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Topic: What is the best sound card? (Read 11716 times) previous topic - next topic

What is the best sound card?

I recently purchased NWC and I am totally amazed at its capabilities and potential. I would like to utilize this product to its fullest with the best sound card available. I have called all the local stores and it seems they all say that the particular cards they carry are the best. So far, I've heard about AWE64 Gold, Diamond 3D, Diamond Monster 3D, etc. Does anyone know what the best is? I'd really appreciate any advice. Thanks, DR.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #1 –
I know I love my SB AEW64 Gold, although I haven't tried any of the others you listed.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #2 –
I have heard that the AWE Gold is the best soundcard available. I actually have some wierd card that is part of a package called 'PCA Pro' which is like a computerised telephone. It has a soundblaster compatable card built in, and although it only has 24 note polyphony, it sounds great, even for concert band/orchestral arrangements. I have it hooked up through a small stereo, not the PC speakers, and this adds better tone to the sound output (more highs and lows etc) I have no idea how much PCA Pro costs, as it came with the computer as a package deal, so I guess it wouldn't cost that much. BTW, I hope to get an AWE soon, as I'm sure it can do a better job, it's just a bit expensive.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #3 –
I'm not too great on AWEs guts, but it seems to me that you need extra memory on your AWE card to use Sound Fonts, which is I think where emusic is turning.

ie. The BEST AWE general midi instruments are on the Sound Fonts, which require extra memory. A friend has an AWE card without, and whilst the sounds are good, they are often no better than a $200 external midi box.

Also, some of the AWE effects also need onboard memory. Lookup Creative on the web at http://www.ctlsg.creaf.com/zonemenu.html and follow your nose to product descriptions for the AWE card.

Andrew

FYI: I have a SB16 card, which only has internal FM synthesis - which is crap - and an external midi driver, through the game port, which I use to run either a Goldstar MIDI ART GS1000R General Midi box, or a Yamaha PSR-520 keyboard. Each have their pluses and minuses.

PPS: If you do want to use Soundfonts, then definitely use an AWE card or similar - A

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #4 –
Get the SB AEW64 Gold -- You can't go wrong.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #5 –
I recently got a Sony PCV240, with a sound card called ESS
Maestro. It offers 64 note polyphony and is on the PCI bus.
The card has nice effects (reverb, chorus). However, the
sound lacks depth. The bass does not reverberate(also called
resonance) and the drums are dull. I'm comparing this with
my old Ensonic daughterboard which had acceptable sound.
I don't now who ESS is, but I would not reccommend their
cards. The computer was returned because it has an
extremely loud cooling fan.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #6 –
I still can`t get what is the best card...
(no doubt AWE is a crap, even if it is gold.)

Cmmn, tell us about your REALY good PCI card.
We still are lookin` for the one.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #7 –
I used to have an AWE64 value card...but I just sold it,
because I want to buy a VideoLogic Sonicstorm card. It has
a 500 MIPS Digital Sound Processor, hardware wavetable, and
it uses an ESS Maestro-2 chip. I hear from Boot magazine
that the ESS chip sounds crappy with the current drivers,
but it is expected to kick ass later on. It has hardware
acceleration on many formats, such as directsound, aureal 3d,
qsound...I think there are more. But the AWE64 value sounded
great! I just despise the idea of ISA, so I'm gonna go the
PCI route. The Ensoniq AudioPCI thing is supposed to sound
awesome compared with the maestro, but it doesn't have a DSP

I dunno...if you can find a awe64 for like 50 bucks, do that...
otherwise wait for the PCI hurd to come rolling in.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #8 –
silly me...the SonicStorm uses the Maestro-1 chip not the
Maestro-2...that is for notebooks or something...but it's
still 500 MIPS (= ? MHz) I heard somewhere that that is like
50 MHz

who cares

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #9 –
The best soundcard that i know of is Terratec EWS 64 XL
which costs about $ 500 - awesome card !
Wait for the new PCI card from creative labs and EMU -
- should cost about $ 500 - 700

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #10 –
I just bought the PCI128 from SoundBlaster and I think it's descent. Midi files sound quite a bit better than the AWE64, but it also requires more from your system. If you want to use the 8Mb waveset, it's recomended that you have 64Mb SDRAM. I think it's well worth the $100 it costs, but I can't wait to get a hold of the SoundBlaster Live! card.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #11 –
I have a Yamaha OPL-3 fm card and if somebody has the need
to hear something really awfull, tell me! I think the AWE 64
is really a usable solution, but i will see - we got a interesting card today at my company - Soundradio 64+FM PCI
with ESS Maestro II chip and i will test it tomorow and tell u then the results. I hope it will work, i need really
a new card.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #12 –
No one has mentioned the AWE 32.
I recently acquired one as a gift with 8Mb of RAM on board.
I think it's great - you can load up a huge soundfont and pick your own sounds.
It's much cheaper than the 64 and uses stock 30pin memory - unlike the 64 where you have to use Creative's proprietary memory.
I think the AWE 32 provides most of what you need without burning a hole in your pocket.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #13 –
For my, the best sound card is my Sound Blaster Live!, I love this card, in special if it is Creative Labs.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #14 –
I don't know what the best card is, but i can tell you my SB 16 sucks.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #16 –
The bst card in the market is the SB Live! It has wonderful normal sound but also has a feature which allows it to recreate the certain acoustic characteristics of different rooms and locations and applys them to your music and all other sounds.
Good speakers though are essential to ensure good sound no matter how up class your sound card.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #17 –
This is as good a place as any to point out that the top-of-the-line Dell computers are being supplied with Turtle Beach 'Montego' cards. Perhaps (hopefully) this is an indication of a trend away from the mediocre offerings from Creative.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #18 –
>>the top-of-the-line Dell computers are being supplied with Turtle Beach 'Montego' cards

True. But if I read their literature correctly, the SoundBlaster Live! Value card is offered as a $60 *upgrade* from the Turtle Beach card (and Creative currently prices the Value card $100 less than the regular Live!). Is this a ripoff or does Dell really think the Creative cards are better?

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #19 –
I just installed the SB Audigy 2 PCI card and I love it. I haven't found anything yet which even compares to the quality of this card. Nevertheless it came with two awesome games. Hitman 2 and Soldier of Fortune 2.

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #20 –
My 1999 sb live model produces a very good sound with the latest driver and the tunes playback software in my 2.9 ghertz system.
 

Re: What is the best sound card?

Reply #21 –
I bought a SB live value (OEM) card about a year ago for $US45. A few driver problems and it didn't care for Yamaha software on the computer.

Now under Win98SE with a 'clean' reload it works well. I use the MagicSFv2 soundfont of 70Mb which it loads and the included SB softsynth in NWC. It is good enough to use for checking symphonic scores in NWC. It works very well too with synthfont, although it may make it uneccessary.