Sound cards

I don't either... but I'd try anything, the strangest stuff tends to fix PC problems. I still think it's a hardware issue, but for such a cheap card I wouldn't want to drive up and down to Midrand or face the horrors of Sandton City either.
 
hey tj99. yes it does have optical in but my gt520 doesnt have optical out. Thus hdmi sound via the gt520 would go to my la46c750 and be downgrade to stereo and output through the optical out to my z5500 and then i would have to use the z5500 to create dolby from that signal.

Since buying the asus and connecting via the analogue straight into the z5500, the increase in sound quality is noticable and i am able to push 92mhz at 24bit without it being downgraded. Also the asus has a must better audio processor than the z5500 onboard card.

I did alot of googling and this way the common practise with people who had the z5500.
 
Sinbad said:
SO the sound card on my motherboard is giving hassles.

I have an old SB Live 5.1 sitting in a drawer but I don't expect this to work too well with windows 7 64bit.

Where can I find a modern, decent sound card? Don't want HDMI, I have old analogue speakers...

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I'm more than happy with my Auzen X-Meridian 2G.
It uses the same chipset (8788) as the higher end Xonars.
It also has user replaceable opamps (if you into customizing your sound signatures).

All-in-all, if you can't wait get a highend Xonar (~R1500)
If you can, consider the Auzen (imported mine at R1378 incl all taxes).

Both are very, very good.
Though the quality would only be appreciated with sufficiently good ancillary audio equipment.
 
Well, pc is now running with only gfx card and xonar. USB card removed. Problem remains.

Last time I did a bios flash it bricked itself... :-/
 
randomwalsh said:
hey tj99. yes it does have optical in but my gt520 doesnt have optical out. Thus hdmi sound via the gt520 would go to my la46c750 and be downgrade to stereo and output through the optical out to my z5500 and then i would have to use the z5500 to create dolby from that signal.

Since buying the asus and connecting via the analogue straight into the z5500, the increase in sound quality is noticable and i am able to push 92mhz at 24bit without it being downgraded. Also the asus has a must better audio processor than the z5500 onboard card.

I did alot of googling and this way the common practise with people who had the z5500.
Click to expand...

The reason that it would sound different, is because when connecting through analogue, you are actually using the Asus' DACs to convert the digital signal into analogue.
Depending on the Asus card, it can range from good, to very, very good.
By using optical, the signal passes straight to the speakerset, ignoring any processing from the Asus on the way.
It then uses the speakerset's DAC to convert the signal into analogue.

Without knocking Logitech (I don't mean to), they don't make use of very high quality components in their systems (their market is obviously not highend audio).

That being said, the 5500 is a very good PC entertainment system.
:)
 
Sinbad said:
Well, pc is now running with only gfx card and xonar. USB card removed. Problem remains.

Last time I did a bios flash it bricked itself... :-/
Click to expand...

I dont think a bios update will help as i have had the latest bios when i got the card and it used to work with the same bios. Now it doesnt
 
hugo69er said:
I dont think a bios update will help as i have had the latest bios when i got the card and it used to work with the same bios. Now it doesnt
Click to expand...

Faulty card then? Two in a row?

Will Esquire let me swap it for another model?
 
A thought. Wonder if the sapphire 5770's on board HDMI is clashing?
 
randomwalsh said:
hey tj99. yes it does have optical in but my gt520 doesnt have optical out. Thus hdmi sound via the gt520 would go to my la46c750 and be downgrade to stereo and output through the optical out to my z5500 and then i would have to use the z5500 to create dolby from that signal.

Since buying the asus and connecting via the analogue straight into the z5500, the increase in sound quality is noticable and i am able to push 92mhz at 24bit without it being downgraded. Also the asus has a must better audio processor than the z5500 onboard card.

I did alot of googling and this way the common practise with people who had the z5500.
Click to expand...

The weak link there is you're using the HDMI out to the TV. The TV cannot output surround sound (believe me I was also very pissed off when I found out). You could just as well use the motherboard's optical out to the speakers, which will give you a digital surround signal. The DAC in the speakers will give you better quality, simply because they aren't susceptible to interference from the components in the PC, unless they are really, REALLY cheap units (which isn't Logitech's style - they use decent components even though not exactly high-end).
 
@Sinbad

Marc in our warranties dept. has a solution
my suggestion is bring in your rig , the " Faulty sound Card you brought in is working 200%
 
Another interesting thing:
If I go to recording devices, the mic shows a very high input level, consistent with the noise. If I disable mic, then line in becomes active with the same level.
 
Sinbad said:
A thought. Wonder if the sapphire 5770's on board HDMI is clashing?
Click to expand...

Not likely, but disable it anyway otherwise some programs/games will try to use that instead of the Xonar. Do the same for the on-board sound.
 
Esquire said:
@Sinbad

Marc in our warranties dept. has a solution
my suggestion is bring in your rig , the " Faulty sound Card you brought in is working 200%
Click to expand...

What is his solution?
 
TJ99 said:
Not likely, but disable it anyway otherwise some programs/games will try to use that instead of the Xonar. Do the same for the on-board sound.
Click to expand...

On board disabled in bios. Can't seem to disable the HDMI on the sapphire, apart from disabling the device driver which I had done already.
 
Esquire said:
@Sinbad

Marc in our warranties dept. has a solution
my suggestion is bring in your rig , the " Faulty sound Card you brought in is working 200%
Click to expand...

And what will you guys charge me for this?
 
Sinbad said:
A thought. Wonder if the sapphire 5770's on board HDMI is clashing?
Click to expand...

Hmmm ive also installed the hdmi drivers and my gpu (6950) is connected to my tv via hdmi. Ill have a look later
 
Sinbad said:
Another interesting thing:
If I go to recording devices, the mic shows a very high input level, consistent with the noise. If I disable mic, then line in becomes active with the same level.
Click to expand...

I think you might be onto something here... Have you tried muting playback volume on both?
 
Speakers plugged into the mic port maybe? (I know, it's a long shot)
 
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