bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

Pros: This is not a pro but if your cards analog output/input have died it may be repairable.

Look at the SOT-223 component closest to the large capacitor and input jacks (there are two of them). The part is labelled LD1117, it is a 5V low dropout regulator. It may be noticeably different compared to the other part (mine was darker brown on the pads). You want to replace this with an identical (and heatsink) or better specified part. If you are unsure if its working, check the pinout online and feed it 6V, carefully. Mine was outputting 1.7V only.

Cons: This is really poor design, an undersized part that is sitting very close to its temperature limit. Failure within a year of use on a high end card is unacceptable.

Other Thoughts: I actually have a sondigo inferno, but the cards use the same design so I assume the problem is the same.

Pros: This sound card is fantastic! I've had it for over 2 years now and still works perfect. Works with Vista and Windows 7 just fine. I bought it mostly because it has an optical digital out connection to go into my stereo receiver. I use it in my HTPC to watch movies and game on my HDTV and it produces excellent sound quality. It also has a surprising number or configuration options for different sound sources with a full EQ.

Cons: The only con is that some games for some reason don't support surround sound with this card. Sound will only come out the front 3 speakers. It is only a few games, like Stalker for one, and all newer games seem to work fine but it's still a negative.

Other Thoughts: Its a great sound card and I would definitely buy another and recommend it highly.

Pros: loved it, sound was great both on digital and analog. For the price, couldn't get better sound

Cons: like other reviewers have said, analog died just after replacement warranty was up. tried contacting them for repairs and they said it would be $25 plus shipping to fix, but then they never sent me the form/guidelines I needed to send with it and now won't return my emails. useless customer service

drivers don't work very well at all with windows 7. it'll put out sound fine, but if you try to access the XEAR3D driver program, it causes the computer to lock up.

Other Thoughts: you get what you pay for, if you only want analog sound to last a year or only care about the digital out/in then you should be fine with this card. otherwise, it's worth it to go for a little more expensive card

Pros: Fantastic sound! Digitial in and outs + analog

Cons: Just like EVERYONE said it would, the analog died after exactly a year. Digital still works but I loved the analog of this card :(

Other Thoughts: Only buy if you dont need the 6 speaker outs.. or only need htem for less than a year.

Pros: More features than you could ever need. Great digital audio.

Cons: Analog dies easily.

Other Thoughts: I bought this card for digital, as I never planned to use analog. I would have forked out more $$ for a card with better op-amps anyways. I've owned this card about 2-3 years, and recently discovered my analog doesn't work - AT ALL. After reading all the reviews here too, I realize i'm not alone. Either way, this is a great CM-8788 chip for a great price. Just don't expect to get more than digital after a few years!

Pros: features are great and it works solid for a short period of time.

Cons: dies off far to quickly for the price... my analog output has crapped out on me and since i use optical and analog for different things i have to buy new.

Other Thoughts: for the price paid getting well under 2 years of use is totally not worth it.

i was unaware of the issue until it happened to me, digging around it's quite common.

AVOID.

Pros: Extremely high sound quality, digital and analog connections (until the analog dies), easy setup, nice control panel, good drivers. I have used this card on XP, Vista and 7. I have been able to get great 5.1 audio on all three.

Cons: Analog connections seem pretty much guaranteed to die after a year. Read all of the reviews on here... You'll find that many people report the same thing. They died for me. Luckily, I don't really even use them, I use the digital connection, but still, that's not good. However, I can't use the mic port for voice chat in games because that's dead. I have to enable my mobo's onboard mic which is generally not recommended to do, since having two audio devices running a the same time can cause problems. Also, by enabling the onboard audio in the BIOS, I am also enabling my onboard video, which I can still disable in the Device Manager, but that's still not recommended and can still cause even more problems.

Other Thoughts: Overall, I've been pretty happy. If you plan on only using the digital connection, this card could possibly still work for you. It has extremely crisp sound, but you never know when you might need the analog connection. Definitely not an option if you plan on recording. If you asked me to review this card after owning it for only a few months, I probably would've given it 5 eggs, but after owning it for almost three years, and finding out that my analog connections are dead, and that everyone else is having the same problem, I'd say you might wanna look elsewhere.

Pros: Good card, worked well while it lasted.

Cons: Died after a year.

Other Thoughts: Brand new system and the sound card was the first thing to fail. Should have just used onboard sound from the beginning and saved myself over $100.

Pros: Purchased from Newegg 2.5 years ago. Loved the card while I was using XP.

Cons: When I switched to Vista and installed the 'Vista" drivers the interface lost features and speaker channels.

B-Gears needs to provide a decent Vista driver or they will lose customers. I bought a Fatality Titanuim champ card for $50.00 dollars more than this card and it works great in my Vista 64 machine.

I used to be a very happy B-gears customer.

Other Thoughts: Took me a while to figure out it was the card and not the speakers or MB.

Installed it in my brothers xp system last night and all the old features were there and the card works great.

Pros: Worked great while it lasted - others here have pointed out very succinctly the b-Enspirer's positive qualities.

That is, when the darn thing works.

Cons: Died, just like my first one.

Well, since I've had two b-Enspirers die in *precisely* the same manner I feel like writing a bad review, if only to cap off my Phyrric victory.

The first b-Enspirer I had was used in my main PC. It lasted just over a year (just outside of bluegears' confidence-inspiring 1-year warranty, by the way) before dying. Basically, the analog audio output drops to like 20 dB, and the card becomes worthless.

This second b-Enspirer was used in my media server, and to its credit it lasted two years before dying, in exactly the same manner as my first one. Used the PC in the morning to watch a little football, worked fine. Came back from church in the evening to watch the rest of the recorded game, and sure enough, I couldn't hear anything unless the TV volume was maxed to 100.

I hate to suggest the ugly specter of *planned obsolescence" without overwhelming obsolescence, so I'll just say that I'm never buying a bluegears product again.

Other Thoughts: I don't have an audio receiver so I can't test whether the digital output of the b-Enspirer still works.

I've switched over to the onboard Realtek audio on my Abit IP35 Pro while pondering my options. Creative is an atrocious company that makes even more atrocious cards, so that's out. The HT Omega Striker/Claro seem all right. I will say that onboard solutions have come pretty far in just a few short years.

Both my b-Enspirers were purchased from the 'Egg - can't say a single bad thing about *them.*