Need a new sound card ..

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Spidey329

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 15, 2003
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So my X-Fi XtremeGamer-Pro-Fatality-ultra-deluxe-semi-decent edition died and I'm relatively tired of replacing Creative soundcards (I have a stack of 4 in my drawer of dead/replacements - they seem to last about 2-3 years tops).

Any good recommendations? It's been years since I've been in the audio soundcard market.

I use the PC for music and gaming. It has a dedicated amp receiver (Yamaha HTR-5730) which has optical-in. I *did* enjoy some of the software features of the X-Fi (CMSS,Crystal, etc). I noticed the ASUS Xonar DG series is only $29 and offers digital out. Any good? Will I be missing anything from the X-Fi? Don't care about anything above 5.1.

For reference, the mobo is a ASUS P6T SE (it has optical out, but I've never used it. Never been too keen on onboard audio).
 
Sorry to hear your sound cards die so easily on you. I have 3 creative cards in use right now and they vary from like 8 years to 3 years old. and they all work perfectly. Sorry you had bad luck with yours. I'd look at the Titanium HD , but if you don't want creave then maybe check out the ASUS cards. I've heard good things about them
 
willdearborn said:
Sorry to hear your sound cards die so easily on you. I have 3 creative cards in use right now and they vary from like 8 years to 3 years old. and they all work perfectly. Sorry you had bad luck with yours. I'd look at the Titanium HD , but if you don't want creave then maybe check out the ASUS cards. I've heard good things about them
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Yeah. Just don't have luck with the Creative. It's not like one machine has killed all four. Those are from workstations that have had them (OEM models). In this one tower, I've personally gone through two X-Fi's.

The Titanium HD looks nice, but I'm unwilling to spend that much on an soundcard. The Yamaha receiver does any/all mixing, so probably don't need it.
 
I have a Xonar DG and it is a solid card i paid $15 for mine after a rebate..for the money I can't complain. I have been able to compare the DG to the oboard realtek audio (DG wins) and my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (meh.. tie..i think) and my FiiO E07K/E9 combo.. i think I prefer this to the DG but that combo cost $180~ sooo the fact it is kinda close speaks well of the DG I think.... I prefer the FiiO stuff but it doesn't make me say OMG this DG is such garbabe compared to it...

i have my DG hooked up to my Yammy RX-V573 via optical and it is a very satisfactory situation indeed.


depending on your preferences there is also the DGX (pci express version) or the DG like mine PCI.
 
:) From google. Maybe useful for you.
Creative Labs also marketed a sound card about the same time called the Creative Music System. Although the C/MS had twelve voices to AdLib's nine, and was a stereo card while the AdLib was mono, the basic technology behind it was based on the Philips SAA 1099 chip which was essentially a square-wave generator. It sounded much like twelve simultaneous PC speakers would have except for each channel having amplitude control, and failed to sell well, even after Creative renamed it the Game Blaster a year later, and marketed it through Radio Shack in the US. The Game Blaster retailed for under $100 and was compatible with many popular games, such as Silpheed.
 
Spidey329 said:
For reference, the mobo is a ASUS P6T SE (it has optical out, but I've never used it. Never been too keen on onboard audio).
Click to expand...

The Optical out is a SPDIF or digital. Meaning the audio processing is done by a external DAC (Digital to Analog). The quality of the onboard sound means nothing when using a SPDIF out. At that point its all about what you hook it to. If you like only headphones, then a external mini DAC+Amp is a nice setup. Its also useful to hook up to a home receiver. I ran optical out to a Onkyo 5.1 receiver with a setup of Kenwood bookshelf speakers and a active sub. (2.1 setup) it sounded great, far better.than "soundcard+computer speakers"
 
I(illa Bee said:
The Optical out is a SPDIF or digital. Meaning the audio processing is done by a external DAC (Digital to Analog). The quality of the onboard sound means nothing when using a SPDIF out. At that point its all about what you hook it to. If you like only headphones, then a external mini DAC+Amp is a nice setup. Its also useful to hook up to a home receiver. I ran optical out to a Onkyo 5.1 receiver with a setup of Kenwood bookshelf speakers and a active sub. (2.1 setup) it sounded great, far better.than "soundcard+computer speakers"
Click to expand...

