sound card help.

i've really got no clue about sound cards at all. i recently realized i have an extremely old motherboard with integrated audio, and that might be why everything that i listen to sound bad. so i decided maybe i should pick up a nice sound card, but really, i have no idea what i'm looking for. i've seen cards with $100 price differences, and could see no real differences. i'm on a budget too, looking to spend around 50-100 dollars. i figure anything will be better than what i've got now, but yeah. any help would be awesome.

also, i was looking around for some studio monitors, as i thought that might help sound quality out a bit as well, came up with these.

http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/DX4-main.html

any suggestions here?

thanks.

The key is speed so don't get a USB soundcard would be my immediate advice in otherwords think PCI. Essentially you have to ask yourself what you want out of your sound card. However read this article. http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

M–Audio Audiophile 2496 ?

yeah, i planned on grabbing a pci. basically, all i really need it for is making my sound output not suck. music production maybe, but i still don't really know much about the more technical sides of this stuff.

edit: just looked at the audiophile, it looks nice. i dunno if i should be spending 90 dollars on it though, since i don't really know what any of that stuff is for. :\

  sisforawesome said:

edit: just looked at the audiophile, it looks nice. i dunno if i should be spending 90 dollars on it though, since i don't really know what any of that stuff is for. :\

I've used the 2496 (and the older Delta DiO 2496l) and they've never caused me problems. Well worth the money, especially if you can get one used.

Also, for monitors, save your money until you have 400-500 dollars.

what do you suggest speaker-wise, then? i've got some $30 dollar speakers from wal-mart.

im not even going to read your post. I have an M-Audio Firewire Solo. Its all you need if you plan to produce all by your wittle self.

if you want to have multiple inputs. then you need more inputs on the card...which makes it cost more money.

if you dont play any instruments THEN YOU DONT NEED AN AUDIO CARD :ermm:

  Cyanescens said:

if you dont play any instruments THEN YOU DONT NEED AN AUDIO CARD :ermm:

yeah, regardless of whether i play an instrument or not, i think having a sound card might help out. and in the future if I DO ever start getting more into the hardware aspect of production, i'll have everything ready.

An M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 or an E-Mu 0404. The key thing is that it has to have ASIO drivers.

The E-Mu card will do the job, but the mixer routing, though very flexible for ASIO work, is also quite complicated, requiring a lot of setting up for even a simple recording/playback situation. The card-accelerated VST effects plugins provided are complete rubbish, and the drivers and mixer are not the most stable software in the world.

Also, my 0404 developed a fault on the analogue output, putting the right hand channel 60dB lower than the left.

Another company you might want to avoid is Behringer, who have brought out some very well-priced hardware with lots of features, but the drivers are so badly written that they have rendered the product unusable for the past year or more.

My workplace has 6 Audiophile stations and I haven't heard of or witnessed a single issue in the years sinced they were installed, and their sound quality is as good as you could hope to get for several times the price.

yeah, i've got two m-audio cards (delta 1010, and audiophile), and an echo gina.

i swear by m-audio. superb kit.

Also, I have a pair of Studiophile DX4, not for studio work. They are tiny, do not go loud at all, have zero bass and what frequency range is there is pretty bad - they are basically as good as a pair of quality PC speakers which would sell for 2/3 of the price.

The best quality for the money would be had by buying a 1970s hi-fi amp (JVC, Technics etc), with a pair of 1980s bookshelf hi-fi speakers (Mission, Tannoy, JBL etc...) which will see off any modern active monitoring system up to about $400 for probably a quarter of the price.

  xy_politics said:

The best quality for the money would be had by buying a 1970s hi-fi amp (JVC, Technics etc), with a pair of 1980s bookshelf hi-fi speakers (Mission, Tannoy, JBL etc...) which will see off any modern active monitoring system up to about $400 for probably a quarter of the price.

ooooh.

you're not going to get anywhere near flat response from a set up like that.

go passive and get a decent power amp.

actually, if it's just for listening, go with xy politics advice..

  loganfive said:

  xy_politics said:

 

 

The best quality for the money would be had by buying a 1970s hi-fi amp (JVC, Technics etc), with a pair of 1980s bookshelf hi-fi speakers (Mission, Tannoy, JBL etc...) which will see off any modern active monitoring system up to about $400 for probably a quarter of the price.

 

 

ooooh.

 

you're not going to get anywhere near flat response from a set up like that.

 

go passive and get a decent power amp.

Ehh.. who said the topicstarter needed a flat response monitoring system? If I were him I'd indeed get a nice, loud and big pair of speakers (<100$ at some second hand store) + a hifi amp with S/PDIF. Then I'd hook up the amp to the onboard soundcard with a S/PDIF cable.. providing that the mobo has digital out, ofcourse.

Upgrade your speakers first. If your still unsatisfied with the quality (especially the noise), upgrade to a Echo Mia/EMU 0404/Maya44/Audiophile2496.

  iep said:

  loganfive said:

  xy_politics said:

 

 

The best quality for the money would be had by buying a 1970s hi-fi amp (JVC, Technics etc), with a pair of 1980s bookshelf hi-fi speakers (Mission, Tannoy, JBL etc...) which will see off any modern active monitoring system up to about $400 for probably a quarter of the price.

 

 

ooooh.

 

you're not going to get anywhere near flat response from a set up like that.

 

go passive and get a decent power amp.

 

Ehh.. who said the topicstarter needed a flat response monitoring system? If I were him I'd indeed get a nice, loud and big pair of speakers (<100$ at some second hand store) + a hifi amp with S/PDIF. Then I'd hook up the amp to the onboard soundcard with a S/PDIF cable.. providing that the mobo has digital out, ofcourse.

Upgrade your speakers first. If your still unsatisfied with the quality (especially the noise), upgrade to a Echo Mia/EMU 0404/Maya44/Audiophile2496.

yeah, i noticed that, hence the post that followed.

didn't see that in my HURRY TO CORRECT YOu!!!??111

:embrassed: