Chaintech AV-710 7.1 Sound Card Review

[Rob Williams]

Are you looking for a quality sound experience at a great price? We are looking at Chaintech's AV-710 card, which is based on the proven Envy24 chipset. Does it have what it takes to compete with the big boys? Let's check it out.



After you have read the review here, feel free to leave a comment in this thread! Suggestions and general comments are welcomed.

The review says that the AV-710 costs "more than half" what the Audigy 2ZS does, but $24 is "less than half" of the popular Creative card.

the Chaintech AV-710 is quite popular among music listeners, such as on www.head-fi.org

make sure you use the newest drivers on via website. for envy24

ive owned this card for about a year. ive never had a sound,driver, or hardware issue once.

it has no hardware accel for games. so youll take a hit on fps. but a little less then most onboard sound.

-make sure you put the sound into hisample 2channel rate when your not using your microphone.

-other then that for 24$ i couldnt be happier. i havent bought a creative card since audigy 1. i really dont miss creatives bulky software and glitchy drivers.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The review says that the AV-710 costs "more than half" what the Audigy 2ZS does, but $24 is "less than half" of the popular Creative card.

the Chaintech AV-710 is quite popular among music listeners, such as on www.head-fi.org

Doh, how did I miss that. Thanks, and fixed up!

I am using the latest drivers, and they seem to work great. I haven't seen a hit in FPS yet. You said it though, for the price, it's awesome.

As posted by others, I moved away from Creative labs because of there ridiculous software bundles, and as well the problems that at least I had with Via chipsets - my audigy snapped crackled and popped like a bowl of rice krispies.

I run an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 which is based on the same chipset, and dont even consider Creative Labs when building systems.

[Rob Williams]

Yes.. crackling is not something I'd want either. With my other card, the Philips PSC724, based on the Envy24GT chipset, I'd get worse problems than that even.

It would sometimes jolt the volume to max, even when my speakers were turned all the way down. I know it's not the speakers, because I've used many other sound cards with them, and never had a problem.

It's not good at night, when the families sleeping, and your sound goes max without warning ^^

I heard that the AV710 is so cheap mainly because they don't use very good components on the rear and surround channels compared to the front. That would seem to fit with your review that the music was excellent but the card was only OK in games.

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...255#post848255

The Head-Fi review that will help a lot of people decide to get an AV-710 for stereo music listening, the Wolfson WM8728 DAC is a great sounding DAC at this price, $25 or so.

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75655

How to setup the AV-710 for best sound quality. Rob, can you retest the AV-710 with this setup? I'm sure you'll be pleased even more with it.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Rob, can you retest the AV-710 with this setup? I'm sure you'll be pleased even more with it.

Thanks, you kick ass. Sadly, even on the CD-Rom with it, I could not get that Audio program.. which sucked. I didn't feel like installing all the Intervideo software to see if that was included.

I will look further for that software tomorrow and will review that thread. Thanks a ton!

Audio program? You mean foobar2000?

http://www.foobar2000.org/foobar2000_0.8.3_special.exe

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Audio program? You mean foobar2000?

http://www.foobar2000.org/foobar2000_0.8.3_special.exe

Naw, I have Foobar, it's great. I mean the VIA Vinyl Audio program. I see it in all other AV-710 reviews, but I have no idea where they got it, hehe. I installed the card and it didn't install that software, so I have no idea.

It's the VIA Drivers control panel, you access it from the icon in your Systray, surely you have noticed the VIA control panel icon in the Systray?

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's the VIA Drivers control panel, you access it from the icon in your Systray, surely you have noticed the VIA control panel icon in the Systray?

No, that's what I mean, it's not there. I installed the drivers fine, even new ones I downloaded, and it didn't seem to install that.

I bought this card awhile back, I paid CAD $36.00, I have the creative 5500 Digital set of speakers and man do I get my walls shake with half the volume, the digital output of this card is so clean, as far as Software I have tested all kinds of players even the expensive ones, and nothing sounds like the Plus version of JetAudio, foobar is Ok except that the interface is cheese, JetAudio is very nice looking too and so far I have not found anything that sounds better!

I bought this card awhile back, I paid CAD $36.00, I have the creative 5500 Digital set of speakers and man do I get my walls shake with half the volume, the digital output of this card is so clean, as far as Software I have tested all kinds of players even the expensive ones, and nothing sounds like the Plus version of JetAudio, foobar is Ok except that the interface is cheese, JetAudio is very nice looking too and so far I have not found anything that sounds better!
**sorry ** forgot to add that the envy chip also has drivers for windows X64 and the control panel for the vinyl configuration looks better then the regular windows one