Asus Rampage III SupremeFX Xfi-2 Question for people with AV recievers

[QuadDragon]

To anyone out there running this motherboard.
How is the onboard sound? How do you connect it to your AV reciever?

Do you use the optical jack (toslink)?
Or do you just use the HDMI port on your video card to pass through sound?
If you connect it through HDMI is the sound card doing the decoding at this point?

How is your over all 3d positional audio gaming experience?

 

[450]

If you are using optical/coaxial (S/PDIF) or HDMI to your receiver, then the receiver will be doing the processing. If HDMI audio is an option for you, I'd go for that instead of optical/coaxial.

 

[QuadDragon]

anyone else? I need a bit more input.

 

[grambo]

Curious about this too. Yes, if you use optical/HDMI, the receiver will do the DAC, but the onboard sound chip will still be providing the "X-Fi" functionality, 3D positional sound etc. so there may be a difference? Last time I tried onboard was with my old P4 Northwood in 2003ish, and it was atrocious compared to a sound card. Curious about this...

 

[jeremyshaw]

HDMI/Optical will still keep it a digital audio stream. It will require a DAC in your reciever to do all the heavy lifting.

The 5-6 colored TRS jacks (commonly called, "3.5mm stereo jacks") are driven by your mobo's onboard DAC, which despite the branding, is actually a Realtek underneath it.

Now, a DAC isn't the ONLY thing in the audio lineup, however, a major consideration is how well implemented is the output quality after the DAC, and also individual motherboard wiring concerns.

Have fun!! (a.k.a. IMO, HDMI/Optical; however if you find the TRS jacks w/ adaptors to sound better, it's your setup to play with ).

 

[Tsumi]

In general, HDMI/SPDIF is just digital pass-through, the sound data is sent directly from the file to the receiver to be processed by the receiver. There is nothing/minimal done on the motherboard itself, anything is through the CPU by any software you have installed.

 

[grambo]

In general, HDMI/SPDIF is just digital pass-through, the sound data is sent directly from the file to the receiver to be processed by the receiver. There is nothing/minimal done on the motherboard itself, anything is through the CPU by any software you have installed.

But what about the X-Fi/positional processing/effects? I'm assuming if they call it X-Fi, the calculations/output will be identical to an add-in soundcard.

 

[QuadDragon]

HDMI/Optical will still keep it a digital audio stream. It will require a DAC in your reciever to do all the heavy lifting.

The 5-6 colored TRS jacks (commonly called, "3.5mm stereo jacks") are driven by your mobo's onboard DAC, which despite the branding, is actually a Realtek underneath it.

Now, a DAC isn't the ONLY thing in the audio lineup, however, a major consideration is how well implemented is the output quality after the DAC, and also individual motherboard wiring concerns.

Have fun!! (a.k.a. IMO, HDMI/Optical; however if you find the TRS jacks w/ adaptors to sound better, it's your setup to play with ).

I really don't want to use the DAC side of things. I want to use the HDMI so I get all 7.1 speakers in positional audio for gaming. I just can't figure how it will work with a discreet video card like a 580 GTX and still using the onboard motherboard sound for the positional audio stuff in games.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Lol, I'm trying to do the exact same thing, now that I have a Maximus IV GENE-Z with X-Fi2 onboard.

THX Surrond just says my output device is not supported EAX enables, but only gives useless effects...

 

[QuadDragon]

Lol, I'm trying to do the exact same thing, now that I have a Maximus IV GENE-Z with X-Fi2 onboard.

THX Surrond just says my output device is not supported EAX enables, but only gives useless effects...

What is your home theather setup like? How is your computer hooked up sound wise?

 

[jeremyshaw]

What is your home theather setup like? How is your computer hooked up sound wise?

Well, I'm trying to use the headphone stero positional sound phasing (whatever it is that utilizes large soundstages to emulate 3d sound - don't ask, I was simply told by a lot of people it works, even though I have drawn pictures to the contrary...), via an external DAC that I like a lot better than onboard audio in terms of setup (since I want to get an ever better DAC/AMP soon).

So maybe not the same thing, I'm sorry

 

[vitaminc]

But what about the X-Fi/positional processing/effects? I'm assuming if they call it X-Fi, the calculations/output will be identical to an add-in soundcard.

^^^

This is the most important thing to know. If it won't be capable of doing unaltered pass through, then it is completely useless and a new sound card capable of pass through will be required.