Subject:Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Posted by: GarrettAD

Date:5/6/2003 12:33:13 PM

My head is dizzy from reading all of the posts on this forum about audio cards. I have been trying to figure out which card and speakers to buy in order to mix surround sound music scores. Most of my work will make use of existing Acid loops (in other words, I won't be doing much audio capture work). I may need to capture audio from the digital output of my mini-disc recorder, though. But, this will be kept to a minimum. 24-bit playback is definitely important to me, since I'll be using some of the 24-bit loops. I will also be using Vegas 4.0 (including surround sound mixing functions) and Sound Forge, if this makes any difference.

Sounds like the Audigy cards are sanctioned by Sonic Foundry in terms of driver and card compatibility. However, users on this forum tend to shun the Creative Labs products in favor of the pro audio card vendors' offerings. Yet, I don't see any confirmation that these pro cards support Acid's surround sound mixing through the 6 discreet channel outs.

Sooooo, which card works consistently well for surround mixing? Please tell me what cards you have experience with in this environment.

Also, which speakers would you recommend? I've considered the Klipsch ProMedia 5.1, but users on CNET have berated them for reliability problems (even though they supposedly sound incredible). The Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 also looks pretty good.

Thanks!

Subject:Doesn't Anyone Use Surround Sound??

Reply by: GarrettAD

Date:5/7/2003 9:44:12 PM

Doesn't anybody use surround sound with Acid??

Subject:RE: Doesn't Anyone Use Surround Sound??

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:5/7/2003 10:30:32 PM

I don't use surround sound myself, but I imagine any audio interface with, say, three separate stereo outputs should work just fine. Have you checked out p. 147 of the full ACID 4.0 manual yet? It details a few surround setups in there.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: sixtyseven

Date:5/8/2003 12:26:38 AM

I'm using Audigy 2 Platinum w/ProMedia 5.1's. They work and sound great. They obviously are not the "best"(if you had thousands of dollars for the "best" you wouldn't be here at this forum, you'd be at Guitar Center buying the "best"). Anyhow, the Audigy2/Promedia 5.1s do sound pretty damm good.

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: MozartMan

Date:5/8/2003 7:50:19 AM

I bought Terratec DMX6fire 24/96 sound card. Works great.
http://www.jdsound.com/store/product1.asp?CustomerID=52367&ACBSessionID=eZsC6gIm4yAFgJrIRV3g&SID=2&Product_ID=457

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: R_Herrero

Date:5/9/2003 8:52:39 AM

the best soundcard ??
that must be Rme soundcard its rock solid and really stable driver.i swear by it. i recommend it if u have digital mixer connect it through adat litepipe to pc with simultaneous 8 tracks. yes is really pricey but its worth it. www.rme-audio.de
echo is good but the driver is kinda buggy though my friend has it. he went back using win98se from winxp due to this.

i think the surround 5.1 features on acid its just gimmick, no one is using this stuff yet maybe if everyone is using & burn your music to dvd-rw that really support 24bit/96khz 5.1 surround, but if u burn to just cdrw i think its just pointless.

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: kilroy

Date:5/9/2003 12:54:48 PM

The LynxTwo cards are outstanding. They have a 2 in 6 out version that is perfect for surround work. They have very low jitter clocks which contribute substantially to their superb imaging and soundstage, something that is instantly apparent. The convertors have very, very good clarity and depth as well. All in all, an extremely impressive card. Expensive, but when you hear the quality this money buys you, you will soon forget how much lighter your wallet is.

As for speakers...a very subjective thing. And totally dependant on your room size and treatment.

If you have a small, untreated room, don't make the same mistake everybody else makes and put a huge system in it. It's just dumb, and in terms of pure physics alone, cannot possibly work for accurate monitoring. It won't and it's that simple. You want a system appropriately matched to your room size, and in most cases this means driver sizes no larger than 6.5 inches for the satelite speakers and a sub no larger than 10 inches.

If you want specific names, here goes...and bear in mind that these are personal preferences only. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

The Hafler M5 is a very nice small box. 5.25 inch driver, 1 inch silk dome tweeter (overload protected) and passive. You can really throw power to these things, big amps if you like. Great imaging and soundstage. Smooth top and great sounding "bottom" for the size of the box. Matched with Hafler's 10 inch sub it's a very good monitoring system for 5.1 work. I like Hafler's amps as well, or if you like something with really low distortion, Bryston stuff is nice.

You are never going to be able to get into quality 5.1 monitoring for cheap, but this system is at least attainable by someone that is serious about surround work on a reasonable budget.

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: GarrettAD

Date:5/9/2003 10:24:41 PM

Thanks for all the input, guys. You've given me a few other options to investigate. The Terratec DMX6fire 24/96 actually sounds kind of interesting for what I'll be doing.

Subject:RE: Best Audio Card & Speakers for Surround Sound??

Reply by: GarrettAD

Date:5/10/2003 11:46:10 AM

I've just been reading a lot of excellent reviews on the quality of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1. Sounds like a great card, unless you need a lot of inputs (which I don't).

Has anyone tried this card with Acid? Does it allow the discrete access to the cards outputs required by Acid for surround sound mixing?