# Sound Card Help



## StealthRT (Oct 30, 2010)

Hey all. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a great sound card to be used with my A/V reciever.

This is my HTPC as of now:


> EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
> GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
> Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
> Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
> ...


Do i need a dedicated sound card since it seems the GeForce GTX 470 has build in DTS 7.1? Or would it be best to get a dedicated sound card? And if so, these are really the only ones i can find that output 7.1 Coaxial or TOSLINK. (i rather have TOSLINK than Coaxial)

Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card
ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card
ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card
ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3
Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD (same as Sound Blaster X-Fi??)
?any more??

Thanks for you're time and help! 

David


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

Personally, I'd suggest you give the Gigabyte/Realtek ALC889 on-board sound a shot. With 7.1, and two S/PDIF outputs Toslink/optical and coax it should be up to the task.

Is there something in particular you are looking for in a sound card?


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

As long as your blu-ray software supports bitstreaming (not DTS 7.1 but true bitstreaming so your SR-7005 can decode the stream) from the Geforce just go with that, otherwise the HDAV3 is a great card.


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## StealthRT (Oct 30, 2010)

Well i would like THX and DD since the reciever is THX and all that. But would the video card HDMI output be just as good?

David


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

THX is just a post processing algorithm which can be applied to DD or DTS. Like I said if your blu-ray playback software will support bitstreaming from your video card that would be the best way as it will allow the AVR to do all the decoding. Check out PowerDVD or Total Media Theater3 as playback software and see, I know TMT3 was working on the Fermi based playback for bitsttream, not sure if it has been completed yet.


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## StealthRT (Oct 30, 2010)

Does PowerDVD or Total Media Theater3 work within Windows 7 Media Center for Blu-Ray playback?

David


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

TMT3 can be integrated easily into Media Center, PowerDVD sort of can as well. Check out media browser or my movies to provide a gallery to browse the blu-ray's and then launch one of the before mentioned players. 

Newegg did have TMT3 Platinum on sale for 59.99 recently, dont know if it is still that cost. PowerDVD I believe is $100 for the blu-ray version.


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## StealthRT (Oct 30, 2010)

What about TotalMedia Theatre 5?

David


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## nholmes1 (Oct 7, 2010)

Looks like it would work, hadn't even seen it until you posted about it. Biggest upgrades look like more 3D functionality and enhanced GUI.


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