Silent sound card suggestions......
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Re: Silent sound card suggestions......
An external sound card may solve the first and third problems.. have you considered a USB sound card?tywen wrote:....I don't want any PCI noise, badly written drivers, and electrical hum/noise.
Never tried one myself but I was planning to get one in the future - just for the reason to getting rid of noise.
Your other option is to get an external DAC and use your digital outs.
Just my 2 cents.
Pick a sound card for applications
I'd suggest choosing a soundcard by how it will be used rather than a raw comparison of PCI noise, bad drivers, etc. Most good soundcards will not have any of the problems you mentioned; by good, I mean those intended more for audio workstation usage than for gaming, such as the Echo, M-Audio, DAL, MOTU and Terratec cards. I have not experienced internal noise (clicking/humming/buzzing through the soundcard output) from these cards, nor have I heard external noise (physical sound coming from the card, like the hum from a television) from these cards. Of course, since many of the cards I mentioned a professional products, they come at a significantly higher price than one built for more general applications. External devices may or may not solve your problems; I'd try to find one locally and listen to it. If it is not USB, there is always the possibility of noise introduced through electrical hum or some other source of disturbance.
Having said all of that, I must reiterate Rook's question: You can hear your sound card? That is, you are be able to hear a noise from your card over the quiet but audible whirr of case, PSU and CPU fans and hard drives? If so, I'd think that there may be something malfunctioning with the card.
Having said all of that, I must reiterate Rook's question: You can hear your sound card? That is, you are be able to hear a noise from your card over the quiet but audible whirr of case, PSU and CPU fans and hard drives? If so, I'd think that there may be something malfunctioning with the card.
I suspect you are talking about the hum that comes from your speakers when you plug them into your soundcard. A lot of it is caused by interference over the poor connections.
As for DVD audio, any soundcard that has a SPDIF socket supports digital surround sound, provided you have a digital amp/receiver to decode the output (for instance, the iffy onboard soundcard that came with my KT400 motherboard chipset gave me pretty good 6.1 DTS ES sound). It just preserves the digital DVD sound signal. Also, when using this port you shouldn't get any electrical interference from the motherboard. So if you have a digital receiver kicking around and already have a SPDIF socket, try linking it up. If not, they cost less than $200, so I don't know if at this price whether it is an alternative to buying an expensive soundcard for you, but anyway, just to give you a different idea
As for DVD audio, any soundcard that has a SPDIF socket supports digital surround sound, provided you have a digital amp/receiver to decode the output (for instance, the iffy onboard soundcard that came with my KT400 motherboard chipset gave me pretty good 6.1 DTS ES sound). It just preserves the digital DVD sound signal. Also, when using this port you shouldn't get any electrical interference from the motherboard. So if you have a digital receiver kicking around and already have a SPDIF socket, try linking it up. If not, they cost less than $200, so I don't know if at this price whether it is an alternative to buying an expensive soundcard for you, but anyway, just to give you a different idea
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lazybum131
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Sat May 17, 2003 8:25 pm
- Location: Thornhill, Ontario
As tywen said, DVD-audio can only be outputted in analog.
DVD-Audio is not the same as DVD-Video with Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks. DVD-Audio discs come with a Dolby Digital track, but that's for backwards compatibility since most DVD players can't play the actual 'advanced resolution' tracks.
The best consumer soundcards (generally, arguably there are others) are the Audigy 2 and Revolution. The Revo is suppose to sound better then the original Audigy 2, but I'm not sure how the new Audigy 2 ZS will stack up against the Revo. None of these soundcards should cause 'hum' from the speakers unless it's the speakers themselves, or electrical interference from external sources.
DVD-Audio is not the same as DVD-Video with Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks. DVD-Audio discs come with a Dolby Digital track, but that's for backwards compatibility since most DVD players can't play the actual 'advanced resolution' tracks.
The best consumer soundcards (generally, arguably there are others) are the Audigy 2 and Revolution. The Revo is suppose to sound better then the original Audigy 2, but I'm not sure how the new Audigy 2 ZS will stack up against the Revo. None of these soundcards should cause 'hum' from the speakers unless it's the speakers themselves, or electrical interference from external sources.
I snagged an Audigy 2 6.1 card from Best Buy a couple months ago for $59.
It is an incredible sound card - I mostly play games and listen to some music - it has a S/N ratio of well over 100dB (104 or 106 I think).
I have analog speakers (FPS2000) plugged in 4.1 style and I keep the volume up pretty high and there is ZERO perceptible hiss or noise until the system starts singing.
Awsome sound card - the EAX3 is particularly nice in games - if you setup your speakers right, you will get very good positional sound that gives you a real edge - I particularly like how it works in Planetside (although I just canceled my subscription).
It is an incredible sound card - I mostly play games and listen to some music - it has a S/N ratio of well over 100dB (104 or 106 I think).
I have analog speakers (FPS2000) plugged in 4.1 style and I keep the volume up pretty high and there is ZERO perceptible hiss or noise until the system starts singing.
Awsome sound card - the EAX3 is particularly nice in games - if you setup your speakers right, you will get very good positional sound that gives you a real edge - I particularly like how it works in Planetside (although I just canceled my subscription).