addissimo

I put the prodigy 7.1 in last night.

I have mixed feelings about it, but am pretty much dissatisfied. I do like the chanel separation & amplification, the rear chanel is as loud as the front chanel, the center and lfe are completely separate. The sound quality is pretty good, however is prone to pickup alot of system noise.

If I have the volume cranked, and music off, every key i type, ever time i move the mouse, every hard drive click, etc, all comes through the speakers. It's pretty much unbearable. I'm using the latest driver set (2.18 available on the korean site) and i think that actually made it worse, I'll probably go back to 2.12 and stick with that. I know my on-board sound has always been terrible as far as that kind of noise goes... I don't know if it is maybe just my main board or what. I'll figure it out as soon as my new hdd and heatsink come in for the car pc I guess.

Durwood- have you noticed any problems like these with the hifi?

-Addis

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durwood

If my mobile P4-M doesn't cut it I have a power hungry Celeron D 2.93 laying around that I might pop in there. Either way I have to upgrade my power supply so I figure I'll pick up the Opus 250W in a few months...unless another power supply pops up.



For the few mintues I spend listening to it, no noticeable computer sounds. I plan on giving it a full test this weekend and I will see if it picks any noise up. They put a fancy aluminum cage around the analog section of the card that is supposed to eliminate computer noises and put some beefy caps to smooth out the power supply. My audigy used to pick up noise from the video and mouse movements so I know I will hear it if its there.

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RedGTiVR6

I can't help but wonder how much of that noise has to do with the low voltage outs....

Addis - how do you have your audio run? I'm gathering that this noise issue you're mentioning is from the computer in the house and not in the car?

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durwood

I don't think its the low voltage outs. I agree with addis on this one. Poor drivers and maybe some cables too close to soundcard. Plus the lynx22 soundcard has very low voltage outputs.

I had a laptop once that picked up hardrive noise when I would record on the line in. A driver update fixed that at one point.

And the audigy card has 2.5V outs and it picks up all sorts of stupid noise inside my home computer. May be a combo of poor filtering on the mobo or the drivers, and a little bit of cable routing issues.

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Abmolech

All analogue systems are susceptible to noise.
Analogue will amplify any voltage potential because it has no inherent noise rejection ability. (noise gates and CMMR and differential bridges aside)

Digital is tuned for only certain voltage potential, and rejects all other permeations.

A stronger analogue system with low impedance (for example your speaker cables) is less likely to be induced (EMF and RF) however is is certainly not impervious.

A higher pre-output voltage is a desirable advantage.

RedGTiVR6

higher pre-out voltage means less likely to have induced noise...able to reject it easier....

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durwood

I am not saying high output voltages are bad, but noise can come in many forms caused by different things -higher voltage raises the signal above the noise floor level where it can lurk, but its going to mostly be picked up by cabling outside of the soundcard with a properly designed circuit board. In Addis case, it sounds like it was a driver issue.

I listened to the Prodigy HiFi last night and no noise present whatsoever. If it's like the older Prodigy LT it has an analog output impedance of 100 ohms. I can say with headphones the Prodigy did not seem that much quieter than the Creative Audigy which has higher output voltages.

I must say I don't think I will ever go back to a Creative product after listening to the Prodigy. I finally heard some distortion/artifacts on the Audigy that I didn't notice until comparing the two cards. Now onto experimenting with console, allocator, and EQ.

I added some comments to my review of the Prodigy.

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RedGTiVR6

btw - which way are you going with allocator? lite or fill version? and did you get an answer on if you would be able to switch back to lite in the full version?

and what about the arbitrator? it's included in the full version if I'm not mistaken, correct?

I read where he thought that it wouldn't have any benefit for the car, but then again, he's a home guy....

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durwood

I was trying to test it yesterday but I couldn't get console to recognize the allocator as a plugin. It worked on my other computer but my "new" carputer just wouldn't recognize it.

I want the full version of Allocator just because I want all options available to me. I don't want to wish I had to option of using the Arbitrator later. ANd I agree, another home guy not understanding I think. I had read that if you purchase the full version you also get the Lite version option included. I need to contact Thunea to make sure though.

If I need to get a faster processor I will. I have already decided to replace my mini-itx. I am using a micro atx just because of the price right now.

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RedGTiVR6

$500 for my board, gig of memory, desktop power supply for testing, 300gig sata drive, Pentium D processor, et. al.

hard to beat that...now I've just got to make sure I can power it and I need to find a quieter fan....lol

good to know about allocator....looks like I'll be purchasing the full version!

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durwood

-$20 for a socket 478 matx board
-free Celeron D 2.93
-or $25 a 1.80 Mobile Pentium 4-m that works in my desktop board and requires very little cooling
-HD I am currently using (bought for $90)
-$30 for 512mb
-$130 for the soundcard.
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~$205 = Total

The only thing I need now is a larger PSU and a small case unless I relocate it to the trunk. Total cost ~ $205 plus software and PSU to upgrade. I am a minimalist. This thing is cheaper than my mini-itx but now space and power becomes a factor. But then on the upside...using a full computer with no additional external processors.....awesome!

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XC-C30

€99 (same board as red)
€136 (same cpu as red's using)
€70 for 512 mb DDR
€135 for ESI GIGAPort AG
$90 for the allocator
€30 for laptop dvd-RW
120gig HDD I have laying around
30gig HDD I have laying around for installing all nedded software
now I only have to find an opus 250 somewhere (seems I can only order them from the US and that's sad

that makes €550.... nice, although I might get an extra opus 150 and a faster cpu

the cpu on it's own already draws 95watts

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Xenia: pink princess

status:

In progress

------------------------------------------------
STATUS:
'T SQiekenkot: No Car

hardware: 0%
software: 0%
audio: 0%
building: 0%

durwood

Thats what I liek about the Mobile P$ only consuming 30W.

IC-C30-

Does the ESI gigaport have Directwire? Just curious.

Sorry to hear you can only order the opus250 from the US.

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addissimo

I am indeed testing this in a desktop enviornment. I'm hoping that my asus board will have a little better driver support than my current abit board. I might see what I can do about fabricating a little shield to go over the entire sound card & see if that helps my problem at all. Right now I'm basically just waiting on a heatsink & i'll be able to get started on the car installation. I suppose I need a psu as well... Damn P4 prescotts.

As far as shielding material goes, can anybody give me insight as whether to use copper or aluminum? I think the shield on the hifi is aluminum.

-Addis

Iceman_jkh

I believe the Gigaport does use DIRECTWIRE 3.0

ESI is the sister company to Audiotrak. Esi is also the future successor of the two, as it seem Audiotrak is winding down in terms of support .

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