Comparison between Integrated and addon Soundcards

[kantjd]

Could anybody point out to a recent comparison between integrated audio (recent codecs) and discrete sound cards like the latest Creative X-Fi models (for example). It's been a while since I've seen a good review on the matter, especially considering how Vista pretty much nerfed all the advantages discrete soundcards have held for a while (maybe I'm wrong... that's still the prevalent opinion though). Thanks!

 

[SBB]

I think sound cards are still an essential component of a high performance build, I personally use an X-Fi Titanium PCI-E and apart from a few small driver issues (fixed by installing the latest betas) its great, and theres a big difference between this and onboard sound. The main "killer features" for me are the X-Fi Crystallizer, which improves MP3 quality making them a bit more exciting to listen to, and even though vista originally broke EAX etc. OpenAL allows game acceleration. Plus the sound card is created with better quality components than an onboard chip so overall sound quality is better. For gaming I would go with the X-Fi Titanium, for audiophile/home theatre the Asus Xonar D2X.

 

[seemlessthunder]

No offense, but Crystalizer is crap. It just thins out the signal to give the appearance of better clarity. You notice it the most in the midrange though. You lose a lot of texture there. I've gone Xonar DX and I'll never go back to X-Fi. Auzentek X-Fi may be ok, but whatever you do, make sure you get one that's got an equalizer so you can tweak the sound for your speakers. Xonar line has a 10-band EQ - something that's been sorely missing from the X-Fi drivers for some time.

 

[EarlKeim]

I have used an Audigy 2zs, and x-fi Fatality, and now an X-Fi Titanium in the last year. My favorite of the bunch has been my Audigy 2zs. The Audigy 2's clarity of playback, channel separation, and gaming ability are second to none. Creative may not have created the best drivers and applications for Vista/Windows 7, but Daniel K.s driver packs for all 3 Creative cards have been outstanding. Onboard sound codecs lag badly, have no sound stage whatsoever, and always sound flat!. I have analog Logitech 5.1 speakers/sub and these sound fantastic with the Creative cards. If you take the time to use the Daniel K drivers you will appreciate the Creative cards in ASIO apps, games, movies and music. Foobar with Asio plugins works very well. VLC Media Player for movie playback sounds excellent using analog or digital/spdif out with the Creative cards and your choice of speakers. Games are still unparalleled with the Creative cards over the Asus Xonar line anyday. Perhaps there are more expensive cards that sound better, or onboard sound codec/cards that can "do the job" but for the price/performance ratio, I'll take my Audigy or X-Fi Titanium anyday.

Earl Keim

 

[seemlessthunder]

Depends what he's looking for. It's better, but only for games and only with surround. For stereo or 2.1 the Xonar still mop the floor with any recent Creative cards. I had an Audigy 2 zs and have regretted ever "upgrading" to various X-Fi models. The Xonar sounds very good and I'm quite pleased. If someone wants to game, Auzentek X-Fi or Audigy 2zs are good for a surround setup. But Creative is bad bad bad...