We got a new soundcard :)

[az]

Yes - we've got us a new soundcard.

It's a Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96. A helluva card

I just installed it, and music sounds so much better, and more alive, than on the old card! It's really more of an improvement than I thought

Thank you Indiana for helping my decision

I think your Live! might be out of a job soon.. should I send it back to you then?

AZ

[GNEP]

Excellent. Let us know how some games work with it as well

[UtwigMU]

That's a very fine sound card Az.

Congrats.

Tell us if you have any glitches and driver problems.

[az]

I was able to get one for ~185 EUR, delivered.

AZ

[K6-III]

Originally posted by cking4@ford.com
If you don't mind my asking, I'm curious as to what it cost. I was not able to find one in the U.S. for less
than $400.00 or so, when I went looking a few months back. And even then it was special order as a pro
audio product from a music store.

They're cheaper in Europe, seeing as Terratec is a german company.

The 6Fire goes for $250 in the states, while the 6Fire-LT goes for $150.

[cochese]

check out places like guitar center especially when they have their crazy sales... my friend got his damn cheap when they had a crazy sale where things were 40-80 percent off

[az]

Yeah, you can find these cards at musician's shops, maybe even more often than in computer shops.

Any specifics on what I should test it with? (NOTE: Cheap speakers, good headphone, no digital recorders at the moment, and only fairly old games. No surround, I'm afraid. Bought this mainly for listening to music, and it's absolutely great for that!)

AZ

[leech]

Quick question? Does it have any linux drivers? I've been looking to dump my SB Live for something different (the drivers for windows are horrid, and getting alsa set-up is a pain in the arse (well when you re-install and mess around with things as much as I do it is)).

Leech

[Ribbit]

Have a look at the list at http://www.alsa-project.org (site's down for me at the moment)

Edit: alsa-project's still down, but I think there are Envy24 ALSA drivers (don't know about OSS).

[az]

I don't know if it has any Linux drivers, it uses the Envy24 (NOT the cheaper Envy24HT) chip, which is relatively widely used in more expensive soundcards. Hope this helps

It has ASIO 2.0 and WDM Kernel Streaming drivers for Windows 98SE/ME/200/XP, with latencies as low as 1.5 ms for ASIO and 2 ms for WDM KS, on fast and well configured systems.

AZ

[Indiana]

Glad you're happy with the card. Recommending hardware always is a dangerous thing as a card that works well for you could easily create lots of problems for others and vice versa...

But if you're looking for first-class soundquality for normal stereo material, the 6Fire24/96 and the 6Fire24/96LT (quite a lot cheaper though it only lacks the - admittedly great - front-module) are very good cards.

I can't speak about the gaming capabilities, because I don't really use 3D sound in gaming, but I've seen reviews where it was rated better than the old SBLive in that aspect, too.

[Tjalfe]

Are these cards OK with SMP / Hyperthreading?..or is that a Creative problem only?

[BuddMan]

Doesn't it use the same chipset as an M-Audio Revolution does? The M-Audio Revo is awesome in games, but you gotta have a hefty computer as the processor ends up doing a lot of the work. I would suppose it's the same for the Terratec card.

[az]

AFAIK yes, it's the same chip. I've seen reviews where it was tested against a SB Audigy, gaming performance wise, and though the Audigy beat it in this respect, 2% performance difference (or so) is hardly noticeable. So the processor doesn't "end up doing a lot of the work" - or maybe it does, but it's not very heavy work, then

Re: Linux drivers: I've seen people say the card works under Linux (with Alsa, I think - I have no experience with Linux though), though the line- and phono in didn't work (both on the front module and on the card).

AZ

[BuddMan]

Well, I haven't tested it extensively myself, not yet. But then again I also have a 2.8 clocked at 3.4, so I probably wouldn't notice it much even if the work load was a bit high for the CPU.