[G4] Sound cards?

[Eric Volker]

Thanks for all the responses. The Onkyo SE-U55 looked interesting, but 
it has either been discontinued or is hard to find. The Mbox is a 
professional level product that is outside of my budget. Likewise the 
M-Audio 9624 also appears to be professional, or at least higher end 
than I'm willing to pay for. A look at the M-Audio website, however, 
revealed a number of consumer-level products for the Macintosh. The one 
that seems to best fit my needs and budget would be the Revolution PCI 
card. The Sonica is cheaper, but I have some reservations about a USB 
product, including CPU usage and some reports of audio anomalies.

Thanks again!

Eric Volker
ebv1 at charter.net

On Wednesday, April 30, 2003, at 10:14  PM, Video International wrote:

> I also want better sounding mp3s. So I tried using the Mbox in OSX.
> But I couldn't output the computer's audio to it after connecting it 
> by USB.
> In system preferences, the Sound "output" tab had only one choice -
> the "built in audio controller".
>
> How does one bypass the onboard sound card? I think I was able to
> do this in OS9...
>
> Rick
>
>
>> I use two outboard audio boxes:  an Onkyo SE-U55 and a Digidesign 
>> Mbox.
>>   Both are USB (nothing wrong with USB, there's plenty of bandwidth
>> there and provisions for isochronous data) and both give excellent
>> sound, with the edge going to the Mbox.
>
>
>>> After playing MP3's side by side on my Mac and PC, I realized that my
>>> PC had noticeably higher sound quality. Instead of the poor quality
>>> onboard sound on the PC, I upgraded it with a Soundblaster 512 which
>>> substantially improved the quality of audio. While a Mac's onboard
>>> sound is better than the built-in audio on most PCs, it doesn't have
>>> the same quality as a good add-on PC card.
>>>
>>> As a Mac user, this situation annoys me. Can I find a sound card for
>>> the Mac? The only thing I'm aware of is a XiTel Hifi-link, which is a
>>> USB audio "card." Has anyone used one of these? Any other options?