Need a great sound card

[Notorious Mike]

Me and a friend of mine are building a computer into his car. I found a Micro Atx, we sorted out the power problems and everything. Now, He is an audiophile and the major use of the computer will be for winamp. So here is my problem i was going to recommend him a Nforce2 chipset, but i can do much better with a soundcard. It would also be a bit cheaper to get this mATX board and a Audigy 2. Now so far im thinking about the audigy 2 or the philips card. Anyone wanna recommend something? a price would be nice.

Thanx in advance!

[Yodums]

What is your budget? I also recommend WMP 9 over Winamp. Before making conclusions, go into WMP 9, play music and go to enhancements and turn on the SRS Plugin. You'll be amazed.

[Notorious Mike]

Thanx for the reply, I dont think he will be limited on a budget since he likes to overdue stuff. Plus this Card will be used alot (he LOVES roadtrips) so he will want a nice card. He also has an impressive car stereo system.

So far the Audigy 2 is priced at newegg for 72$
SCTB is 62$
Guillemot Hercules GameSurround Fortissimo III 7.1 - RETAIL 48$

So far these are the cards im looking at. i like the hecules card becuase of the fact that its the cheapest card with digital out. Plus it had 7.1 encoding. Would a D/O be useful for what im using the card for ?

[#1Pain]

I noticed the Audigy2 platinum without the drive interface was $108.00

Double check the specs. I'm sure it was worth the couple of extra bucks.

The A2 runs at 96kHz
The A2 Plat. runs at 192kHz

There are other differences, but there something you might want to look up for yourself. 6.1 over 5.1 ect. ect.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2/

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy/

[seamadan000]

you may want to look into the M-audio revolution. It is a good card for $100 and sounds super nice. That and M-audio makes pro-audio cards, and much of the tech in the revo is boworrowed from those products.

just a suggestion
________
Jailbroken (http://jailbroken.org/)

[Johnny Knoxville]

M-audio revolution, made by a professional audio company (i.e. not creative), has no latency problems (creative), has no driver problems (creative), has no DRM (creative) and has no IRQ conflics (creative).
did i mention to avoid creative?

[RedSkull]

AVOID SOUND BLASTER!!!
unless you for some reason want a poorly optimized (other than for gmaing - and thats questioable ) card

MY advice would be to get an entry-level professional audio recording card
I have M-audio audiophile2496, no noise <3ms latency at 24bit, 96kHz, with many VST plugins running and have no clicks, no pops, great card

of course I am more into music prodcution, but theres no reason to buy a cheap 5.1 card for a car.


get a good SQ 2 channel card (there is a plethora of info on the web stating that the ideal imaging in a car audio system comes from a high quality 2 channel system as opposed to the 4 in most)
mine was 149 or so like 1year ago

If you want surround sound, I guess you could settle for a gaming card or get a multi-output recording card, this would provide (like my card) much cleaner and higher level output and depending on your amp setup, having many RCA outs probably will make installation easier. sorry I dont know the prices of thes esorts of cards, but I am sure htey are a bit pricier than SB

[Ri0_6667]

WOW! I didnt think so many ppl hated soundblaster, I guess I'm not the audiophile I thought I was... I do suggest m-audio tho, they have some sweet cards. Unless you were planning to play dvds or maybe games in the car I wouldnt go for the extra fancy 6 or 7.1 cards, they'll probably do nothing for you.

[Notorious Mike]

M-Audio it is thanx for the replys!

[Seal]

wow im looking for a new sound card, my budget is somewhat lower though. what do you guys think of the hercules range?

[Hatecc]

i've heard the m-audio revolution is the best card out right now short of the professional ones that cost big bucks.

[memphist0]

M-Audio or Terratac make great PC audio cards. They aren't great for gaming but for music you won't find any better