How do you guys feel about having 2 sound cards at once

Do you think it would cause conflicts, as if having the onboard enabled, and also having a sound blaster in there, and switching between the 2. Ive had it on my xp machine didnt really cause problems but i could have lucked out. I just want to see what you guys thoughts are on having 2 sound cards.

Im not real sure how it would benefit you, but you could run into IRQ conflicts...

Tews said:

Im not real sure how it would benefit you, but you could run into IRQ conflicts...

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What does IRQ stand for... and what about the usb powered headsets?? i mean its almost like a second sound card.

Interrupt Requests ... Almost doesn't count .... Now.. you tell us why you think you need two sound cards... If you stop and think about what it is that a sound card does, you will see why it wont work...

Doing that has actually worked for some people. But that isn't really two sound cards, it's onboard sound and one sound card.

I've had up to three audio devices in my computer with no problems.

Currently I have onboard audio (Realtek) enabled, plus an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 and a ProSonus Firestudio running without problems. If the drivers are good, Interrupt Requests (IRQ) problems are generally a thing of the past, at least in my experience.

Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G
4GB RAM, Texas Instruments Firewire
Tri-boot -- Win_7, XP_Pro, Mac OSX 10.5.5

Ap

Reason being 1 for head set since its mic and headphones just for the headphones... and then my audio speakers and my desktop mic on the other soundcard. reason being my other sound card is a lot better for my audio speakers i have an asus xonar d2 pci..

I mean i dont want them on at the same time, just switch between them when need to be,

I use 2 sound cards all the time for gaming, mainly FSX. Main output device (X-Fi Prelude) for speakers game sounds, and secondary device (realtek onboard) for headset voice communication. Once set up there is no need for switching and no issues what so ever.

Hi there
I'm not sure why you would want two sound cards.

If you want to STREAM multi-media then you can run as many "servers" as your computer is capable of running comcurrently -- for example slingbox / squeezebox etc etc. The "target" devices will play the media for you without needing a computer Sound Card.

Streaming is IMO a better idea in any case as no wires etc needed -- all goes via Router and fast broadband. You don't even need the computer to be ON in some cases either.

The only use a computer sound card has IMO is to play audio on attached devices. For REMOTE devices you'll probably get better quality streaming it anyway - most computer speakers are usually horribly bassy boomy boxes.

The main problem with multiple audio sound cards is that you'll have to find some way of getting Windows to direct the audio streams to the correct sound card -- some decent mixers will do this - specifically if you play computer ganes but I'd save your money in this case.

I really don't think it's worth the candle but YMMV of course.

(For Telephone communications then maybe there is a point - but these days a USB connection will work fine - for example a "Skype" like USB phone).

Cheers
jimbo

In most cases you can only have one "default" device for any sound function. e,g, if you select one sound card for "playback" then you won't hear any "playback" on the other sound card (or Integrated Audio chip).

fireberd said:

In most cases you can only have one "default" device for any sound function. e,g, if you select one sound card for "playback" then you won't hear any "playback" on the other sound card (or Integrated Audio chip).

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And the only way around that is if the program(s) you are using have the option in them to select an audio device other than the Windows default (Winamp for example does). And even then there is no guarantee that it will work.

fireberd said:

In most cases you can only have one "default" device for any sound function. e,g, if you select one sound card for "playback" then you won't hear any "playback" on the other sound card (or Integrated Audio chip).

Click to expand...

I guess that depends on the software, most programs I use, (Sound Forge, Cubase, Winamp) all have driver setup panels that allow use of any audio device available to the system.

One of the main reasons for a separate audio card is sound, almost any third party audio hardware, whether pcie, pci, usb or firewire, sounds cleaner and more accurate than the $2 audio chip built into the MB.

Ap

Yea i really want it for my speakers. i hate that i have to turn my knob more than half way out to get the sound pumping, when i put it on my xonar and its a bit of the way up and its blaring along with better quality.

I guess I technically have 4 sound output devices:

Onboard VIA Vinyl VT1708B - rear speaker jack & front headphone jack
Chaintech AV-710 - main speaker jack & HQ Alt out speaker jack

VIA Vinyl can be linked output or separate, AV-710 are separate outputs. Also both have Mic & Linein inputs.

I have my main PC set up for recording and have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio recording interface BUT it is ONLY for Sonar, not for "regular" PC sound.

i guess im going to give it a shot, see how it runs for a while, if i start having any problems i know where to point 2