Ameris experiments with sound so you don't have to

[ameris_cyning]

HELLO THERE!

 

After screwing around for several months trying to get my Hack perfect, I always found one thing that I couldn’t take care of: sound.

 

Yes, I know it is a small thing, and sound is relatively easy to get working. Thing is is that I like great sound, not just sound alone.

 

The following notes are several months in the making.

 

1. INTEGRATED SOUND:

 

BEST SOLUTION: Patched AppleHDA

 

Integrated sound is the easiest choice out there because pretty much every motherboard has built in sound. Unfortunately, the quality is lacking (especially for electronic dance music fans). If you want great sound, look somewhere else.

 

VoodooHDA is a good tool for those who want to set it and forget it, but voodoohda has some major quality problems that a patched AppleHDA does not. Whats even worse is that one can tell when one uses voodoohda over a patched AppleHDA. Thats how poor the quality is in voodoohda. Now, I am not gonna {censored} all over the good job that the fine folks at voodoo have done, but right now, its not as mature as it could be

 

2. USB SOUND

 

BEST SOLUTION: Syba SD-AUD20101

 

This USB sound card has very good quality. Plus, it can handle 96KHz/24 bit depth. The quality is better than onboard audio most definitely. But, this has its own draw-backs. USB sound suffers from pops more oft than onboard audio. One thing that I have noticed is that the pops occur due to actions not concerning my computer. I have a built in fan in my bathroom to ventilate it when I take a shower. It has a timer on it. When the timer hits zero, the USB sound card pops. Strange indeed. However, if you are willing to deal with a card that can pick up interference, then this is the best solution for you.

 

3. PCI SOUND

 

BEST SOLUTION: Sound Blaster Audigy 4

 

Sure, its an old card, but the quality is outstanding. The SNR runs up to 106, meaning that you will hear a lot of noise you normally wouldn’t with an integrated solution. The only bad part about this card is the driver support. With OS X, the only game in town is kx, and those drivers limit your ability to change sample and bit rates. So, if you notice your card is over-sampling (easy to spot because of the crackles it makes) you are SOL unless if you restart your machine or switch to a different audio device. I have also experienced a couple of random Kernel Panics, but these are few and far between.

 

THE WINNER:

 

Sound Blaster 4 Audigy hands down. Even with its issues and its age it still gives the best quality. They are also pretty darn cheap on eBay. I bought mine for ~$15. 

[3.14r2]

Many sound cards would be good enough, as long as digital-to-analog conversion takes place outside the PC and preferably with a proper DAC.

 

Either way +1 for Audigy!