Baslinux mailing list

["Anthony J. Albert" <albert AT polaris.umpi.maine.edu>]

On 26 Apr 2004 at 16:38, Hal MacArgle wrote:

>Greetings: Will annotate comment my two cents worth..
>
>
>On 04-26, Sindi Keesan wrote:
>> I stuck all my Creative sound cards into a computer one at a time and ran
>> a diagnostic program which lists IRQs.  I found seven of them which are
>> already set to a default IRQ5, 220, the one that can be jumpered to IRQs
>> 10, 11, 12 or 15, and four newer cards (half of which are Vibra) that are
>> IRQ2 which conflicts with Cascade.  Are these going to work only with
>> Windows and PnP?
>
>> Is there any advantage to using the newer Creative cards
>> (with numbers higher than 1740, such as in the 4000s)?  The older ones
>> don't require opening up the computer to switch from line out to speaker
>> out since they have either 4 holes or a volume dial.
>
>       I've had Creative SB16's bundled with drivers that didn't
>work. Had to hit the Web to find the correct one.. Had one card with
>a fourth jack that was for surround speakers only w/the proper s/w to
>use it.. Creative's colour coding has changed through the years too.
>
>> Are the older cards with large heat sinks likely to sound better when used 
>> with nonpowered speakers?  We have actually been plugging in not speakers 
>> but old boomboxes that have line in (and broken tape decks), and using the 
>> volume controls on those.  They sound better than our computer speakers.

Computer speakers these days, appear to be manufactured by the lowest 
bidder... who then skimped on components, and came in under bid.  
Anything else which is designed to output sound is sure to be better, 
in my opinion.

>       A heat sink means they actually are using a chip with some
>power output.. Some "power amps" are not heat sinked. Bad news if
>using non-amplified speakers.. Any "hi-fi" box usually better than
>any "pc" speaker setup except have one Altec-Lansing with a woofer
>that isn't bad.. Believe the newer, especially on board, sound _needs_
>amplified speakers.. Read some support 6 speaker surround.. 

I find that newer computers, especially ones with sound built-in to the 
motherboard, really need to have powered speakers, as the amplifiers on 
the board just really don't have the output power to drive unpowered 
speakers.

Anthony Albert
===========================================================
Anthony J. Albert                     albert AT umpi.maine.edu
Systems and Software Support Specialist          Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
        "This is only temporary, unless it works."
                        --- Red Green