ASUS DGX, DSX, & Xonar ROG Phoebus Sound Cards @ [H]

elzeus said:
I'm coming from a broken auzentech forte (they never sent me back my rma card wtf), will the DGX be comparable to the headphone amp on the forte? It's the only part of the card I used, I just want my headphones to be loud.
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Absolutely not. The Auzentech sound card has a much more powerful amplifier.

The DGX requires no external power and its amplifier did a good job of giving clear sound to a Sennheiser PC350 headset (150 ohms). We did have to change the amp setting to high gain in order to do this. The amplifier on the card though was simply not as loud as the Phoebus'.

So you will have very good, clear, loud audio, but not as loud as much more expensive and capable cards like the Forte and Phoebus at identical volume levels.
 
Bankie said:
Is there any reason to buy a discrete sound card when you're using optical out from on-board to a reciever? It sounds pretty darn good to me as it is but I might make the switch if I can increase sound quality or get some better gaming features.
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Optical output is a digital signal, it sends the audio stream to another device and that device does all of the work. A digital signal cannot be improved upon, what you have is as good as it will get. On the other hand if you need things like DDL! or DTS Connect then those are good reasons for a sound card that has optical.
 
Glad to see a sound card article. I have been using onboard sound since Windows Vista. I bought a X-Fi Extreme Gamer a few years back and could never get it to work on Vista. So I just boxed it back up and put it away. After reading this article, I pulled it out and put it in my Windows 7/64 machine, did a driver search and the thing works flawless. Glad to have it working.
 
"Asus' Xonar DG is the older PCI version of this sound card. Many PC enthusiasts ignored that card because the card required a legacy PCI slot for installation and a free four pin power connector for the card's headphone amplifier."

Steve, the Xonar DX is the card with the 4-pin power connector, not the DG.
 
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Has anyone run into the "buzz" issues with these Asus cards that plague some Creative cards? I recently pulled out a Auzentech HTHD card because I couldn't stand this bug constantly creeping up. For some reason, onboard audio doesn't run into this problem.

For those that don't know, the problem seems to occur with how the Creative/X-Fi cards handle DirectSound, and can cause the audiodg.exe program to become bloated, resulting in sound distortion until all programs that use the soundcard are closed, or the system is restarted. For me, I could always cause it to trigger by leaving Winamp, Ventrilo, and Steam open for a period longer than 2 hours.
 
I've got a xonar d2x and I'm happy with it.

Never will I have a card from creative or auzentech in my computer!
 
XacTactX said:
Optical output is a digital signal, it sends the audio stream to another device and that device does all of the work. A digital signal cannot be improved upon, what you have is as good as it will get. On the other hand if you need things like DDL! or DTS Connect then those are good reasons for a sound card that has optical.
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I knew it was a digital signal but I wasn't sure if the components on the card still factor into the "color" of the sound or if there's any sort of pre-processing that the card does before sending it on.

Does any one know if the headphone surround features work through the optical out on the Asus cards? My onboard Realtek ALC889 only outputs stereo so that may be an improvement if it will still push that through optical so that I can still use headphones with my receiver.
 
I rarely post anymore, but this is a topic that grabs my attention.

Great review on the cards, and nice job calling out the Phoebus on what it is.

I purchased an Asus Xonar Essence STX a while back. I had played around with a number of "7.1" headphone solutions prior to this. The STX isn't talked about much. It's expensive, and it's not marketed as a "gamer" card (contrasted to the Phoebus, which has the ROG punch behind it).

The STX can drive cans with an impedance of up to 600 ohms. I've used them with my 800s but for gaming I typically use them with a set of Senn 350s in Dolby headphone mode.

Suffice it to say that the STX with any good set of cans is head and shoulders above any computer audio solution I've ever used. I haven't bothered with external amps, largely because I don't want the clutter, but I suspect the result would be similar. Dolby headphone mode does a great job compared to any of the pseudo 7.1 headphone setups for gaming.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, is that it's about the quality of the cans and having sufficient amps to drive higher impedance headphones. Forget the gimmicks and marketing.

