Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

Was easy to install and worked out of the box

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

I suppose this card is fine if you're upgrading from your PC speaker. Using it in any kind of gaming simply crashes my PC.
When I obtained the latest drivers, it simply stopped putting out sound and had to do a Win XP "repair".. or re-install because their "latest drivers" messed up my Windows files and I couldn't get EITHER card to work anymore!!!!

I was looking for an alternative to my Sound Blaster card which only emits annoying static.
This is NOT the audio card to fix that if it can't handle a single game.

This card eliminated the Snap-Crackle-Pops from my Sound Blaster but it doesn't have the gonads to handle anything of any real significance.

My problem with Sound Blaster is, they KNOW there are static problems but they just WON'T find a fix and I'm tired of giving them my money.

Don't waste your money. The Diamond Extreme Sound 7.1 is a diaper load.

I'll be returning the Diamond card tomorrow.
Problem is, there aren't very many options.
I've had good luck with Diamond video cards in the past. Maybe they should have stayed out of the audio market. Their products simply don't work and I won't even consider buying an audio card from them ever again.

Very disappointed.

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

Not worthwile

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

I have had two motherboards with Realtek
onboard sound, and I was unable to get
5.1 surround out of the S/PDIF no matter
what I did, I did a few times get sound
out, but it was garbled, but 2 channel
sound worked perfect, so I wanted to
upgrade the sound, this sound card
works well with DVDs, games and other
sources but it will not encode Dolby
Digital Live, only output Dolby
Digital, like from DVDs.

The sound quality is better than what
onboard sound was like, but its also
just a tad different in tones and range,
99% will never notice that

Pros:

(1) It will do surround out of the
S/PDIF, that's how I have mine set up,
but only if your playing a movie, game
or sound file that's outputting surround.

(2) Its Cheap.

(3) It sounds better than onboard sound.

(4) Easy setup, download the drivers
from the website.

(5) 7.1 virtual speaker shifter WORKS,
its kinda a fake surround, but its using
all my speakers on my 5.1 surround amp,
and sounds pretty good - it can make
some things sound like there is a
slight echo, but it can be adjusted
to your liking, or turned off

Cons:

(1) No Dolby Digital Live encoder, but
it will output Dolby Digital from DVDs
and such that have Dolby Digital on them

(2) Sound could be better, but its not
worth it to me to pay $100 or more for
a better sound card when it would be
such a small difference between them

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

A good, solid card with great sound, compared to on-board sound.

Comments about Diamond Multimedia Diamond XtremeSound 7.1/24 bit Sound Card:

I needed a great card that fit the limitations of my Dell Dimension 4700. The only bug was figuring out how to kill the driver for the built-in card. Once I did that, the drivers for the new card loaded effortlessly.