PCIe Sound Card/10.8.3 Compatibility Question

[Fjordn]

I have successfully constructed my first Hackintosh, and being very pleased with its performance over the last few months, I'm looking to improve the sound quality.
Having trawled the forums many times for information on this, I have been unable to find much, if any, information on internal sound cards and their compatibility with OS X; which makes me wonder: are sound cards generally supported across the board unlike graphics cards?
For example, is there any reason this PCIe sound card won't work with 10.8.3?
I know there's a topic somewhere devoted to professional audio interfaces and their compatibility, but I'm not looking for one of those, just an alternative to my current Realtek audio. Plus, it's a bit outdated.

Or, am I just going to have to try, and post my results?

 

[Going Bald]

I have successfully constructed my first Hackintosh, and being very pleased with its performance over the last few months, I'm looking to improve the sound quality.
Having trawled the forums many times for information on this, I have been unable to find much, if any, information on internal sound cards and their compatibility with OS X; which makes me wonder: are sound cards generally supported across the board unlike graphics cards?
For example, is there any reason this PCIe sound card won't work with 10.8.3?
I know there's a topic somewhere devoted to professional audio interfaces and their compatibility, but I'm not looking for one of those, just an alternative to my current Realtek audio. Plus, it's a bit outdated.

Or, am I just going to have to try, and post my results?

Should work OK in Windows. Might have a hard time finding drivers for OS X.

 

[Fjordn]

Do you think compatibility is a matter of drivers, then? Should I look for cards that state "OS X compatible"?
For that matter, what do Mac Pros use for audio? Integrated?
Are there expansion options for stock Pros? These are the questions... hmm...

The reason I'm looking for an internal is to boost the sound quality as I mentioned, but I'm also looking to hook into my stereo receiver/amplifier so I can get a nice set of passive monitors (thinking about Audioengine P4's)

 

[Robbish]

Do you think compatibility is a matter of drivers, then? Should I look for cards that state "OS X compatible"?

Unfortunately, you're not going to find support for the kind of PCI-e sound cards that your are interested in.

To my knowledge, the Mac Pro was the only Apple desktop PC to offer the user the privilege to swap out a PCI-e card. Since the Mac Pro costs over £2500 and are used mainly by professionals then it stands to reason that Apple would not expect a Pro to buy consumer grade sound cards like the ones you would buy for a Windows PC.

Professionals use very expensive PCI-e sound cards (most of which are interfaces to expensive external multi-channel sound modules). The pro-summers, hobbyist and mobile PC users use external sound modules via USB or FW which are designed for recording audio

Apple have more or less dropped PCI-e now in favour of Thunderbolt connectivity to external devices

the only consumer PCI-e sound card that I have seen for the Mac is the ESI MAYA44 XTe http://www.esi-audio.com/products/maya44xte/ howeverI doubt that there is much of a future with this card (the last driver update to support Mac OS X was in August 2012).

If your motherboard has a digital output e.g S/PDIF then you could always use that connected to a D/A Converter box. That would give you a much better sound than your analogue line outputs from you sound card

 

[Fjordn]

After asking the same question on at least 4 different sites, I'm forced to agree with you.
It looks like a USB DAC is in my future (my mobo doesn't have Firewire), running from there to my receiver.
Hooray for Audioengine I suppose.

Props for being the only person to know of an internal card for OS X, Robbish.

 

[Fjordn]

As much as I wanted to avoid an interface, the 2496 looks like a pretty good option, plus it's ~70 bucks on Amazon... Many thanks, opi.
I don't remember if I have a free PCI slot though... I should.

EDIT: According to a few reviews of the 'latest' official drivers, sleep is broken... is this fixed with the driver from the site you linked to?

 

[m_warsh]

On the webpage that you posted, ss this what they mean by Terratec Aureon Sky;

http://www.terratec.net/en/products/AUREON_7.1_PCIe_166633.html ???

 

[Going Bald]

After asking the same question on at least 4 different sites, I'm forced to agree with you.
It looks like a USB DAC is in my future (my mobo doesn't have Firewire), running from there to my receiver.
Hooray for Audioengine I suppose.

Props for being the only person to know of an internal card for OS X, Robbish.

This one works well - http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-detail/sound-cards-accessories/micro-ii/31

You get optical out or you can plug in an adapter and get headset connection.

 

[paupau2]

ive just bought: ESI Juli@ XTe PCIe and installed it on my hackintosh had mid support 2 x in 2 x out works like a dream and quality is super Is MAC compatible and just works out of the box. updated driver from the internet (2013) all good.

 

[Going Bald]

The reason I'm looking for an internal is to boost the sound quality as I mentioned, but I'm also looking to hook into my stereo receiver/amplifier so I can get a nice set of passive monitors (thinking about Audioengine P4's)

In that case what you want is a s/pdif to RCA DAC box to convert digital audio out to 2 channel stereo analog. There are a lot of these out there by many manufacturers, both toslink optical and coax or both, but beware - read the specs and make sure it can decode Dolby Digital or DTS - not all of them do.

Just google for it or search on Amazon - they list some.