3 Sound cards

[M4573R]

Between Asus, AuzenTech, and HT Omega, is one considered to be better? Am I really going to notice the difference between a 90 dollar card and a 150+ dollar card? I just use z-5300...
I currently have an x-fi xtreme gamer and I'm tired of the bullshit drivers and shit not working with vista / windows7. At least music sounds amazing with the crystalizer and cmss-3d. I'm affraid of losing that

 

[Alai]

If you're using Logitech speakers, my guess is that you won't really notice much of a difference between soundcards.

 

[aubsxc]

With z-5300 speakers you likely won't notice a difference.

That being said, I use a HT Omega Claro(?) for listening to my music collection on a pair of nice headphones and I'm very happy with it!

 

[M4573R]

Do cards other than creative offer ways to emulate 5.1 with music? I couldn't ever go back to music on 2.1.

Should I just keep my x-fi gamer pro though? Or is one of the other options a better sound card. (I've heard they are)

 

[Mr. Wolf]

If you're a gamer, only the Auzentech Prelude or Forte have the X-Fi chip. Generally, Auzentech is considered better for games, Asus better for music, but plenty of people (like me) do both with either line of cards and are very pleased. HT Claro is also quite good, but I don't have any experience with it.

In all likelihood, you won't notice any massive difference between these sound cards. The real audio difference can be heard between sound cards and onboard audio. Most onboard sounds lousy compared to the sound cards you listed.

 

[Odin75]

Between Asus, AuzenTech, and HT Omega, is one considered to be better? Am I really going to notice the difference between a 90 dollar card and a 150+ dollar card? I just use z-5300...
I currently have an x-fi xtreme gamer and I'm tired of the bullshit drivers and shit not working with vista / windows7. At least music sounds amazing with the crystalizer and cmss-3d. I'm affraid of losing that

One is not better than the other, they are just made for different purposes. Asus and TH-Omega are designed for music and movies. They don't support EAX, nor CMSS-3D. But instead, have features that movie and music lovers appreciate, like Pro Logic IIx and NEOC upmixing, as well as better DACs. Their higher end models use the same C-Media chip, only that their GUI and internal components differ. However, if money is not an issue, the Asus HDAV1.3 Deluxe is probably the best right now. Not only because it has the best DAC, but also because it supports TrueHD and DTS-HD Master, comes bundles with TMT 2, and has HDMI connectors as well. I had a few issues with mine using XP, but I hear good things for Vista users. As far as 7, there is no drivers for it, but some claim it works with Vista drivers in Compatibility Mode.

Now, if games is what you want, I say keep you current X-Fi. That is, until you decide to upgrade those Z-5300. Auzentech pretty much improves upon Creative's mistakes, and includes higher quality components to give you higher quality sound, but with the same great features of a X-Fi. They recently added NEOC upmixing as well, which is great for movies. So yes, almost any new Auzentech is better than any Creative card. But, I just can't recommend you to upgrade, unless your soundcard is broken, or you change those Z-5300.

Do cards other than creative offer ways to emulate 5.1 with music? I couldn't ever go back to music on 2.1.

Should I just keep my x-fi gamer pro though? Or is one of the other options a better sound card. (I've heard they are)

Yes, almost all soundcard have a way to emulate 5.1, that is called "Upmixing". X-Fi uses CMSS-3D and NEOC. Asus and HT-Omega use Pro Logic IIx, and NEOC, as well as a default mode similar to Stereo Sorround in your X-Fi.

So yeah, keep your soundcard. Everyone has their X-Fi's working fine under Vista, so if you still have problems, try re-installing the drivers. Save the money, and use it toward new speakers in the future instead.

Good luck.

 

[M4573R]

Looks like I'll go Azunetech then. I'm planning on building a new PC and I'll just sell the creative card with my old pc. The Stereo-Xpand upmix feature in the creative drivers have not worked with 3 different driver versions on vista 64 and windows7 64. I'll gladly switch to another sound card.

 

[obobski]

X2 to Odin75's entire post

one more bit on Auzen vs Creative:
Auzen includes Dolby Digital Live (DDL) and DTS-Connect as well as Creative's CMSS with their cards, while Creative only offers CMSS, and an option to purchase DDL/DTS-Connect for ~$3 on their website, so I'd give another nod to Auzen over Creative boards (especially given that the price disparity is minimal between the various cards)