Looking for a new Internal Sound Card

[ThatRoundHeadedKid]

Hey guys. Need your help.

I'm looking for a good internal sound card that supports Dolby Digital (live or not, what's the difference between regular DD and DDLive?), DTS signals.

Here's the deal. I have a home theater system connected to my computer so I am going to use the TOSLINK Optical out port.

What recommendations do you guys have? Also don't want one that takes up one of the bays up front, I want all the sound to be from the back. Here's what I had in mind.

Razer Barracuda AC-1

AuzenTech AZT-XM71

AuzenTech XPlosion


I was leaning towards one of the Auzentechs because they were on sale @ www.xoxide.com, but can't decide if I want to spend more money for the top end model, or if the second one is perfectly fine. Or if you guys have any other suggestions, please, let me know!

Again, I want great sound quality and clarity, while fully supporting 5.1 digital surround via DTS, Dolby Digital, or Dolby Digital Live (what's the difference again?)

[Oz]

Unless you have $10k+ speakers, I don't think your untrained ears will be able to tell the difference. Go with the cheapest one.

[ThatRoundHeadedKid]

Not to sound arrogant, but I've been working with sound and audio equipment since I was in 7th grade . I'm not 100% professional, but I can tell a decent difference

I have Logitech X540s at home and a Sony HT-DDW700 with a soon to come Sony SA-FT7ED with a STR-DA7100ES/B on the way (Compliments of a good friend who works there) and with both (logitech/Sony HT-DDyadayada) I already hear distortion and static from the AC'97 Realtek onboard sound that came with the ASUS mobo. It's also really really flat, not good midrange, mostly low and high but even then, they're distorted. Tried fine tuning it with the EQ, but doesn't work well. My parents/family couldn't hear it but I could hehe. But I'm leaning towards the cheapest of the bunch, which is the 2nd Auzentech pictured.

[l_eclipse_l]

Originally Posted by ThatRoundHeadedKid

I already hear distortion and static from the AC'97 Realtek onboard sound that came with the ASUS mobo.

You do realize that ANY dedicated sound card is going to be 10x better than your onboard junk. Just get the cheaptest one and you should be content with the sound quality.

[Polygon]

Originally Posted by Oz

Unless you have $10k+ speakers, I don't think your untrained ears will be able to tell the difference. Go with the cheapest one.

In all honesty, with the speakers you have he's right, you're not going to hear a difference. If you plan to upgrade later on then by all means. Also, saying you can hear a difference between those, absolute crap, Realtek onboard cards and ANY dedicated card is a given.

I remember when I built my latest system with a Creative Labs X-Fi. I had already been using a set of Klipsch Pro Media 2.1s. My dad come over to have a listen and couldn't beleive how good they sounded. A week later he came to me telling me he had bought a set of the Pro Media 2.1s and was complaining about how bad they sounded. I picked him up an Audigy 2 card and he could not believe the difference. I laughed at him and said what do you expect when the source is crap.

Both the source the speakers should be matched. It doesn't matter how nice the speakers are if the source is garbage they'll sound like garbage and vice versa.