Do macs have soundcards???

[aethier]

I was just wandering if any of you people new whether or not macs have soundcards. i was always under the impression that they dont because unlike pc games mac game boxes on the system requirements its not writen for example: soundblaster audigy....

also you never here steve jobs talking about what soundcard the new macs have when he relieses them at the macWorlds.

At that point i started to think Humm... maybe Macs have something built into the OS or w/e.

That was untill i saw on the pictures of MWSF 03... the showed off M-AUDIO's new soundcard for the mac that supports dolby 7.1... so can anyone clear that up for me???

PS: Were does the 7th speaker go in a 7.1 set up??/
i know 6.1 is three forward and three back and a subwoofer, but wouldnt the extra speaker of 7.1 through of the balance of sound or something...?

 

[D0ct0rteeth]

Yes. They have soundcards.

7.1 is made up of

1 subwoofer
2 front channels
2 Side channels
2 rear channels
1 center channel

Hope this helps.

-Doc

 

[Rower_CPU]

Actually, they ship using the built-in audio capabilities on the motherboard. You can then purchase a sound card if you want better performance/features, etc.

 

[FattyMembrane]

most sound cards are just pci cards like anything else. contrary to popular belief, we mac users don't live in a world devoid of such amazing media capabilities as audio and video

 

[eyeluvmyimac]

Originally posted by D0ct0rteeth
Yes. They have soundcards.

7.1 is made up of

1 subwoofer
2 front channels
2 Side channels
2 rear channels
1 center channel

Hope this helps.

-Doc

for anyone confused, when adding that up it adds up to eight, but the subwoofer counts as the .1.

That's why you always hear 5.1, 7.1 and get this, 8.1 nuts. That would be very nice. Personally I'll stil with my Bose 5.1 I love it. But did anyone hear about the Maybach (car) made by Daimler Chrysler?!?! It has a TWENTY-ONE SPEAKER BOSE SYSTEM with 2 flat panel DVD screens, the back seats recline like lazy-boys, etc etc. It's ridiculous!

 

[aethier]

thanks

Well i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who replied to my question.
YOu all cleared things up for me


-aethier

 

[cr2sh]

s...ou....n.....d....c..ar....d....? what's a s...ou..n...d...c..ar.d..?
we have modems.... but i'm not familiar with this "sound card" thing.

Maybe he means ethernet adapter..?

 

[Lz0]

Like many other things about mac'x we've had it for so long we forget what a s...ou....n.....d....c..ar....d....? IS!

 

[benixau]

cause we dont get them. all macs have sound on board.

like a lot of pcs these days. we can add them, we can do all the things pc people can, but our sound is always, has always, will always be on board when we buy a mac.

 

[mymemory]

Macs comes with sound cards in it, they are not a card actually, it is a chip that process the oudio thru the speakers out put.
Of course, the term "audio card" comes from the times when the PC's didn't bring anything in it while the Macs did.

All explanations are right. Usually games made for mac comes with a different version with samples in them. The recomend Audi Cards for PC's because they are so many variables in the PC market as we know that they request the peripherasl appart, they know Macs have the same paripheral already so they do not ask for such requirement for Macs. Still I gues is an option.

 

[benixau]

a quick one mymemory: when spelling peripheral, could you please spell it a little closer to the actual spelling. i had to read your post twice to understand it.

btw, we dont normally pick on spelling here, but as i said, your two completely different ways of spelling peripheral made it very difficult, thanks in advance.

 

[iWantAMac]

Many of you are saying that Macs come with onboard sound chips... For someone (like me) who would primarily be using their mac for audio/production work, onboard sound chips usually (always) prove to be rather useless. Hence, de-activating the sound chip would be necessary as I would get a soundcard and use that instead. Does anyone know what this would require?

Thanks

 

[barkmonster]

The built in audio on macs doesn't use any of that lame IRQ numbering crap PCs have, there's no interupt limit (or sharing like XP) and you don't need to disable the on board audio to get the best out of 3rd party audio hardware.

If the onboard audio becomes disabled through damage to the hardware it can cause problems like no output through other audio cards with certain software. soundhack for example. The onboard audio on my mac died after a few years, it's an Apple branded, irreplaceable part and it still makes the start up chime even though the OS can't see it anymore. It's not even a software issue, just low quality hardware.

Even if you do choose to use the built-in audio, a lot of the current models don't have any audio inputs and those that do won't compare to the quality you'd get from a proper audio card like an Audiomedia III or RME hammerfall.

If you don't want to bother with pci cards there are USB audio systems like the mBox or iMic but they're both limited to only 2 inputs and outputs at once even if they appear to offer more.

Firewire is another option and there are a lot of excellent interfaces available even though they're very expensive.

 

[benixau]

did you know that most people dont need the features of most pci sound cards.

the average pc user would be more than satisfied with a SB16Pro. the mac has better audio than that built in. so do most pcs (AC'97 is a SB16 compatable set w/ more MIDI voices).

when macs need good audio they get the card based models or as you said fwire ones.

oh well.

 

[blogo]

When you talk about this i come to remember all the soundcards my pc-using friends have ha problems with.

 

[edesignuk]

Originally posted by benixau
a quick one mymemory: when spelling peripheral, could you please spell it a little closer to the actual spelling. i had to read your post twice to understand it.

btw, we dont normally pick on spelling here, but as i said, your two completely different ways of spelling peripheral made it very difficult, thanks in advance.

Sheesh man give mymemory a break He's from Venezuela for god sake.