is quite weak. I am planning to put a sound-card in the PC as a cheap way of improving the quality. In the long run we may improve the amp/speakers but I think right now there's a lot of bang for buck in a better card.

    I don't want to spend a lot on this, it's a gift to my flatmate and my options here in Australia are fairly limited in terms of brands. I'm comparing the Creative Audigy Value and the x-fi xtreme audio. I know these use the same DSP but I think the DACs are different. From what I can gather the audigy value uses the Cirrus CS4382-KQ and the xtreme audio uses the AKM 4359VF.

    I can get an audigy value for $30US and an xtreme audio for $64US. Do you all know if the DAC in the xtreme audio is much better or if, for general music listening, the xtreme audio is worth the extra $34?

    Thanks very much.
     
  2. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    DO you have any other cards in your area, like asus cards, if you do I would suggest a Xonar DS, The Xtreme audio is a Audigy 2 SE.

    If you watch blu ray movies then a Auzentech X-Fi HDMI card would be the best bet as it comes with a analog I/O adaptor for muiti channel audio if your receiver has 5.1 hook ups as it allouds non Downsample Blu ray audio thru analog.
     
  3. smnoamls

    smnoamls Maha Guru

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    GenClaymore, I gotta ask, did you read his post?
    He has a 90's basic home stereo amp.
    Most likely no surround, no hdmi, no nothing.
    He needs a good quality signal to noise sound card, nothing more.
    If I were you id get the audigy, simply to save some money. I used it on an old JVC receiver with decent speakers for 4 years till the sound card died, but while it lived the quality and power were more than adequate.
     
  4. Mencius

    Mencius New Member

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    Thanks for your replies.

    I can get asus cards but they seem to start around $80-100 and the $64 for the xtreme audio is about the limit of what I'd spend. Definitely never seen auzentech's in Aus retail stores although I'm sure some specialist places would get them, that's more effort than I can go to for this though and again probably costlier.

    The price does seem right on the audigy for what I need it to do... i was just wondering if that different DAC on the xtreme audio or anything else about the card really makes it THAT much better.

    [edit] although if I were setting up a proper HTPC situation with good quality stuff instead of our frankenstein system :D the xonar DS would definitely be my first choice.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2010

  5. smnoamls

    smnoamls Maha Guru

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    in a nutshell, no.
    U wont hear a shred of difference on the gear you have right now.
    Not one ounce.
     
  6. Mencius

    Mencius New Member

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    cool, I'm going to pick it up tomorrow and look forward to some better sound. Based on my experience using the same stereo with my own PC's xtreme music it still knocks the socks off the on-board. This VIA HD on-board stuff really seems particularly bad though.....

    Anyway, be nice to have it set up, just in time for a party on the weekend too ;)
     
  7. Scorch666

    Scorch666 Ancient Guru

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    Let us know how you got on with your new card.
     
  8. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

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    Yes, he did read his post. He offered him a modern entry level card. Very cheap with a boatload of features. HDMI? A DS is a base model with limited features but great sound quality for the price. Would spank a Audigy for the price. Audigy was a good card many years ago...there are much better cards with much better specifications for good prices.
     
  9. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    yes i did, I only mention that because he might be using it to watch blu ray movies, as he would need a card which dont downsample blu ray audio and plus he mention about adding more speakers to it in the future. Thats why I asked what other plugs was on the receiver. unless he didnt care then I mention the Xonar DS or another card will work.
     
  10. N0sferatU

    N0sferatU Ancient Guru

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    ATI 5000 series video card. It's what I use and have no complaints.

    I got one of the lower tier budget ones that doesn't game well but at least it'll bitstream Dolby True-HD, DTS-HD MA, and uncompressed PCM. :)
     

  11. technomaze

    technomaze Guest

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    1. The HDMI that you get onboard with any of the chipsets I listed will pass both audio and video through the HDMI. None will pass High Def audio through bitstream.

    2. The discreet Radeon 4xxx cards actually have a 7.1 audio chip on the video card. You disable the motherboard audio and use the graphic card's audio which gets passed through the HDMI along with the video.

    GeForce cards do not have audio onboard, but the later cards (8xxx series and up I think) have a S/PDIF plugin that will allow you to pass the motherboard audio to the card to be output along with the video through HDMI. The Radeon approach is more simple IMO.

    3a. The Xonar card works like this: The HDMI or DVI out from the motherboard/discreet video is connected to the "IN" HDMI port of the Xonar card. The Xonar card combines the video and the high def audio and sends it to an "OUT" HDMI port that goes to your receiver.

    3b. Same as 3a.

    4. I'm using TMT2 which is bundled with the Xonar cards so I'm pretty sure it works. TMT3 is out now and may work as well. There's also a new Auzentech sound card that will compete with the Xonar... but it's $250 and so far it only works with PowerDVD 9.

    If you want to run a single HDMI cable, then either the 8200/8300 or 9300/9400 motherboards will do that with LPCM. If you need more graphics horsepower and don't mind the extra heat then a discreet Radeon 4650/4670 card will do the same LPCM. The Xonar setup is kind of two cables because you need that short HDMI cable bridge between the graphics and the sound card.

    I'm only using S/PDIF for my HTPC w/BD setup right now because that's the best my receiver can handle. I've been salivating over going either LPCM or Xonar+bitstreaming for a while so none of this is first hand knowledge. I've just been researching the options myself but I don't think I can convince my wife that the high def sound is any better than standard Dolby 5.1 in home theater that has more than 10
    Home theater seating. You can blame the movie studios for making high def bitstreaming so difficult on a PC.
     

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