General Sound Questions

[dyingstar]

Hey Guys, I hate to ask dumb questions, but I guess I wouldn't learn otherwise. Okay, here goes:

1) Firstly, who makes decent sound cards?
2) Is the cost difference justifiable compared to onboard audio?
3) Which kinds of cables offer the best sound output when connecting to peripheral devices?

Thanks for the info.

[Daruvian]

Creative always makes good sound cards... But as for the cost difference being justifiable... That depends on how much money you have to throw around... And also what you're going to be using it for... Its for home theater use... I would recommend either the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 or the Razer Barracuda AC-1... For gaming, the Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series... Or the regular X-Fi Fatal1ty if you have the free bay space and whatnot... As the regular uses a device that fits in a drive bay and a remote... The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro does not... The first two cards each go for around $200 MSRP and the Fatal1ty Pro around $150... And as for the connections... If you need optical ports, I would go with the Razer card... It has dual optical ports and the others have none...

[Redundant]

Hey Guys, I hate to ask dumb questions, but I guess I wouldn't learn otherwise. Okay, here goes:

1) Firstly, who makes decent sound cards?
2) Is the cost difference justifiable compared to onboard audio?
3) Which kinds of cables offer the best sound output when connecting to peripheral devices?

Thanks for the info.

2) If you have a pretty nice mobo (particularly the gaming ones), you wont notice much of a difference on PC speakers. On a stereo, you may notice a slight difference and probably more so on soft sounds like classical. In general though, there is very little difference.

3) If this is for a home theater, optical is easier (1 cable). For PC, the mini headphone jacks found on most mobos should be fine.

[MaxOC]

if you want the best headphones then the razer and matching headset, has a special port JUST for those headphones, looks kinda like a dvi

[DaveW]

Creative always makes good sound cards... But as for the cost difference being justifiable... That depends on how much money you have to throw around... And also what you're going to be using it for... Its for home theater use... I would recommend either the Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 or the Razer Barracuda AC-1... For gaming, the Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series... Or the regular X-Fi Fatal1ty if you have the free bay space and whatnot... As the regular uses a device that fits in a drive bay and a remote... The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro does not... The first two cards each go for around $200 MSRP and the Fatal1ty Pro around $150... And as for the connections... If you need optical ports, I would go with the Razer card... It has dual optical ports and the others have none...

You can relax the period key a little my friend. ;)

-Dave

[Daruvian]

LoL Its just habit... Something I've done for years... I think its just because I got sick of everything being so proper at work all the time...