Claro Halo PCI Sound Card

It was a little annoying that this was PCI and not PCIe, but I built a computer around this sound card and was able to find a modern mother board with a PCI slot. The sound produced by this unit (and I don't think I have yet completely figured out exactly all the bells and whistles) is absolutely excellent. Paired with JRiver Media Center and piped out to your amplification of choice and you have a VERY high fidelity setup. I am very happy with this card.Update Jan 2016: Have been pleasantly surprised at the remarkable improvement in the soundstage (I didn't think it was possible, but here we are) by replacing the OEM op-amps on the card with Burson Supreme Sound Operational Amplifiers (version 4 are those without the red plastic shroud, v5 are those with, see attached images). Simply wonderful. I am really getting the most out of my 24 bit music and my recently restored power amplifier. VERY happy with this card.Update Dec 25 2016: Card is still functioning beautifully. I should mention (because I don't recall seeing anyone else say it) that for optimal performance with high resolution music (>96 KHz 24 bit) you might run into some buffering issues, depending on your hardware/operating system combination. I was able to fully resolve my issues with ASIO4ALL, which is a free download that enhances the functionality of the card. Also, I have eliminated MP3 from my library, and now all CD's are ripped as APE format to take full advantage of the resolution of this card. Really great.

Excellent . Sound blew me away playing my collection . Thought my pc mb on board sound was good . Which it was "Good." But it's not "Exciting" ,Or "Simulating." It is now . First music i played was an old Chicago Transit Authority, Introduction . It sure did .Ripping deep base with life and attitude . The highs of the Horns were clean and separate from the other instruments. Yes , with this Halo card i could hear every note from the horn section indivisibly . What a nice sound stage .I'm only pushing a set of Corsairs SP 2500 . Soon to up-grade to some nicer monitors if i can only make up my mind .Seems there is a great choice of powered speakers now a days . I can only dream how nice it will sound when all is said and done .My old ears have not tried out yet and have been listening to music all day . Couldn't do that with the Realtek Audio Nvidia drivers MB SC..Simple install btw . Ht-Omega website told me how to setup the card for Win7 64 bit and it's been pure pleasure ever since ..Thanks to everyone for the fine reviews and tips .UPDATE :upgrade complete an burned in . Paradigm Shift A2 and Klipsch SW-308 sub. This Omega Claro feeds a 'Beautiful' signal . This new sound system is my dream . Just a delight to listen to from Led Zeppelin to Mozart and all in between. Bang for the buck !! This card has it imo . I truly enjoy it .

My wife and I noticed a big boost in electronic resonance and stage presence when we played You Tube music videos BUT NOT DVD MUSIC DISCS after installing the 770 video card. I surmised that the Haswell chip was trimming the frequency response and/bandwidth on the You Tube internet download. Additionally the native Realtek 898 was probably compressing or something UN-holy like that.Remaining was the ongoing lack of imaging control (after initial setup) over the 5.1 speaker stage and the ongoing inability to register DOLBY STUDIOS CONTENT on my home theater system.The OXYGEN audio processor on the HT OMEGA Claro Halo audio card wiped out all those nasty problems. It's electronic stage controls window has 5.1 diagram with a "X" axis slider to expand the sound right and left from dead center and a "Y" axis slider to move the sound front and back thus bringing the satellite speakers to life like never before. I am extremely pleased with it's performance.

Only 4 Stars b/c I have nothing to compare it to. This is my 1st sound card. I like it just fine and have not found anything to complain about.

Not a great sound.

The quality of the audio output from this card blows the doors off of the Realtek onboard sound chips appearing on so many motherboards nowadays. Paired this card with a Sennheiser 150 Ohm headset and I'm in heaven. When gaming I can hear even the smallest nuances around my character in clear detail, it's incredible! The driver install provides an app that has more DSP, mixer and configuration options than I will ever use.This is a PCI card, so be sure you have a PCI (not a PCI-E) slot available.The capacitors are rather tall and can possibly make contact with a card installed below it, especially if the card below it has chips on its backside.Be sure to properly set the jumpers for the impedance level of your headset. Anything over 35 Ohms and HT Omega says to set the jumpers to "High".

Beautiful sound, easy mounting in my Asus M5A97 EVO board. Configures in Solus Linux automatically.

Bought this to replace a Soundblaster Z that did not work when Windows updated its software. Neither Creative Arts (Soundblaster) nor Microsoft could solve the issue. This card works beautifully with Windows 10; I use it to stream Internet radio from my PC to a DAC and into a real stereo system. I also use it to play my iTunes library from the PC through the stereo. Excellent sound quality when played through real hard-wired speakers.