My 2004ish creative audigy zs 2 sound card died and was wondering what the best one to get in the 60-100 price range...i game but i also listen to a good ammount of music.
Are you looking for an amped or unamped sound card? If you want unamped the Xonar DX fits perfectly in your price range.
ill check it out, i was looking at that or one of the creative x fi cards
Another vote for the Asus cards here. I've had the X-Fi and Xonar cards, I prefer Xonar for the price and features. Also, X-Fi cards have had driver issues in the past. Both are better than on board though.
I've got the Asus Xonar D1 and its amazing for 60€. I'll be moving to Ivy bridge soon and I've decided on the Asus Maximus Gene V motherboard and the problem is it doesn't have a PCI slot, so I'll have to use its on-board sound solution, I'm just really really hoping I won't go insane because of it. Also if you have good heaphones, I've got Sennheiser 595HD's, and when I put them on I hear absolutely no static, its like being in your own world, the drivers are good(equaliser settings are nice, even the Dolby software thats implemented is really nice for music, not for metal[ :( ], when you need bass you need to turn the Dolby stuff on). I'd suggest getting the DX version, since its PCIe and legacy slots are harded to find if you plan on SLI because they get covered by the graphics cards. With good speakers you'll be turning around if something cracks inside the game, because its hard to distinguish it sometimes :)
TL;DR Xonar D1/DX is the way to go on a budget, I've got it and its awesome for everything audio.