-=> Mark Hofmann wrote to All <=-

 MH> Maybe I'm an audio snob.  Actually, I probably am.  Anyway, I have
 MH> always hated the integrated audio in motherboards.  I have owned Sound
 MH> Blaster cards since the beginning of time.  The one I have used for
 MH> many years now is the Sound Blaster Audigy FX (PCIe).

I hadn't heard the name "Sound Blaster" since the 90s, when I worked at a 
gaming/screen saver company. Think of Flying Toasters.

I was the telecom guy and Netware guy. I was friends with a QA guy and one 
of the sound engineers. We didn't like the QA lab manager, and he didn't 
like us.

He would build PCs for the QA lab and for QA testers, and had his stash of 
install disks.

My QA friend "borrowed" the disk, and my sound engineer modified the test 
sounds to sound like:

"perperperperperforming irqqqqqqqqq tesssssssssssst"

Then, quietly replace the install disks, and wait for the fireworks.

And, they did, after he'd spent 20 minutes tweaking IRQs and ports on one 
card, assumed the card was bad and installed another one...





 MH> That card works great.  It has great sound quality and an amp of some
 MH> sort since it boosts the sound level a huge amount.

 MH> Fast forward to a week ago when I bought another video card (MSI 2060
 MH> Super Gaming).  Video cards like that block access to other slots on
 MH> the motherboard.  I had no place to install my SB card, so I bought a
 MH> USB Sound Blaster X3.  The sound is close the the same quality of the
 MH> FX - but it is buggy as hell.  Just like what has happened to Cisco,
 MH> Microsoft, etc, the modern day products are released way before they
 MH> are ready and just don't work right.  I'm sure it is a software bug of
 MH> some type, but after two years they still have not fixed the audio drop
 MH> outs.  I am taking the damn thing back to Microcenter this weekend.

 MH> Anyway, I ordered a PCIe riser card that supports up to 4 risers,
 MH> bought 2 riser cards and will move my other video card outside the PC
 MH> to the top of the case like my other one.  That will free up the space
 MH> I need to re-install my SB Audigy FX.

 MH> Far more difficult than it should have been, but it seems more and more
 MH> that new stuff is worse than the old stuff.

 MH> - Mark

 MH> --- WWIVToss v.1.52
 MH>  * Origin:  http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA
 MH> (618:100/12.0)

... Simply a matter of work
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