New Soundcard

[TecHnOBoY]

I'm thinking about a new Soundcard.

 

My good old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro itself works fine but the driver has annoying issues under 64Bit Windows 7. Creative didn't develop a full compatible version for this Soundcard Series.

 

I was thinking about one of the X-Fi series but found a lot of users with the same Problem like mine.

 

The Microphone stutters everytime i use TeamSpeak or try to use the voice chat ingame.

Some Ace players should have heard that.

Is possible to solve Thuns issue temporary by switching the sound recording quality serveral times. Then i can use Teamspeak the normal way but the voice stutters ingame eben though ist is fine in TS at the same time.

 

Short: it. Is annoying.

 

Needed Specs:

Sampling rate up to 24 Bit, 96KHz

External or HDD slot interfac

Digital in-/output (SPDIF)

Min 5.1 surround

 

My my problem: no free PCI-Express slots

 

Any suggestions or experiences with other sound cards?

 

 

[LordOfChaos]

i do believe the sound card problem is only with onboard chips... not actual seperate cards ina slot... I may be wrong...

[TecHnOBoY]

The onboard chip is already deactivated. and the issue is well known at the Creative Labs. They won't develop a new driver as the Audigy series is end of sale, end of life end of support end of all :-/

[CrazyGirl]

Had the same issue when I built my computer so I use onboard sound for now

[WolfTiS]

I use the Sound Blaster X-fi Fatal1ty sound card and love it. Running Win7 64bit with no problems.

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

If you don't have any free PCI-E Slots available,just get one of those external sound cards.

 

Check out from Tiger Direct, or basically any online computer retailer.

Creative Labs 70SB109500000 Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro Sound Card - USB 2.0

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

I've also just installed the PCI-E for 55 bucks, works like a charm, had no problems. Do not install drivers from the disk, install from the website. I use the Razer Tiamat 7.1 surround sound headphones, they require five 3.5mm jacks for the head phones. I don't have problems with the microphone. If you end up getting an extra pci-e slot, I would recommend this one.

 

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card

[KaptCrunch]

TecHnOBoY first whats your motherboard make an model

 

for most have the spec's your wanting unless on a 486 system

Edited January 4, 2013 by KaptCrunch

[TecHnOBoY]

Thanks for your replies

USB is not the best option because i use the card for Music producing too.

 

@@KaptCrunch

 

It's an MSI Board with an Intel Core2Quad. Idon't know the exact model as i have no Access to my PC right now. But it is not more than 3 years old. You can find my actual rig on my xfire profile. Browsing xfire.com is nearly impossibe on a mobile device since they launched the Open Beta of their Webpage.

 

The Specs in my first post are the minimum.

 

Greetz

Tec|-|

 

*via iphone*

[KaptCrunch]

go to MSI and download Live Upate5 bottom of page to update all your hardware

 

xfire i deleted my reseach came up with

 

AMD cpu Via cound chip

• Intel High Definition Audio Specification Rev.1.0 Compliant
  
• Exceeds Microsoft Windows Logo Program (WLP) Requirements
  
• High-performance ADCs with 100dB SNR, DACs with 110dB SNR Various Output Format
  
• 5 Stereo DACs Output Pairs supporting 16/20/24-bit, 48/96/192/44.1/88.2 kHz sample rate
  
• 2 Stereo ADCs supporting 16/20/24-bit, 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz sample rate
  
• 2 independent 16/24-bit S/PDIF TX Outputs supporting 16/20/24-bit, 48K/96K/44.1K/88.2KHz sample rate
  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Intel realtek sound chiop
  
• High-performance DACs with 106dB dynamic range (A-Weight), ADCs with 101dB dynamic range (A-Weight)
  
• Meets performance requirements for Microsoft WLP 3.0 Premium desktop and mobile PCs
  
• Ten DAC channels support 16/20/24-bit PCM format for 7.1 sound playback, plus 2 channels of concurrent independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel output
  
• There stereo ADCs support 16/20/24-bit PCM format, one for stereo microphone, one for legacy mixer recording
  
• All DACs and ADCs supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate
  
• 16/20/24-bit S/PDIF-OUT supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate
  
• 16/20/24-bit S/PDIF-IN supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate
  
• Supports 444.1k/48k/96k/192kHz ADAT® digital output
  
• Up to four channels of microphone array input are supported for AEC/BF application
  
