Best sound card for Mediator SX PCI bus board?

[Dwyloc]

I have recently purchased a Mediator SX PCI bus board and was thinking about adding a sound card to my classic Amiga setup.

Dose anyone have any advice about which model of card works best,  I was thinking about getting a Terratec 512i from amigakit as I have a Terratec card in my PC and I am very happy with it.  But it more than twice the price of an SB128 and I have know idea if it’s really any better.

I was just planning to use it to playback mp3 and mix the onboard audio from Paula and my CD-ROM so I don’t really care about recording quality, but I am willing to pay the extra if the more expensive card will give be better sound quality when connected to my HiFi or a more stable system.

edit: added sig

[Dandy]

Dwyloc wrote:
I have recently purchased a Mediator SX PCI bus board and was thinking about adding a sound card to my classic Amiga setup.

Dose anyone have any advice about which model of card works best,  I was thinking about getting a Terratec 512i from amigakit as I have a Terratec card in my PC and I am very happy with it.  But it more than twice the price of an SB128 and I have know idea if it’s really any better.

I was just planning to use it to playback mp3 and mix the onboard audio from Paula and my CD-ROM so I don’t really care about recording quality, but I am willing to pay the extra if the more expensive card will give be better sound quality when connected to my HiFi or a more stable system.

edit: added sig

Well - I have the Terratec 512i digital and its really good.
It has 4 channels (2 front, 2 rear) and one digital output.

I had been looking for a suond card with dolby 5.1 or even 7.1, but Elbox told me that 5.1 soundcards are not supported yet - drivers are still in developement.

So it got the Terratec 512i digital, as the Elbox guys said this would be the best choice.

The only problem I have with it is if I connect the soudcard to my amplifier: there is a kind of buzz - maybe because of a ground loop which I could not locate up to now.

The funny thing is that it starts buzzing as soon as I plug the cable from the amplihier into the soundcard - no matter, if the soundcard is fitted to the Amiga (powered on), or if the soundcard just lies on the table...
:-(  :-?
A friend of mine had the same problem with is PC and solved it by using the digital output.
 :idea:
I plan to do the same - I just have to find an adaptor optical -> Chynch, as my amp has no digital in...

[motorollin]

Could somebody explain the point of using a sound card in a Mediator? The card won't work for any software which uses Paula, which presumably leaves only AHI enabled apps (i.e. not games). Also, a sound card will give little or no improvement in performance of MP3 decoding. So what's the point?

--
moto

[amigakit]

Using a soundcard give better quality sound, less chip RAM usage and less custom chip (PAULA) is accessed which would be more efficient in the Mediator design

[motorollin]

But how many apps would actually use it? Surely only AHI enabled apps? Wouldn't software that is hard coded to use Paula ignore the Mediator entirely and still use Paula?

--
moto

[humppa]

@motorollin

The card won't work for any software which uses Paula, which presumably leaves only AHI enabled apps (i.e. not games).

There are many games that support output via AHI. No Whdload-games, of course.

@Amigakit

Using a soundcard give better quality sound, less chip RAM usage and less custom chip (PAULA) is accessed which would be more efficient in the Mediator design

Apart from the "better quality sound" this is a bit misleading. "More efficient" sounds as if it is faster. The opposite is true. Most apps/games slow down when AHI is used instead of directly accessing (lower-quality) Paula.

[amigakit]

On reference to the efficiency I was commenting on the data flow within the Mediator.

@Motorollin

There are patches to make some apps/OS friendly games redirect sound from Paula to AHI

[Legerdemain]

The only problem I have with it is if I connect the soudcard to my amplifier: there is a kind of buzz - maybe because of a ground loop which I could not locate up to now.

Now, I'm no guru on this very matter... though I have to say that pretty much every PCI soundcard I've tried on PC's the last 10 years or so have generated a 'humming' noise when connected to the amplifier.

When I put my SB128 in my Mediator setup on the Amiga I was extremely surprised when I realised I could turn up the volume on max on the stereo without hearing any 'humming' at all. A first in ten years. That's really all the 'facts' I am sitting on concerning this very matter.

Though, I've heard all different kind of answers to why this is, the 'humming', so to speak. Some people claim that old ISA SoundBlaster 16 cards are the way to go, if possible, because they generate no 'humming' at all (apparently due to the size of the card... the electronics on there have got the space they need not to generate disturbance between each other). Some people claim it is due to todays PC motherboards, that they are too compact and thus the electronics can't help but generate a 'humming' because of some disturbance. Some claim that the only way to get around the 'humming' on newer PC's is to buy one of those really expensive 24-bit studio soundcards which are shileded. Some says it is all about wether everything is grounded or not. And blah blah blah. I have no clue whatsoever what to think of all of this.

All that I do know for a fact is that the Soundblaster 128 in combination with the Mediator, at least in my case, generates no 'humming' at all. If I put it in my PC the 'humming' is horrible. Why? I haven't got a clue!

 :lol:

[Piru]

@amigakit

On reference to the efficiency I was commenting on the data flow within the Mediator.

Now that's interesting statement. Last I checked if CPU has to access the sample data, it must be in system memory. To transfer this to the audio card buffer requires moving it with CPU, since no DMA can be done directly.

Sure you can do tricks such as moving data to gfxcard memory and DMAing it from there, but really what's the benefit here? You still need to move the data using CPU to gfxcard buffer then...

Thus, direct paula audio is more efficient even when considering "data flow".

The only real benefit I can think of is sound quality, and easy mixing of several audio sources (cd-rom audio for example).

[Gerbinist]

And don't forget the best option for a soundcard, imo that is ;-)

The combination with a TV Card :-D

[Dwyloc]

Legerdemain wrote:

Now, I'm no guru on this very matter... though I have to say that pretty much every PCI soundcard I've tried on PC's the last 10 years or so have generated a 'humming' noise when connected to the amplifier.

I don't have any problems with humming with any of my sound cards at home but the cheapest card I have is an Creative Audigy card and my main system has an older high end Teratec card, but I don't expect a £10 sound card to be as good as £200 one even if I have had it for a few years now.

All that I do know for a fact is that the Soundblaster 128 in combination with the Mediator, at least in my case, generates no 'humming' at all. If I put it in my PC the 'humming' is horrible. Why? I haven't got a clue!

The cheaper Soundblaster card is sounding like a better deal at this stage.

I guess my next question is which set of drivers am I best using Elbox’s drivers supplied with the bus board or the OpenPCI drivers http://bvernoux.free.fr/DevPCI.php

[_ThEcRoW]

I would go the openpci route.