Customer Reviews

SIIG SoundWave 7.1 PCI - sound card ( IC-710012 )

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I originally bought a Creative Soundblaster "5.1" sound card. Unfortunatly, it did not play in 5.1 sound nor would they even help me because the card was bought a year ago! (That's another story. Creative sucks.) What I wanted was a sound card that I could connect to my 5.1 receiver through the digital in/out rca connection. Most other cards that had a digital out feature costs twice as much, so I was a bit skeptical of the SIIG. It works perfectly. I play my dvds through my computer and they sound amazing, better than my old stand alone dvd player. Plus, my mp3s and flacs sound incredible. True 5.1 24 bit 96k sound. Plus, it does have some nice features with sound field adjustments and equalization. I highly recommend this card.

I inherited my Dell minitower (running Windows XP Pro) from my old job after the company closed earlier this year, and while most of the hardware is top-notch (as the assistant IT director at the time, I spec'd it, and got as much as I could with my budget), one of the things that annoyed me was the very featureless onboard audio. It was so "plain" that it only had tone control... not even bass and treble.

So I was scouting some sound cards for when I had the time to install it. I was considering several brands... while I have had experience with Sound Blasters, they are not as adjustable as they could be unless you buy a really high-end model. Then I stumbled across this SIIG card. After some research, it looked like what I wanted... robust, adjustable, and inexpensive. Dell actually offers it as a recommended upgrade for my model of computer.

I purchased it and installed it in about 5 minutes - snapped right in to the PCI slot. The Dell manual said to simply disable the onboard from the BIOS and install the drivers/Xear 3D software from the CD. Could not have been simpler. After the drivers went in, it asked for a reboot.

What a difference.

Instead of that "tone knob", I now have a 10-band equalizer, and my mp3s sound amazing. The separation (even in headphones) is excellent, and the card allows beautifully clean recordings from all sources, even from streaming audio. All my various sound/media software picked it right up with no changes needed. Hopefully SIIG will keep up with the drivers on this, as my next PC (2010) will likely have Windows 7 and/or Linux and I would love to just swap this card into that new unit.

If you're looking for a great quality sound card without all the bells and whistles that gamers and audiophiles want - but yet still capable of 7.1 surround if you wish, and at a VERY reasonable price, definitely give this card a try!

Update: Feb 8 2011 - I was able to successfully install this card in my Windows 7 64-bit computer. Two keys... the cabling for the front jacks didn't work in this card (no biggie), and the drivers on the SIIG website are not up to date. You'll need to get the Windows 7 compatible drivers by doing an internet search on "c-media driver 8.17.40". If you install the driver at the SIIG site (which is 8.17.30), it will cause the computer to max the RAM load every time you open the control panel.

Is it my fault? Maybe. But I choose to blame Microsoft for deploying both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista that each require a different driver for identical pieces of hardware. This is one such piece of hardware. And the only Vista driver offered is not compatible with the 64-bit version.

The card arrived quickly, at least...

Great card once i found the right drivers. Driver on disc didn't work for me. Had to go to C-Media.com to get the 8768+ driver. Before that the coax would work. Kept making my pc restart when i tried playing something in Dolby Digital. Now everything is great and definitely easy to use. Good buy for movies and music.

I purchased this card specifically so I could use its coaxial S/PDIF connection to output DVD surround sound to my receiver. Everything worked well until I attempted to play a DVD using the S/PDIF output. My computer would blue screen of death as soon as anything but PCM stereo went out. It appears that a fine piece of hardware was soiled by a poor driver.

Since I don't have an analog surround input in my receiver I'm unable to speak for the quality of the analog surround outputs. However, the software interface for setting up and testing the output was very easy to use.

Running an older single processor raid system, so needed hardware with last generation software support. This card was easy to install, easy to configure and worked as expected with the installation CD drivers. This replaced an older SoundBlaster external USB that required a separate power supply. The power supply failed and SoundBlaster wanted as much to replace just that power supply as this 7.1 capable sound card cost. This sure beats the socks off anything Creative is now offering on anything near this price. It comes with a great surround sound testing setup and has excellent game response, unlike those "value" cards that slow your games by hogging any available memory.

The product box as well as Siig's website claims Windows 7 compatibility, but there are no drivers for it.

I have a brand new desktop computer w/ Windows 7 and it didn't work. Customer service is worse than non-existent. They give you a run around in a way that just wastes your time.

I can't believe the price on this little jewel. It sounds
fantastic! I am not a gamer or anything, so I don't no
all those technical terms, but this card rocks. It beats
anything on my three media center computers. I really love
the seperation, and the fact that theres two pdif connectors.
It even sounds great on movies. Some of the gamers might not like
it because they are willing to spend over a hundred dollars+
for a sound card, but for the price, I really like this card.

Superb card of sound. By this low cost, we obtain a superb quality. As good as some much more expensive