Hey, I know its very important if you want to have great sounding audio on your computer you need a good soundcard/speakers. I want to dish out on something to improve my audio which to be hounest at the moment is dismal. ITs inbuilt A8n-Sli audio. And ive got some old dell speakers and a old bass box. So what would you recommend? Soundcard or speakers??? Thanks Lecsiy
Go for the soundcard. I would go with a Creative card. Both mt A8N-SLI premium and A8N32 have sound cards fitted extra and the difference to my speakers is amazing.
the a8n has a good sound card the realtek alc885, anyways if u want a better soundcard how much do u wanna spend?
Some users think the onboard soundcard is good, until they hear what the sound should be like with a proper dedicated card. Then you realise just how poor that Realtek sound card is, you only need to spend £20 upwards to improve the sound from what is a very poor quality onboard soundcard. As someone who has actually used both, I can say quite honestly that hearing the difference is very obvious, then there is no going back. As for the a8n onboard being good, it is far from good it is awful, or in Lecsiy's original post 'dismal' Its good in the fact that its free with the board and it works, but its bad in sound quality and in the fact that it encourages most users to refrain from spending money on part of system that often gets ignored.
Cool, so it looks like im going for the card then. Im thinking of spending round £20/30. Is that enough for noticeably better quality?? And if it is could you show me a good one??? Thanks a lot! Lecsiy
You can find these at most stores online. Its not worth getting the retail version IMO, but both would improve the sound. My mate is using this on his A8N-SLi premium which sounds great on his speakers. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - OEM £17 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98938 This is the card I'm using on my A8N-SLi premium, slightly better card which I would recommend over the cheaper one, but either would be okay. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 7.1 EAX Sound Card - OEM £36 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98937
Thanks again BigDK. One last thing as i said in my first post im running the sound through theese dell speakers. Can that be damaging the sound quality?? If so whats the cheapest goodish quality speakers you can find? (Ebuyer would be good) Cheers lecsiy
A mate is using these on his system, although he is using a XiFi card which cost about £150. Creative I-Trigue 2.1 L3500 are a quality pair of speakers with a sub, the sound on a good card is fantastic, but they are £80 normally but they are going for about £55 here. http://www.scratchcomputers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1084 Ebuyer have these which are the next model down for about the same price and the user reviews are all good. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=78293
Well im intrested in the first one the: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card - OEM £17 But reading the reviews they all say they dont have the driver cd with them. They also say its near to impossible to download a WORKING one. As your mate has one. You know for sure if the drivers actually work? If not do you think you could make me an iso of the disc and email it to me? Sorry to be a bother!! Lecsiy
Here is the link to the software download from Creative, if using XP. I can make the ISO but its likely to be about 50Mb if not bigger. The disk came with his OEM card any way, so not sure why other buyers have had no driver disk with their OEM cards. http://uk.europe.creative.com/suppo...9107&Product_Name=Audigy+SE&OSName=Windows+XP A thing to remember as well, is that there are a whole bunch of idiots out there who shouldn't be let near PC's, especially with a screwdriver in their hands, so you have to take a lot of feedback with a pinch of salt. Probably user errors downloading the wrong software causes most of the problems that are reported. I always download the latest drivers rather than use what comes on disk, and I can't say I've ever had a Creative card not work with the drivers off the site.
Update: Just bought myself the card: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98938 And got me some of theese to sing along with: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/74746 what do ya think BigDK?? Cheers for all ya help by the way!
maybe u wouldve got some of this http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101913 instead of some of this http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/74746
Can't say I've ever heard any labtec speakers to say if they are any good or not. Chances are they are going to be okay as the reviews seem to all be positive. Maybe worth trying them out before and after installing the soundcard to see exactly what difference that gives to your system. Let us know when there running!
@elokito i would have loved to but: a) i stretched my budget with the ones im getting! b) you cant get them that cheap ebuyer for some reason at the moment wont sell used goods!!
Ok just got the stuff installed it all sucessfully. All i can say is: THANK YOU!! The sound on this thing is awesome and i really didnt expect this improvament. Seriously guys if your using onboard sound. Upgrade its worth every penny. Thanks BigDK!!
Sorry DK ive been "deconverted" read this post (By me)on the sound card i got: Ive copied and pasted it from here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/376246 Here it is: I bought recently a creative audigy card. I installed it it worked ok. Because of my quite soft speakers i turned the sound up full. So there i was just booting up linux when: Pure white noise came out of my speakers. In a state i ran outside my house and literally scared to go inside. Grabbed my dog and waited for around a minute or so. I thenplucked up the courage to turn it off. The sheer blast of noise scared me so much. It simply got me into a state. As i type this im shivering. Drinking alchol to sooth my nerves. Put it this way im damn lucky not to have had this happened when im sleeping. Can you imagine being woken up. Man i just had to let that out. Im warnong everyone dont go to ebuyer. Unleess you wanna be scared s***less. Seriously it takes a lot to scare me but that just pushed the boat. Ohh <<EDIT>>> By the wya im not blaming you or anything just wanted to let you know! Also lol can you think of anything i can put in my "angry reply to ebuyer" in my saftey valve post?? Lecsiy
To be fair, Ebuyer are just a reseller, they don't test every product they sell, and if you can actually identify the fault they will give you a refund or replacement. As I've never used Linux, I can even start to point at a possible software problem. As for the card, you already know the sond improvements, its either that you've got a faulty card, faulty software or a setup issue. At least you know you've got a strong heart (saves going for a medical)
as my main machine is my laptop i tried out a USB sound 'card'- i got the Creative 24-bit External USB. as of last night i finally got this puppy working in linux too. amazing bit of kit, only £40. it's hooked up to some sexy Logitech X-530's, think they were about £70
Nice!! Ye i think i will stay with soundcards lol! They are 20 times better any day than speakers as long as you get a good'en that is! Lecsiy
