Sound Card ~ what's a good one?

[Korodic]

yeah I have a wired a40. So would you even consider a sound card worth it then?

 

I basically have/use my a40's and my logitech speakers. So I think a sound card could at least benefit the speakers somewhat. But who knows, I'll trust your opinion since you seem to be a very knowledge-able STRANGERRRRRR. :thumbsup:

 

I want a sound card to improve the sound quality if possible. If it really wont make a difference unless im rocking 7.1 or 5.1 with a receiver, I'll pass. I'm no audiophile, but its something to put on my xmas list. So, to get one or not to get one. Xonar, or X-Fi. Just say the word man.

 

:psyduck:

[FMod]

I think the wired version can bypass its mixamp's DAC and use analog without further interference. If you use it with onboard sound, make sure to use optical or other digital connection.

 

It's pretty simple really. The analog part of an audio chain consists of DAC, amplifier and speakers (or headphones), and its sound quality is mostly determined by the weakest link (like 75/20/5 weakest/middle/strongest). But, on a scale of 1 to 100, where N means that N% of the people can't hear the difference (1% are deaf, so anything will rate 1+) and (100-N)% can, most speakers rate quite low, usually below 50. Most DAC rate very high, since they are just microchips.

 

Creative 2.1 is somewhere around the 15 range, Astro headset should be 30-50. Onboard sound's DAC (which Astros don't use) is 20-30, so it isn't making much difference for these speakers,

Out of the cards you're picking, all three are easily in the 80s. To put them relatively, if X-Fi Titanium is at the 85 mark, then Xonar is 86, Titanium HD maybe 89, Xonar STX 90. This is impressive, but, unless the rest of your audio chain is, at least, in the 70s range, you won't notice the difference.

 

So based on all that, I think you'd be best served by X-Fi Titanium, normal. It has the potential to have all sound effects in every game (under Windows 7 ALchemy is required to enable EAX), you don't need a headphone amp, and it's more than good enough for any sound hardware you have or are going to get without going to Hi-Fi setups.

In that case you'll probably be best served by the analog inputs on Astros.