Dip Your Feet in the (Audio) Channels - ASUS Xonar DG - $20 AR @ Newegg

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XacTactX

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Xonar DS Information

This one is better-known, so I'll cut to the chase. This one has the same AV200 audio processor found in the Xonar ST/X, swappable opamps, and DTS Neo 6 for surround sound on the optical out.

$50FS - $10AR = $40

Xonar DS @ Newegg

Xonar DG Information

This Xonar isn't as popular as the other ones, so here's a review to get yourself acquainted. Xonar DG Review @ bit-tech

Here's another review with the DG, Xense, and Realtek ALC 892.

The DG has Dolby Headphone and adjustable impedance for headphones of up to 150 Ohms. It can only send LPCM over optical, home theater is not its strong point. It's meant to cater to headphone users and headphone gaming. Dolby Headphone gives directional audio to games and movies, similar to CMSS3D on X-Fi.

$30FS - $10AR = $20

You may also be charged tax depending on where you live.

ASUS Xonar DG @ Newegg
 
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Hey it has a lifetime warranty also its hard to beat that for a sound card with a lifetime warranty and Thanks for the op.
 
Centauri said:
@ $30, is this thing actually any better than modern onboard sound?
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Here is another review, with the DG, Xense, and Realtek's current best onboard, the 892. Look at the blind listening test, which I linked, then the Rightmark results. The DG compares very favorably with the Xense in the blind listening, and in Rightmark it destroys the 892, and shows off its Xonar heritage.
 
Eh, what the hell. I'm game to try a new card. I bit on the Xonar DS 7.1 though, which comes out to 39.99 AR.
 
Centauri said:
@ $30, is this thing actually any better than modern onboard sound?
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Blows the doors off any Onboard sound solution. Beats many other more expensive sound card solutions. Great card for the price.
 
That review is such a joke. He used his girl friend and some dude that works down the hall for the listening tests. They couldn't tell a difference!

You can see the Realtek plays up to 20kHz, most people have crappy plastic computer speakers that don't even have tweeters! Even if they had tweeters they're going to be junk that probably won't hit 20kHz.

Upgrade you speakers to something that can play full range before wasting your money on a sound card.
 
[QUOTE="I'm not a crook";1036612916]That review is such a joke. He used his girl friend and some dude that works down the hall for the listening tests. They couldn't tell a difference!

You can see the Realtek plays up to 20kHz, most people have crappy plastic computer speakers that don't even have tweeters! Even if they had tweeters they're going to be junk that probably won't hit 20kHz.

Upgrade you speakers to something that can play full range before wasting your money on a sound card.[/QUOTE]

Unless you are still a teenager, I don't think you can hear 20khz. Hearing in adults drops off the cliff at about 15khz.

But I agree with the sentiment that one should have decent speakers, the problem is that decent computer speakers, are going to be monitors, and monitors that are designed to deal with the common compromise of being very near boundry loading areas (WALLS).
In truth the only practical and relatively affordable way of getting good if not great sound out of a pc setup is to pickup a good pair of headphones.

That sound card does provide a great value, and will mate nicely with the expect logitech/klipsch number that will likely be paired with them.
 
use ANY sound card with a digital output and your quality will be the same going into a receiver digitally.

And the previous poster was correct... ANY speakers sold/made/marketed as computer speakers will not be able to benefit from ANY quality computer sound card. If you are using high quality audio/theater speakers (generally min of $100 per speaker) then you MIGHT hear a difference depending on the room/audio played/etc... most gamers are just wasting money - but thank you for supporting the world economy :)
 
so, im guessing that my logitech Z680s with an optical connection wouldnt really benefit from having a real soundcard, compared to my current onboard realtek.
 
LTek said:
...If you are using high quality audio/theater speakers (generally min of $100 per speaker) then you MIGHT hear a difference depending on the room/audio played/etc...
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Thanks for mentioning it; IMO the room you use that audiophile equipment is more often than not, the most neglected variable to a great listening experience.
If you go to any high end audio equipment store, and ask to test a few setups, they will take you to a completely insulated room. Needless to say, they invest a lot into making it soundproof to exterior influences, and make a sale with the discriminate customer.
If people think, however, they can get the same listening experience at home, unless they spent the extra cash to design that room, they're bound to be sorely disappointed.
 
