[LAU] How much does my new SB Extigy suck and why?

Folks,

I had a house fire a few years ago in which i lost my beloved audio equipment.
Since then i have been building an audio system as money allows. I now have
a pair of Anthony Gallo Acoustics 3.1 reference. They are *very* transparent
and tell me a lot about what is happening up-stream. I also picked up a
Carver TFM-15CB. My aim is a pair of Bel Canto Ref 1000 amps but this will do
for now. I run my audio from computer to Carver with no out-board preamp in
between.

My computer, which was also through the fire, has been having motherboard
problems lately (what a surprise!). Since i was replacing the sound card
anyway (on board nvidia chipset via an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe), i got a Sound
Blaster Extigy on ebay. I knew it was cheep but it's what i can afford now.

I'm confused by what i'm hearing. It's very nice not to hear the whir of my
fans (especially the damned chipset fan) through my speakers, but things
sound shallow in comparison to running my audio straight from the
motherboard. I get a little more detail and it's a lot quieter, but the
weight of things are gone.

Some things sound alright, but when i listen to a track of 4 cellos playing,
the feeling of the layered harmonics is gone. Things sound flat. Not flat in
a sound-stage sense, but pianos while having the depth don't have the body.
They sound like toys or as if i'm playing an MP3. There is a fatiguing bite
to things as well.

I tested the frequency response with some warble tones and i can hear much
deeper bass tones then i could with the motherboard. I presume that is an
effect of not having the fan noise smear things.

It's just not emotionally engaging and i don't know where to go from here.
Would a SB Audity 2 NX help or would it just be more of the same for more
money? I don't want to spend a lot as this is just a stop-gap till i can
afford something better, but can someone tell me if this is the extigy in
particular, all SBs sound like this or is this the nature of all cards at
this level?

Thank you,

Bearcat M. Sandor
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Received on Wed Sep 5 20:15:04 2007