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

Not too long ago I read a website about why not to use SB soundcards.
The effect is that the rate is locked at 48khz and things have to be
resampled to 44.1 for CD quality and things of that nature. Doesn't
seem to make much sense to me as I am just learning about this myself,
but I dug through my history until I found the site that I was
reading. I'll post it here for you, but I don't know how dated the
information there is.

http://www.pcmus.com/choosecard.htm

On 05/09/07, Bearcat M. Sandor <HomeTheater@email-addr-hidden-soul.com> wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-audio-user mailing list
> Linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/linux-audio-user
>

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