I'm sorry, but i couldn't help laughing to myself.... the fact that a lot of you guys say you can't hear a difference are either deaf or never actually tried it. Most on-board audio suffers GREATLY from background hiss caused by the Mobo Bus traffic. Adding a quality sound card can for the most part alleviate that problem. It also usually adds features the on-board does not have. As stated headphones will let you hear the differences best. Keep in mind the ability of onboard vs 3rd party can be staggering depending on the type of onboard vs dedicated sound card. If your using more than a 2 speaker system you can hear a difference using the actual outputs, using optical you do for the most part bypass the internal DSP/DAC.
 
i have this card in my portapc, the home theater box i take on the road with me so i can play games on the lcds many hotels have now. This thing is great if you need low profile and it kills the craptastic motherboard sound i had, much clearer overall sound and the digital out is a blessing.

made blu ray movies sound a hell of a lot better.
 
IDK how the subject of S/PDIF came up, maybe because the DG has a dedicated port and the DS has an adapter.

The DG can only send LPCM through the optical output. It was really meant to cater to headphone gamers and headphone users on a budget in general. It has a headphone amp that can handle cans with up to 150 Ohms of impedance, and has Dolby Headphone.

The DS on the other hand supports DTS Neo 6 if that's what it's called, but does not have Dolby Headphone.
 
In for the Xonar DS...see how better it is than on board.
 
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XacTactX said:
IDK how the subject of S/PDIF came up, maybe because the DG has a dedicated port and the DS has an adapter.

The DG can only send LPCM through the optical output. It was really meant to cater to headphone gamers and headphone users on a budget in general. It has a headphone amp that can handle cans with up to 150 Ohms of impedance, and has Dolby Headphone.

The DS on the other hand supports DTS Neo 6 if that's what it's called, but does not have Dolby Headphone.
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Thanks. Maybe include this in the OP for those that don't know much about Xonar soundcards (like me). I'm for a DG as I can really hear all kinds of noise on my onboard Realtek
 
V3|!UM said:
I'm sorry, but i couldn't help laughing to myself.... the fact that a lot of you guys say you can't hear a difference are either deaf or never actually tried it. Most on-board audio suffers GREATLY from background hiss caused by the Mobo Bus traffic. Adding a quality sound card can for the most part alleviate that problem. It also usually adds features the on-board does not have. As stated headphones will let you hear the differences best. Keep in mind the ability of onboard vs 3rd party can be staggering depending on the type of onboard vs dedicated sound card. If your using more than a 2 speaker system you can hear a difference using the actual outputs, using optical you do for the most part bypass the internal DSP/DAC.
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A good set of speakers usually can fix this. I use onboard audio (Intel board) paired with a Klipsch GMX 5.1 set with no problems. A nice dedicated sound card might provide cleaner sound but the average 7.1 onboard chip will suit most people.
 
V3|!UM said:
I'm sorry, but i couldn't help laughing to myself.... the fact that a lot of you guys say you can't hear a difference are either deaf or never actually tried it. Most on-board audio suffers GREATLY from background hiss caused by the Mobo Bus traffic. Adding a quality sound card can for the most part alleviate that problem. It also usually adds features the on-board does not have. As stated headphones will let you hear the differences best. Keep in mind the ability of onboard vs 3rd party can be staggering depending on the type of onboard vs dedicated sound card. If your using more than a 2 speaker system you can hear a difference using the actual outputs, using optical you do for the most part bypass the internal DSP/DAC.
Click to expand...

I agree, I couldn't believe that posters here at [H] were basically calling this junk and saying onboard was perfectly fine. Drop the optical folks, this card is a steal at this price. You ears will thank you.

Onboard is utter crap compared to this card.
 
ShepsCrook said:
How does it compare to an X-Fi?
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Close to the X-Fi Titanium models, which makes the DG great for the price.

I got a X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty on BF for $15AR, or I would have considered this card. Very good deal.
 
V3|!UM said:
I'm sorry, but i couldn't help laughing to myself.... the fact that a lot of you guys say you can't hear a difference are either deaf or never actually tried it. Most on-board audio suffers GREATLY from background hiss caused by the Mobo Bus traffic. Adding a quality sound card can for the most part alleviate that problem. It also usually adds features the on-board does not have. As stated headphones will let you hear the differences best. Keep in mind the ability of onboard vs 3rd party can be staggering depending on the type of onboard vs dedicated sound card. If your using more than a 2 speaker system you can hear a difference using the actual outputs, using optical you do for the most part bypass the internal DSP/DAC.
Click to expand...

that is only if you are using some crappy speaker, which it doesn't matter either way.. :rolleyes:
 
The lack of hardware acceleration in on-board sound makes a big difference for games imho. Just the amount of sounds you miss when you don't use a card... I just purchased one of the Xonar's to try for the first time as my X-fi died after 13 months. I wish I had waited now, so I could have saved a few bucks.
 
