Best sound card 2012

[NeoDiNardo]

I had a Titanium HD last year, was going to do the Xonor STX, but found the reviews indicated poor drivers compared to the titanium hd. The titanium hd seemed to do it all, good drivers, great for games/music/movies alike. I see that Asus has this Pheobus card that looks great, how are the drivers and did anything else top the Titanium HD?

 

[NeoDiNardo]

I will perhaps use a pair of sennheiser 700 HDs

 

[TESLA]

All available sound cards seem to have driver quirks on certain systems, including those based around the X-Fi chipset.

For my part, I own both the X-Fi Forte and the STX. I had no problems with the X-Fi drivers for over a year, then I had to reformat. After which, dropouts and static began to appear, and nothing I did, including subsequent reformats, helped the matter. The STX, meanwhile, has been rock solid since then.

Honestly, both cards are solid cards, each with slightly different characteristics. Both also have potential driver issues. In my experience, I have had fewer issues with the STX, but if the HD has worked for you, I say stick with it.

One note about potentially driving the 700s, however. The STX has a discrete headphone amplifier, but the HD does not. This is not to say that the HD can't drive headphones, it can, and in many cases it will do so quite well. The 700s, though, will likely require some serious amplification.

In fact, if you plan to go with the 700s, you may want a desktop amplifier down the line anyway to pair with them. In which case, the HD's line section is just fine.

 

[guitarslingerchris]

As TESLA says, if you plan to use the sound card alone you will need the STX to drive the 150 ohm HD700s.

 

[KrayLoN1977]

Ive heard good things about Asus' cards but the one i was eyeing is the HT-Omega cards. If you look on Newegg they have excellent reviews and in some cases cheaper than Asus' cards.

 

[rive22]

The STX on the max gain setting is right on the borderline of being able to successfully drive those headphones. This would come down to how full sounding and also how loud you like your music. The amp on that card is very weak.

For all around movies/games/music your best bet is to buy a soundcard suited for movies & games and then buy an external DAC/AMP to drive the headphones for music. There are many inexpensive ones out there that make any soundcard on the market appear like a ford focus.

 

[NeoDiNardo]

The Pheobus does have that nice amp section too.

 

[rive22]

The Phoebus uses the same amp and supplies the same output power. There are a couple tidbit changes that give it a slightly better sound & the audio control center is better, but considering one can't switch out the opamps like you can on the Essence, the card is more of a side grade. That part is not a problem for most people, but worth noting.

The Xonar Essence One is a Xonar worth getting for driving higher impedance headphones if you want to get a lot more out of them. Though in the price bracket there are much better options by many manufacturers that specialize in headphone audio DAC/AMPS. Since Asus is known worldwide by many and considered to be good quality with their computer gear, they can get away with over pricing their products because for the majority of people out there they will think that's all there is so it "must be the best".

The Essence will power anything 100ohms and under with authority and sound fantastic using 2nd & 3rd gain. Yes even you guys running around with 32ohm headphones can use medium gain and it will be a perfect fit. 150ohms on max gain is borderline, when you start moving above that it becomes more and more like dropping a 3 cylinder motor in a steel bodied car.