recommend a good soundcard

Hello all. Please help with the following.

I just purchased a new PC, with a 600 MHz Intel Celeron chip.
It's much faster and better than my old PC.

Problem:

The soundcard is a crappy run-of-the-mill job, built into
the motherboard.

All the expansion slots are PCI, and my terrific old
AWE64 card uses and ISA connection, so it's worthless
for this new system.

Please recommend some very high-quality soundcards with
PCI connections. Give a typical price if possible.
Also, please send a copy of your message to me privately at
joemonz@yahoo.com

Thanks!

-monz
http://www.monz.org
"All roads lead to n^0"

I looked on the internet and found the following superior
soundcards. Any experiences or price info appreciated.

http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/

Sound Cards rated "Excellent" in all categories:

Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96

CS 3310/4327/5335 chips (Event Darla)

C 3310/4327/5335 chips (Event Gina)
24 bit Digital I/O

CS 3310/4327/5335 chips (Event Layla)
24 bit Digital I/O

CS 3310/4327/5335 chips (MIDIMan Flying Cow external ADC-DAC)

DAL CardD Deluxe
24 bit Digital I/O

Lucid ADA1000/PCI24
24 bit digital I/O, including AES/EBU (TRS),
PCI Card and ADC/DAC 19" chassis sold seperately

Lynx Studio Technology LynxONE
24 bit digital I/O, including SP/DIF and AES/EBU (XLR)

--- In tuning@y..., "monz" <MONZ@J...> wrote:

>
> Hello all. Please help with the following.
>
> I just purchased a new PC, with a 600 MHz Intel Celeron chip.
> It's much faster and better than my old PC.
>
> Problem:
>
> The soundcard is a crappy run-of-the-mill job, built into
> the motherboard.
>
> All the expansion slots are PCI, and my terrific old
> AWE64 card uses and ISA connection, so it's worthless
> for this new system.
>
> Please recommend some very high-quality soundcards with
> PCI connections. Give a typical price if possible.
> Also, please send a copy of your message to me privately at
> joemonz@y...
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> -monz
> http://www.monz.org
> "All roads lead to n^0"

Monz wrote:

> Please recommend some very high-quality soundcards with
> PCI connections. Give a typical price if possible.

I've been quite happy with my Sound Blaster PCI 512. I might hesitate to use it's analog input for
professional work - you really need digital I/O for that these days, anyway - but it sounds far better
than the $15 card that came with my system. It's wavetables are decent, overall, and user modifiable.
It has good clarity and imaging, and the low end is solid (if you have a subwoofer to hear it).

You can d-load free software for it (Vienna Sound Font Studio) from Creative's site, that turns it into
a flexible and user-friendly sampler, including the ability to tune each sample independently over a
range of +/- 10 octaves in 1 cent increments. So that's not all bad. Of course, you need plenty of RAM
to use large sample sets. I think it maxes out at 32 Megs. You probably need at least 128 installed in
order to have 32 free while running music software. There are also compatible Sound Fonts available for
the d-loading at Creative's site and all over the web.

I think I paid about $70 for it at Best Buy. You could probably do better if you searched the web and
waited for a deal. I had to replace mine immediately one day when my old card died.

--
David J. Finnamore
Nashville, TN, USA
http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/bna/d/f/dfin/index.html
--

--- In tuning@y..., "David J. Finnamore" <daeron@b...> wrote:
> Monz wrote:
>
> > Please recommend some very high-quality soundcards with
> > PCI connections. Give a typical price if possible.
>
> I've been quite happy with my Sound Blaster PCI 512.
<snip>
> David J. Finnamore
> Nashville, TN, USA
> http://personal.bna.bellsouth.net/bna/d/f/dfin/index.html

I use that card too and I have been pleased at the way it performs.

John Starrett