New Sound Card: Asus or Creative Labs??

leSLIe

leSLIe

Fisting is Too Mainstream for Me
Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Messages
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I've been out of the sound card loop for a while.
Now, which one is better: (These two are within my budget)

-Asus Xonar Essence STX or
-CL Sound Blaster ZX

I'll be using digital coaxial output (or maybe optical out) to 5.1 sorround sound system
I'll be using it mainly for gaming, music and movies.

edit: I might be willing to go a little higher pricewise, like for a CL Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD if it's worth it...
 
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Which surround system and/or receiver and does it have an hdmi input? I used to big on Creative cards, but I've sinced moved on to hdmi out from the PC and haven't looked back.

If you're stuck with the coaxial or toslink input on your sound system, then you'll need a card (or onboard) that supports DTS Connect (preferable) or Dolby Digital Live - which encode the multichannel surround signal into something the lone coax or toslink can handle and your receiver decodes.I believe the Creative card has this function, but it's something to look at for both cards. If one does and the other doesn't, then your choice is made. If they both do, then it boils down to build quality and the amount of fun 'dsp' each card has that you may want to play with.
 
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My Asus Phoebus is a complete POS as far as drivers go, and Asus refused to honor the warranty for it when the breakout box shorted out. They told me that it was an accessory and accessories aren't covered under warranty. The breakout box has the volume control, noise cancelling mic, headphone jack, and main mic jack jack built into it. They wouldn't even sell me a replacement breakout box! I would definitely go with the Creative solution if I were in your shoes. Leave the Asus trash in the store.
 
With the system spec you have listed and the 2 choices, i would suggest the sound blaster.
 
If you're going to use coax or optical outputs, then any half-decent on-board audio solution will work just fine as long as there's DTS Connect or DDL.
 
Creative. Do not touch ASUS products with a 100 foot pole.

If you ever have a warranty issue with one of their products, you might as well just throw it in the trash.
 
Snufykat said:
With the system spec you have listed and the 2 choices, i would suggest the sound blaster.
Click to expand...

Actually, with his system spec...it doesn't make one damn difference what soundcard he uses. Using Ye Olde TOSLINK/SPDIF means he's offloading all DAC duties. As such the soundcard is nothing more than a passthrough. Ergo the soundcard choice is basically irrelevant.
 
leSLIe said:
I've been out of the sound card loop for a while.
Now, which one is better: (These two are within my budget)

-Asus Xonar Essence STX or
-CL Sound Blaster ZX

I'll be using digital coaxial output (or maybe optical out) to 5.1 sorround sound system
I'll be using it mainly for gaming, music and movies.

edit: I might be willing to go a little higher pricewise, like for a CL Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD if it's worth it...
Click to expand...

IF you are using digital out, then it doesn't matter which one you pick, the sound quality will be entirely dependent on the surround sound system you are connecting it to. If you have a motherboard with optical or coaxial out just use that. No point in wasting money.
 
reaper12 said:
IF you are using digital out, then it doesn't matter which one you pick, the sound quality will be entirely dependent on the surround sound system you are connecting it to. If you have a motherboard with optical or coaxial out just use that. No point in wasting money.
Click to expand...

Depends on the motherboard. Last I went looking for motherboards 2 years ago most could not live encode PCM to DDL/DTS. Which meant for gaming any game that did surround sound was limited to stereo of TOSLINK/SPDIF, necessitating a need for a sound card.
 
If you aren't going to use the DAC on the soundcard, then there is really no reason to go for the highest-end offerings. I'm not saying you should use onboard, but just get a much cheaper Sound Blaster Z (instead of ZX or ZxR) or a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium (non-HD).
 
Skripka said:
Using Ye Olde TOSLINK/SPDIF means he's offloading all DAC duties. As such the soundcard is nothing more than a passthrough. Ergo the soundcard choice is basically irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Skripka said:
Depends on the motherboard. Last I went looking for motherboards 2 years ago most could not live encode PCM to DDL/DTS. Which meant for gaming any game that did surround sound was limited to stereo of TOSLINK/SPDIF, necessitating a need for a sound card.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you posted contradictory posts. If a soundcard is doing live DD or DTS encoding, then it's certainly elevated it's role above that of a simple "passthrough" at that point. Not to mention other processing features, such as CMSS-3D, a good EQ, Advanced Microphone processing, etc. A soundcard using digital output will still do everything it would do if it was using it's analog output except for processing the audio through the DAC. So, if your soundcard has even one feature that you use or like, there is still reason to use it. Luckily in many cases, the main difference between a cheaper soundcard (Sound Blaster Z, X-Fi Titanium, etc) and an expensive soundcard (Sound Blaster ZxR, X-Fi Titanium HD, etc) is mainly just the DAC.
 
I don't hate my Xonar DGX card. It does have a great headphone amp. But I wouldn't buy a Asus sound card again.
 
techie81 said:
I do because I don't want my audio to sound like it came out of a tin can.
Click to expand...

I guess these same people wonder why anyone buys luxury cars or high end motherboards vs the same old "good enough" shit...

