What's a good soundcard these days?

[jharris01]

I was checking prices for modern sound cards and most are really expensive. What do you recommend for under $60 USD (40EUR)?

[Dustin]

I recommend the Turtle Beach Riviera 5.1 PCI card. At $30 USD, it's a sure bet. I have used one for the past few years, and remain totally impressed with the sound quality and ease of use. It works perfectly with DOSBox and an MT-32. It is also dead quiet.

 There is also the $60 USD Turtle Beach Montego PCI 7.1 with Dolby Digital Live. I've often thought about upgrading to one, but must admit my total satisfaction with the Riviera.

You can't go wrong either way.

[jharris01]

Thanks for the tip. How do you manage having to share the center speaker output with the line input? Assuming you got 5.1 speakers and roland modules going through the versajack.

[Dustin]

I just run a quad speaker setup, leaving the versajack free for stereo line input from the mixer.

[Great Hierophant]

Does you motherboard support onboard audio?  If so, what is wrong with that?

[andrew603]

If you have a newer PC and a PCI Express slot that can fit a PCI Express 1x card, I have a couple friends that swear by the Asus Xonar cards.  I believe the Xonar DX is just around $60.

For me however, proper ASIO support is required, and if you need native ASIO as well I imagine bumping up to a Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer card for around $99 (not the Xtreme Audio card as it is stripped down w/o ASIO) would not do you wrong.  I have not used one personally, but I have fond memories of the Audigy 2 line which also had ASIO support from before I bought my M-Audio Delta's.

Good luck!

[Alistair]

Stay away from Turtle Beach's new cards, they get horrible reviews. esp. the Riviera.

The Santa Cruz they made at the turn of the century is good, but if you're doing more then gaming, like recording, or a home theater in a box setup, you'll want something better.

Absolute trick is not buying any brand new (2009) sound card. You can get excellent cards from '08 and earlier for not too much. M-Audio is an excellent brand, I advise visiting Hydrogenaudio's forums for specific advice.

- Alistair

[Dustin]

Stay away from Turtle Beach's new cards, they get horrible reviews. esp. the Riviera.

The Santa Cruz they made at the turn of the century is good, but if you're doing more then gaming, like recording, or a home theater in a box setup, you'll want something better.

Absolute trick is not buying any brand new (2009) sound card. You can get excellent cards from '08 and earlier for not too much. M-Audio is an excellent brand, I advise visiting Hydrogenaudio's forums for specific advice.

- Alistair

I agree entirely and wholeheartedly. The Riviera is little more than an ill-fated mess, a total abomination of audio engineering, and a waste of perfectly good silicon. It is sonic processing at its absolute worst.

  And that's why I use one.   

 Seriously, though. This thing sounds sweet paired with a small vacuum tube power amp. It easily reproduces sound with fidelity that is on par with cards twice its price. It records with equal results.

 Don't knock it 'til ya try it.