Looking for basic soundcard - please help!

G

Gherkin

New member
Not a recording question.

A brother of mine has recently built himself a new PC, and the onboard soundcard is noisy, and generally pretty bad quality.

He'd like to get a PCI soundcard, with a quality stereo output. No 5.1 or 7.1 doo-dads. Line ins and Mic ins don't matter.

Also has to be compatible with Vista.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
M Audio audiophile is a good 2 channel pci card. Not sure if it has vista drivers yet. For another $50, the Presonus Inspire has 4 inputs, along with a couple of preamps and is vista ready. It's firewire though
 
I'm not sure if the 24/96 is Vista compatible (ask M-Audio or check their website) but it fits in a normal PCI slot and works just like a regular sound card.

The RCA jacks will require you to go to Radio Shack and pick up a few cheap adapters and it's kind of a pain. But I own the 24/96 and it's a great card.
 
I can vouch for the m-audio 2496. Depending on what cables you are using, the fact that it is RCA is a pain. But, if he is using regular speakers, with one stereo jack for the input, you will need an adapter with pretty much any card made for home recording.

Another option is the e-mu 0404. I haven't used it so i can't vouch for the quality (for what the use is, i can't image it would be a bad choice). It uses 1/4 cables which is easer to deal with. The main thing is sometimes you can find these at Fry's if you have one in your area for $40 or $60. However, i don't see them their consistantly.
 
Thanks guys, my brother's using an amp with RCA inputs, so that's somewhat of a bonus.

The only issue is Vista 32bit compatibility. Can anyone confirm whether the 2496 will work with Vista?
 
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