About two weeks ago I ordered the Chaintech 7.1 Soundcard for the ridiculous low price of about $19 at BananaPC (it is out of stock now) to upgrade the stock soundcard in my 2002 Media Center PC. Ever since I’ve connected my HDTV TiVo to my Onkyo HT-R510 I’ve been enourmously impressed by the improvement in the sound quality going through a fiber optic cable vs. the old analog connection. So I figured buying a new soundcard for my MCE machine for a mere $19 that supported fiber optic out was a no brainer.
All I can say is wow — my mp3s have never sounded this good. The improvement in sound quality going through this card and the fiber optic connection to my Onkyo is amazing. Do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already upgraded your soundcard in your MCE machine to a card that supports a fiber optic connection to your receiver/amplifier go and do it now.
The upgrade was really simple. I just swapped out the old sound card, plugged in the new card, rebooted, had the new hardware wizard find the most current driver on the internet and I was in business.
I’m kicking myself for not having done this upgrade earlier. Thanks Gravaxis over at The Green Button for the tip on this card.