HEADSETS!!

[Powdered!]

i used to get background noise when i had an on-board sound card (don't have anything with my sound blaster), so try what laby said and do a non-PC source.

[Jedakiah]

I will do that as soon as I get home. 

For some dumb reason I decided not to order a sound card the other night.  I was reading up on them late at night before I bought all this stuff, and everyone of them had plenty of negative reviews with valid points.  I gave up on trying to find a nice one and decided that my detachable-onboard sound suited me fine for now. 

I know I asked this before and essentially got the answer "Audigy", but here it is again, what sound card would you recommend?  I've read quite a few negative reviews on NewEgg about Audigy, mainly complaining that Creative Labs has gone down hill recently.  But the main thing that threw me off is that all the Audigy cards seemed to still use the CPU for sound processing?  I don't particularly want that. 

EDIT: I did not have the static issues at home.  So basically I need a new sound card? 

[Labyrinthine]

I know I asked this before and essentially got the answer "Audigy", but here it is again, what sound card would you recommend?  I've read quite a few negative reviews on NewEgg about Audigy, mainly complaining that Creative Labs has gone down hill recently.  But the main thing that threw me off is that all the Audigy cards seemed to still use the CPU for sound processing?  I don't particularly want that. 

EDIT: I did not have the static issues at home.  So basically I need a new sound card? 

Need to know a few things.

Price range?
Primary use: Movies, music, games?
Need a breakout box?
Doing any recording?
Anything else you feel the need to tell me.

And yes, basically a new sound card sounds like the issue. Often times onboard sound picks up all that crap going on with the motherboard. The mobo is a VERY harsh electrical environment and onboard sound is rarely shielded adequately. Result: static on anyone with headphones good enough to pick it up. Thankfully for the big name companies, very few people have those sorts of headphones.

[b.ho]

Result: static on anyone with headphones good enough to pick it up. Thankfully for the big name companies, very few people have those sorts of headphones.

i think it's more cuz more people just use the speakers that come w/ the computers than use headphones. my cheap 40 buck sennheiser px100's picked up the static off the mobo too easily....drove me mad.

[Jedakiah]

Need to know a few things.

Price range?
Primary use: Movies, music, games?
Need a breakout box?
Doing any recording?
Anything else you feel the need to tell me.

And yes, basically a new sound card sounds like the issue. Often times onboard sound picks up all that crap going on with the motherboard. The mobo is a VERY harsh electrical environment and onboard sound is rarely shielded adequately. Result: static on anyone with headphones good enough to pick it up. Thankfully for the big name companies, very few people have those sorts of headphones.

I just noticed while reading your post that I could hear the hard drive thinking through my speakers.  And every time I'd click the mouse or move a screen the static would get louder.  The funny thing is my sound card is completely detached from the motherboard.  The "onboard sound" the mobo came with has to be plugged in and held in place by a nifty lil' gadget. 

Price range? You tell me.  It's a high-end computer but I'm no audiophile. 
Primary use: Movies, music, games?  All three in practically equal amounts. 
Need a breakout box?  No but I need front audio badly. 
Doing any recording?  No. 

Should I consider an external card since the static is worse at work? 

[Jedakiah]

Sorry to double post AGAIN and be a pest, but I'd like to order my crap soon.  These new speakers kick butt but this static thing is annoying to the power of 10. 

I'm going to bombard you guys with a bunch of questions again.  I'd like to get 7.1 sound to go with my new card, do you have any suggestions? 

I have a RAM question.  Logically wouldn't it speed up RAM (my system bottleneck) if I had 4 sets of 1 instead of 2 sets of 2?  Has anyone seen real world comparisons here?  I can't find any.  I suppose I'm also going to have to overclock my RAM and see what kind of a performance gain I get. 

Killa: (Yes I'm asking YOU a tech question, and anyone else smarter than him)
I just got a G15.  Is there a useful LCD mod for this thing for CS: S?  All the ones I've come across display stuff I don't need to know on the fly.  Like the IP of the server I'm on or my global stats.  What about Netgraph stats or displaying TAB stuff? 

[The Grandfather]

Sorry to double post AGAIN and be a pest, but I'd like to order my crap soon.  These new speakers kick butt but this static thing is annoying to the power of 10. 

I'm going to bombard you guys with a bunch of questions again.  I'd like to get 7.1 sound to go with my new card, do you have any suggestions? 

