Happy Xonar D2 owner

G

Godmachine

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
Messages
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Just snagged a Xonar D2 and I gotta say this is by far the best sounding card I've ever owned. I tried the Xi-fi Titanium and ran into nothing but huge issues .. drivers, being forced into reinstalling my OS to even get the card seen by windows (after a complete clean of previous audigy 2 drivers) and I'm done with creative.

This card has rich beautiful sound and even with a lesser quality headset sounds amazing (dolby headphone is pretty impressive). The only downside so far is the UI for the cards options is a little stale and complicated... but thats a small issue.

If your thinking about pulling the trigger I recommend this.
 
Please don't pull the trigger... you have so much to live for, and once you pull the trigger you can't go back.
 
The Xonar D2 and D2X have some nice Burr-Brown DAC chips in them. The circuit is still really noisy compared to what I'd like, and you still have a cruddy amp, but it's great compared to many sound cards.

I wonder how much better it would sound if you tapped the line-out and used an external amp or even some speakers with integral amplification...:D


The annoying part is that the main stereo output on a sound card is "sort of" amplified...enough for headphones, not enough for speakers. Maybe it has some sort of load-dependent circuit in it...but I'm thinking it may be getting amplified twice, which would cause some of the sound distortion attributed to sound cards...hmmm, I'm curious now.

Balthazor said:
Please don't pull the trigger... you have so much to live for, and once you pull the trigger you can't go back.
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WTF?? :eek:
 
I'm actually considering getting a ASUS Xonar. I hate my current card; Razer Barracuda AC-1. It works well when it does but it's a PITA to set up and to get it working.
 
dC0m said:
I'm actually considering getting a ASUS Xonar. I hate my current card; Razer Barracuda AC-1. It works well when it does but it's a PITA to set up and to get it working.
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Since you probably got the AC-1 for gaming , I would go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156005

The reason I snagged the Xonar was because of music mostly , I just wanted a clean sound (I dont have room for a external amp) as much as possible. For postional audio I would have gone with the prelude for gaming but It doesn't matter enough for me to.
 
ashmedai said:
Apparently the Xonar can do EAX emulation. :eek:
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Not really only EAX 2.0 and while thats fine its no match to EAX 5.0 (which the prelude can do) at all if positional audio is important , which it is to big time gamers.
 
I thought the Xonar series had a special audio layer that 'fools' games into thinking you've got EAX 5.0 capability, and then gives you an approximation of EAX 5.0 effects?
 
And that EAX 2.0 was basically fair game for anything. But, been wrong before. Anyone got docs?
 
EAX 2.0 is an open standard- anyone can use it. the xonar accepts eax 5.0 calls from games but has no eax 5.0 capabilities besides extra voices. the xonar still relies on a 6 yr old sensaura 3d sound engine. (creative labs bought out sensuara about 6 yrs ago :) )

almost all eax capable games moved on from eax2 about 7-8 yrs ago but will 'fall back' to it if its there. on same games its fine, on others it sucks donkey butt. games that dont like eax2 will reward you with no bass and screechy hi notes, odd reverb, and sometimes out-of-whack distance cues
 
ashmedai said:
The annoying part is that the main stereo output on a sound card is "sort of" amplified...enough for headphones, not enough for speakers. Maybe it has some sort of load-dependent circuit in it...but I'm thinking it may be getting amplified twice, which would cause some of the sound distortion attributed to sound cards...
Click to expand...
Usually it's an impedance-switching type system. Plug a line level device into it, and you're getting line level (or at least something fairly close to it). Plug headphones into it, and you're getting headphone level. There's no double-amping or anything.
 
Hey,I heard the XonorD2 was great been wanting that are the Creative Xi-Fi chipset one......hmmmmm..........:)
 
I bought and returned the Xonar D2. Horrible. Sound in games caused massive frame rate drops. I have a beefy rig too, 3 GHz x6800 and a 8800GTX.

The Xonar D2 did not fix my Vista SP1 sound issues with legacy directsound, and neither did Alchemy, a X-Fi or an Audigy 2 ZX. Im back on motherboard audio and I will upgrade to Windows XP SP3 and the Audigy2 ZX or get an X-Fi.

Let me be straight: X-Fi does suck, all cards seem to suck hard on Vista SP1 right now. I have come to the conclusion that for me, the only way to game properly at the moment is Windows XP SP3 and a Creative Audigy2 or X-Fi in 32-bit mode.

The sound landscape is so hostile, so anti legacy and so anti gaming on 64 bit and on Vista Sp1 (Vista RTM worked ok), that I'm simply sick and tired of the mess that has been created and am disgusted with the regressions going on.

I cannot believe that anyone could recommend the Xonar, I just battle tested it and it was really horrible, It screwed up on everyone one of the Hitman Series games, and when it was uninstalled, the Creative drivers wouldnt ever install again.
 
mickrussom said:
and when it was uninstalled, the Creative drivers wouldnt ever install again.
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:eek:

Well other than that massive red flag to break out the salt, did you try it on anything OTHER than Hitman? Having issues with one game (or series) isn't as telling as a more broad-spectrum result would be.
 
ashmedai said:
:eek:

Well other than that massive red flag to break out the salt, did you try it on anything OTHER than Hitman? Having issues with one game (or series) isn't as telling as a more broad-spectrum result would be.
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Totally agree with this statment. Honestly I haven't had ANY issues period, my frame rates are great and the sound is beautiful and wide. I've had nothing but issues with creative over the years so I'm stickin with this card.

You really should try another game though , some games just have EAX issues and likely isn't the card its-self, as for creative drivers never installing again thats creatives drivers for you . Creative drivers are some of the worse I've ever experienced , they hate to be installed after ANY other audio cards have been uninstalled period ..so that problem isn't limited to Asus Xonar's.

If you didn't do a fresh install as well when you put the Xonar in than thats another likely problem.
 
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