Will new soundcard improve sound?

seninha · 12-28-2006, 01:39 AM

MY situation:

4.1 Sweex (budget) PCI soundcard.
In the Car: Bose amplifier.

Soundcard is attached to the Bose amp, using two different cables. One is running the front output and the other the rear output of the card.

Now I wonder If sound will improve If I change the soundcard to lets say a Creative Live?
Or is the soundoutput manage by the Bose amp?

trdny · 12-28-2006, 07:16 AM

managed by the sound card. the amp just takes the signal and makes it louder. Are you using the stock bose speakers? Also I remember reading a long time ago that bose designs there equipment to work with eachother so removing your head unit could be the problem.

XC-C30 · 12-28-2006, 01:30 PM

a soundblaster live isn't an all that great soundcard actually, but possibly it will improve your sound, yes.... BUT...

will the soundcard, speakers and amp match? I couldn't say.... But unless you're going the audiophile route, don't worry about a perfect match. If you just want some music, I wouldn't bother about that....

Megalomaniac · 12-28-2006, 09:26 PM

can i ask whats better than Soundblaster?
i've nver actually took the time out to research on soundcard brands, i've always used Creative and never had a problem but if theres a better product id like to know

~my statement was not sarcasm at all, im serious~

fluffy2097 · 12-29-2006, 09:37 AM

Turtle beach and M-audio come to mind. M-audio makes serious hardware. Studio quality stuff. Turtle beach is just as good as creative, but without paying for the brand name. Creative card seem to do best for gamers.

Megalomaniac · 12-29-2006, 09:57 AM

That M-audio looks sick.

When did 64bit audio come out?

XC-C30 · 12-29-2006, 01:42 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by MegaloRESE15"

can i ask whats better than Soundblaster?
i've nver actually took the time out to research on soundcard brands, i've always used Creative and never had a problem but if theres a better product id like to know

~my statement was not sarcasm at all, im serious~

sounblaster is just a series.... There's the live!, which is the crappy one, but there's also the 2NX, which is a nice card, although for the price there are more options.

I myself am looking at an ESI gigaport AG, but you don't need that, unless you're going with surround or a completely active soundsystem (it has 8 outputs that one)

Megalomaniac · 12-29-2006, 01:52 PM

eeh i plan to go active, but my plan is to utilize the h701s optical input, so i dont think i'll need such a fancy card..

XC-C30 · 12-29-2006, 02:00 PM

I prefer USB over PCI... The ESI isn't that expensive. Over here it varies from €130-€200 ($160-$250)

marchello2000 · 12-30-2006, 11:39 PM

One thing to consider is whether your amp is designed to take single ended or differential (aka balanced) inputs. All higher quality (which Bose claims to be) car audio uses balanced signalling (one cable carries positive signal swing and the other the exact same but negative) this reduces the noise tremendously.
Now, if it is balanced and you are feeding it single ended signal (one wire is signal the other ground), which all cheap sound cards are you will introduce ALOT of noise into the system which the amp will be unable to cope with.
If you determine that this is the case you will have to convert your single ended signal to balanced one, there are several options and I've tried most of them

... I can post more details if you are interested.

Mark