Killa: (Yes I'm asking YOU a tech question, and anyone else smarter than him)
I just got a G15.  Is there a useful LCD mod for this thing for CS: S?  All the ones I've come across display stuff I don't need to know on the fly.  Like the IP of the server I'm on or my global stats.  What about Netgraph stats of displaying TAB stuff? 

Hmmmm. Good question. All I have on mine is our ventrillo information. It allows me to see who is talking when in game all the time. I like it alot.

[Labyrinthine]

I'll make a coherent post tomorrow or late tonight. I'm a wee bit busy as of late.

Sorry.

[Labyrinthine]

Ok, you have a few options here. Easiest thing to do would be to just get a SoundBlaster Cheapo $40 soundcard. BAM, you're done.

Unless you're anal about sound quality, you probably won't notice the fact that the sound quality is really quite bad.

I can recommend a few more 2.1 card, but most incorporate a recording side of things which jacks up the price.

For anything more than 2.1 I would recommend the Auzen X-Fi Prelude Yes, it's $200, but it is one of the best multichannel cards out there.

or the

M-Audio Revolution 5.1 Which is in a more affordable price range.

For super high end with playback in mind, it's hard to beat the carddeluxe This is the extreme high-end, this is why it's $400. Which considering it plays as well as some $3000 audio gear, isn't half-bad.

Another route you could try to take is to use a DAC via USB directly to your computer and then take that to an amp or your headphones. May be a bit portable and a bit more expensive.

[Jedakiah]

M-Audio Revolution 5.1 Which is in a more affordable price range.

Thanks for your help Lab, you hooked me up nice.  In addition to the Revolution I bought some FX5051s.  They are outstanding, I never knew that speakers this big could make 128kbps sound alright. 

I have a question about volume control.  Two different theories of my'n conflict and I'm not sure which one is correct.  Would it be best to keep the various software and hardware volume settings at high until the very last one on the chain?  Or would it be best to have the hardware settings high and adjust the software/amp settings? 

It's hard to tell but I seem to get the best quality out of my headphones by keeping my system volume at 100 and the programs volume adjusted.  Does that make any sense?  A manual of my'n said to never have the sysvol maxed, but I have read otherwise.  It's very confusing.

EDIT: Pending your recommendation I'm thinking of buying a potentiometer for my Grados from Koss or Sennheiser. 

[b.ho]

They are outstanding, I never knew that speakers this big could make 128kbps sound alright. 

when you get nice headphones and nice soundcard, 128kbs songs sound like utter shiet which makes me want to get flac quality songs for all my crap quality songs. i think that applies to sound systems as well but i'm not sure on that.

[Jedakiah]

That's one way of looking at it. 

On my old system if I were to play a 128 song at a normal level it would sound so horrible that I could barely understand it.  A 320 song would be understandable and you could generally make out the highs and lows that generally get lost on the low bit rates. 

On my Grados though, a 128 sounded significantly superior to a 320 on my old 2.1 Altecs.  So much better that I would listen to my old/rare music often. 

With my new speakers/headphones stuff sounds so good I'm finding it harder to tell the difference in quality of music.  They seem to remove all the static/washed out/poor highs and lows that I would notice on low quality music.  I do however notice drastic differences in quality between two given sets of 128s or sets of 320s.  Which is strange, and probably means I've just gone crazy. 

[Labyrinthine]

Most programs, if you have them below 100% volume will screw up sound quality. I read some lengthy debate on it a while ago, mainly pertaining to iTunes.

Nowadays I keep my sysvol at 60% (oddly enough, I've never looked into whether or not that affects sound quality) and all my prog volumes at 100%. Any actual volume variation I need, I do through my amp.

As for 128 vs 300, I can tell a huge difference. The 128 stuff just sounds so washed out and gross. 320 is better, but I still <3 flac and ape.

[b.ho]

but I still <3 flac and ape.

<3 that stuff

[Mongoose]

There are no really cool g15 apps for css because the info you want is stored in a place that gets you vac banned if you try to get at it.  Least that's the excuse I kept finding when I got mine a while ago.  The server monitoring isn't bad though, if you want to see what's going on on your favorite server without pulling it up on steam.

I get horrid static since moving my audigy from my main rig to my home theatre box and I'm just using a $20 logitech headset.  Onboard sound ftl.