• High-quality analog differential CD input
  
• Supports external PCBEEP input and built-in digital BEEP generator
  
• Software selectable 2.5V/3.75V VREFOUT
  
• Two jack detection pins each designed to detect up to 4 jacks
  
• Supports legacy analog mixer architecture
  
• Software selectable boost gain (+10/+20/+30dB) for analog microphone input
  
• All analog jacks are stereo input and output re-tasking for analog plug & play
  
• Built-in headphone amplifiers for each re-tasking jack
  
• Two GPIOs (General Purpose Input and Output) for customized applications, and digital GPI Volume Control
  
• Supports anti-pop mode when analog power AVDD is on and digital power is off.
  
• Supports stereo digital microphone interface for improved voice quality
  
• Content Protection for Full Rate lossless Audio content playback (with selected versions of WinDVD/PowerDVD)
  
• MIDI interface for electronic music instrument support (Pins shared with S/PDIF-IN, S/PDIF-OUT)
  
• 48-pin LQFP ‘Green’ package
  

so most what you need and no creativetech crap drivers for windows supports your onboard sound chip.

 

so your sb lovers note they changed thier name to Auzentech but still crappy drivers

Edited January 5, 2013 by KaptCrunch

[TecHnOBoY]

Thanks.

Auzentech? I thought they only sell modded/tweaked Versions of the SB X-Fi series? (like Gainward sells tweaked grapghic cards)

By the way, it's a MSI MS-7514

 

 

I think i was able to solve the problem with an an unofficial driver developed by "Daniel_K". Installed the driver and the mic works fine until now.

 

 

 

Driver package:

 

http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=698949

 

 

Wiki entry about Daniel K. and his "history": (for interested)

 

When Windows Vista was released, there was only a single beta driver for the Creative Audigy series that was usable on the operating system with minimal functionality and frequent instability reported by users. A Creative Forum activist named Daniel K. (His real name is Daniel Kawakami who is from Brazil) modified drivers from the X-Fi and applied it to the Audigy and Live! series, restoring most if not all of the features that came with the original XP setup CD in Vista. X-Fi drivers have noticeably better sound quality under Vista, and more bug fixes because of the newer build (last modified version is 2.15.0004EQ April). He managed to enable the X-Fi Crystallizer to work on Audigy series cards in software, however because of the patents involved, he was forced to remove all the modified drivers and DLL patch. The event ended as a PR disaster for Creative as they put legal pressure on a user who had succeeded in creating working Vista drivers where Creative had failed, especially on the Creative Forum and technical blog sites.

 

It is possible that many previously loyal customers refused to buy Creative products and turned to other brands as a result.

As of July 2008, Daniel K has stopped developing modified support files for the above sound cards, most of the files were however still hosted on individual tech/blog sites. Creative has then released a newer official Audigy Vista driver (2.18.0000 as of July 28, 2008) due to public and consumer pressure. However, some form of agreement between Creative and Daniel K has been achieved, as he returned to the Creative forums, posting updated versions of his modified drivers.

[KaptCrunch]

DDL and DTS Connect License Activation 2.00.03 (*)

- Dolby Digital Li've Pack 3.03.03 (*)

- DTS Connect Pack 1.68.75 [modified 1.04.00] (*)

 

 

(*) Purchase and activation required, more info at SBripoff.com

 

for to use your optical out port SB wants another $5.00 when you buy it says Dolbydigital logo means you already paid for it

 

so you can't play dolby out of the box to your dolby ready Amp/HT reciever

 

my MB out of the box with optical port plays no other monies needed

 

sb can go fly a kite for after that an crappy drivers lost respect for they arn't anything as they claim

Edited January 6, 2013 by KaptCrunch

[TecHnOBoY]

Yep, i was wondering. But my optical in/out still works. On cards which have DTS locked, you can not select it in the Creative Audio Console.

I still can choose between S/PDIF passthrough to connect an Amp or use the inthernal decoder and it works.

 

 

 

The modded dirver is one from the X-Fi series. Not all X-Fi cards have DTS or DD activated and those should be marked as "DTS and DD ready".

For some cards it costs $5 for others like the Titanium series it is free.

 

What ever. As long as this card works I'll use it. But the next won't be one from Creative. In the past days I learned a lot about their politics and what

the customers are worth...