Sound Card ~ what's a good one?

[Korodic]

Well I found out why my original speakers are having issues. The main speaker happens to be next to the router on my desk... moving it away took the annoying noises with it. So I think I'll save the $ by not buying a new set of speakers for the time being since I fairly satisfied with the audio quality. I wouldnt call myself a super audiophile, but I do like quality.

 

So here lies my new problem. I'm looking at soundcards since I dont want to shell out for a receiver and all that. Again, the card will be a gift. So around the $100 is suitable. I'm currently looking at Xonar VS Creative and it has me scared.

 

Xonar apparently does not auto detect headphones, and that would be inconvenient as hell. Also after reading some review on creative how do I know whether or not a card will detect the front panel audio and use that audio with the video card?

 

I'm looking at:

Creative

X-Fi

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Titanium-Internal-SB1270/dp/B0041OUA38/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352178362&sr=1-11&keywords=xonar

not X-Fi (new Recon3D?)

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Fatal1ty-Champion-SB1354/dp/B0060SXDRI/ref=cm_rdp_product

 

Xonar

http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Channel-XONAR_DX-XD-90-YAA060-1UAN00Z/dp/B0017DJXG6/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352178362&sr=1-3&keywords=xonar

 

Also the titanium scares me because it was said to have issues with SLI... but is that specific to that motherboard or...? :ohdear:

[FMod]

It's not really going to matter then.

 

Recon3D is a piece of crap though, there's no polite way to describe it; it's a card with poor audio quality, no DSP (despite its "quad-core" claims), its only new feature is a complementary cheating hack and there aren't any other redeeming qualities whatsoever, if you even count that as one. X-Fi is better in every way there is.

 

Titanium HD is an audiophile card, it won't make any difference at all (even minimal) for your speakers, and it has its problems - no analog 5.1 support, no XP support, poor non-Windows support. Regular Titanium would be the one you need.

Not really sure on front panel audio, never used it. My understanding is that you plug it in and it works instead of regular outputs.

Not sure what a video card has to do with it.

 

 

good thing i took it back the receiver was under powered for the speakers, the speakers alone where 114'ish watt per channel

"Watts" are a grossly abused metric. About 40W each into a pair of typical 85-91 dBVm bookshelf speakers is usually perceived as very loud, but below a rock concert. Typical volume at which a loud conversation is still legible is reached between 0.5 and 3 W.

 

However amp makers then inflate wattage metrics - most cheap receivers claim to put out more power than they draw from the socket! - and so do low-end speaker makers. Boom boxes go even further. Claimed wattage is one thing that can be safely ignored when picking amps and speakers, except for the purposes of ranking relative power of units of the same brand.

[Erik005]

I think you are best of with the asus card, I heard good things about it.

 

The recon3d cards have not been well received, they have a bad reputation.

[Korodic]

Well im looking at:

 

 

Xonar

http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Channel-XONAR_DX-XD-90-YAA060-1UAN00Z/dp/B0017DJXG6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1352249341&sr=8-5&keywords=asus+xonar

 

 

Creative

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Titanium-Internal-SB1270/dp/B0041OUA38/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352789020&sr=1-11&keywords=xonar

 

I own an astro gaming headset which supports dolby surround, and those logitech speakers I mentioned earlier. Which card would suite me better you think?

[Thor.]

If your planning on saving that pci slot for a video card or something i recommend this USB sound card

 

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soundblaster-Surround-System-SB1095/dp/B0044DEDCA/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_y

Edited November 13, 2012 by Thor.

[FMod]

I second that suggestion.

 

X-Fi HD is an audiophile card, you don't have the equipment to go with it.

Xonar is less gaming-oriented.

An external card would be best for your purposes and provide a volume control.

[Thor.]

Its probably the best 5.1, 24bit, thx certified sound card i ever owned. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif Edited November 13, 2012 by Thor.

[Korodic]

I have 3 pci slots, still plenty of room for 2 video cardssss :P

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821 ~ my mobo

 

I already have the mix amp on my astros, it'd be weird to do another external sound control.

[kalikka]

I vote for Xonar DX. Good for everything

+ Unixonar drivers.

 

BTW, all the surround mixers are not that great with decent headphones. At least my DT-770 works best with "Hi-Fi" settings (=Shuts down all the soundeffects).

[FMod]

I already have the mix amp on my astros, it'd be weird to do another external sound control.

Wait, I had to look it up. Is your model a wired or wireless one?

Your headset is miles ahead of your speakers, they're about as far apart as a model condo and a Somali hut.

 

Either way, you hardly need a sound card there. All wireless headsets come with their own DAC, there's no other way to do it. And Astro headsets, at least A40, use their own DAC in the mixamp even in wired versions, with what seems to be a DSP to boot.

The main element of a sound card is its DAC, or digital-analog converter. Since you aren't going to be using them, it won't make any difference how good the DAC and the onboard headphone amp are.

 

If you are to get a sound card, pick it based on its DSP and drivers alone, for game effect processing. For that X-Fi Titanium (regular variant) is the best, on HD it's less reliable, as that card drops older game audio interfaces, being designed more for analog music than for games.