I haven't bought a sound card for ages, like 5 years. Good ole optical out to my receiver has served me well. To spark some more fire on this onboard vs sound card. They all sound like crap compared to a receiver and good speakers! :p /run
 
Doesn't a card like this with offload CPU cycles compared to onboard audio? I have a realtek HD, and sound separation and things like that seem far worse than even a much older (pre xfi) card I had.
 
defuseme2k said:
Doesn't a card like this with offload CPU cycles compared to onboard audio? I have a realtek HD, and sound separation and things like that seem far worse than even a much older (pre xfi) card I had.
Click to expand...

TO be honest IVe never seen a signifgant ammount of offloaded CPU cycles with ANY modern high end cpu and a sound card.

I think its marketing/rumor tbh.
 
I'm considering these for upgrades to two computers:

#1: An AMD system with onboard ALC888 audio using a pair of Sennheiser headphones

and

#2: An Intel system using an older Audigy2 ZS with an analog 2.1 speaker system.

Would I benefit much from this purchase if I only play a few games, but a lot of movies and music?
 
Sound card hardware acceleration is a joke these days.

Sound processing hasn't gotten any more complicated in the past 10 years like graphics processing has.

Yes, back when everyone had ~2Ghz single core Athlon 32s and Pentium 4s a sound card with hardware acceleration made a good difference. But now everyone has 2-6 cores and to process the audio takes about 1-5% of one single core depending on how fast and modern your CPU is.

The difference isn't worth the cost.

You are best off sending a digital signal out your PC (via S/PDIF for stereo and HDMI for multi-channel) and converting it to analog and amplifying it externally.
 
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I probably should have phrased my question differently. I suppose it does offload some processing, but not much. I'm not nearly as worried about that as compared to how much of a difference I can tell using my realtek HD vs this card. I've read several reviews now since my original post, and it seems that most everyone thought it make quite a bit of difference. From my own experiences, I'm hoping that is true.
 
I have two PC's both using the onboard sound, Realtek ALC889 and ALC892. I'm going to be picking up a pair of M-Audio AV40's today, and was wondering if I'll need a sound card to really make use of them or if the onboard is good enough. They'll mostly be used for gaming and listening to music.
 
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munkle said:
I haven't bought a sound card for ages, like 5 years. Good ole optical out to my receiver has served me well. To spark some more fire on this onboard vs sound card. They all sound like crap compared to a receiver and good speakers! :p /run
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Me too! I <3 my onkyo TX-SR506 + Bookshelf speakers!

Bladestorm said:
I have two PC's both using the onboard sound, Realtek ALC889 and ALC892. I'm going to be picking up a pair of M-Audio AV40's today, and was wondering if I'll need a sound card to really make use of them or if the onboard is good enough. They'll mostly be used for gaming and listening to music.
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I think the only thing you really need to be concerned about is the background hiss/buzz caused by integrated sound. If you can't hear any, then I'd say skip it.
 
Bladestorm said:
I have two PC's both using the onboard sound, Realtek ALC889 and ALC892. I'm going to be picking up a pair of M-Audio AV40's today, and was wondering if I'll need a sound card to really make use of them or if the onboard is good enough. They'll mostly be used for gaming and listening to music.
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For 90% of people onboard sound coupled with a pair of good speakers will be more than good enough.
 
My motherboard has the ALC888, I have the DG, and some AT ATH-AD500 cans. I never switched back to onboard after getting my DG, but I'll switch back today and tell you guys that are curious if I can spot any noticeable difference.

About the hardware sound acceleration, it is insignificant in today's computers for all but single core Sempron 140 and Celeron single core processors if they still sell any. The overall difference between onboard and hardware acceleration IIRC is at most 2% more CPU usage max. It won't make or break your gaming experience or enable you to use higher quality anything compared to without. The biggest gain attributable to a sound card would be higher quality audio, Dolby Headphone, DDL! and DTS Neo 6 if the sound card supports it, Pro Logic II upsampling, and that kind of thing.
 
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munkle said:
I haven't bought a sound card for ages, like 5 years. Good ole optical out to my receiver has served me well. To spark some more fire on this onboard vs sound card. They all sound like crap compared to a receiver and good speakers! :p /run
Click to expand...

That all depends on how good your receiver's DAC is. If the DAC is worse than the one in HT Omega's Claro and up models, as well as higher end Xonar models, using said sound cards would be a better choice.
 
XacTactX said:
My motherboard has the ALC888, I have the DG, and some AT ATH-AD500 cans. I never switched back to onboard after getting my DG, but I'll switch back today and tell you guys that are curious if I can spot any noticeable difference.

