PCI sound card with audio amp built in?

[Apollo]

Excuse my thickness but I have been looking for a sound card with amp built in to it. Is there such a thing? And if so does anyone know brand and model numbers or pricing etc?
Thanks for your help

[krick]

I have a cheapo Crystal CS4280 based PCI card in my parts bin that has a jumper labeled...

"bypass amplfier/enable amplifier"

I really don't know if it really changes the output from line to amplfied or not.

Here's the text printed on the card...

FCC ID: FQ1C14/80PCI
P2-C14/80-A3-N
SND-CS4280/J

Based on a bit of googling the last line of numbers, I think that the card might be a "Joytech Twister 3D PCI soundcard".

You should go to a computer show and physically inspect a bunch of really cheap made-in-china type sound cards.  I'm sure you'll find one with the jumper.  Whether it actually does anything is another story.  And if does something, I really have no idea how to know exactly how many watts the amplifier actually puts out.  It's probably very few.

...
Krick

[osiris]

I've never really looked for a card with a built in pre amp, but Im pretty heaving to to computers/casemoding, and i've never heard of one with a built in preamp. I think you might be better off with a set of powered speakers, or using a inline headphone amp.


Just a thought, I dont know if either of those will do what you want though.

[daeven]

I know you said 'PCI,' but many Soundblaster 16 ISA cards have the pre-amp with a volume control on the edge of the card.  I use them for cheap MAME cabinet conversions.  No need for an external amp and works great with the speaker that comes with the cabinets.  Of course ISA slot on modern computer hardware are hard to find!

[quarterback]

I've got a cheap PCI Sound Card that has an on-board amp that seems to work great.

I didn't even know about it because it's just an old card I had laying around and I had always used it with powered speakers, but today I was looking at the manual and saw that it had a setting to use an onboard amp.

[SirPoonga]

what are you trying to do?  have something you can control teh volume of?   If so SB Live's have a header to hook up a volume up and down button.

[Minwah]

I have a SoundBlaster 16PCI card which has a built-in amp.  Works very well and actually goes quite loud considering.  Volume is controlled by Windows volume control only (not hardware).

[SirPoonga]

Thinking about it, technically there is a built in amp for all sound cards.  When you change volume in windows it tells the soundcard to amp.  It's a matter of if you can access the amp externally.

I have an old soundblaster (yes, original) ISA that has teh volume wheel on it.  that's what you had to do in the dos days....

[Minwah]

Thinking about it, technically there is a built in amp for all sound cards.

[quarterback]

Thinking about it, technically there is a built in amp for all sound cards.

[Dougmeister]

So how would you wire one of these up to the speakers that come with a cabinet?  Get a 1/8" cable (earphones or whatever), then cut the end off of the other end and wire it to the 2 (?) terminals?

My cab has four (4) speakers - I can't imagine that any soundcard would have the ooomph to power them...

[DYNAGOD]

A-open has an audiophile motherboard with onboard integrated TUBE AMP 
not a sound card i know...
might be worth checking out, as a open is pretty cheap.