Hi Guys,
I am looking to buy a sound card. Pretty soon a couple of friends of mine are coming down from US and dubai. Any idea where I should get this from. Is dubai cheaper than US for this. I could not find any online sites from dubai where I could check the prices of the sound cards.
I listen to music 40% and movies 60%. Games - No.
I will be putting this card in my HTPC, which is connected to pv8 and yamaha receiver with B&W speakers.
My budget is around 100$ USD. I am considering the following options, please advise.
Must have features:
24/96 support
SPDIF out
5.1 or 7.1 with either analog or digital, better If its on both, without compromising music quality.
good DACs for music
Card should be for micro atx cabinets
ASIO support for unmolested bit-perfect SPDIF.
I also had a question about tv tuner cards as I will be adding one in future. Does the tv tuner card while capturing tv need the Line-In of the audio card to capture sound or does it usually have its own? I am asking because some of the cards I saw have multiplexed the line In/Mic In/SPDIF out in the same port (e.g. asus xonar dx). If this is the case, it will not work for me as I need to spdif out and line in for tv tuner card.
Asus XONAR-DX
Available for about 80$ in US
Does not support DTS thru either analog or digital outs. Does this mean that the dvd movies with dts will not play or does it mean that it will play by using software decoding and there will be some extra load on the cpu. How much extra load roughly. amd 2.5GHZ cpu/2g ram
Emu 0404 24/96 Digital Audio PCI Card
About 85$
I think it passes the DD and DTS through spdif, can anyone confirm. Is this card an overkill, I would not ever be using this for music recording purposes.
AuzenTech AZT-XPCINE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI
about 100$
Has everything I need. How's the sound quality
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
about 90$
Has everything I need
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 High-Definition Surround Sound Card
about 70$. Apart from the number of channels, any other difference with revolution 7.1. How's the sound quality.
M-Audio Audiophile 24-Bit/96kHz 4 Input / 4 Output PCI Digital Recording Interface with MIDI for Mac or PC
80$
supports 2.1 analog and DD thru spdif. DTS?. Since analog is only 2 channels, if it does not pass thru DTS, I wont be able to see DTS movies at 5.1 or 7.1, right?
M-Audio Audiophile 192 High Definition 4 Input/ 4 Output Audio PCI Card with Digital I/O and MIDI - Mac and Windows
120$
passes thru DTS and DD, 2.1 channel analog.
Says supprts balanced analog I/O. What does it mean. Can I feed it to my av receiver or not?
So which one out of these is a good choice. Anything else I need to consider. The card has to be good for music and I should be able to play dd/dts movies etc.
Thanx
I am looking to buy a sound card. Pretty soon a couple of friends of mine are coming down from US and dubai. Any idea where I should get this from. Is dubai cheaper than US for this. I could not find any online sites from dubai where I could check the prices of the sound cards.
I listen to music 40% and movies 60%. Games - No.
I will be putting this card in my HTPC, which is connected to pv8 and yamaha receiver with B&W speakers.
My budget is around 100$ USD. I am considering the following options, please advise.
Must have features:
24/96 support
SPDIF out
5.1 or 7.1 with either analog or digital, better If its on both, without compromising music quality.
good DACs for music
Card should be for micro atx cabinets
ASIO support for unmolested bit-perfect SPDIF.
I also had a question about tv tuner cards as I will be adding one in future. Does the tv tuner card while capturing tv need the Line-In of the audio card to capture sound or does it usually have its own? I am asking because some of the cards I saw have multiplexed the line In/Mic In/SPDIF out in the same port (e.g. asus xonar dx). If this is the case, it will not work for me as I need to spdif out and line in for tv tuner card.
Asus XONAR-DX
Available for about 80$ in US
Does not support DTS thru either analog or digital outs. Does this mean that the dvd movies with dts will not play or does it mean that it will play by using software decoding and there will be some extra load on the cpu. How much extra load roughly. amd 2.5GHZ cpu/2g ram
Emu 0404 24/96 Digital Audio PCI Card
About 85$
I think it passes the DD and DTS through spdif, can anyone confirm. Is this card an overkill, I would not ever be using this for music recording purposes.
AuzenTech AZT-XPCINE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI
about 100$
Has everything I need. How's the sound quality
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
about 90$
Has everything I need
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 High-Definition Surround Sound Card
about 70$. Apart from the number of channels, any other difference with revolution 7.1. How's the sound quality.
M-Audio Audiophile 24-Bit/96kHz 4 Input / 4 Output PCI Digital Recording Interface with MIDI for Mac or PC
80$
supports 2.1 analog and DD thru spdif. DTS?. Since analog is only 2 channels, if it does not pass thru DTS, I wont be able to see DTS movies at 5.1 or 7.1, right?
M-Audio Audiophile 192 High Definition 4 Input/ 4 Output Audio PCI Card with Digital I/O and MIDI - Mac and Windows
120$
passes thru DTS and DD, 2.1 channel analog.
Says supprts balanced analog I/O. What does it mean. Can I feed it to my av receiver or not?
So which one out of these is a good choice. Anything else I need to consider. The card has to be good for music and I should be able to play dd/dts movies etc.
Thanx