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Full 8886 sound solution: expert (audiophile) advice needed!

post #1 of 9
12/20/02 at 9:20pm
Thread Starter 
I would really like to get some good sound out of my 8886, w/in a reasonable budget.

What do you think of the Soundblaster Extigy? It connects via USB--seems like that may even allow the processor to focus more on faster FPS, but I'm not sure there... Should I wait for a real 24-bit USB 2.0 external sound solution (I've heard that USB1.1 doesn't allow true 24 bit, but I prolly couldn't dectect that w/ my untrained ears anyway).

Or, can I just get good speakers (the Logitech 560s seem to be a good price/value) and use the S/PDIF out on the 8886? What speaker would support the S/PDIF from the 8886?
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post #2 of 9
12/20/02 at 11:02pm
This is the coolest thing since sliced bread as far as souncards go for lappies:
http://www.echoindigo.com/echo_indigo1.html and its only $99!
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post #3 of 9
12/21/02 at 1:20am
Do you have any friends/relatives nearby that have an spdif capable receiver? You could easily just try it real quick and see how it sounds... I'm going to include that in my review of the 8886 later on because I have a friend that has a receiver of that type.
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post #4 of 9
12/21/02 at 4:39am
Thread Starter 

thanks

okay timothy leary, I need more info... I admit I'm intrigued by the prospect of a PCMCIA card-based audio solution, but I'd need a bit more info before I dropped the coin on that thing. I've found tons of mostly positive reviews for the extigy module--where can I find some detailed specs on this thing. Will it drive 4.1 sound? I listen on some nice Senheiser headphones a lot; it appears to work those pretty well.

lsd, it'd be sweet if I could get a "beebster-esque" review of that card out of you.

Okay, perhaps that is setting the bar too high, but maybe a bit more or a cool review link if you could. I'll check THG for a review.

Beeb, I'll have to wait for the review. Don't have too many friends that are into gaming. Don't really have any, actually. I guess they're all more grown up than me

Btw, keep up the review, I read every installment and check it daily.
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post #5 of 9
12/21/02 at 4:45am
B.T.W. it's "Lunar Sound Design", my sound design company.
I'm lazy so here are a couple of reviews. I spoke with echo
today and they are hopefully going to add and 1/8 " to spdif
or optical out for surround sound, but you'll have to wait and see.
http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/indigo/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,725005,00.asp
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post #6 of 9
12/21/02 at 4:56am
Thread Starter 
sweet. Lunar Sound Design... I'm sure no one's mistaken those initials before Especially on computer forums.

I appreciate your help. I read the PC mag review. It does seem like it'd behoove me to wait on the S/PDIF output. How long'd they say that'd take.

Other than that it is cheaper and smaller than the extigy. Do you have any experience w/ that?
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post #7 of 9
12/21/02 at 5:25am
They are on backorder until the first week in Jan. I have two being sent then.
I work for guitar center so I am getting a sweet deal. I will let everone know
my findings then, but anything is better than what is installed now. Also I
know with the echo you will have very low latency "asio" support for most
professional audio applications. From my experience that is not offered yet
from the soundblaster line. Those are fine for video and games but you need
good "asio" support to do anything semi-professional. If any of you get some
time check out my tracks at: http://mp3.com/Lunar_Sound_Design Thanks
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post #8 of 9
12/22/02 at 3:17pm
I have had an Echo Indigo card for about 3 days now, and I am utterly impressed.. it is QUIET and LOUD. SPDIF out will be neat, but I really only use stereo analog so I don't need any surround. If you're using professional apps you will appreciate the very low latency. I've typically had my ASIO control panel set at either 128 or 256 samples (some programs seem to have a better mixing engine, if you will, that does not cause any clicks even at 128 samples/2ms) ...

For the price you cannot beat this card, and it will drive your monitor headphones (or plug it into your mixing console) with enough power to break your head in half, which is why the analog volume wheel on the side is a great addition.

it sticks out about an inch the full width of the card, and is thick enough "up" from the card to be just a few millimeters higher than the side of the case. the prohibiting issue here is you have to take it out when you put it in a case (so if anyone knows of a kind of PCMCIA holster to protect it, I'm interested)

there is, as we've discussed, an 1/8th inch output plug on either side of the headphone preamp (The part that is sticking out) with a bright blue LED on top (exactly the same LED used in the access virus indigo series so now my gear is matching)

installation was indeed simple. i suggest getting the slightly newer driver off the website. just install it and pop in the card when it tells you to.


usage: well it works well with anything that is going to be able to natively use an ASIO driver. it also supports regular windows media drivers of course! as a matter of fact, I've even gotten it to be useful for games. (unreal tournament, jedi knight 2) which is a real improvement over the builtin. however for some reason, solitaire doesn't play any sounds when dealing cards

get it. get it. get it. 99$ for a pristine audio output that doesn't rely on a bandwidth limited protocol (of course with 2 channels it wouldnt really matter much, but you know) like usb 1.1 and also doesn't require an external "box" nor breakout cable ... AND is made by a pro-audio company rather than, *cough*, creative.
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post #9 of 9
12/23/02 at 1:18am
(Glad to hear you like the review! I missed the post yesterday because we had guests, and I have had lots of work, but I'm finished with working for this break tomorrow so I'll start getting to type more for the review again here soon... Can't wait to take it on the road trip :-) woohoo!!)
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