Sound Card upgrade
Q: What sound card upgrade do you recommend?
A: First, get an Auzentech sound card. Second, use the best Operation Amplifier you can.
If you're looking for an easy sound card upgrade, consider replacing your old internal sound card with an Auzentech X-Mystique sound card, X-Plosion sound card, or X-Purity sound card. These are "World First" PCI sound cards that support Dolby® Digital Live and DTS Connect™ surround sound systems. This sound card upgrade will provide a direct digital signal to your surround sound receiver, or analog output to your powered multi-channel speaker system.
If you are not familiar with Auzentech sound cards, please visit the sound card product pages on the Auzentech site. The rest of this article provides information about a popular sound card upgrade for the Auzentech X-Mystique and X-Plosion:
Replacing Your Operational Amplifier s(OPAMPs)
Note that if you drive an external receiver through the digital S/PDIF output, this sound card upgrade is not for you. But if you drive multi-channel speakers directly from the analog outputs of the Auzentech X-Mystique and X-Plosion sound cards, this upgrade can make the analog signal stronger and clearer. Recordings have greater detail and accuracy and expansion and separation will be improved in the soundstage.
For this sound card upgrade we recommend the Texas Instruments / Burr Brown OPA2134PA. You will need six in total to upgrade the OPAMPs on your X-Mystique or X-Plosion card. Visit DigiKey.com to purchase your OPAMPs.
The steps to upgrading your OPAMPs are listed below. Before getting started, take a moment to read the full instructions. You may need to take a trip to Radio Shack®—see step four.
- Power down your PC completely, unplug it, and open it.
- Ground yourself by touching the metal casing of the computer. This lets the static electricity to safely dissipate. You should also avoid placing the circuit board on an ungrounded surface during the sound card upgrade.
- Remove the sound card to upgrade from the computer, taking note of the direction of the six existing OPAMPs. Look for the small semi-circle at one end of the chip. The upper two chips face one way, the bottom four face another.
- Remove the old OPAMPs using a chip puller (available at Radio Shack®).
- Insert the replacement OPAMPs. Remember that they must face the same direction as the old chips.
- Reinstall the card, close the case, and restart the PC. You have finished the sound card upgrade.
We mentioned that this sound card upgrade is not for someone who uses the
Toslink S/PDIF optical connector to transfer the audio bit stream to a home theater system. The reason is that your home theater system acts as the Operational Amplifier. However, if you supply analog audio to high-quality powered multi-channel speakers, you can expect even more clarity with an OPAMP sound card upgrade.
Related Links
Category: Soundcards. Date published: May 22, 06
