Which soundcard?

[Inu_Yasha]

I'm looking to upgrade my soundcard for my HTPC and I was looking at getting one of the creative X-fi Elite Pro cards. Mainly I like having the breakout box and all of my connectors where I can reach them and move them at ease. I'm kinda big into HT lately and want something that is sure to perform! I also need something that will hook up to my Onkyo TX-SR703 reciever. Any help is appreciated!

[Azeke]

Just another quick thought by Creative labs for consideration and works with your existing soundcard:

Creative Labs DTS-610

I will also move your thread to the Tower of Power forum.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[aud19]

Creative makes decent, feature rich cards but IMO they fall short of the SQ of cards from M-audio. If you want to go REALLY high end, look in to cards from Lynx Studio

[Inu_Yasha]

Which M-audio or Lynx cards do you guys recommend? I am looking at something that should have me set for about 4 years before I need to upgrade. My price limit is $400.

[aud19]

Well most of the Lynx cards are up over $1k so.... they'd likely be out. You said you plan on utilizing it for HT. Are you planning on just using a digital (optical/coax) connection to you AV gear or do you plan to use the PC as the processor and send the decoded analog audio directy to an amp/powered speakers?

[Vinny]

You can go for M-Audio's revolution if you plan on using the computer as a source of DD/DTS encoded material for playback(coaxial to the reciever and let the reciever decode them). Decent quality for the price.

If you have a lot of material that's 2channel based, like mp3s, lossless audio/mpeg4/divx videos, try the Auzentech Xplosion 7.1 DTS. I got my card for almost a month which switched from M-Audio Revolution. Found the quality is really close to Revolution(almost unnoticable) but the effects and stability on digital signal could flip the Revolution upside down :roll:
It does DTS 1.5mbps real time encoding for all output. You may say it disturbs the quality of the original track. So far I cannot hear any loss from the material I have listened/watched besides DVD, but only increased the immersion as everything turned to 5.1. Yet it's different from DPLIIx and worked much better. My gf insisted for not going back to the old plain sound card as she heard it onced installed :T

I've both card still and don't think I would go for Revolution. Or perhaps my gears are not good enough to differentiate or my ears are simply not that gifted ops:

[Inu_Yasha]

Well most of the Lynx cards are up over $1k so.... they'd likely be out. You said you plan on utilizing it for HT. Are you planning on just using a digital (optical/coax) connection to you AV gear or do you plan to use the PC as the processor and send the decoded analog audio directy to an amp/powered speakers?

I'm thinking of just using a digital connection to my Onkyo reciever and letting that handle the decoding. If that is the case, what card would you suggest?

Ok, kinda dumb question, but is the Auzentech Xplosion like a standalone sound card? That card looks very interesting and I am thinking of getting one as they have it on sale at tigerdirect.

[Vinny]

I'm thinking of just using a digital connection to my Onkyo reciever and letting that handle the decoding. If that is the case, what card would you suggest?

Ok, kinda dumb question, but is the Auzentech Xplosion like a standalone sound card? That card looks very interesting and I am thinking of getting one as they have it on sale at tigerdirect.

If you just need a digital connection to the reciever, the cheapest solution can be those Envy24HT-S chipset sound card, like Chaintech AV-710. They only cost less than $30. If you want a better quality one go for M-Audio Revolution. I've never owned both that no comparison could be done.

Xplosion is a standalone sound card. But try to stay away from Tigerdirect's rebate..... it never worked for most of the people.

[Inu_Yasha]

Well, currently I have a Hercules Game Theatre XP 7.1 as my sound card. I was looking to upgrade as I don't believe that this card does 24/96. The Dolby Digital Live looks very tempting to me.

As far as TD rebates, I've had good and bad with them so I don't really support them. I was thinking of just testing fate with that rebate, but even without the rebate, it would be the same price as most vendors.

Is there anything wholly wrong with the Creative X-fi Elite Pro? I'm seriously considering getting this card for the time being. It's on sale so it's like tempting me.