About the hardware sound acceleration, it is insignificant in today's computers for all but single core Sempron 140 and Celeron single core processors if they still sell any. The overall difference between onboard and hardware acceleration IIRC is at most 2% more CPU usage max. It won't make or break your gaming experience or enable you to use higher quality anything compared to without. The biggest gain attributable to a sound card would be higher quality audio, Dolby Headphone, DDL! and DTS Neo 6 if the sound card supports it, Pro Logic II upsampling, and that kind of thing.
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It's sad we "need" a sound card for some of those features sometimes.

All of those features are easily implemented in software alone.

For example, I use FFDShow for decoding my video and audio what I play through MPC:HC. FFDShow provides the ability to matrix encode 2 or more streams into Dolby Pro Logic II to send over a stereo cable to a receiver to play in 5.1. FFDShow also provides the ability to encode multi-channel inputs into AC3 (Dolby Digital) to send the actual 6 channels across S/PDIF and out even the integrated S/PDIF port on the motherboard. Finally, FFDShow has an option to encode multiple channels into a stereo signal via an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function just like Dolby Headphone) to be used with headphones on things like movies.

It's a real shame that most of the implementations for these technologies and software is written in the form of drivers for sound cards so it appears we "need" the sound card to run the code, when really we could just do it on the on-board.

Someone really really needs to write a third party sound system that has things like Pro Logic II, some HRTF implementation, and a real-time AC3 encoder so we can use it with video games on existing on-board solutions. If we use the S/PDIF or HDMI port on our motherboards it's going to be the same as using the S/PDIF or HDMI port on a sound card.

I don't think would be that hard, all of those functions and algorithms already exist, you just need to tie them all together into a nice software package and hook them into WASAPI (Windows Audio System API).

The only "real" use for a sound card is if you want a better DAC and amplifier INSIDE your PC for some reason. Even though they make much better external DACs and amplifiers that are still quite small and don't rely on having a free PCI or PCIe slot and can also be moved around between computers and used with laptops.
 
XacTactX said:
The DG can only send LPCM through the optical output. It was really meant to cater to headphone gamers and headphone users on a budget in general. It has a headphone amp that can handle cans with up to 150 Ohms of impedance, and has Dolby Headphone.

The DS on the other hand supports DTS Neo 6 if that's what it's called, but does not have Dolby Headphone.
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so if i have audio technica ath-m50 headphones, then i'm better off with the cheaper DG than the xonar DS since the DG is specif for headphones?
 
SirMaster said:
It's sad we "need" a sound card for some of those features sometimes.

All of those features are easily implemented in software alone.

For example, I use FFDShow for decoding my video and audio what I play through MPC:HC. FFDShow provides the ability to matrix encode 2 or more streams into Dolby Pro Logic II to send over a stereo cable to a receiver to play in 5.1. FFDShow also provides the ability to encode multi-channel inputs into AC3 (Dolby Digital) to send the actual 6 channels across S/PDIF and out even the integrated S/PDIF port on the motherboard. Finally, FFDShow has an option to encode multiple channels into a stereo signal via an HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function just like Dolby Headphone) to be used with headphones on things like movies.

It's a real shame that most of the implementations for these technologies and software is written in the form of drivers for sound cards so it appears we "need" the sound card to run the code, when really we could just do it on the on-board.

Someone really really needs to write a third party sound system that has things like Pro Logic II, some HRTF implementation, and a real-time AC3 encoder so we can use it with video games on existing on-board solutions. If we use the S/PDIF or HDMI port on our motherboards it's going to be the same as using the S/PDIF or HDMI port on a sound card.

I don't think would be that hard, all of those functions and algorithms already exist, you just need to tie them all together into a nice software package and hook them into WASAPI (Windows Audio System API).

The only "real" use for a sound card is if you want a better DAC and amplifier INSIDE your PC for some reason. Even though they make much better external DACs and amplifiers that are still quite small and don't rely on having a free PCI or PCIe slot and can also be moved around between computers and used with laptops.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this post. I had always been in a haze regarding how the software and hardware aspects relate to each other. So to summarize what you wrote(and for me to confirm if I understood you correctly):

TLDR: Only software has to support the decoding algorithms that one wishes to use. As long as the physical outputs and the software is available, one can make use of any of the features that a sound card touts. The only difference between onboard and a sound card is the DAC and hardware that does the work.

I'm totally going to buy a USB DAC now. I never understood any of this. God bless you.
 
I use onboard sound right now, and really want to upgrade sound as everyone says onboard is junk. To add, I also have a PCI Soundblaster Live! 5.1 Gamer Edition (old,yes, but still has 5.1 digital).

1) What is the difference between my old SB Live! and this new Xonar? I don't need 7.1 audio or anything fancy, just a headphone jack :)

2) What's the best one to use for gaming/music (Rock & R&B tunes). Should I just use my old SB live 5.1?

edit: nevermind, I read the whole thread :D
 
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