Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Sound card reccomendations for 2 channel sound

Jonny K · 11-20-2003, 11:46 AM

For the most part, everything is multi-channel now. It's like buying a car. You can say you just want something to get you from point A to B, but cars today come with all these extras in them anyway. Don't worry though, sound cards aren't very expensive. Just buy an "OEM" version of a Soundblaster Audigy or something, and you'll be good. You may even be able to get a Soundblaster "Live" still, and those are decent too (and even cheaper). Sure you could buy the cheapest sound card there is, but if you're going to be piping the output to a receiver you'll want to ensure that it's a soundcard of decent quality. You'd hate to have a hiss or other annoying sound issue with a cheap card. You'd preferably want a "digital out" on the card for the best quality, which you probably won't find on cheaper cards.

In Canada I can get a Live OEM for 50 dollars. A Soundblaster 128 PCI is 34 dollars. For the price difference, I'd buy the Live and get a few extras (like digital out) just because I can. But I supposee the 128 PCI will still get the job done, assuming you just use the standard analog line-out connector on the card.

Jonny K.

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11-20-2003, 11:46 AM	#5 of 10
Jonny K Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Local Time: 05:04 PM Local Date: 12-04-2008 Posts: 382	For the most part, everything is multi-channel now. It's like buying a car. You can say you just want something to get you from point A to B, but cars today come with all these extras in them anyway. Don't worry though, sound cards aren't very expensive. Just buy an "OEM" version of a Soundblaster Audigy or something, and you'll be good. You may even be able to get a Soundblaster "Live" still, and those are decent too (and even cheaper). Sure you could buy the cheapest sound card there is, but if you're going to be piping the output to a receiver you'll want to ensure that it's a soundcard of decent quality. You'd hate to have a hiss or other annoying sound issue with a cheap card. You'd preferably want a "digital out" on the card for the best quality, which you probably won't find on cheaper cards. In Canada I can get a Live OEM for 50 dollars. A Soundblaster 128 PCI is 34 dollars. For the price difference, I'd buy the Live and get a few extras (like digital out) just because I can. But I supposee the 128 PCI will still get the job done, assuming you just use the standard analog line-out connector on the card. Jonny K.