[ShortcutToMoncton]

My trusty 867 Quicksilver has had the "popping" audio problems from the audio-out analog jack ever since I've had it...no matter if I use headphones or my Monsoon speakers, I get the ridiculous popping noises every few seconds (it was a problem that was discussed on Apple's site, with little success...not enough report it, and since I got it second-hand I didn't have a warranty to fall back on). It's not so bad with music because you can tune it out, but when you're watching a movie it drives me to distraction during silent periods when it's painfully apparent. Plus, the Quicksilvers don't have a line in, and my old mic is now useless...I don't have extra ports for a USB mic. It's a pain in the ass.

Soooooo...I've been looking at the Revolution sound cards for ages, but the 7.1 had some problems when it came out and I didn't want to be caught in that whole Soundblaster Live debacle again. However, it looks as if it might be sticking around, and now there's a new 5.1 card they've debuted as well.

Since I'm a poor, starving student eating scraps off our frozen Edmonton streets, I figured I'd save $25 and go with the 5.1. I only have 2.1 speakers at the moment in any case, but from what I've heard 7.1 isn't THAT big a deal over 5.1, and you'd need some fairly pricey speakers to hear it anyway – I think Creative Labs' MegaWorks 550 are more what I'd like to get, and for the price they've got a pretty solid sound.

I've also heard that the 5.1, being a newer card, has some lower CPU usage and is in general slightly optimized over the 7.1, although I don't know if what ways – I can't find a comparison of the two on Google. Would anyone here happen to know the major differences (if any) between the cards, or any other recommendations?

Thanks again guys...

greg

[Scooterboy]

Either of these sound cards are good choices. Both have high quality DAC's, virtual surround sound, mix down to 2 channels, and EAX game support. Choose your speakers firs (5.1 or 7.1) then you'll know which sound card to use.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Thanks for the tip, anyway! I decided to save some money and go for the Revolution 5.1 after all...they seem to be pretty much identical. And let's face it, $96 Canadian is not bad at all for a decent sound card like this...plus I get Wakeboarding Unleashed, which I'm sure is a shi††y game that I'll never play. Still, I'll be happy to hopefully get some decent-quality audio out of this machine without the sound issues, and if I spring for a 5.1 setup my movies should sound decent.



greg

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Heh heh heh...well, I guess we know why Apple's in no hurry to push quality commercial sound implementation into MacOS X...

Anyways, I got my Revolution 5.1 last week, for $114 including shipping from Vancouver. Installation went A-OK, although I DID get the first two kernel panics since X Beta when I neglected to read the manual and kept trying to select an incorrect Sound Output in my Prefs. Meh...once that was taken care of, things have been pretty sweet!

My popping and hissing is finally gone, which does me a world of good. Switching between Rev and onboard sound results in noticable quality decrease in my admittedly worn-out Monsoon M-700s, and that is precisely what I wanted. Tweaking via the control app gave me a little more precise sound, although I'm not exactly an audiophile (to put it mildly). I tried playing with the TruSound options, and although it did really seem to add a more intimate feel to a lot my music, I got a lot of mid-to-low-range "hum" and overburn in certain songs. Not sure if there's an easy way around this, but I'm thinking it's better just left off; it seems like it'd sound far better if I had 4.1 or 5.1 anyway.

Once complaint: of course this damn Quicksilver has no mic in, and I never bothered springing for a USB mic because frankly all my ports are pretty much full and it's just a pain in the ass to start unplugging stuff. The card let me use my regular mic, which I thought was rock. Unfortunately, the Mac Skype beta has issues with Revo cards, and crashes every time you get or receive a call (ie. whenever you try to use the mic through the card). Soooo, I'm back to square one when it comes to that program, which sucks because I have a lot of friends all over Canada and they've been trying to get me on Skype for ages...

Anyways, besides that problem, the card seems to rock and I'm really pumped. Now to get some decent speakers....



greg