AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 LT

[sechs]

I love my current Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, but it is 5V PCI; I only have one of these slots, and it's right next to the AGP -- so you see the issue. A pokey 33MHZ card sharing a PCI-X bus with one of my SCSI cards isn't an issue. Unfortunately, 3.3v PCI sound cards seem to be a rarity.

I spend most of the time listening to music with my digital speakers, but I do play games and need performance there. This might naturally lead me to something from M-Audio; however, it seems that, not only do they not see it fit to update their drivers regularly, but aren't looking at any drivers for Windows x64 in the Revolution models that I might use.

Having played a little game with my scanner when I upgraded to XP, I'd like at least lip service to drivers for x64. I also want to be able to use the card in Linux.

This has led me to the AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 LT which, in addition to having regular driver updates, official "yes, there are x64 drivers in the works," and ALSA support, is low profile, an air-flow bonus:
http://www.audiotrak.net/prodigy7.1LT.htm

Now, I'd never heard of these guys before I started looking, but they seem to have a following in Europe (despite being, as much as I can tell, a Korean company). It seems to be a suitable replacement for the TBSC.

What do the folks here say? Any other options which I should (or should not) consider?

 

[Mercutio]

Via Envy is a marvelous audio solution. It's the reason I put up with my fussy, fussy Albatron A64 boards. Envy works fine in Linux, at least for stereo audio (I have to confess I never tried analog multichannel) and Fedora core 2 and 3, and Suse 9.x both autodetect that particular chip.

Audio quality is in the same realm as Creative without the associated driver crappiness. Envy is very much a premium consumer-grade audio solution, and if you look back at things I've posted (I know, I post a lot. But it's there), I have always said positive things about it.

 

[sechs]

I know that I didn't mention this, but I'm never buying a Creative card again. Their hardware may be good, but you'd never be able to tell through the drivers.

Stereo is acceptable under Linux, because all I ever really want to do is play music and hear normal system sounds (which are monaural anyway).

That it's based on the Envy chip, as the Revolution and other reasonable to good cards, has given me an assurance of some minimal quality. That said, the rest of the card, as well as the drivers, does have a bearing on performance.

 

[sechs]

This card doesn't have Sensaura, as other Envy-based cards do. It only has Qsound.

Am I going to miss this?

 

[sechs]

I got the card in this morning.

First thought: it's really small. As long as it performs, that's a good thing. The card is not only low profile, but less than half-length; much smaller than the TBSC it replaces.

Initially had some issues with the drivers... the card has one device for general stuff and another for Qsound. For some reason, Windows wanted to default to the Qsound driver. I find this setup a bit confusing; Qsound is obviously meant for game use, but, without a suround setup, I can't find a reason to use. It's also odd that the general driver does not offer hardware acceleration, while the Qsound driver does.

Music sounds fine... at least as good as before. Once I've run it through the gamut of genres, I should be clear on that.

Games... so far so good. I played a couple rounds of the the BF2 demo; the video card no longer overheats! Once we've gained back the fifteen degrees of heat that we've been missing, I can be assured of that situation. I'll be trying to finish COD:UO for furthur testing.