can anyone suggest a decent sound card for my pc? I want to run it into my hifi so proper phono plugs would be an advantage. The system is quite revealing of a poor source.

All I want to do is listen to music off my pc at a reasonable level of sound quality. I realise there are limitations within the format (mp3 or whatever), but I want to get the best out of it that I can.

tia.

 

listening to mp3's via a creative soundblaster live at the moment,beware the drivers are mega dicky with XP.


it works though

 

i've got Win2000 here. is that via 3mm jack -> phono?

 

I can't remember wht connectiopn it is, & i have to drag the box out to see, I think its 3.5 on the card to normal phono size for the amp.

one thing, all the clicks you make when browsing etc will be annoying.

 

Creative sound cards are my personal favourites with the 'audigy' product line. They offer great extra features on both the internal and external sound cards, they have also got a great reputation for sound quality. As for phonos, I'm not sure that they make sound cards that use that anymore, but you could just nip down do your local maplins and get a headphone to phono cable?....

Here's a link Scroll down to find Audigy
Hope that helps

(MissyC's son)

 

Good thread here PC. Decent PC to Hi-Fi sound is a lot more complicated than it first might seem. I get decent sound with high bitrate (320) mp3's (ie mp3's sound pretty crap anyway) via my shuttles on board sound, and as long as you just want it as an mp3 box any decent card should do. If you want to rip to wav and then play these through your amp then you will probably not get anywhere near the sound quality of your Hi-Fi setup. <-- understatement

http://www.avforums.com/forums/archi...p/t-64336.html

 

cheers, Jye, and missyc's son.

At the moment I don't intend to sart ripping to wav (it would prolly take the rest of my life to do my cds and lps), but sometimes I want to listen to a song (eg Tears for Fears new single ) but not enough to actually buy it on cd single or get the album. I thought that it would be handy to just download tracks in this circumstance. Also I wouldn't mind being able to play internet radio.

 

I use a USB Audio device which gives an Optical Out and a Line-Level 3.5mm Stereo Jack.

I then use a 3.5mm Stereo -> Phono Connection to go to my amp, or a 3.5mm -> 3.5mm that goes to my dedicated Headphone amp.

 

I never listen to anything else these days. Literally thoussands of good fast streaming stations now. Being able to search for music you like by genre is a boon, and of course no bloody adverts or crap DJ's to suffer any more

 

These are superb:- Audiophile 2496 or there is a recently released version the Audiophile 192.

The problem with Soundblasters et al is that they have amplified outputs so getting levels correct can be a bitch whereas a "proper" audio card has RCA outputs to connect directly into an amp.

Roy

 

another vote here for Creative Soundblaster range - bought mine in 1996 and it's still going strong; used it over the years for playing midi files, recording and editing WAV files, doing music composition with Vienna soundfonts, linking to a piano keyboard attachment via Orchestrator, playing and recording from CD's, LP's and tapes and of course, more recently, playing MP3's routed thru an avr to a 5.1 speaker system.

 

The audiophile card as mentioned is probably your best bet, they sued to be about £130 but are now about £70 and are semi-professional, the creative cards are good all rounders but never fair that well when reviewed in music/sound technology magazines.

Gary

 

I know you said you're primarily interested in the audio side but if you are not a real audiophile and will be doing any game playing at all then you can't beat an Audigy 2 which can be picked up for less than £50..

 

Another vote for M-Audio Audiophile... or anything M-audio for that matter

 

My vote would be for an Audigy too, and some 3.5mm jack to phono convertor leads.


What hi-fi do you have (amp and speakers)?