HDA Mystique Dolby Digital Encoding Card Info

I wonder if anyone can plug it in and compare the quality to the soundstorm on the nforce2. I wonder if the compression is any better or worse. I mean, theres different types of jpeg compression, and some are more harsher than others in terms of quality in the end product.
 
bluegears lists pcalchemy as one of their resellers. Its not up on their site yet but I'd definately feel more comfortable buying from them then these other places.
 
clarkkent333 said:
bluegears lists pcalchemy as one of their resellers. Its not up on their site yet but I'd definately feel more comfortable buying from them then these other places.
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I noticed that too.. Hopefully they are a little cheaper since pcalchemy usually has pretty competitive pricing. And since they cater to HTPCs.. I wonder if they will have the accessories. particularly the addin board. Anyone know if you will be able to buy the addin board seperately and how much about's is it going to be?
 
WOW I have never seen a distributer get so much attn. some ppl are talking as is if were actually made by them.. it's strange
 
has anyone received their's yet?

mine was attempted delivery today but i wasn't home (they are delivering again tomorrow)..
 
what makes this different than the digital output on my m-audio revolution which goes to an HK AVR430 receiver? I don't understand.
 
StopTheCommotion said:
what makes this different than the digital output on my m-audio revolution which goes to an HK AVR430 receiver? I don't understand.
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The digital output on the other cards only route digital from digital sources such as DVDs. The HDA Mystique takes all sound sources and converts them to Dolby Digtial 7.1 on the fly.
 
well my initial impressions of it playing SWG last night where very good.. i have to play with it more but i am so far liking it over my audigy2..
 
I understand the fuss about it's DD capabilities, but what about the analog? I don't have digital speakers, but I'm looking for alternatives from my audigy (lets not get into why), and additionally I want to be well versed on what the market has to offer.

Getting to the point: How does the analog quality of this card compare with Audigy(2,ZS), Revo, etc?

I've already read the nvnews review, I'm looking for [H] experiences I can rely on ;)
 
i guess i could transfer the 3 analogue outputs on my audigy2 to try it..


on another note.. looks the the daughter board is going through FCC certification now.. so hopefully that won't take long..

just from what i have heard when playing with the mystique i feel like the 5 channels are much more discrete then with my audigy 2..
 
FCC cert? Hell, I've been running the I/O doughter card for months. :p

Never did try an analog comparison of my Mystique and Audigy2, but that was only because I really didn't need them as I am going through a Sony receiver to get to my NHTs. :D
 
I ran some benchmarks using TRAOD v49

First set is at 640x480@16bpp PS off

NoSound:333fps

Mystique
DDLoff: 177fps
DDLon: 166fps

[email protected]: 171fps
[email protected]: 167fps

Audigy2
EAX2: 195fps
EAX4: 192fps

Next Set is 1280x1024@32bpp PS2.0 defaults

NoSound: 146fps

Mystique
DDLon: 107fps

[email protected]: 109fps

Audigy2
EAX2: 128fps


and finally 1280x1024@32bpp PS2.0 and 8XS AA/16AF/HQ (16XAA failed to run)

NoSound: 106fps

Mystique
DDLon: 100fps

[email protected]: 101fps

Audigy2
EAX2: 105fps

From these results it is clear that DDL comes at a price, The Audigy2 is clearly the performance leader, which is no suprise since the Audigy2 was made by those that made EAX (Creative).. but on the other hand, the feature that you gain from the DDL IMHO is worth it..

i think too many times we get sucked into performance numbers and not enough into the sound quality (lets face it, PC sound innovations are sevierly lagging behind the rest of the PC tech)..

just some info about my system

evga 6800GT SLI @ stock speeds
AMD64 3500+
A8N-SLI
1.4Gb DDR400

all 3 sound cards + latest drivers are running along side each other, for this test i didn't remove cards... performance may increase with only 1 soundcard installed (although i don't really see it changing that much)..
 
thanks for the comparison! It looks like the biggest hits are on 640x480.. but not many people play games at that rez tho... I don't think the difference will be that noticeable tho with DDL compared to what you get out of it. Time to dump the Audigy2 for me.

