ive done a google search and i cant find out a thing about this onboard audio that i have

does anyone knowabout this?

i can get an audigy ls for £27... would it be worth it; i listen 2 loads of music on my rhythmic wave a2.310 and at high volume it distorts.. is this likely to be the speakers or the card?

Here:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/produ...id=2003051

ALC655
AC'97 Rev 2.3 Audio CODEC

General Description
The ALC655 is a 16-bit, full-duplex AC'97 Rev. 2.3 compatible six-channel audio CODEC designed for PC multimedia systems, including host/soft audio and AMR/CNR-based designs.

The ALC655 incorporates proprietary converter technology to meet performance requirements for PC99/2001 systems. The ALC655 CODEC provides three pairs of stereo outputs with 5-bit volume control, a mono output, and multiple stereo and mono inputs, along with flexible mixing, gain, and mute functions to provide a complete integrated audio solution for PCs.

The digital interface circuitry of the ALC655 CODEC operates from a 3.3V power supply for use in notebook and PC applications. An integrated 50mW/20ohm headset audio amplifier for Front-Out and Surround-Out, a 14.318MHz -> 24.576MHz PLL, and a PCBEEP generator cut BOM costs. The ALC655 also supports S/PDIF input and output for easy connection of PCs to consumer electronic products, such as AC3 decoders/speakers and mini-disk devices.

The ALC655 CODEC supports host/soft audio from Intel ICHx chipsets as well as audio controller-based VIA/SIS/ALI/AMD/nVIDIA/ATI chipsets. Bundled Windows series drivers (98/ME/NT/2000/XP), EAX/Direct Sound 3D/ I3DL2/A3D compatible sound effect utilities (supporting Karaoke, 26 types of environment sound emulation, 10-band equalizer), HRTF 3D positional audio and Sensaura™ 3DPA (optional) provide an excellent entertainment package and game experience for PC users. In addition, the ALC655 is embedded with an impedance sensing capability to detect when a device has been connected to input or output jacks.


Features
Meets performance requirements for audio on PC99/2001 systems
Meets Microsoft WHQL/WLP 2.0 audio requirements
16-bit Stereo full-duplex CODEC with 48KHz sampling rate
Compliant with AC'97 Rev 2.3 specifications
Front-Out, Surround-Out, MIC-In and LINE-In Jack Sensing
14.318MHz -> 24.576MHz PLL to eliminate crystal
12.288MHz BITCLK input
Integrated PCBEEP generator to save buzzer
Interrupt capability
Three analog line-level stereo inputs with 5-bit volume control, LINE_IN, CD, AUX
High-quality differential CD input
Two analog line-level mono inputs: PCBEEP, PHONE-IN
Two software selectable MIC inputs
Dedicated Front-MIC input for front panel applications (software selectable)
Boost preamplifier for MIC input
LINE input shared with surround output; MIC input shared with Center and LFE output
Built-in 50mW/20ohm amplifier for both Front-out and Surround-Out
External Amplifier Power Down (EAPD) capability
Power management and enhanced power saving features
Supports Power-Off CD function
Adjustable VREFOUT control
Supports 48KHz S/PDIF output, complying with AC'97 Rev 2.3 specifications
Supports 32K/44.1K/48KHz S/PDIF input
Power support: Digital: 3.3V; Analog: 3.3V/5V
Standard 48-pin LQFP package
EAX™ 1.0 & 2.0 compatible
Direct Sound 3D™ compatible
A3D™ compatible
I3DL2 compatible
HRTF 3D positional audio
Sensaura™ 3DPA enhancement (optional)
10-band software equalizer
Voice cancellation and key shifting in Karaoke mode
AVRack® Media Player
Configuration Panel for improved user convenience

Applications
Multimedia PCs
3D PC games
Information appliances (IA)
Voice recognition
Audio conferencing

An Audigy 2 is it always worth! Audigy just ownz ...

yep, and i just bought a audigy 2 zs, and i´m going to love it!!
just kicked my Nforce2 On-board sound , was no soundstorm :-)

I borrowed an Audigy 1 card from a friend and it wasn't really good for games. I had a hard time telling where people was from the sound that they made in Counter-Strike. Alot of echo (yes I have room_type 0 in my config).
BUT, it's really good if you love listening to music and I loved it for that.

Still, I prefer my onboard AC`97 sound .

have you cecked the CMSS setting ? turn off or set to stereo upmix ... also disable A3D option in HL ?
maybe bad driver ....
get audigy 2 ZS cd it works for any SBlaster card ... at least from Live on ...

ah this card is actually an audigy ls...

the specs are the same as the audigy but it has a game port instead pf 1394

i alreasdy have 2 firewires so this seems like a nice deal

i havent had a sound card since a creative pci 128, which at the time wasnt too bad

ive read on digitlife.com something about HD audio... should i wait for the upgrade to this or will this transition take a long time?

whats called HD is just standard with Audigy

hd is 32 bit isnt it?

the audigy is 24/96

this is confusing.... :knife:

so it got a 24bit/192kHz DAC the 32bit are related to something other ...

maybe an internal thing ...

but lets take it ... 32 bit for all on HD if you know the difference between 16 and 24bit ...you will know thats its quite a big advantage but not much noticable for then end user ... the next step to 32 brings virtually another enormous improvement but to hear this diffrerence you really need some very expensive hardware ...



you should not mix up things ... there are much converters in such a card ... like the DAC, ADC ...
and what you named is input for recording

also you got to see the HD standard does come now while Audigy really exists ... and not only since yesterday ... so you can be tense what coming next out by SB ...
also remember ... an Audigy got quite more advantages then only bit rates .. it got lowest CPU usage for example ... what the use of 32bit when it eats 20% CPU usage for example ...
also EAX 3/4 and much more things ...