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    Can I get some comments on USB sound cards

    I am looking at getting a Soundblaster Live 24bit External sound card that utilitzes USB.

    The reason is because I have run out of PCI ports in my HS computer. I only have three PCI ports in the PC and I am using them for 2 PCI com port boards and the HS PCI modem.

    Can anyone comment on whether I should get an external sound card or not and if they are any good?

    TIA
    Cheers,
    Bob
    Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

    #2
    Bob,

    If you find that you get negative feedback about USB sound cards, you may consider swapping out your PCI serial cards for an 8-port Edgeport. The Edgeport is a USB to Serial device and gives you 8-RS232 ports. They can be found on Ebay for $35 and work great.

    This would allow you to use a high quality PCI audio card and still free up a extra PCI slot for future use. I don't have direct experience with USB audio devices, but do know that there are good and bad just like everything else. A $12-$30 USB audio card will use an inexpensive A/D converter and audio quality will suffer. There are also high-end USB audio devices with quality components, but these will set you back >$100 bucks.

    I can tell you that a quality sound card makes a big difference in the sound of TTS voices. A higher-end sound cards makes the voices sound very smooth and natural compared to an inexpensive card!

    Cheers,
    Paul

    Click to visit: www.sbsmarthomes.com
    Santa Barbara Smarthomes

    Authorized Russound Dealer & Installer

    Personal HA Website

    HomeSeer User Profile

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      #3
      I agree 100%
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        #4
        Looks like the lowest on ebay for an Edgeport is around $60 US
        Cheers,
        Bob
        Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

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          #5
          Sorry Bob... I thought I only paid around $35 for mine a few months ago.

          Looks like demand from HS users is driving the price up just like on those pesky Genter AP800 units

          Let us know what you decide...

          Happy Holidays,
          Paul

          Click to visit: www.sbsmarthomes.com
          Santa Barbara Smarthomes

          Authorized Russound Dealer & Installer

          Personal HA Website

          HomeSeer User Profile

          Comment


            #6
            Bob,
            I bought 3 of the USB sound cards that are the size of one of the USB flash memory devices. I paid $7 each and they work perfectly. They have gone up to $10 but they work perfectly. Adding several of these give you the ability to send sound to different speaker apps or to zone the sound output.

            http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280B&cat=SND
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              #7
              Hi Bob,

              I have five of the USB's Rupp is referring to, although only for plus a PCI sound card in use, and the work great, even the quality playing music is good.

              And they are under the tax threshold for importing into the UK - even better.
              sigpic
              A founder member of "The HA Pioneer Group" otherwise known as the "Old farts club!"

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                #8
                I've just installed 4 of the USB sound cards but I'm having a problem. Each instance of Winamp takes 15-30% of the CPU. I don't feel comfortable running more than 2 or maybe 3 at a time.

                Curiously, I can run 4 instances of Winamp on my laptop (approximatly the same CPU and memory) and they only takes 40% of the CPU. I'm going to try installing the USB sound cards on the laptop to see what happens but I was wondering what experience other people had. What kind of CPU load are you seeing?

                Paul

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by pfriedl
                  I've just installed 4 of the USB sound cards but I'm having a problem. Each instance of Winamp takes 15-30% of the CPU. I don't feel comfortable running more than 2 or maybe 3 at a time.

                  Curiously, I can run 4 instances of Winamp on my laptop (approximatly the same CPU and memory) and they only takes 40% of the CPU. I'm going to try installing the USB sound cards on the laptop to see what happens but I was wondering what experience other people had. What kind of CPU load are you seeing?

                  Paul
                  I do not use Winamp, we were discussing USB sound cards.

                  I would imaging that it would increase the CPU underv Winamp, the diference is anly notacible with HS by the amount of speaker applications running.
                  sigpic
                  A founder member of "The HA Pioneer Group" otherwise known as the "Old farts club!"

                  Comment


                    #10
                    CPU usage?

                    Hi,

                    Although I don't have any of these little guys, pfriedl may have a good point here. At the very low price of these USB sound widgets, I wonder how much internal sound processing is going on, and how much they might be relying on the host CPU for number crunching. That could help explain high CPU usage.

                    Did these come with a driver disk or did Windows find them automatically?

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                      #11
                      They come with a disk, a mini CD. Yes windows thinks it can install them, but it cannot very successfully.

                      The sound quality is up to the old Hi-Fi slandered, the CPU consumption is zilch. There is no internal processing, the unit if laid out flat is about the size of a sound card. In fact it is a sound card, just happens to be USB.

                      Buy one and give it a try.
                      sigpic
                      A founder member of "The HA Pioneer Group" otherwise known as the "Old farts club!"

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