Which Dolby Digital Live Sound Card Should I Buy?

[Cytomax]

Hello all I have a very long and troubling story that i guess I deserved for it to happen to me for not fully researching the Audigy 2 ZS and support for digital 5.1 channels. I have bumped my head once and will not anymore. Anyways on to my question.

I would like to buy a Dobly Digital Live Sound Card because i would like to plug this sound card using either a S/PDIF (digital Coax Cable) or Toslink (Digital Fiber Optic Cable) into my Home Theater System which includes an old Harman Kardon AVR 310 Receiver and a Bose 5 speaker 1 subwoofer sound system. Now I have been reading a lot and I know that there are 2 ways i can get Dolby Digital Live which is to buy an Intel Motherboard since they come onboard (not an option for me) or to buy a soundcard . I am choosing to buy a soundcard unless there is an AMD motherboard with a built in Dolby Digital Live capabilities that for some reason does a lot better than any sound card.
I have found 2 cards that for sure will meet what i need/want which are the following:

Turtle Beach - Montego http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards/mtgoddl/specs.asp
The only review i can find on the sound card
- http://techgage.com/review.php?id=3708
- Uses the C-media CMI8768+ chipset

Blue Gears - XMystique 7.1 Gold http://www.bluegears.com/xmystique.html
The Blue Gears website has a list of reviews on this product
- http://www.bluegears.com/pressroom.html
- Uses the C-Media CMI8768+ chipset

1) I would like to know if there are any other sound cards that offer what i am looking

2) I would really want to know of all the Dolby Digital Live Sound Cards which is the best and buy the best i mean which is the clearest with the minimalist slowing of fps during gaming and the most stable drivers please keep in mind I mainly play Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2, and Doom III in that order of importance

3) Just incase anyone is interested these are the 2 chipmakers that i know of that now support both Dolby Digital Live and the new DTS Connect in one chip

http://www.cmedia.com.tw/product/product_pci.htm

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/products1-1.aspx?lineid=2004052

 

[Hi Ho]

Those are the only two soundcards available with DDL. Either one should work. Another option is the Creative DTS-610 which uses DTS Interactive (similar to DDL) since you already have the Audigy 2.

Personally I would go for the encoder because the Montego and X-Mystique have some known issues with some of the games in your list that may or may not be fixed with current or future driver releases.

The Audigy 2 has full EAX support which basically guarantees accurate sound reproduction and compatibility with nearly every game on the market.

 

[Alt+F4]

Look at a company named Terratec. I tried Turtle Beach and was very dissatisfied.

 

[Cytomax]

Thanks for all the replies guys if you have any more info or comments to tell me i am all ears... I wish someone would review both of these cards to see if they can tell a difference but since they use the same CMI8768+ chipset i guess i wouldnt expect much of a difference...

@ Hi Ho
Thanks for the suggestion but i already saw the DTS 610 and i would rather not dish out the $100 on it. Would you happen to know where i can find out which games are having the issues. Apart from the issues the only thing that scares me is only having EAX 2 support in video games to be honest i have not a clue what that means but seeing how my current Audigy 2 ZS supports up to 4 that cant be good any input on this would be great.

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

 

[jcPanny]

Recent forum prize

Recently Audioholics gave away a 5.1 channel sound card that connected via the USB port as one of the forum prizes. This might be a less expensive option for your application.

 

[Altair]

Hi,
what is your opinion about this one?
http://www.diamondmm.com/XS71DDL.php

Btw, I understand you Cytomax, because I have same problems with my Audogy 2 card. I have 5.1 sound from DVD, but only way to get sound from games is analog inputs. But this is not only problem. Even using analog inputs there is no Subwoofer signal or it is very very weak.
Actually sound is good, but what a satisfaction without sub?

Altair

 

[Hi Ho]

You need to enable "Bass redirection" in the Creative options panel. I have an Audigy 1 and I don't know where the option is in the Audigy 2 drivers but I assume it's the same thing.

I've never seen that Diamond card. I know nothing about it but if it works as advertised it should work fine.

 

[Altair]

You need to enable "Bass redirection" in the Creative options panel. I have an Audigy 1 and I don't know where the option is in the Audigy 2 drivers but I assume it's the same thing.

I enabled Bas redirect thing, but now Bass dissapeared from standard Desktop environment, where i listen music using SPDIF TOS link to my receiver ant still there is no Bass in games when I try to use 6 analog inputs.

The most interesting thing, that when I use Creative Speaker Settings utility, and in Speaker test area I press "Noise", the noise goes around all speakers and lastone is subwoofer, ant it works. But when I try to use Calibrate button, and neeed to identify speakers, it does not produce any sound. Instead Suround speakers produce few sounds and then silence.

 

[Altair]

Now finally i tried to reistall completely my Audigy 2 sound card, and gues what?
I get this damn "Setup is unable to detect a supported product on your system"
Now even original driver CD cannot recognize my audio card. I only was able to install drivers through Windows hardware wizard showing the place on my computer where I have extracted Audigy drivers manually.