I'll finish it off by saying this: Apart from going to an SSD a few years back, the STX and good cans are the best upgrade I have made in the last decade.
 
My only complaint with the STX is that it isn't as good as the ST is, but the ST is PCI. No way in hell i'm investing $200 on a PCI card in 2012 so I had to opt for the STX. The ST has slightly lower latency and it also has the header/support for the analog surround daughter card.

I can't figure out why Asus doesn't add these things onto the STX, or release an updated PCI-E card to replace it.

Other then that it is by far the best sound card i've ever owned.

Frankly, given the price of the Phoebus the money would be better spent on a STX unless one requires the analog surround outputs.

I personally prefer stereo audio setups for the money so the STX is a perfect fit. I use my headphones + dolby headphone for gaming, and the stereo output feeds into a stereo amp driving some B&W 800 speakers. With the proper equipment to go with it the STX really is about as good as it gets, and IMO a quality stereo setup easily bests a similar priced 'surround' setup.
 
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Ive had the Phoebus now for about a month & half & its been working absolutely flawless for me. Its turned me on to headphone gaming. Best $200 I ever spent.
 
DarkAngel_ZERO said:
Has anyone run into the "buzz" issues with these Asus cards that plague some Creative cards? I recently pulled out a Auzentech HTHD card because I couldn't stand this bug constantly creeping up. For some reason, onboard audio doesn't run into this problem.

For those that don't know, the problem seems to occur with how the Creative/X-Fi cards handle DirectSound, and can cause the audiodg.exe program to become bloated, resulting in sound distortion until all programs that use the soundcard are closed, or the system is restarted. For me, I could always cause it to trigger by leaving Winamp, Ventrilo, and Steam open for a period longer than 2 hours.
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I have this issue on my work machine with an Audigy card. Winamp is definitely a factor in the equation for me but, your comment made me realize that other applications like MS Lync and Skype may be part of it. Although, it generally takes several days to manifest on my workstation instead of hours :confused: I don't have to close all of the applications that use audio for it to stop. Just Winamp.
 
I would be willing to bet that if the driver and software of the Phoebus was more mature you would have a solid product. Its definitely 100 times better than the recon3d Fatality card. That card had serious driver software issues. I had an audio issue in Max Payne 3 and it took a google search to find out how to correct it. To my ears it sounds on par with the my old PCI based SB Fatality card which is my favorite card of them all. Only time will tell how much better the Phoebus will get but right now the issue is its price as I agree with the reviewer on that one but I think its a decent card non the less..

Thanks
 
tboo said:
Ive had the Phoebus now for about a month & half & its been working absolutely flawless for me. Its turned me on to headphone gaming. Best $200 I ever spent.
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What headphones are you using?
 
MavericK96 said:
What headphones are you using?
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Been bouncig back and forth between some Audio-Technica -ATH-AD700 & ATH-A700. I also have a Sennheiser HD595 that I dont like so those will probably go up for sale.

Id say my favorites are the ATH-AD700.
 
Earl, would you recommend ditching my recon 3d for DGX, if gaming is my primary comp activity?
 
The Recon3D has the stronger headphone amp of the two products and if you bought the DGX, it would be a downgrade in headphone performance.
For gaming ability, they both can game, no doubt. it simply depends on which method you prefer: Dolby Headphone or THX Studio/CMSS3D
 
EarlKeim said:
The Recon3D has the stronger headphone amp of the two products and if you bought the DGX, it would be a downgrade in headphone performance.
For gaming ability, they both can game, no doubt. it simply depends on which method you prefer: Dolby Headphone or THX Studio/CMSS3D
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Thanks, seems no reason for me to change the card.... since I'm gaming on headphones, no point into downgrading.
 
