On-board Audio VS. Sound Card

[LATEOTT]

But no one seems to have a real strong opinion on any great cards. But good luck anywho It's good to see audiophiles getting into this stuff. Hopefully when my kids need thier systems installed in there cars I'll be able to shelf buy everything they need!

I have a really strong opinion on a GREAT card: The M-Audio Transit. I wrote some of the specs in a related post. I think it sounds wonderful.

I first started reading about them when I was doing some RTA analysis on my car, and found that audiophiles rave about the Transit as a way to get clean sound into a laptop or PC.

They go for about $70 to $90 and are mostly used by musicians.

I just compared the specs to a partial review of the Creative Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA, and the Transit comes out on top for audio performance (though the ZS has MANY more features and is a 5.1 card.) The ZS didn't show a frequency response plot, so I am kind of wondering about that (that data was excised form the review.) The Transit is dead flat from about 20 hz to 15 kHz (and drops off about 0.1 dB at 20 kHz.)

Anyway, I would highly recommend the M-Audio Transit. It's tiny, it's good, it's USB, and it's inexpensive.

[rgardjr]

I have a really strong opinion on a GREAT card: The M-Audio Transit. I wrote some of the specs in a related post. I think it sounds wonderful.

Any idea how this card comes out of hibernation? I had a Sonica and it didn't work when I hibernated my system. The work around I used for a while was to pause the music before I hibernated, but this was too much of a pain in the ***-especially when I forgot and had to restart my frontend software.

[LATEOTT]

Any idea how this card comes out of hibernation? I had a Sonica and it didn't work when I hibernated my system. The work around I used for a while was to pause the music before I hibernated, but this was too much of a pain in the ***-especially when I forgot and had to restart my frontend software.

That's a very very very very good question. I will check it out and let you know.

Right now, all I can test it on is a laptop (running XP Home) so YMMV with your system and OS.

One thing that's funny with my laptop is that not all the USB ports act identically when unhibernating (Maybe from unsleeping too...). There are four USB 2.0's total, two on the back and two on the side. My USB mouse is only active coming out of hibernation if it's plugged into one of the BACK USB ports. If it's on the side I have to unplug/replug for the OS to acknowledge its existance. (We can guess that the sound device may be the same...but I'll check.)

I believe from the MB achitecture that the two USBs on the back come off the MB itself while the two on the side come off the multiple format memory card reader that is incorporated into my laptop. Therefore, the back ones are running off of VIA drivers and the side ones are running off drivers for the NeoDio ND3260 8-in-1 card reader daughterboard.

Bottom line is we need proper power management from 3 or 4 sets of drivers working together from three continents: VIA, Microsoft, NeoDio, M-Audio. Simple, huh?

[wizawuza]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...041815-7452869

and if i'm not mistaken, it's powered off of usb.. only valid for today.. got it from slickdeals.

hope this card is good for anyone interested (have the nforce board, which is more than good enough IMO, so I don't need it).

[dcxman]

I think all of you are right. It really does depend on alot of factors when it comes to sound.

If you have a good Motherboard and the integrated sound is on board. I have found that it comes through clearly and more loudly on my speakers. But, I also have found that if you have a card that you can have more control over the equalizers and specify which format you want. So now it is a choice of preferance.

There is a world of difference between onboard audio codecs (most common AC97), consumer PCI cards (i.e. Sound Blaster or Turtle Beach) and upper level cards (Creamware, Echo, Motu, RME, etc). the reason you are not hearing the difference is probably because you do not have studio monitors and therefore some of the dynamics (or lack thereof) do not come through on your speakers. If you put on a nice pair of headphones, say Sony MDR-7506, connected direct into your 1/8" audio out on your computer, you will hear noise on 90% of all lower level audio cards and integrated codecs. you don't hear this through your speakers because your speakers probably only have a dynamic range of say 120hz to 10k hz. whereas a nice pair of monitors will get you to around 40hz to 22k hz.

In a car if you are running off the onboard depending on what your setup is 80% of the time you will hear your engine humming on it.

Motherboards, speakers, power supply wiring...everything counts. For those who dont believe so comeby and take a listen. I have a Klipsch speaker setup running off an external Audigy NX 2 then I can use that same setup and plug it into my onboard you will notice a world of difference even if youve not the tuned ear.

In the end its those who care and those who dont. If your spending the money do it right. Its kinda like buying a nice progressive scan dvd player and using regular cables to hook it up.