Soundcard Recommendation? Upgrade or Not?

EightImmortals on 08/02/2019 - 18:02

So I have an old Auzentech meridian 7.1 (but now only use 2.1), it's about 7-8 years old and support and river updates ended a long time ago. Often when Windows 10 upgrades itself I have a hard time reinstalling the drivers. It has replaceable opamps which were cool as I could play around with different ones to find the best sound. Was just wondering if the tech has improved that much over the last few years that it would be worth upgrading. Gaming sound isn't important but I do want the best I can get out of my music. I listen through speakers and not headphones.

Yes. I did notice a big difference over the onboard realtek sound chip.

Cheers

Computing Computer Component Sound Card

Comments

  • tebbybabes on 08/02/2019 - 18:19

    I'm interested in your thread as well. I'm running a Xonar DG on a PCI interface and just like your situation, drivers are old and I've actually stuck with 3rd party drivers.

    We have 2 desktops in the house and I'm the only one who runs it through good quality speakers. The son uses on-board audio through headphones and it actually sounds pretty ok. Recently he switched to a headset that is USB so, his sound processing might actually bypassing his on-board audio now.

  • Diji1 on 08/02/2019 - 19:18

    My most recent purchase was an ASUS Raid DLX to replace a Creative Soundblaster AE-5.

    The AE-5 replaced a Soundblaster ZxR which replaced a Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium.

    I noticed the most difference moving to the Asus DLX, it's sound is warm and analogue-like compared to all the Creative cards which are kind of harsh with clarity. It has replaceable op-amps (as does the AE-5 and ZxR) but I have never tried any of them. The DLX software is miles ahead of Creative's because all settings are on one page. The external module is actually electronic unlike the silly ZxR's external module which is simply an extension cord with an analogue volume.

    I kept the ZxR because it's my second favourite card because of it's additional inputs.

    I don't think any card is much of an upgrade for music or movies after you have 16bit 44.1khz and you're free of electrical noise… The op-amps probably provide the most difference to sound although I haven't swapped them to find out.

  • HardlyCharly on 08/02/2019 - 19:45

    I used to use an Asus Xonar Essence ST which was great. However I couldn't find any suitable motherboard with a PCI slot when I rebuilt my system 18 months ago, and couldn't afford a new PCIe audio card (they're way more expensive these days) so I just made sure my new motherboard had really good on-board audio. It's not quite as good, but it's not a big difference either, audio on high-end motherboards has come a long long way in 8! years, they have their own dedicated audio chips and everything. I'm running it through a stereo amp to two floorstanding speakers, as well as to headphones, which I used to have hooked up to a separate tube amp (my word the sound was beautiful) before it blew itself up.

  • Richardc on 08/02/2019 - 20:14
    +1

    get a DAC and use USB

    • EightImmortals on 08/02/2019 - 20:46

      Any recommendations?

      • evol on 09/02/2019 - 02:49

        What speakers do you have?

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