An external sound card solution

[jointhedarkside]

Hey guys n gals,

I'm new to the realm of high quality audio so I thought I would ask for some help before I made a purchase. Recently, after my old 20 dollar speakers died, I was researching in this forum for a good set of 2.1 speakers (since my laptop *in sig* did not support 5.1 or 7.1) and ended up buying the Logitech z-2300 because of the recommendations and sale price at the time. Then just recently, I ordered a pair of AD700's also because of the recommendations of you guys here. I thought about switching my order to a pair of HARX900's since I thought I wouldn't be able to get the best audio from the headphones just with my on-board Realtek audio drivers. But unfortunately they already started packaging for shipping an hour after purchase (or maybe this is a good thing haha.) So now that I've spent the 100$, might as well spend another 50-100$ to get a good external sound card.

I'm going to be using the headphones for music and gaming. I plan to hopefully keep using the same card if I upgrade to Vista. Also, I would like to eventually try a 5.1 or 7.1
speaker setup some day.

I've been looking for the express card and usb options, though I prefer a USB solution:

The two I have been looking at are the Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi and the Asus Xonar U1.

Hopefully these 2 could improve my sound on headphones, and also my speakers. It looks like all I need to do is plug my speaker's green connector into the headphone jack on both usb cards. It does say that the Xonar supports 5.1 but it only has 1 headphone jack. It also says that the Xonar is also an amplifier, which I take is a good feature. Do most external cards include this feature?

I haven't seen too many reviews for these types of cards. So if there aren't any more questions for me, what do you guys think?

Here is one of the threads I've referenced to: here that also recommends a dac named the Fubar. I'm not sure what a dac is, but would this work with my situation? Sorry for the ignorance.

 

[Bored]

Are you a DIY kind of person?

I have been eying the Gamma 1 DAC for a while and it looks very promising but it does not seem to be available yet.

http://www.amb.org/audio/gamma1/

From what I have read it does a very good job of driving headphones directly.

 

[jointhedarkside]

I wouldn't say I'm a DIY person when it comes to electronic components since I don't have the equipment necessary to deal with that. But if its mechanical, I'll shove something in to get it working.

 

[jcmuse]

this one is supposed to work quite well:
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/indetail.aspx

also passes dts and dolby to a receiver if you ever end up going that route down the road. you're definitely going to want this feature if you want to go with a proper 5.1 setup. if you really want something that sounds good, i would look into a receiver and bookshelf speakers. pretty common upgrade route for people who want something more than what logitechs or any pc speaker has to offer.

if you think you might make a hobby of this (very possible if you're big on music and computers), then i think you should definitely take the time to read up more about different solutions. it will save you $ from having to upgrade twice.

 

[ZDPhoenix]

this one is supposed to work quite well:
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/indetail.aspx

if you think you might make a hobby of this (very possible if you're big on music and computers), then i think you should definitely take the time to read up more about different solutions. it will save you $ from having to upgrade twice.

With all those connections so close to eachother, I'd have to wonder if it would heat up easily. It does look like a good deal and package though.

 

[Calpis]

(drowsy sleep typing ahead)

I've been using the asus u1 for a few months now and I love it. I use it purely for headphones and it does a good job with that, it even powered my dt770 pro80's pretty well. Right now I have it set up as u1>cmoy>rx900. Cmoy is for the added soundstage instead of using the software to increase it.

5.1 is done with a 3.5mm optical jack and passed through to a receiver. Only having 1 output jack that does both the analog and digital is it's biggest faulty imo. It'd be perfect if it had seperate dedicated outputs.

The sound the u1 puts out is very good and clean. The execution for setting it up to use with 5.1 speaker setups needs to be redone. Having it as a soundcard just for headphones is where it shines, especially since its about the size of a small cupcake.

Side note: the u1 does not use your cpu at all. I don't game on my pc anymore so I can't comment on that. According to a few reviews I read on the usb xfi, it's a very cpu intensive soundcard even when it isn't dong much.

 

[jointhedarkside]

Thanks for the recommendation and the small review. Looks like now I'll be looking between the turtle beach card, and the Asus Xonar. I also saw the review on the Creative card saying that it uses processing power when idle, and I can't have that because the gaming application comes first. I'll wait another day before choosing. Does anyone else have another external solution to recommend or another review to support these products?

 

[Trillock]

I have the Asus U1 but found it difficult to set up my 5.1 speakers........but, it did sound good using 2 speakers.

I have now just got the Creative X-FI card, and rather like it......I like it a lot
I've just checked in task manager for cpu usuage, and it is using between 5-10%.
Dunno if that is good or bad.

The reason I can't use my existing Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 card is because the 2nd 4870X2 blocks off the pci slot.......................so, it was either ditch the 2nd card and instal the Audigy, or, keep the 4870X2 and look for an external card.

For me it solves the problem of using my 5.1 speakers, and to me.........it sounds great

So I vote for the Creative card considering it is about half the price of the Asus....