Hmm, thanks for the heads up. I was unsure if the onboard SPDIF/Digital did any processing or just passed the signal. Obviously a passed signal will make the Yamaha 500w receiver shine. I may just try that.

My onlyquestion is, do I lose some gaming fidelity? I wouldn't have EAX/EAX-Emulation support anymore, right? I guess I just might need to fire it up and test.

With the X-Fi I had the receiver set to "Direct" (no processing on the receiver side).
 
If you're reciever is doing the processing set your onboard sound to output 5.1. If you're using optical it'll have to be dolby or DTS. I think if you using HDMI then it can be PCM. Then your reciever outputs the channels to real speakers and you don't need EAX/CMSS-3d. That stuff is more for headphones than anything else.
 
I recently upgraded from a X-Fi XtremeMusic to a SB Z...both Creative cards. The sound difference between the two is pretty incredible. I can recommend the SB Z if you're willing to pony up the dough for it.
 
I know the Ti HD is a fantastic card because I use one but the story is similar. $$$
 
Spidey329 said:
Hmm, thanks for the heads up. I was unsure if the onboard SPDIF/Digital did any processing or just passed the signal. Obviously a passed signal will make the Yamaha 500w receiver shine. I may just try that.

My onlyquestion is, do I lose some gaming fidelity? I wouldn't have EAX/EAX-Emulation support anymore, right? I guess I just might need to fire it up and test.

With the X-Fi I had the receiver set to "Direct" (no processing on the receiver side).
Click to expand...

yea IDK, I never liked "EAX" in games anyway, it sounded fake to me, and especially didn't like it with music.
 
EAX is turd for normal sound effects if you play a lot of rpg's or single player games. EAX with some online fps games it may sound weird but it helps with footsteps. Am I under the influence of placebo or bias = possibly.
 
Dexter007 said:
I recently upgraded from a X-Fi XtremeMusic to a SB Z...both Creative cards. The sound difference between the two is pretty incredible. I can recommend the SB Z if you're willing to pony up the dough for it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm playing around with the SBz right now as it was all that was instock besides low-end (onboard quality) style cards. I will say they did improve the driver/interface. If I had to choose between the TitHD (can be had refurbed for about $80) or the SBz (can be had for about $90 on sale), I'd probably pick the SBz as it isn't EOL (new to the market).

I do get much better sound using optical. But I lose volume control on a system/master level, have to adjust via receiver or via application. Annoying.

I've always had difficulty with optical-pass-thru on my HTPC, it is a low-end card ($9 PPA Intl.), so I'm not sold yet. Haven't tried the P6T onboard optical yet (just been playing with the SBz). With the SBZ, the analog vs. digital quality is night and day. Question is, if I choose to go pure digital - is it worth the cost of the card, since it's just essentially offloading the signal with a little Dolby encoding in-between?

For reference, I tried out FC3 with optical sound - that was awesome. The 50cal shakes the house.
 
Optical bypasses all of the sound cards processing effect. You should just use onboard if you want to use optical.
 
spaceman said:
Optical bypasses all of the sound cards processing effect. You should just use onboard if you want to use optical.
Click to expand...

On the SBz, I think it does do some encoding. If you set the encoder between Dolby Digital and Dolby Neo, you get a noticeable sound difference. "No encoder" on the other hand, sounds like that, no processing.

Going to play with the Realtek (onboard) tonight.

Unfortunately, no solution to the master volume thing. No-one knows a fix for this? Since application volumes work, I'd assume there's gotta be a way to tie them altogether using digital. If not, I may have to buy a knob for my receiver, lol.
 
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