[LAU] How much does my new SB Extigy suck and why?

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo,
Arnold Krille hat gesagt: // Arnold Krille wrote:

> Most (all?) internal soundcards don't pick up the acoustic sound of
> the fans but the electric noise of fan, disks (cd/dvd included),
> mouse, key, everything that send digital data through a poor
> shielded or unshielded cable inside the computer. That is what you
> hear if the soundcard doesn't provide enough shielding itself. And
> sometimes (read on some soundcards) you can even hear the power
> fluctuating when fans/processors/disks need more/less power.
> 
> That is the added effect why I think external soundcards (with
> external power?) are better then internal ones.

I've *never* had this problem with my M-Audio Audiophile, and I have
loud good speakers and headphones so I'm sure I would have heard it. 

(Semi-pro) PCI-soundcards generally are free from intercepting
electrical noise. Otherwise you'd have to close down most sound
studios and our radio station: there are PCI cards all over, but not a
single USB card in sight. 

Of course one thing that's strictly forbidden would be to run a cable
from the CD/DVD drive to the soundcard as this acts as an antenna to
pick up noise. But only "consumer cards" even have a connector for
this junk, most internal semi-pro soundcards starting at around 70
Euro like the Terratec Phase22, M-Audio Audiophile, ESI etc.  don't
and they are shielded well enough to not pick up noise.

Onboard cards are a different story: For laptops I've yet to find a
machine that wouldn't need an external USB/FW-box.

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__