I purchased a Mac Pro last Thursday after running a G4 350 MHZ machine for far too many years. But it had been such a good machine I focused on it and took my eyes off of technological progress. I thought the PCI buses in the Mac pro were just faster versions of the kind of PCI in the G4.
The G4 was outfitted with a Revolution 7.1 sound card from M Audio and that fed into a Creative 6.1 speaker system (with internal amp). The sound was amazing.
It was my hope that I'd be able to transfer this card to the Mac Pro and discover even higher quality sound. But before I even tried plugging it in I did some checking and found that PCI Express is an entirely different technology than PCI. M-Audio has stopped making the Revolution even though they still have drivers for OS X 10.5 (for folks who put this OS onto machines with the original PCI slots, I suppose).
So now that this dream has shattered I am wondering what are my options for being able to hear great sound from my new computer. The internal speaker is OK for the beeps and buzzes produced by an OS that wants to get your attention but it sounds horrible when you're trying to watch a surround sound DVD.
I'd like to hear from any Mac Pro owners who have found a way to make their computers deliver high quality sound. I know the Mac Pro has optical in and out but have no idea how I could make use of this other than to plug into a rather high priced surround amp. Still I'm open to new ideas and new ways so please let me know the options.
Thanks in advance.
Richard
The G4 was outfitted with a Revolution 7.1 sound card from M Audio and that fed into a Creative 6.1 speaker system (with internal amp). The sound was amazing.
It was my hope that I'd be able to transfer this card to the Mac Pro and discover even higher quality sound. But before I even tried plugging it in I did some checking and found that PCI Express is an entirely different technology than PCI. M-Audio has stopped making the Revolution even though they still have drivers for OS X 10.5 (for folks who put this OS onto machines with the original PCI slots, I suppose).
So now that this dream has shattered I am wondering what are my options for being able to hear great sound from my new computer. The internal speaker is OK for the beeps and buzzes produced by an OS that wants to get your attention but it sounds horrible when you're trying to watch a surround sound DVD.
I'd like to hear from any Mac Pro owners who have found a way to make their computers deliver high quality sound. I know the Mac Pro has optical in and out but have no idea how I could make use of this other than to plug into a rather high priced surround amp. Still I'm open to new ideas and new ways so please let me know the options.
Thanks in advance.
Richard