The review states that the DGX will auto-mute the speakers if you plug in headphones. Does this apply to devices plugged into the digital out?
 
Please be more specific if you can. The digital out on the sound card is only simple stereo, not DTS or Dolby encoding of any sort.

That was the point of ASUS having two budget cards: DGX for headphones, DSX for speakers and digital encoding to a receiver or speaker set with a decoder.

Bankie said:
The review states that the DGX will auto-mute the speakers if you plug in headphones. Does this apply to devices plugged into the digital out?
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EarlKeim said:
Please be more specific if you can. The digital out on the sound card is only simple stereo, not DTS or Dolby encoding of any sort.

That was the point of ASUS having two budget cards: DGX for headphones, DSX for speakers and digital encoding to a receiver or speaker set with a decoder.
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I just want to know if it auto-mutes the digital output if you plug headphones into the headphone jack. The product features state: "Automatic jack-sensing front-panel output. Audio auto-switched from back to front with headphone plugged in!". I'm just curious if it works with the digital out also.
 
cortexodus said:
I can't use my X-Fi Fatal1ty PCI at the moment since I'm moving to 2x 570s in SLI and the lower card will completely block off access to the lone PCI slot. I've been wavering on buying the DGX for days now so that I don't have to use on-board audio and this article sealed the deal for me. Just ordered one. Thank you! :D
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You will be happy.
 
XacTactX said:
Optical output is a digital signal, it sends the audio stream to another device and that device does all of the work. A digital signal cannot be improved upon, what you have is as good as it will get. On the other hand if you need things like DDL! or DTS Connect then those are good reasons for a sound card that has optical.
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You can actually lose a lot using optical...you will have no game effect sound processing unless your card does the processing then encodes it into the digitial stream. Not to mention you are taking an elect signal, converting it to light then re-converting it back to electrical...and all the delay involved.

Using onboard digital encoding to send the signal in another format (DDL, DTS+...)to a reciever is the same as adding an extra set of A/D then D/A converters to the sound stream (usually not the optimal solution, but some recievers have high end D/A converters and filters that make it almost worth it).
 
BBA said:
You will be happy.
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I have got it running and you are correct. I can't believe how great the sound from this thing really is. I've had HD555's for a couple years and it's like I'm experiencing them for the first time :D
 
Has anyone actually tested the DTS Connect / Dolby Digital Live-functionality on these cards in games?

I have fond memories of DDL on the Asus P5W-DHD (LGA775 / 975X ) and nVidia SoundStorm on the earlier socket-A platform, but haven't really seen much data on how the newer offerings handle this task.
 
cortexodus said:
I have got it running and you are correct. I can't believe how great the sound from this thing really is. I've had HD555's for a couple years and it's like I'm experiencing them for the first time :D
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After going from an X-Fi to a Xonar DGX?
 
Just putting on my thanks to Earl for such a terrific article! I am so sick of audio being ignored by reviewers. It is always some lame, 1 page quickie that regurgitates the manufacturers specs and lots of smoke up my U-know-what about how great it might be with out any in-depth testing.

So glad to see a high quality, sweat and blood article done like a professional!

Thanks!
 
Munch MaCoochi said:
Just putting on my thanks to Earl for such a terrific article! I am so sick of audio being ignored by reviewers. It is always some lame, 1 page quickie that regurgitates the manufacturers specs and lots of smoke up my U-know-what about how great it might be with out any in-depth testing.

So glad to see a high quality, sweat and blood article done like a professional!

Thanks!
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Thank you. It is very much appreciated.
 
Impulse said:
After going from an X-Fi to a Xonar DGX?
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I'm not one for all the seemingly ambiguous adjectives used by audiophile-types (eg: warm, deep, crisp, blah blah blah etc.) I think audio is exceptionally subjective so I really can't quantify the difference outside of saying that things that used to clip, don't clip anymore. I can put the volume at a reasonable level and hear things I don't remember hearing in tracks I've listened to hundreds of times. I've not plugged in my HD515's yet to see if they're any different but, the HD555's are definitely better now with the Xonar card.

