Subj : Sound cards.
To   : All
From : Mark Hofmann
Date : Thu Jul 22 2021 22:14:31

Maybe I'm an audio snob.  Actually, I probably am.  Anyway, I have always hated the integrated audio in motherboards.  I have owned Sound Blaster cards since the beginning of time.  The one I have used for many years now is the Sound Blaster Audigy FX (PCIe).

That card works great.  It has great sound quality and an amp of some sort since it boosts the sound level a huge amount.  

Fast forward to a week ago when I bought another video card (MSI 2060 Super Gaming).  Video cards like that block access to other slots on the motherboard.  I had no place to install my SB card, so I bought a USB Sound Blaster X3.  The sound is close the the same quality of the FX - but it is buggy as hell.  Just like what has happened to Cisco, Microsoft, etc, the modern day products are released way before they are ready and just don't work right.  I'm sure it is a software bug of some type, but after two years they still have not fixed the audio drop outs.  I am taking the damn thing back to Microcenter this weekend.

Anyway, I ordered a PCIe riser card that supports up to 4 risers, bought 2 riser cards and will move my other video card outside the PC to the top of the case like my other one.  That will free up the space I need to re-install my SB Audigy FX.  

Far more difficult than it should have been, but it seems more and more that new stuff is worse than the old stuff.  

- Mark

--- WWIVToss v.1.52 
 * Origin:  http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (618:100/12.0)

.