what external soundcard would you recommend?

I am looking for an external USB soundcard since my audio jack is dying. Looking for something ~$200. Please NO creative x-fi espress, I have both audigy 2 ZS and Xmod already. Thanks!

 

Echo AudioFire2, oh it uses FW port......

 

how good is it compare to creative x-fi? I am looking for something superb. FW is not a problem.

 

I have the best.... M-Audio FW1814...

Pro audio soundcards will crush any Creative consumer crap... easily.

And I also have:
- M-Audio Transit (portable and USB powered... very good for high quality audio output and editing on the go)
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (PCMCIA... used for only gaming).

If you want to play games with good effects, you need a card with EAX.

If you want to hear the best quality sound in music and movies, a pro-audio card will provide that to you.

 

the m-audio certainly look great to me, but I need some thing portable since I live on college campus, which means i move a lot. And I don't want to get a HD555

 

unless if you are going to seriously do heavy music editing, mixing, etc..

get the M-Audio Transit... it works pretty damn nice... especially for its size and price.

 

i am not doing any audio editing, just want to fully utilize my UE super.fi 5 pro and B&O A8
is that M-Audio Transit better than x-fi express?

 

Hell yes..

 

I am wondering why everyone bought the creative Xmod for the same amount of money then. (included myself)

 

Most people do not know much more than the ads that they see.

Like most people do not know that there are other great custom notebook brands other than Dell, Sony, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, etc..

People just need to do their research rather than depending on marketing.

 

I´m still waiting the expresscard 1616M, good news is EMU has already stopped shipping old PCMCIA 1616M, maybe the new one will come soon, hopefully......

 

so for regular music, movies, and gaming purposes, would Echo AudioFire2 and M-Audio Transit make noticeable difference?

 

Havn´t heard M-Audio Soundcard, but many use transit for its good optical output.

 

do you think Echo AudioFire2 is overkilled? and I don't need optical output. LOL all I need is a earphone output

 

Better check www2.erji.net, there´re plenty NB users with good Ear/Headphone.

 

Did I mention how much I love you?

 

I've been looking around at possible external soundcard options as well. Like a previous poster said if you want maximize game sounds you would need something that can handle EAX. Since hardware decoding anything beyond EAX 2 is limited to Creative cards - the options are limited. On top of that Creative and Vista don't exactlywork well together. The main 2 items I've been looking at from Creative are the X-fi Express card (which has some reviews but I'm still not sure how well EAX works with it) and the X-Fi Surround 5.1 usb card (Creative says it supports up to at least EAX 4 - no clue if that's software or hardware) (reviews of this seem limited although I may not be search back far enough - the worst scenarios I've read about it are that it eats up CPU processing). Overall, Creative gotten a pretty bad rep these past few months and some people are saying that EAX may be falling out of favor with game developers as well (but that's purely rumor)

One gaming option few people have mentioned is the Asus Xonar U1 usb sound card which they claim can do EAX. It's pretty interesting and fairly well reviewed. Asus released sound card drivers earlier this year that work as EAX software emulation but I'm not sure if that includes the Xonar U1. I've read reviews of the desktop comparisons and Asus cards and Creative up through EAX 5 and while not perfect Asus compares fairly well. Hopefully that would include Xonar U1. Any opinions about this would be greatly appreciated since it's the direction I'm leaning right now.

In terms of non-gaming options I haven't explored those as closely. M-Audio Transit is well reviewed as is Turtle Beach. If you want to extreme you could order a Onkyo SE-U55SX USB Sound card. They claim it's the best USB sound card in the world but you have specially import it from Japan.

 

Hi guys. Picking this thread up again.

I've got the big clevo laptop. 901 model.

I'm looking for a soundcard that i can connect to a sourrund system at the tv.

My whole idea is to watch high def movies from my computer on my flatscreen tv.

Im currently connecting the picture via dvi-hdmi, as in no sound so therefore the sound card.

What can you recommend? Is USB good enough for high quality sourround sound?

 

yes a USB one, perfably a pro audio model
... like the M-Audio Transit or the Onkyo SE-U55SX

 

Was searching on Onkyo's homepage for the model, but cant find any pc accessories.
But i feel in love with their receivers
Thanks for the hint

 

The M-Audio Transit has been out for a while now and established itself with stable and new updates.... as well as it having a great pricetag.

 

Ive been taking long look and read about the Asus Xonar U1 Silver Audio Station

Do you think it has reasonable performance over the Creative X-Fi notebook card?


i really need good sound ingame and in videos...onboard sucks major #$@#.


I really want to know if its good for the 110$ im ready to spend.


Is the EAX working well too? Needing that for games

 

any comment on this one? http://www.terratec.net/en/products/DMX_6Fire_USB_2084.html

 

Interesting batch of sound cards. I knew something better than that sorry excuse for a replacement Creative Express Card existed.

So this M-Audio Transit....do I have to buy extra stuff for it to work with a 5.1 surround sound system like *Ahem* other devices?

 

I'm getting this: http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-mobile-line/headroom-total-bithead.php