I've had nothing but Creative cards for like... ever, and I've had a LOT of cards. I've gone from SB16 to SBLive24, to Audigy Platinum, to Audigy 2 ZS Platinum, to the X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series, with weird crap in between like an SB Live 24 USB external unit for a laptop. Pretty sure I have an Audigy 4 Pro laying around somewhere too. I have to say, considering the amount of money I've tossed into audio cards for PC (admittedly due largely to my love of the accessibility provided by face-bays) I never believed a $40 card would sound so great. I'm thoroughly impressed :D

I just wish there was a face-bay... :p
 
Impulse said:
After going from an X-Fi to a Xonar DGX?
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SB X-Fi < Xonar DG/DGX

I still have a PCIe X-Fi Titanium on my C2D E8400 rig that I game on occasionally. My main gaming rig was a C2Q Q6600 w/ PCI Xonar DG; and I've now upgraded to a i7 3770 w/ PCIe Xonar DGX. I use both Corsair and Steelseries gaming headsets and FP headphone jacks.

For headset gaming, the DG/DGX beat the X-Fi hands down. The headphone amp is a big part of the difference; and I feel stereo localization is better on the Asus cards too.
 
I picked up a DGX last week to replace the onboard audio.

Prior Setup = Onboard Optical -> Stereo Receiver -> Headphones
New Setup = DGX Analog -> Headphone / DGX Optical -> Stereo Receiver

There's not much, if any, noticeable difference in sound quality when using the optical connection. There is a difference in output to the headphones. I get better sound quality going from Optical -> Receiver -> Headphones than I do Analog -> Headphones; the receiver takes the headphones to much higher volume levels with less distortion and fuller sound. The analog out does give better sound positioning but it's not really that useful to me (The Dolby Surround feature gives the illusion of more 'space' but it's not very convincing as it doesn't sound realistic IMO; it just sounds like it enables a 'large room' environment). I haven't tried DGX Optical -> Receiver -> Headphones yet.

One thing that I like is that the Asus control panel is much nicer than the Realtek control panel so it's at least partially worth the $42 that the card cost.
 
Hi guys, I have a question about the Phoebus:
I had a Xplosion7.1 from Auzentech which died on May, and which allowed me to plug my PS3 (with rca to jack adapter) in Line in and listen the sound from my games, while I was still able to speak with my mates on teamspeak. I bough a Meridian 7.1 2G to replace it, but Auzen deleted this function (I mean I have to select between Line In or mic in, but not the 2 in same time), plus I have many issues with that card.
So my question: could I do with the Phoebus the same thing I was able to with the Xplosion? If someone just bough it and tested it, it would be nice to inform me. Thankies.
 
I have an old PCI X-FI XtremeGamer and mainly use my Sennheiser HD 280 pro.

Would the DGX be a good call on an upgrade, or should I look at the DSX? My board has one PCI slot and is smothering an intake on my videocard.
 
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I'm pleased to see both inexpensive cards do so well and I take some perverse joy in the Phoebus not being far and away the best of the Xonar line. When comparing it to my Xonar Xense, I saw it lacked quite a few high end features (swappable op-amps etc..), though I admitted it would be nice to have newer software packages that the Phoebus provides, plus perhaps the upgraded 8888 chipset instead of the 8788, but overall I got the feeling that the Xense pretty much did most of what the Phoebus offered and did it better.

