Best Sound Card for Vista x64?

[WildEagle]

I'm not going to knock more expensive speakers, as I heard what they can do, thanks to a friend of mine who has a nice set of expensive speakers running on his tv and stereo, he used to have them hooked up to his computer, until he bought a set of Creative 7.1 speakers for his computer.

I own a set of Altec Lansing VS3151 speakers, that still work pretty decent and were some really decent speakers at the time I bought them over 3 years ago.

I'm looking at getting a set of Logitech G51 speakers for my computer when I get some bills wiped out, since I don't exactly want to get in to more expensive speakers, and wind up where I live, having a police officer or two knocking on my door, to tell me to turn the volume down, and or hand me a ticket for disturbing the peace.

 

[RellikZephyr]

Cheers everyone

coolchris my current home theater system actually runs an Onkyo 701 receiver got it years ago ... is great

and price wise i was pretty much going to pay what it costs ... AU$5000-AU$7000 ish if its costs more for what i want then it just takes a little longer to get what i want

and its use will be primarily home theater (movies) but will play music on it, mostly like heavier stuff but play just about anything (except country) etc be used for any kind of audio if i want to use it at the time

ps sorry to hijack thread

RellikZephyr

 

[coolchris]

Yer, Onkyo is a fantastic make for the prices these days. You get twice the features than the competition. That price is about 3-4 thousand british isnt it? Wow. You will get a fantastic system for that. Me jealous, lol.

 

[grmagic1]

I was looking for an alternative to Creative products so I chose this for my system: HT Omega - Striker7.1

It's worked flawlessly, so far.

I've had 2 Creative cards die on me in the past 4 years, so I thought I'd give a competitor a chance. I'm glad I did.

I looked at their web site and the Striker 7.1 does not claim to support VISTA. I know you're saying that you've had a good experience with it running Vista 64 but I hesitate to buy it if they won't say that they support the OS.

 

[WildEagle]

I was looking for an alternative to Creative products so I chose this for my system: HT Omega - Striker7.1

It's worked flawlessly, so far.

I've had 2 Creative cards die on me in the past 4 years, so I thought I'd give a competitor a chance. I'm glad I did.

I looked at their web site and the Striker 7.1 does not claim to support VISTA. I know you're saying that you've had a good experience with it running Vista 64 but I hesitate to buy it if they won't say that they support the OS.

Since you're so worried, here's the direct download link to the Vista 32/64 drivers for the X-Mystique and Strike 7.1. They are a unified set of drivers.

http://www.auzentech.com/data/PCI8770-FULL-06_1227.zip

Tell us again how there is no Vista support for that card, when you haven't even looked at the driver download page on Auzentech's website.

 

[ltwally]

Funny quirk with Vista x64 + Creative X-Fi.

Well, I have been fortunate and not had any of the problems listed by others. However, I did notice something just the other day that falls under the category of craptastic Creative Labs software/drivers:

Under Vista x64, my Creative X-Fi refuses to acknowledge the presence of my microphone with 5.1 speakers plugged in. (Presumably it would have the same issue with 7.1 speakers.) If I remove the rear/center/woofer leaving just L/R, the mic will suddenly "appear" and work just dandy.

Ain't that great. Go Creative Labs!!

Sad thing is that it just isn't worth it for me to spend money on a replacement sound card, when my onboard X-Fi does everything else without issue.

 

[TIEPAN]

Hey guys, after reading the success many of you had with the Auzentech Prelude 7.1, I purchased one.

To my dismay, Vista Ultimate 64 does not recognise the software drivers supplied on the disk. I uninstalled - downloaded the latest and same result.

The card is now back in its box.

Any ideas - links - on how you managed to get the card to work?

PC Specs

Intel Q6600 go @ 2.4
GB N680i-DQ6
2x Calibre 8800GTX in SLI
4x 1.0gig OCZ Reapers

Cheers

 

[coolchris]

I have the prelude under Vista 64 and it works Perfectly. The drivers work perfectly, the card works perfectly. Dunno why its not working with your system.
Do a complete uninstall via the Control panel, restart. Download the driver cleaner here:

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com
Follow the instructions CAREFULLY with the driver cleaner.

Reinstall the drivers from the website here:
Auzentech, Inc. Sound Cards. Audio You Can Believe In. World First soundcards for Music, HTPC, and Gaming.
The very first entry

Once installed make sure you set up the soundcard correctly in not only the Vista sound options, but the Creative/Auzent control panel as well.
Please download the installation instructions at the same link as the drivers as well. They give you step by step instructions. Ill advise not to ignore not reading these.

Let us know if this fixed the problem.

 

[Scotteq]

Hey guys, after reading the success many of you had with the Auzentech Prelude 7.1, I purchased one.

To my dismay, Vista Ultimate 64 does not recognise the software drivers supplied on the disk. I uninstalled - downloaded the latest and same result.

The card is now back in its box.

Any ideas - links - on how you managed to get the card to work?

Unzip the file you downloaded to your desktop - There are separate entries/folders for the supplied application and for the driver itself. You should be able to run those .exe's separately. There's a text file that says what is what, tho it's fairly self explanatory. Do the driver first, then the app. Once installed, you can delete the unzipped file.

 

[TIEPAN]

Thanks guys for your assistance.

B R I L L I A N T ! ! ! !

I had a driver conflict. For some reason, the onboard drivers needed to be uninstalled as well as disabled in the Bios.

The updated drivers from the site worked first install.
Driver cleaner did the job - thx CoolChris.

JEEEEZUZ did my speakers reach out and slap me on the side of the head.

To further confirm the origional question - the BEST card for Vista x64 (Ultimate) is the The Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1

Certainly leaves any onboard audio setup for DEAD!

 

[coolchris]

LOL. Told you it was! No problem about the Driver Cleaner. Its surprising what this little beauty finds and it certainly does what it says on the tin!

 

[TIEPAN]

What have I done? :eek:. I didn't realise that I had such a collection of poorly encoded Audio. The card is soo clear that the difference between passable audio and high quality recordings is very very very obvious.

Damn...I have been putting up with crap for so long and didn't even realise it. Once you hear the difference guys...its like a bloody addiction. You won't be settling for less.

I have combined the card with a set of "Zalman 5.7" headset. NEVER will I go back to stereo headwear again.

Appologies for the rant, but I'm so impressed with the audio output from this little gem - and in vista Ultimate 64 no less -

Thanks again guys for pointing me to audio bliss.

 

[coolchris]

 

[dr.funk]

Heh, its got ASIO drivers too. Might pick one up just for that.

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