Could somebody recommend me the best soundcard for headphone listening under $200? I'm looking to replace my Audigy 4 card.
Try Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, it has excellent headphone support.
Try Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, it has excellent headphone support.
Can't speak about the headphone output quality, but at least it's well under $200. More like $5 (seriously). Check ebay...
I should add that the soundcard will be for music listening, not gaming. I plan on combining it with my Sennheiser 280 Pro headphones and a headphone amp. A main concern other than the actual sound quality is the quality of the drivers, which absolutely suck with the Audigy 4. They are extremely outdated and just install other crap that I never will use.
The TBSC has final XP drivers, and they stopped driver development, so you won't see Vista drivers for it. See here (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=59236). But the XP drivers are supposed to be ok.
E-mu 0202?
santa cruz is awesome. cirrus 4630 drivers should work.
If you are going to use a decent headphone like the HD280 with an external amp then I would recommend you get any EMU card. Pick the one within your budget. They are all excellent and get exponentially better as you go up the line.
Quite honestly, I'd be amazed if any of the current crop of sound cards were in fact 'crap' as far as actual sound reproduction. One might find differences in drivers / ease of install, etc., but as far as the actual hardware...
As a PC technician with years of experience in the field, I'd have to say, any of the dozen or so modern cards I see on daily basis are all of outstanding quality. Most issues with regards to drivers come from inexperienced users attempting to install drivers (not generally an ‘easy as you might’ think task for the uninitiated), and other applications (nefarious spyware etc.), buggering with the operating systems control of said drivers.
I would suggest that even the most basic of the new Creative Labs ‘X-Fi’ cards would do the trick for you. Check out the ‘X-Fi Extreme Music’ series here:
http://us.creative.com/products/product.as...p;product=14066 (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=14066)
You’ll likely be able to pick it up from Ncix.com, TigerDirect.ca or eBay for much less.
Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com
I would suggest that even the most basic of the new Creative Labs ‘X-Fi’ cards would do the trick for you. Check out the ‘X-Fi Extreme Music’ series here:
http://us.creative.com/products/product.as...p;product=14066 (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=14066)
You’ll likely be able to pick it up from Ncix.com, TigerDirect.ca or eBay for much less.
Andrew D.
www.cdnav.com
That or a headphone amp if it is mainly for music and headphones. Get something with optional crossfeed. Makes a difference with the 70-80s music when they went mad on stereo panning. On my X-Fi I use CMSS 3D option to blur Left and Right together a bit. I have it off for anything recorded in the 90's or later.
Could somebody recommend me the best soundcard for headphone listening under $200? I'm looking to replace my Audigy 4 card.
I know some people who swear by the ESI Juli@ and the emu1212 in that price range, with the Juli@ getting a slight nod for ease of set up.
I can recommend a Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space, very good sound quality and a headphone amplifier on-board (can be enabled per software). Probably only available used.
I've got the HD280 Pros and a Total Airhead in line with a Turtle Beach Roadie Amigo and it makes me grin like an idiot every day. Plus the whole thing can be moved from my work laptop to my macbook without any problems.