Via M Series Onboard Sound vs. Audigy 2 USB

leenas · 01-28-2004, 10:57 AM

Ive had my carputer setup since about the beginning of the year and for the most part it has been working perfectly. Ive started to get use to it a little and the excitement is wearing off and now im just using it in everyday stuff. My setup uses audio-in into my kenwood reciever which then sends signal to my amps. Ive noticed that the mp3 sound quality isnt as good coming out of my carputer as it is when listening to cd's in my head unit.

I know that obviously sound quality of an mp3 isnt going to be good as the sound quality of a cd but ive been listening to mp3s for about 5 years now and have never really had the ears to discern any difference. I want to know could it be that the sound card is the major cause for the bass to not be as clean or the highs to be a little flat or are most of you guys happy with the on-board sound of the M Series boards and im just beginning to be able to tell the difference.

Buy.com has a deal on the Audigy 2 USB Sound Card so im thinking of jumping in on it. The only thing about the USB version is that it requires is 5v, which i can take from the OPUS.

In other words will the $60+ investment make a difference?

cotwild · 01-28-2004, 11:12 AM

hi leenas

i bought this USB soundcard and i use it with a Wavemaster MX5 5.1 dolby surround system & 2 rear speakers (2way speakers from last setup in car)

i'm still testing it outside my car. it works great!! it sounds like in cinema..
for carpc i'll buy the via epia m10000, but i think i'll use the creative usb soundcard! i really like it..

before this soundcard, i had the terratec aurean usb.. it sucks!!

i know.. i didn't really help you! but i can say.. i like the creative soundcard!
i don't know how it sounds over line-out to receiver..

Almost a Ghost · 01-28-2004, 11:14 AM

Have you tried compressing your files at a higher kilobit rate? Like you have I have discerning ear and I can pick up on compression when listening to MP3's. I listen to MP3's on my computer all day that I ripped myself at a 320K variable bit rate and I hardly notice a difference in sound vs when it's played from a CD.

You could always try experiementing with a lossless compresion such as Ogg files. Before dropping $60 on a sound card.

leenas · 01-28-2004, 11:22 AM

On a side note for people wanting another thread on almost this exact topic ....a search found this for me:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...=onboard+sound

But I would still appreciate any responses to my direct questions in here.

Alric · 01-28-2004, 11:26 AM

I bought an M-Audio Sonica Theater. It supposedly offers better audio (no 48 KHz downsampling) and the ability to adjust the volume of individual channels.

The multi-channel surround modes are also supposed to be much better than the Audigy's; including true Circle surround.

Cheers,

Alric

leenas · 01-28-2004, 02:23 PM

A follow up question.

Ive been doing a little research on the sound card and because its USB it seems to be using quite abit of CPU power when processing sound. I want to know if anyone who has this in their carputer with similar processing power(or the same) as the M10000 (1ghz nehmiah) have noticed choppiness in fullscreen divx or dvd playback?

00CericaRuss · 01-28-2004, 02:51 PM

i ditched my m9000 onboard sound for an audigy2nx and it made a nice difference

jusatry · 01-28-2004, 02:59 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 00CericaRuss

i ditched my m9000 onboard sound for an audigy2nx and it made a nice difference

What were the problems you experienced with the M9000? was it noticable SQ or buzzing/humming?

leenas · 01-28-2004, 05:05 PM

Im assuming the M9000 and the M10000 have the same onboard sound and for mine i have no humming or buzzing at all once my computer is on. As i said my problem is sound quality.

00CelicalRuss: Do you play divx? Notice any choppiness? Have you monitored the increase CPU because of the USB sound card?

leenas · 01-29-2004, 03:04 PM

Bump

00CericaRuss · 01-29-2004, 04:18 PM

i had crappier SQ

divx play fine, haven't checked the cpu stats when running em, but dvd's are now a little choppy.... I haven't had time to go through and work on it lately, but i haven't had the need to play a dvd in my car, so it kinda works out

atombomb · 02-02-2004, 11:52 PM

I have had 5 M10000 and 1 MII 10000 and only 1 has ever had normal 5.1 output levels on all the lines.
I have even sent a unit back to the VIA engineering team and they verified the problem and recommended trying new VT1616 drivers which never fixed the issue.
After the brand new MII 10000 failed too out of the box I have now given up on the VIA built in sound card.

Choser · 02-03-2004, 12:49 AM

If you use the optical or coax spdif output - then there should be no difference between any option, am I correct?

swellfellaT · 02-03-2004, 01:31 AM

I recently upgraded from the built in 5.1 on my MSI board to the
Audigy NX (just like the last extigy), and it has made all the difference in the world for me. I use the line-in on my kenwood deck, and i get much much stronger output from the Audigy, not to mention the lack of the ever-present and annoying ground loop noise that was there. The sound quality is amazing.... plus I don't have to have a 20' + RCA cable from the back of my SUV. Give it a shot....

leenas · 02-03-2004, 10:58 AM

swellfellaT: What kinda cpu are you running? My main concern now is the CPU usage of it. I would like to do full screen divx but if this sound card is using 25% of my CPU im not sure if the playback will be smooth with the m10k.

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