Asus Xonar Essence vs D2X for speaker use?

D

daws0n

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
111
I've recently bought a great 2.1 setup for my PC, an old Videologic Sirocco set. It's nearing 10 years old, but still sounds fantastic: fully active crossovers and seperate amp. Originally it retailed for about £230, so I consider it pretty high end stuff for PC audio. I got it 2nd hand for £50, which IMO is an out and out bargain.

So, I am thinking of upgrade my soundcard too. At the moment I am using an old Audigy 2 ZS, and have been reading good reviews of ASUS' Xonar Range. The Essence STX seems to be the cream of the crop, but it's a bit expensive and the biggest appeal seems to be with it's headphone amp. Since I am speaker only with my current setup, it is worth saving my money and going for the cheaper D2X model?

Dawson
 
the D2X wouldn't lose you a single feature over the Essence, except for the headphone amp, both have the same processor, same drivers and rough features (in terms of EAX emulation, D3D driver wrapper, OpenAL support, h/w accel, etc etc)

although honestly I'm doubting much of a difference between the A2ZS and the D2X, both are excellent boards and will be feature comparable (in terms of processing abilities, extension support, etc)
 
Really? I found the A2ZS in a scrapped computer, so have never really looked into price / performance much. I take that it was a high end card in it's day?

Will look into it some more before I take the plunge. Thanks for the advice :)
 
Decided on a D2X since I won't be using the headphone output. Received this evening and up and running, sounds great! An immediate improvement over the Audigy2 ZS for sound quality, anyone thinking of making a similar upgrade you won't be disappointed :)
 
im looking into the DX to replace my audigy2 zs. i just installed windows 7 x64 and creative's drivers are awful. Its probably time for an upgrade anyways.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top