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#1
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? for Arny Krueger and others Soundblaster Noise levels
I mention Arny since I've looked at his website and have read comments
he's made the SB cards, but welcome responses from anyone. Arny, you've mentioned you don't think the Audigy or Live cards are particularly quiet, and I've heard others bitch about them allegedly being noisy. Actually, the last time I looked at your site, I saw info on the Live but you didn't have anything on the Audigy that I could find in your Sound Card comparison section. Not trying to be a wise-guy, but did you test the Live with the CD audio muted? I've found that this makes a HUGE difference in the obvious "hiss" I hear, going strictly on a seat of the pants "naked ear" basis. With the CD audio muted, it sure sounds mighty quiet and I have to crank it basically all the way up to hear much of anything, and a portion of that is surely from the receiver/amp I have the computer sound going through. With CD audio unmuted, it becomes hissier at somewhat lower levels. Ditto the Audigy. |
#2
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"Doc" wrote in message
om I mention Arny since I've looked at his website and have read comments he's made the SB cards, but welcome responses from anyone. Arny, you've mentioned you don't think the Audigy or Live cards are particularly quiet, and I've heard others bitch about them allegedly being noisy. Actually, the last time I looked at your site, I saw info on the Live but you didn't have anything on the Audigy that I could find in your Sound Card comparison section. It's true that I've gotten kinda laid back about posting test reports at www.pcavtech.com. PCAVTech dates back to 1996 or so when there was a real lack of reliable tests of sound cards. These days anybody who can download the AudioRightmark program can make their own tests. Doesn't mean that I haven't been testing cards. Not trying to be a wise-guy, but did you test the Live with the CD audio muted? Of course! I've found that this makes a HUGE difference in the obvious "hiss" I hear, going strictly on a seat of the pants "naked ear" basis. Well, here's one back at ya! Why haven't you downloaded the Audio Rightmark program and done your own tests? With the CD audio muted, it sure sounds mighty quiet and I have to crank it basically all the way up to hear much of anything, and a portion of that is surely from the receiver/amp I have the computer sound going through. With CD audio unmuted, it becomes hissier at somewhat lower levels. Ditto the Audigy. But of course. I think that it's good to distinguish between the requirements on an audio interface that is used for just listening, versus one that is used for audio production. Just listening is easy - you only use half of the card - the playback part. And you only put the music through it once before you listen to it. Audio production goes well beyond just listening. All of the audio gets round-tripped at least once, and if you are using outboard effects, then the music may end up making several round trips, picking up more noise and distortion each time. The requirements are far more stringent, no? There's also been some behind-the-scenes upgrading of the Live! and the current product is better than the one I tested way-back-when. However, just about any of the lower end cards that are sold for the specific purpose still have head-and-shoulders better performance. I don't I've ever said that the Live or Audigy were noisy POS. In production use, either is a gigantic leap forward from the SB16. SB32, and SB64 which comprised the previous generation of CL audio cards. Believe it or not the SB64 was sold as a card for audio production! |
#3
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"Arny Krueger" wrote in message ... I've found that this makes a HUGE difference in the obvious "hiss" I hear, going strictly on a seat of the pants "naked ear" basis. Well, here's one back at ya! Why haven't you downloaded the Audio Rightmark program and done your own tests? Uh....I...that is....er....I mean... Actually, I've never heard of it before. :-) |
#4
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"Doc" wrote in message
nk.net "Arny Krueger" wrote in message ... I've found that this makes a HUGE difference in the obvious "hiss" I hear, going strictly on a seat of the pants "naked ear" basis. Well, here's one back at ya! Why haven't you downloaded the Audio Rightmark program and done your own tests? Uh....I...that is....er....I mean... Actually, I've never heard of it before. :-) Well you did now! ;-) |