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What To Look For
Recommendations

Already know what Sound Cards & Speakers are and what to look for? Then skip to the Recommendations. 

What To Look For:

• In Sound Cards, there are several things you need to look for. One thing to look for is the number and type of input and output connections.  If you plan to do professional audio editing, you'll probably need more than just the standard stereo out, headphone out, and microphone in connections.
  Also look at the number of speakers supported. If you want 3D audio for games, you need support for a 4.1 speaker system.  If you plan to watch DVDs, you need support for 5.1, 6.1, or perhaps 7.1 speaker systems (7.1 is the same as 6.1 except that the rear center channel is split into two speakers both carrying the exact same audio).
  You want to make sure the most recent implementations of 3D audio extensions are supported, such as EAX - Environmental Audio eXtensions).
  Other things to look for are how many audio simulatneous audio streams are supported, how much memory it has, how many "voices" it supports, whether Dolby Digital 5.1 / EX (6.1) decoding is supported, the recording quality (24 bit, 96 kHz is great), the output quality (24 bit, 192 kHz is great), etc. 
• In Speakers, look for brand name reputability.  Good brands to consider are Klipsch, Logitech, and Altec-Lansing, not to mention some good sets from VideoLogic and S4 MidiLand. Creative Labs' Cambridge Soundworks speakers are poor speakers for the price.
  Look for the number of speakers included.  4 speaker sets plus a subwoofer (4.1) are great for gaming.  5.1 speaker sets (adds a center channel) are excellent for listening to DVD movies with and also good for gaming.  2 speaker sets or 2.1 speaker sets are good if you only listen to music and don't want to be surrounded by the audio.
  Also look for the amount of Watts of power that the speakers are rated at, but this can be very misleading as some companies misrepresent this figure.  If it says something over 40 Watts and it's dirt cheap, then it's probably not true. However, many are rated at about 20 Watts, which is quite good.  Anything that claims to be higher than 100 Watts is probably junk. 

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