General question about sound cards

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 31 Dec 2002 2:48 pm

Does sound card quality only matter for playing synthesized sounds on your computer, like Band in a Box or Midi files? Or does the sound card have any effect at all upon what you hear when playing an audio CD in your computer's CD-Rom drive?
thx
jc

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 1 Jan 2003 1:38 am

Jim:
Good sound card along with a real good set of surround speakers will give you sound you won't believe, on just about anything you play.

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Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 1 Jan 2003 5:50 am

Thanks Graham. So as not to confuse things, let's keep the speakers the same. Now, will the sound card affect the sound from a regular, commercial audio CD, or just synthesized sound?

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 1 Jan 2003 5:13 pm

Jim:
Same as with your home stereo, the sound you get is based on the speakers you use. A good set of Bose speakers will make a cheap home unit sound pretty good. Same with your computer. Run of the mill speakers = so, so sound. Will definately affect the sound of a regular, commercial CD.

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Kenny Davis · Post by **Kenny Davis** » 1 Jan 2003 8:31 pm

What herb said...

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 2 Jan 2003 11:47 am

Very informative, Herb. I agree that even the best speakers have to be presented with a well (re)produced signal.

I think my and my kids's Dells all have the SoundBlaster Live card, which seems to meet our needs, runs at 16-bits, 44100 hz. I've done no direct recording but have been reproducing my LP's and tapes on CD.

One probblem I had with my daughter's DVD was noise from that "cheesy" analog line you mentioned, between the sound card and the DVD. Since she also has a CD-RW we just disconnected it. I guess that means she's running the parallel connection only from the sound card. Right?

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Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 2 Jan 2003 11:50 am

Jim,

A quick and interesting test would be to plug headphones directly into the CD drive and then switch them to the sound card. Then you're comparing them through the same "speakers".

I've found that the headphones will expose noise in my LP reproductions that I don't hear on open speakers.

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HagFan

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 2 Jan 2003 1:17 pm

Good point, Herb. The headphones here at works are probably el-cheapo only intended to provide privacy, not fidelity. I'll try the headphones I have at home.

Thanks for the info. on SB cards. I bought them in the systems and it didn't strike me as a costly option at all. Don't know what they sell for over the counter, but Dell seems to price them fairly in a new system.

benhall · Post by **benhall** » 2 Jan 2003 7:18 pm

I'm with Herb. I have 3 computers at my feet. The 2 with onboard sound are terrible. The SoundBlaster in the other is 100 times better. Cards do make a difference.
Take care now.

Dan Dowd · Post by **Dan Dowd** » 3 Jan 2003 7:26 am

Jim Here is a link for a comparison chart for several Sound Blaster Cards. I had the Live card and have up graded to the Audigy Platinum which has a SPDIF input, that allows me to connect my Yamaha AW4416 recorder using the digital output. No noise. It also has in's and out's on the front panel on my computer with headphone, mike and guitar line in and volume controls inputs. They are about $200 It is very high quality. http://www.soundblaster.com/products/sblive/compare.asp

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 3 Jan 2003 8:22 am

I'll put in my personal plug for the high end SoundBlaster. I have the Platinum Plus from about two years ago and my previous card was a high end Turtle Beach card ($500-600 range). For everything from compatibility to sound quality, the SB Platinum is ACES in my book.

To put this in perspective, before the SB cards included digital (SPDIF) I/O, you had to spend nearly $1000 to get this feature on a sound card. Lets hear it for capitalism.

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<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

DroopyPawn · Post by **DroopyPawn** » 6 Jan 2003 3:49 pm

I suggest a Yamaha SW1000xg sound card. It has a 20 meg ROM sample base (same sounds as Yamaha's MU1000 sound module) and it will record and play digital audtio (with the right software of course). This was the main audio card in my home studio for a couple of years. They are stll great cards. About $250 on ebay when you can find one.
gs

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Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 16 Jan 2003 4:50 pm

I selected an Ensoniq card because it had some nice effects (chorus and reverb), but it doesn't reproduce all game music "in tune"...music on some games sounds terrible! (ET problem?

) Sound Blaster is the industry standard, so the next time, I go back to one of their cards!