# Best Soundcard Brands?



## HELP_ME

Hey, i have never bothered buying sound cards in the past so i know very little about any of them or which companies make the best one so i would like your opinions please! thanks.


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## lubo4444

The best brand is Creative, at least that's my opinion. I would buy one of those two if i was on budget but they are pretty expensive.

1. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102015

2. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102021


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## voyagerfan99

I'd only buy Creative cause they know what they're doing. I don't really have experience with anything else.

However, I think Diamond might be a good company also.


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## bomberboysk

Asus and Creative are the only companies to buy a consumer sound card from period. I love my X-fi.


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## voyagerfan99

bomberboysk said:


> Asus and Creative are the only companies to buy a consumer sound card from period. I love my X-fi.



How is Asus compared to Creative?


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## daisymtc

From what I've read, Asus product better sound quality


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## XSIMan

The only sound card for full gaming sound is Creative X-Fi  Titanium because it does  more than just surround sound it also does 3D sound over  500 sounds effects channels in EAX 5HD  and Open Al. It also does  3D surround with headphones. The most expensive version  has 64MB of ram so that games makers can put uncompressed sounds files on the card. When Microsoft made Vista and Win 7 they  got rid of hardware 3D sound support  but Creative found a way around this  when they made X-Fi sound cards.  Creative X-Fi cards are the only sound cards that do 3d sound effects  in hardware  and do it upto  EAX 5  and  Open AL.  Games makers are shifting to Open Al  and Creative does a good job of it. If you only want sourround sound and music  also look at the Asus cards  those  cards are only about surround sound for films and music and sacrifice EAX and Open Al.

Make sure you have a PCi E  1x slot or above because acording to Creative  The PCI slot versions  have a bit of delay causing sound issues  mainly with nforce boards  the newer X-Fi Titanium is PCI e  1x  so it does not have these problems.

I've seen benchtest reviews of Creative X-Fi   vrs  onboard and ASUS and the X-Fi wins  mosts tests  and also adds 2fps more to games due to the card doing all the sound in hardware instead of the CPU doing half of it.

*X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty PRO* Technical Specifications 
   Hardware Open Al   
   Hardware EAX® 5.0
   Dolby Digital Live encoding
   Accurate 3D positional audio with X-Fi CMSS®-3D 
   24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96kHz sample rate 
   24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output 
   24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz to stereo output 
   16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz 
   ASIO 2.0 support at 16bit/44.1kHz,16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring 
   Enhanced SoundFont support at up to 24-bit resolution 
   64MB of X-RAM 
   Analog output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-weighted): 109dB 


Connectivity    Line in / Microphone in (shared 1/8" mini jack) 
   Speaker out (4x 1/8" mini jacks) 
   Optical out (TOSLINK)* 
   Optical in (TOSLINK) 
   Intel HD Audio Compatible Front Panel Header (2x5pin) 
* Optical Out supports stereo SPDIF out, multichannel out via Dolby Digital Live, and pass through of multichannel DVD sound 

Speaker Support    Stereo/2.1 Speakers 
   4/4.1 Speakers 
   5.1 Speakers 
   7.1 Speakers 
   Headphones 


Bus Connection    PCI Express 1x


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