Replacing a dead sound card

[nightmorph]

It finally happened. My Chaintech AV-710 seems to have bit the dust after our move. I originally bought it 3+ years ago after making some inquiries here on the TR forums and elsewhere. It's served me in good stead, providing very warm, rich sound for music playback.

Alas, the analog 2-channel jack is toast. Musta gotten banged up during the move. I can't get any audio to come out of it, not in Gentoo and not in any Linux LiveCD that I've tried, which makes me think it's a hardware issue, and not a software configuration issue.

Since the card's effectively dead, I need a replacement! Something suitable for 2.1 channel music and movie playback. Very little gaming, so I don't need hardware audio acceleration, or weird EAX/DDL/l33t-features. I just need smooth, beautiful music playback for my 2.1 speaker setup at a reasonable price. Must have good Linux support, which means no Creative cards. 'Specially no overpriced underperforming X-Fi crap. PCI or PCIe is okay; I have free slots for either. Oh yes, it must have front panel pins so's I can plug in headphones.

My Chaintech card has a very nice VIA Envy 24HT-S chip, but this and its derivative chipsets seem to be in short supply these days. What are some other nice chipsets for music? I've heard good things about C-Media chipsets, like the value line of CMI8768/8738 chips. And especially the Oxygen chips, CMI878x, though cards based on these seem to sell for at least $100 to $150 or more. Sheesh.

B-Envi's B-Enspirer seems to get good reviews, though at $90, it seems a tad steep for such an old piece of gear.

So, diligent TR gerbils, what are your recommendations for good audio chipsets and cards? New, used, whichever. Under $60 is my goal, ideally $15 - $30, maybe $50.

[FireGryphon]

Unless you can find a really great sale somewhere, the best card for music at that price range is a Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio card.

[Captain Ned]

If you don't need Vista or Win 7 support, find a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz on E-Bay. Kernel-level Linux support since kernel 2.4. There's one on EBay now for $10.99.

[FireGryphon]

Ah, the Santa Cruz... What an AWESOME sound card. I gave mine away to a friend, stupidly.

[Captain Ned]

Ah, the Santa Cruz... What an AWESOME sound card. I gave mine away to a friend, stupidly.

Mine has only a couple weeks to live, as Win 7 is on its way.

[nightmorph]

Unless you can find a really great sale somewhere, the best card for music at that price range is a Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio card.

Are you kidding me? Re-read the original post. X-Fi is not allowed. Play it again, Sam.

find a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Finally, a concrete recommendation! Thanks.

I haven't found any comparisons to Envy24-based cards on the interwebs yet, nor to anything more recent. I can't even find a comparison to other Turtle Beach products, so what in particular makes you recommend this card? The ALSA matrix says it has a Cirrus Logic 4630 chip, but Google doesn't show many (any?) other cards with this chip.

[Captain Ned]

I haven't found any comparisons to Envy24-based cards on the interwebs yet, nor to anything more recent. I can't even find a comparison to other Turtle Beach products, so what in particular makes you recommend this card? The ALSA matrix says it has a Cirrus Logic 4630 chip, but Google doesn't show many (any?) other cards with this chip.

Music. She just makes music sound good. She does just fine with 5.1 movie soundtracks as well. No gimmicks, decent engineering, and absolute rock stability. Mine is about 7 years old and hasn't hiccuped once.

[nightmorph]

I haven't found any comparisons to Envy24-based cards on the interwebs yet, nor to anything more recent. I can't even find a comparison to other Turtle Beach products, so what in particular makes you recommend this card? The ALSA matrix says it has a Cirrus Logic 4630 chip, but Google doesn't show many (any?) other cards with this chip.

Music. She just makes music sound good. She does just fine with 5.1 movie soundtracks as well. No gimmicks, decent engineering, and absolute rock stability. Mine is about 7 years old and hasn't hiccuped once.

You've convinced me. I'm plunkin' down bids for the cheap ones on eBay. Seems better than every other $10 card I've seen, like the cheapies from StarTech and Sabrent.

[Zoomastigophora]

This might be a little late, but if you're set on getting another Via Envy24HT card, there's the Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 for $90.