soundcards that can produce decent headphone music

[Dr Mordrid]

Some people are bent that it has problems with Bioware games.....which of course matters only if you're interested in those games in particular.

Since my interest is editing and the need for low resource usage and not games I could give a rip about Bioware.

Dr. Mordrid

[az]

The Terratec 6fire LT and Aureon Space are the cheaper versions of the respective soundcards, both without 5.25" breakout box. I would advise agaianst them though, if you use the headphone much, since then you don't have a dedicated headphone out anymore (with hardware volume pot, which is a very big plus for me), and a standalone HiFi heaphone amp (while being higher quality) would be MUCH more expensive.

AZ

[TransformX]

I have a Hercules Game Theater XP, it has built-in headphone amp which according to reviews isn't bad at all.

Too bad they don't produce it anymore, but now they have this and it looks really neat...

[Taz]

Uhm, looks a lot like a Griffin Power Mate

[The PIT]

The Terratc Aureon 7.1 Universe looks interesting. Haven't managed to find any reviews bar germans ones yet though.

[az]

It's the same as the Aureon 7.1 space except for the drive bay module, I think you could find reviews for that. I have an audio mag here, and in its charts the Aureon 7.1 has a very slight lead above the 6fire 24/69 in terms of sound quality (but it's an audio mag, and you can't trust german audio mags further than you can throw them).

AZ

[az]

Clarification: it also includes a remote, but AFAIK the actual CARD is the same, so drivers and general sound quality should be, too.

AZ

[The PIT]

Sadly the card doesn't seem available in the UK.

[az]

It's new, it isn't yet available here either. Should be available in january, though.

AZ

[TransformX]

Originally posted by az
It's new, it isn't yet available here either. Should be available in january, though.

AZ

Not a smart move. Such things ought to be ready for christmas.

[az]

I guess it might be, in germany (german firm). It isn't available yet, though, so I think they'll miss holyday season.

AZ

[The PIT]

All I can say is whoops.
The older card is still available though.

[az]

Yes, and it's only 169 EUR from Amazon.de. It costs lots more from Amazon.co.uk, but amazon.de ships to the UK (don't know what shipping is then, though).

AZ

[Marshmallowman]

Its getting a little bit old, but the fortissmo III has a dedicated headphone out and pretty nice sound quality, and the digital connectore works well with his minidisc...and they are at a bargain price.

[rugger]

meh

the best way for headphone output is to plug the soundcard into a half decent amplifier and the headphones into that amplifier.