[Vinny]

Well, currently I have a Hercules Game Theatre XP 7.1 as my sound card. I was looking to upgrade as I don't believe that this card does 24/96. The Dolby Digital Live looks very tempting to me.

As far as TD rebates, I've had good and bad with them so I don't really support them. I was thinking of just testing fate with that rebate, but even without the rebate, it would be the same price as most vendors.

Is there anything wholly wrong with the Creative X-fi Elite Pro? I'm seriously considering getting this card for the time being. It's on sale so it's like tempting me.

I did not hear much for this sound card as people can still use Audigy/Audigy2/Audigy4 to install the X-fi software. Plus they did not really improve anything big in terms of quality after Audigy2. The act that they force people to buy new hardware which kind of robbing customers off from buying creative's sound card.
FYI the x-fi elite pro does not have coaxial/optical output....... a little bit drawback from its older series(or gain in perspective of a company, as you will have to get the extra box which cost another hundred). The a audigy2zs plat card would even work better after getting the software mod done.

I remember Hercules XP7.1 is using the same chipset as Envy24 as well, which also has 24/96. However the sound cards back in that time did not have good support/stability for the format, so as Revolution

[Inu_Yasha]

I remember Hercules XP7.1 is using the same chipset as Envy24 as well, which also has 24/96. However the sound cards back in that time did not have good support/stability for the format, so as Revolution

So the revolution has good support for 24/96 or does not have good support?

Also, the Elite pro does have coax and optical output on the back of the breakout box. To me that was one important factor. I mainly hook my speakers up via coax out.

I was reading on some review websites about the elite pro having upgraded dac. They reported that they heard a pretty significant upgrade in sound over the old audigy series.

Are there any specific M-Audio or other sound cards that you guys would recommend around the $400 price range?

[Vinny]

So the revolution has good support for 24/96 or does not have good support?

Also, the Elite pro does have coax and optical output on the back of the breakout box. To me that was one important factor. I mainly hook my speakers up via coax out.

I was reading on some review websites about the elite pro having upgraded dac. They reported that they heard a pretty significant upgrade in sound over the old audigy series.

Are there any specific M-Audio or other sound cards that you guys would recommend around the $400 price range?

The revolution does support for 24/96 and actually it's upto 24/192 iirc.

As long as it fits you, but there's not much point for getting an Audigy for more money with less support on HT but only gaming and analog output.

Quoted from this website:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1850391,00.asp

Creative is currently using a Cirrus Logic CS4382 8-channel DAC (D/A converter) for three of the four cards, which the company has used in the past in the Audigy 2 ZS line. Interestingly, this DAC supports DSD (Direct Stream Digital) input, which implies that Creative could add support for SACD down the road, though whether SACDs would work in a standard PC DVD player is unlikely. The CS4382 is highly capable in other areas, with a rated 114dB S/N ratio and support for 24-bit, 192 KHz digital audio.

The high-end X-Fi Elite Pro uses four Cirrus Logic CS4398 stereo DACs. These are the same DACs used in the Audigy 4 board, and offer better signal-to-noise ratio than the 8-channel CS4382. Like the CS4382, the 4392's can handle both PCM and DSD digital streams. In addition, the board features a Xilinx XC9536XL, a programmable logic device that can be used in a variety of applications, but has been used in some devices to handle DRM wrappers for digital audio. Continued...

They actually did not change the DAC at all. All other than Elite pro are still using Audigy2ZS's DAC and the Elite pro is using Audigy 4's DAC.

Commonly M-audio offers Revolution which is less than $100. It worths every single penny and there is no point for paying more to get similar quality card. Other cards offered by M-Audio are concentrated on recording/editing which is not really suitable for HT uses. Revolution does support digital output as coaxial and it supports upto 24/192. But for the various computers I had(4 different desktops throughout the years) the stability with the card was not completely satisfying.