Hello reader, Two months ago I decided to save up my money for a new sound card. Because I wasn't gonna get far with my SoundBlaster Audigy. So I started saving, and saving...and saving, and here I am. With 200 € and a good paid job. So, which card to buy? At the time I have set my eyes on the new SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro. Simply because it's 300 €, and thus should be good. But is this the right choice? I don't want to end up having to buy another sound card next year. So, can you guys help me buy a sound card? And please explain what exactly a fancy 24-bit crystalizer, ASIO and all other terms mean. What I want to do with my card - Mainly, compose music. - Being able to plug in my keyboard (has MIDI output) and guitar - Has to be high-quality. - ...if you need any more information, please ask. - Stenny [BTW] And what the hell is a break-out box?! [Edited by - stenny on April 10, 2007 10:45:08 AM]

I've always heard the best things about SoundBlaster. I'm not a pro, but I would suggest buying something like what you've got there.
As for a break-out box - I don't know. Ask nsmadsen - he's the arbiter of music information. :D

Haha, I know he's good. I'm not a complete noob, I'm just a soundcard noob :P

Thanks anyway, I've never heard a thing about the SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

-Stenny

In the past I have used the Audiophile 24/96, and have been very pleased with it, and now it is m-powered, so it is even more worth the buck.

I also use my Audiophile 24/96, which works fine. I won't buy Creative hardware because of what they did to Aureal, not to mention that they apparently exaggerated about their specifications in the past. Shoddy company in my personal opinion.

And this is why I asked on GDNet. Kylotan, I never knew. Thanks for letting me know.

And I'll have a look into that Audiophile.

@Seen R Beason
What is M-powered?

-Stenny

Ok. I've had a look at those M-Audio's, and I must admit they dó look promissing. The 2496 looks good enough for my standard, but the only problem I have is that it doesn't contain a break-out box. I can't plug in my guitar directly into the card simply because all the wires here would get contrained and tangled up.

Also, I'm drooling away with the Delta 1010. I think it's a bit overkill though. On the other hand, I'm almost there (I currently have 250 €, it is 300-350 €) when it get's to saving up money. The most important thing is that I don't wanna buy another card in a year or two. And, if I can afford the newest M-Audio, why not?

What do you guys think. Overkill, or thinking about the future (and tangled up wires beneath my desk)?

-Stenny

The 2496 is a cheap card, because it's old. But this range stands the test of time. I expect that any M-Audio setup will serve you well, and if you may find yourself needing that many inputs, then why not? There's a review here of the rack version to perhaps help you decide.

I'm definitely not a soundcard 'pro', so maybe I shouldn't be commenting here -- but I feel I should mention that Creative (the folks behind Soundblaster <insert hyperbolic name here> are pretty lazy when it comes to updating drivers.

Myself and several other people I know have had some pretty painful experiences with moving to Vista and attempting to get X-fis and Audigy hardware working -- I know this is the sort of thing that gets smoothed over in time, but considering the stranglehold creative has on the average user who actually forks over money for a dedicated audio-board, you'd think they'd make sure everything worked before they dropped new drivers, wouldn't you?

Anyway, my two cents -- advice from audio pros is definitely appreciated :)

~Shiny

I bought Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic a few months ago. I went from the built in AC97 crap on my motherboard and love the audio I'm getting now. The only setback is the drivers as mentioned before. I had to downgrade from Vista to XP to get the card to function properly and afterwards I've had to do the occasional reboot to get it to function properly after switching between Audio-creation mode and Entertainment mode.

The speaker system I use is the Creative T6060, not even close to top of the line, but it works pretty well with the soundcard and I can't complain one second when I use my Koss Porta Pro headphones at night.

All in all to me it's a good buy if you're not thinking of going pro and making studio recordings. The ASIO-support is great and I've got pretty much no latency when using my USB-midi keyboard with it.