What the heck is wrong with Creative? How long are they going to keep on rehashing the same soundcard over and over? I even noticed they have an Audigy2 ZS video producer version?! I also hate how they waaaaayyyyy overcharge for their soundcards. DDL is the single biggest thing to happen to consumer soundcards since moving away from synthesized sound... but they seem to be dropping the ball here. Thank GOD there is some competition. Competition always forces innovation. (or copycats. ;) )
 
just not haveing to deal with creative shitty ass drivers is well worth it.
 
How's the HDA driver set so far? I know anything is better than creative but I'd still like to know how it looks.
 
Hey you guys bashing Creative drivers do know that EMU is owned by Creative right? EMU has some of the best and easiest to work with sound card drivers I've ever used. But yeah, Sound Blaster drivers do suck. I HATE the fact that they install AOL icons on your desktop and IE bookmarks.
You need to start saying "Audigy drivers suck!" :p

I would really like to see how this HDA card ranks in audiophile-level sound quality.
 
They're the chips in the sockets. If someone could take a clear picture of one or post what they say (including a description of the logo if you can't identify what company it is), then I could tell you guys if they're any good and suggest drop-in replacements.
 
No clear pictures to be had here (I tried), my brother mas my macro lens... but anyway, the card I have has no logo on the chips. They are all marked simply:

54580P
4136

Hope this helps.
 
saturnine2 said:
Hey you guys bashing Creative drivers do know that EMU is owned by Creative right? EMU has some of the best and easiest to work with sound card drivers I've ever used. But yeah, Sound Blaster drivers do suck. I HATE the fact that they install AOL icons on your desktop and IE bookmarks.
You need to start saying "Audigy drivers suck!" :p

I would really like to see how this HDA card ranks in audiophile-level sound quality.
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they have sucked since day one, on all there cards.. If you can even get them. For the longest time all they had on there site was updates form there CD driver set. So if you lost your CD you had to go 3rd party to get some working driver, jsut to get there updates to run.
 
I had no luck looking it up, I found a couple of matches on the numbers but they were 16 pin matches so that's not right. Unless someone can find more info on them, they'd have to be tested. canislupy, where in MA are you? ;)
 
Yeah, these are 6 pins if my memory serves. I'm up in Westminster. Wachusett MT/Beer country. :D
 
the back of the box said:
Swappable dual DIP type OPAMP controlled preamp circuits
Adopt large capacity positive/negative regulators and 6pcs of dual DIP type OPAMP controlled preamp output circuits and 2pcs of dual DIP type OPAMP controlled preamp input circuits on board provides increased gain and improvement of SNR quality. Users can change existing OPAMP to superior performance in high quality dual type DIP 8pin OPAMP such as OPA2134PA, OPA2604AP, etc.
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|---[1][2]-----------------
|----------------------[3]--
|----[4]--------------------
|----------------------[5]--
|----[6]--------------------
|
^
PCI bracket

1 & 2 = Mic in
3 = Fronts
4 = Rear = Side Surround
5 = Rear Center = Back Surround
6 = Center/Subwoofer
 
to just show how ignorant i am on this subject..

do the Opamps matter if the output is via the DDL router?

in other words do opamps only effect the analogue outputs?
 
Op amps are generally analog only. They technically can be used for digital but they'd need an extremely high slew rate. Digital outputs should have line drivers meant specifically for that.

OK, so I can drop in my OPA2134s... great. I've got some sitting on the shelf. Of course, I'm just barely getting enough money to upgrade my CPU/mobo/video, then will come RAM, THEN maybe a sound card... but helps to know what my options are.
 
dandragonrage said:
Op amps are generally analog only. They technically can be used for digital but they'd need an extremely high slew rate. Digital outputs should have line drivers meant specifically for that.
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I don't think that's what he's talking about - The nvnews review mentions that when you switch to ddl output mode it turns off the analog outputs, which they took to imply that the analog signal gets turned back into digital before being dolby-ized. That seems like a silly way to do it, if indeed that's how it goes. I would agree that opamps shouldn't be used on digital signals, and I would hope that they didn't put them into the DDL signal chain. Straight digital all the way would make more sense for this.
 
So we had one response, how is everyone doing with their cards? Im waiting on some more reviews before I plunk down $100 on this thing.
 
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