Diamond XtremeSound 7 1/24 bit Sound Card with Dolby Digital Live XS71DDL on shop
Band : Diamond
Model : XS71DDL
Product Features :
- 24bit/96khz playback
- 8 channel audio output
- Easy connection to home audio equipment
- Dolby Digital Live
- 50 Free MP3 downloads from emusic
>> Works exactly as advertised Windows 7 x64 working
I bought this card about 2 months ago to get 5 1 audio from my computer to my entertainment system which only has a Toslink Optical input port so I got this and hooked it up to my system with a 25 ft optical cable When I installed it into my Windows 7 x64 machine it was recognized with no problems because I had another PCI card installed with the same chipset manufacturer but different version
As stated on previous reviews the CD on the box comes with practically no drivers for newer machines so I previously did a little research to find out if the chipset manufacturer had any driver for it and the answer was positive Beta drivers so try at your own risk
After I updated the drivers and rebooted the PC It only took me a few minutes to figure out where to find the settings so I could output the sound not by the Analog plugs but the Digital Optical Output So far even when is attached with a really long cable the Audio Quality for 5 1 movies is just great
I would rate it 5 starts if it didn t require external beta drivers to work but if you are willing to do a little research do not hesitate on getting one of these for Vista or 7 x32 or x64 Really happy with the product
>> Poor software
Purchased this card to use the SPDIF In Connected PS3 optical out and only was able to get stereo 2 channels Dolby Digital 5 1 and DTS 5 1 are not supported You can use this card for gaming video etc I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum 2 and its much better in all aspects Good support drivers for all systems The Diamond only has drivers for Windows XP Vista The software its ok Windows 7 will find a beta driver for it but still limited functionality hard to make things work using the software I will give this card 3 stars For the price is ok For home theater I think there are cards better then this As I said before Sound Blaster is much better or HT OMEGA Since it did not worked for me I returned it back Hope this helps to someone
>> DDL on the cheap
I wanted to spend as little as possible for SPDIF 5 1 from games specifically Crysis and this board was just the ticket But being too smart for my own good I tried to install it with the drivers from the Diamond website and I got nothing at all out of the SPDIF I thought I had a bad optical cable I should have let Vista 32 bit Home Premium have its head from the start I then downloaded the right driver from C Media the maker of the chip and voila DDL surround sound pass through of DD and only one cable to add to the spaghetti behind my machine Be aware that in order to get DDL to work you have to set Windows Sound to Speakers and not Digital
