external sound card recommendations needed

[timeless]

l know its better to have internal sound cards, however due to the fact l swap and change between my laptop and PC l tend to opt for an external sound card since l have less messing about with speaker connections and less messing around and moving the PC to access the connections.

basically lm looking for a sound card that will give me settings to upmix the audio as it kinda seems my current creative soundblaster live 24bit external while compatible with CMSS doesnt have windows 7 support, so lm looking for an external sound card that supports windows 7 which will allow me to upmix because l have these 5.1s and much of my video content annoyingly only plays only through the front speakers even with ffdshow audio settings set to speaker fill regardless of if l use WMP or MPC-HC.

 

[fireberd]

The ASUS XONAR sound cards are popular, based on posts on this forum. Soundblaster's used to be the most popular sound cards but I see more and more other brands being used.

 

[timeless]

problem is lm not looking for something internal, but something l could change to the laptop when required.. something with the ability to upmix to my 5.1s

my current external card does have the ability to do it, but it seems the support for doesnt go past WinXP.. but one of the requirements (Creative Basic audio) which doesnt seem to support Win7, but it refuses to install so lm unable to use the CMSS feature and as of yet lve been unable to get ffdshow to extend audio to all my speakers and from what lm reading lav wont do it either.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Take a look at Behringer USB external sound cards.

I've used a UFO 202 model with success. About $35, the last I checked.

 

[timeless]

bit out of my price range or at least the one l found is at the moment due to the recent upgrade.. so wont have much spare for a little while.

the only one l found was: Soundbox Pro External USB Sound Card, 24 bit 192 KHz Audio, 7.1 Channels: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories


that said, l seem to have had some luck with ffdshow l think.. turns out the version of MP-HC that came bundled with CCCP was an x64 version, after downloading the 32bit version and finding the ffdshow codecs in there l decided to install the x64 ffdshow and it seems audio is coming out of all speakers now.. or at least l can feel the vibrations from the speaker which l couldnt before.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Behringer Interface, Usb/Audio, UFO202 UFO202: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories


This is half the price of the Soundbox you linked.

 

[fireberd]

I'm not a Behringer fan. They look great and have good spec's but generally poor software and support.

I'm a musician and also have a recording studio. Other than "economy" musicians or recording studios most will not have Behringer.

 

[Megahertz07]

Timeless, sorry to ask, but I'll like to learn something new.
Are you're looking for an interface (input, output or both?) to link the computer to an audio amplifier?
Does this hardware interface also comes with a management software?
As I haven't seen laptops with audio fiber connection, can't you use a HDMI (are they bidirectional?) to connect your computer to an amplifier?

 

[fireberd]

From his posts, I assume he is looking for a USB connected external sound "card" that he can use on both computers (plug it into whichever one he wants).

 

[timeless]

indeed, its as fireberd says, l wanted something that l could move between PC/Laptop, mainly because its so much easier to access speaker connections from the front than digging round the back of the PC..

this is what l currently use: Creative Worldwide Support >


however it seems the speaker fill option or CMSS as they like to call it hasnt been supported since WinXP.. tho there is some work around for vista the drivers will likely be very out dated not to mention one of the prerequisites was installing the Basic Audio suite which doesnt want to install on Win7.. that said l have somewhat achieved my aim in getting audio to fill my speakers using ffdshow tho l cant remember how l did it lol.. it just sorta started working after more playing in the settings tho it would be interesting to have a newer external sound card purely because mines so outdated.

 

[fireberd]

There appears to be several new SoundBlaster USB connected units. Just have to select one that meets your requirements and at your price range.

Sound Blaster - Creative Labs (United States)

 

[timeless]

been looking on the UK site, things really annoyingly have gone up quite a bit... l'll keep my eyes open to be honest and see how things go.

===
edit:

managed to find a brand new Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro on Ebay which is supposedly unopened very cheaply.. granted theres still 5 days left, but loose nothing if l dont get it.. seems to be compatible with Win7 in the sys requirements, however l shouldnt count my chickens before they hatch.