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how is it with reproducing the sound from music DVDs?

like a zeppelin concert for instance



The sound card doesn't know what you are passing through it. If you push signal through it, it reproduces that sound. DVD, CD, BIAB, computer sounds... it doesn't pick and choose what to handle well and what to handle less than well. It is a dumb piece of hardware made to translate signal into audio.

I am confused by everybody asking about speakers in conjunction with the sound card thread. Your speakers are what you speakers are with no regard to what sound card you use. They won't work (sound) better or worse depending on what sound card you are using. No more than a Les Paul will sound better than a Strat if the person playing is awful.

Also brings me to ask the question, how many of you feed right from a sound source to speakers without any kind of mixer? No use of digital reverb, EQs... any of that outboard processing? It's only because it's how I do it, but I can't imagine plugging a sound output device directly into near field monitors without pushing it through a 31 band EQ with a digital reverb looped through the effects bus on a mixer. And are your monitors powered? I use 100w Wharfedales, which I bought ONLY because I heard them in a friend's studio and the highs were crisp, the bottom was clean, and the slew rate when sending wide ranges of signal quickly was great. As is with all hardware, speaker advice is great to get from other users, but the only way to decide is to go hear them somewhere that you can compare different models side by side. That is not going to be possible everywhere depending on where you live. I have the benefit of living in a large city with audio stores that carry several models to test side by side. Though I DID have to order the Wharfedales...

I am getting the feeling here that this is about going from a sound card directly to a speaker and questioning where any sound shortcomings would come from. I may be wrong.