I heard recently that Xense is no longer manufactured, citing expense (strange they didn't offer a version without the admittedly awesome-for-headsets Xense-mod PC350), so I guess the Phoebus is an attempt to save a little money and still have a high end "gaming" card. The Xonar STX, closest cousin and predecessor of the Xense is well known for being just about the best (non-pro) PC sound card for headphone use and (like the Xense itself) support 6.3mm jacks and all, but its feature set is a little weak if you want to do something else, like also support analog 5.1/7.1 or have gaming-centric features, which were all issues that the Xense remedied without much compromise. Its a pity I can't recommend the Phoebus as highly as I do the Xense, but the [H] review confirmed my suspicions that it just wasn't up to par for the price. (and considering that I see the Xense being offered for around $500 on Amazon due to its limited quantity last I checked, just saying to get a Xense won't be easy for many).

The Xonar line has fast become a favorite of mine as it provides excellent audio quality options without 1) Being stuck in PCI only land, like many of the HTOmega cards, aside from the eClaro which I hear is very nice 2) having hugely shitty drivers and overpriced gaming option like Creative in the post Audigy 2 days. and 3) building something without Linux support, again like Creative did for the X-Fi for YEARS before it was finally hacked in.
 
Well... I do find drivers to be something that sucks somewhat for Xonar, but comparing to the old days of Creative (late 90s - late 2000'), it's still much better. I managed to score myself a D2X and subjectively speaking, it is more neutral than the X-fi XtremeMusic (real X-fi chip). 3rd party united driver is very polished. I remember spending several days to deal with XtremeMusic's cracking... Youp 3rd party drivers saved my hide then, but still...

I am of the opinion that USB standalone DAC+amp is preferable to a sound card with build-in amp for headphones. Having said that, the analog lines from D2X are quite clean when I plugged in the Westone 4 IEM directly. If you are not using a headphone that has >200 Ohm resistance, I think it's very realistic to get by on the DSX or other Asus cards that don't have amplification, as long as you have modest expectation.

One thing that I feel is important would be that the front header should be avoided, as the interference reduction is rendered moot when you run the unshielded analog front panel connectors to the front panel. The Phoebus approach is better. I got myself a Fiio E17 DAC/Amp (the size of a phone) and run a toslink from the source to minimize EMI, but that honestly isn't needed for a Xonar card.
 
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would i be better off getting an Audio usb inteface to hook up a pair of m-audio bx5a deluxes or should i get something like the DSX or STX ?
 
123Lanoix said:
would i be better off getting an Audio usb inteface to hook up a pair of m-audio bx5a deluxes or should i get something like the DSX or STX ?
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It depends on how much you want to spend, what you're gonna use it for, and whether you're also using headphones with the same system.

For instance, if you use headphones at all for gaming you'll probably want a sound card for virtualized sound positioning... A DSX is also cheaper than most USB DACs, tho there's decent options in the same price range (Fiio). Another example, an STX is a pretty solid deal if you have higher end headphones since the built in amp is decent, there's some DAC/amps in the same price range (Audioengine D1) but you'd lose out on stuff like Dolby Headphone for gaming.

If your use is primarily music and/or solely those M-Audio monitors you could opt for something like the HRT Music Streamer II, it's gonna be a better source than the DSX but it's devoid of any frills (just USB and RCA connections on it), it's also more hassle free than any sound card tho.
 
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trying to decided between the D1 and the STX
but neither has balanced outputs just RCA's

I have a pair of audiotechnica AD700
 
The AD700 has a very low impedance, so in my own opinion, it's not so crucial for you if that's all you are planning to drive. If it were the HD 650, that would come to play.

How has the Forte been for you btw?
 
the card sounds great
i just wanted to get away from creative drivers and look for something that either doesn't require drivers likea USB dac or get a soundcard like one of the asus cards uses really small drivers and no bloat
trying to cut down the bloat but i would like to find something with balanced outputs

i found this dac here Audinst HUD-mx1 Hi-Fi USB Audio DAC thinking of getting this
or maybe a used asus STX for $112 off amazon or downgrade i guess to a DSX
i dunno. the recordign USB audio interface don't seem to be geared towards great playback

any suggestions would be greatly appreaciated.
 
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