I have an M-Audio Revolution 5.1.

I've been fighting with it for months now trying to get my audio so sound the way I want it. What sounds good one day after 30 minutes of fighting, proves to sound like crap the next day. Everything is bass heavy, with no real way to equalize it out. The audio preset modes it has that SHOULD output true 5.1, seem to only do it when it wants to. The drivers like to ignore the Windows Volume control, meaning any volume changes I want to make? I have to open up their control panel to do.

This card sounded perfect when I bought it. I hate it now. When it sounds good, it sounds beautiful. But it's not worth the endless frustration to attempt to make it sound good all the time anymore. I've had it. This isn't a question of drivers. I've reinstalled theirs twice. I tried an updated driver set only to find some of my problems were even worse.

So here's what it comes down to... Either there's a user generated set of drivers out there for this card I can try, or I buy a new one.

I've done some looking at cards on NewEgg, but everything Creative makes seems to have people split between weather it's a 5 or a 1, making me wary of buying any of them. This is despite the fact my last card was an Audigy ES 5.1, and it was perfect. That card has already moved on to another owner, so putting it back in isn't an option.

Any input from the audio and hardware junkies?

This is primarily for gaming or music?

what he said...

for gaming creative is pretty much the standard... the mixed reviews i bet are driver related.... with the xfi the xp drivers work, the vista drivers i've heard still need to be sorted out... and linux drivers... nightmare

Music more than gaming. Unless you consider routing my 360s audio through the card gaming. I forget how much I paid for the Revolution now, it's listed on NewEgg for nearly 80 bucks though. I'd prefer to pay about half that for a new card.

Hahaha.

Good luck.

I paid 42 bucks for my Audigy. Don't tell me it's impossible. I also said "prefer" as in, "I'd like it, but I'll pay more". 40 bucks isn't my cut off, it's my perfect world price. I just want a soundcard that doesn't suck and have me playing with it's preferences every time I sit down at the computer.

Audigy's, compared to any decent M-Audio card, are ****. And they're still priced at 30-ish dollars.

Soundcard prices don't drop.

That's why I said "good luck"

Your best bet would be to check out what Turtle Beach has on the market. Don't know if they still have any decent budget cards out but they used to be the kingpins of them.