PPA 1431 - Sound card - 16-bit - PCI Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this card to use on my Debian GNU/Linux system specifically to output digital audio using the optical out connection. It works very easily. Linux recognized the card right away, and once I figured out the command line for Mplayer it worked perfectly. It was a bit tough finding the command line because I have onboard audio and now this sound card. Now I can get surround sound (AC3/Dolby Digital or DTS) to my receiver. Price was good and shipping was good enough.

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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Card Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are looking for superior sound from your computer this is the card to get. I expect a lot from my soundcards since I do composing, music production, listen to iTunes and even a little gaming too. Previously I had been using the very excellent M-Audio Audiophile 2496. The M-Audio had a few drawbacks to it but nothing that I couldn't work around. However, I decided to upgrade. I looked at the stats of several cards from Turtle Beach and M-Audio but on paper they didn't compare with this card. After installation I gave it a test drive. On playing music from iTunes I noticed a much cleaner sound than my previous card. I didn't bother to use the silly "Crystallizer." If you read about what it actually does, it essentially distorts the sound. This card doesn't need any tricks like that and I can't recommend using it. I think it was just marketing hype. Also, I've listened to music for the last few days I didn't notice any fatigue on my part - the sound was truly better. Next I opened up Cubase (a music sequencing program) and did an audio mixdown of one of my pieces, the quality was equal to a bit better than the original. Ripping from CD to iTunes, I didn't notice any difference in quality. The secret is likely the 5 million transitors. I also will once again enjoy the compatibility with nearly all software programs. If I need it I have access to 24 bit sound fonts, a microphone port and some other do-dads. There were a few downsides. The largest of which was the software installation which took way too long - 40 minutes on my Pentium 4 with 2 GB of RAM. I also objected to having to remove shortcuts from AOL placed in my start menu and Favorites by the installation program. You have to use the install disc and you are not given the option of just installing drivers. I took a small chance (because I had 14 days to return it) on the card because I have read countless negative reviews about Creative products over the last few years. Its nice to see them putting out a quality product once more. I didn't purchase the more expensive big brothers because I didn't need their features. I cannot comment on technical support because fortunately I didn't need to contact them. I highly recommend this card because of its quality and price.

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Take your music, movies and games to the next level with the X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card / 24-bit X-Fi Crystalizer / EAX Advanced HD 5.0 / X-Fi CMSS-3D 109dB SNRPackage contents - Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Card, Quick Start Leaflet, and Installation and Applications CD containing - Drivers for Windows XP, Creative Software Suite, Doom 3 Sound Blaster EAX patch, and User's Guide

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SOUND CARD ROSEWILL RC-702 PCI RETAIL Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the cheapest surround sound cards you can buy and still works fairly well, even if it is only 16 bit. That said if you have a decent motherboard your built in sound will probably work better.
Good for an old PC without surround sound. You will be able to watch DVDs in dts format.

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Creative Labs SB0570 PCI Sound Blaster Audigy SE Sound Card Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There have been a few interesting reviews for this product here on Amazon. Some are evidently due to lack of experience with computers. I will just list a few things you might want to know.
1. The card was very easy to install and update. As stated in the instructions.. Install the card, then boot up. When it detects the card and wants to search for drivers.. hit cancel. Then when your desktop loads, insert the installation cd and install the software. This gets you the bonus material on the cd as well as the drivers. This includes an automated update system for driver and software updates. You can schedule it to check for (I recommend) once a month, but run it once when you first install. This automatically updates your drivers for you. Very easily done. No searching the net, no messing with anything. Just click the options you want.
2. Sound cards in general. Most computers packaged these days come with onboard (chipped directly to the motherboard) sound cards. This is a terrible idea. The onboard sound card
a. is using your system resources and will could be causing conflicts or bottlenecks that lessen gaming and other intensive cpu usage and
b. not a real sound card and therefore generally a real pain (usually impossible) to upgrade the drivers on.
I am a gamer from ancient history of computer gaming and can tell you this.. sound card drivers not being updated are the cause of just as many, if not more problems crashing other programs than anything else on your computer save the video drivers.
Finally.. as for the sound. The digital 7.1 is awesome. I really notice a difference and have enjoyed the performance of this card very much.

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The Sound Blaster Audigy SE is the perfect upgrade from basic motherboard audio with 24-bit ADVANCED HD audio quality for dramatically improved MP3 music playback EAX ADVANCED HD 3.0 support for realistic game sound and immersive 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.

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Sabrent SBT-SP6C 6-Channel 5.1 Surround Sound 3D PCI Sound Card Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't listen to the negative reviews. I have XP and you just insert the card,
put the cd in the drawer and its a very basic setup. Only a few minutes.
Only cost me $6. Doesn't need an instruction booklet! What an
improvement over the built-in 'Realtek'! Anyone who can't do this simple
install, has no business with their hands inside a PC.

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Sabrent SND-P8CH 8-Channel 7.1 High-Performance Surround Sound 3D PCI Sound Card Controller Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this sound card because I was getting static through the mic on my onboard sound. I was looking for something inexpensive that would give me a clean mic input and clean sound. It has certainly worked on all accounts.
Installation was easy enough, although I would recommend that you just ignore the drivers disc. It was easy enough to go online and find the drivers I needed, and after a couple reboots it was working fine.
I will say that I'm not really pushing the limits of the card, I use either a pair of stereo desktop speakers with a subwoofer, or my headphones with the mic. I haven't tried setting up anything close to a 7.1 setup. Then again, that's why I wanted an inexpensive card - I wasn't going to spend $100 for a sound card to listen to through headphones!
I give it four stars because of the drivers - it wasn't hard but it wasn't easy either. Overall, this card does exactly what I was looking for - a no frills sound card that gives me clean sound.

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RF-51SDCD-5-1-Channel-PCI-Sound-Card Review

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(More customer reviews)While this cheap audio works just fine I failed to notice one tiny gotcha when I purchased it: the optical output (S/PDIF) only outputs a stereo field (2 channels).
After spending a couple hours trying to figure out why my surround receiver wasn't playing all 5.1 channels I finally noticed the bullet point on the item description, "Optical out Supports stereo S/PDIF out and pass-through of multichannel DVD sound". So in order to listen to all the channels I need to, instead of running one optical cable, run several 1/8" to RCA style cables.
This is not a deal breaker, it's just something I wish I had been aware of before I bought the Rocketfish sound card.


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StarTech.com 4 Channel Pci Sound Card . Review

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(More customer reviews)My hard drive crashed in my six-year-old Dell Dimension 8400, Pentium 4, 2 Gb of RAM. The OEM Creative SoundBlaster was a "special" model placed in Dell computers. The drivers were no longer available. I still wanted the computer to have sound but did not want to spend a lot of money for an older machine. This sound card by StarTech is perfect. The sound was much better than I expected. In fact, I'd have to say it sounded better than the SoundBlaster ever did. Setup was extremely easy. The software on the CD-Rom is very simple to use. I had no problems running it on my Windows XP Pro operating system. I would definitely consider other products from StarTech

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