And ASUS is well-known for having one of the worst RMA departments in the business, but outside of that, I have no idea why people are bashing their soundcards. Xonar ST and Xonar STX (II) are the best soundcards for music under $500, hands down.
 
leSLIe said:
snip
Click to expand...

Do you even PCI-E bro-ette?:p

I've had the STX and have a Z as well. I really liked the STX but had no use for it when I did some audio upgrades and sold it. The Z sits in a 2nd pc but it's really nice as well. I'm sure the ZX is probably nicer. Have you looked at the STXII? If I were in your position, I'd probably just buy the Z and be done with it. If your case has a window, be prepared to be blinded by the red light.
 
lol...

GotNoRice said:
The ones who aren't content with an office-computer style minimalistic feature-set still do.
Click to expand...

Or the ones who don't want the best quality.. A cheap USB dac/amp combo will walk all over the best non-proffessional sound cards you can buy.

He meant most people have realized sound cards are inferior to external dacs and amps. The prices have fallen so much and the quality has surpassed internal soundcards that unless you have a specific need (heavy gamer), there is no reason to use an internal card. Plus you avoid all the interference (like being complained about in the Sounblaster thread just below this).

I wouldn't piss away my money for a sound card when for a little more I can have superior sound. I've tried multiple cards and I wasn't impressed with any of them, the last being the STX as I mentioned in the STX post.
 
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Allisons Dad said:
lol...



Or the ones who don't want the best quality.. A cheap USB dac/amp combo will walk all over the best non-proffessional sound cards you can buy.

He meant most people have realized sound cards are inferior to external dacs and amps. The prices have fallen so much and the quality has surpassed internal soundcards that unless you have a specific need (heavy gamer), there is no reason to use an internal card. Plus you avoid all the interference (like being complained about in the Sounblaster thread just below this).

I wouldn't piss away my money for a sound card when for a little more I can have superior sound. I've tried multiple cards and I wasn't impressed with any of them, the last being the STX as I mentioned in the STX post.
Click to expand...

This has really all been gone over already, but for the slow folk; a Soundcard is more than just it's DAC. 99% of USB dacs give you little than the most basic of functionality. Soundcards give you more. Things like on the fly Dolby and DTS encoding, CMSS-3d, etc. Now if you don't need or care about functionality, then great, but there are many who do. The OP said right in his first post that he isn't even using the DAC on the soundcard, but just digital output, so this thread was never about internal soundcard analog output quality.
 
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Skripka said:
Actually, with his system spec...it doesn't make one damn difference what soundcard he uses. Using Ye Olde TOSLINK/SPDIF means he's offloading all DAC duties. As such the soundcard is nothing more than a passthrough. Ergo the soundcard choice is basically irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
Skripka said:
Depends on the motherboard. Last I went looking for motherboards 2 years ago most could not live encode PCM to DDL/DTS. Which meant for gaming any game that did surround sound was limited to stereo of TOSLINK/SPDIF, necessitating a need for a sound card.
Click to expand...

Or that.....
 
John721 said:
Which surround system and/or receiver and does it have an hdmi input? I used to big on Creative cards, but I've sinced moved on to hdmi out from the PC and haven't looked back..
Click to expand...

Sony HT-M5
http://www.sony-asia.com/product/ht-m5
That thing can decode DTS and all that stuff. (Not THX certified though)
The backplate is very similar to this
mULEJcS.jpg

Will take photo later on

John721 said:
If you're stuck with the coaxial or toslink input on your sound system, then you'll need a card (or onboard) that supports DTS Connect (preferable) or Dolby Digital Live - which encode the multichannel surround signal into something the lone coax or toslink can handle and your receiver decodes.I believe the Creative card has this function, but it's something to look at for both cards. If one does and the other doesn't, then your choice is made. If they both do, then it boils down to build quality and the amount of fun 'dsp' each card has that you may want to play with.
Click to expand...

As you can see, there is no 5.1 analog input, so I'm stuck with either HDMI or DIGITAL

Snufykat said:
With the system spec you have listed and the 2 choices, i would suggest the sound blaster.
Click to expand...

The specs on my sig is from my primary setup :cool: :p I'm using the secondary setup for other stuff (Corei7, Amd 290x, etc)

Skripka said:
Using Ye Olde TOSLINK/SPDIF means he's offloading all DAC duties. As such the soundcard is nothing more than a passthrough. Ergo the soundcard choice is basically irrelevant.
Click to expand...

reaper12 said:
IF you are using digital out, then it doesn't matter which one you pick, the sound quality will be entirely dependent on the surround sound system you are connecting it to. If you have a motherboard with optical or coaxial out just use that. No point in wasting money.
Click to expand...

GotNoRice said:
If you aren't going to use the DAC on the soundcard, then there is really no reason to go for the highest-end offerings. I'm not saying you should use onboard, but just get a much cheaper Sound Blaster Z (instead of ZX or ZxR) or a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium (non-HD).
Click to expand...

Interesting, the thing is that with this on-board sound card digital out, I only get 2.1 so the 5.1 system goes to waste :(

TypeO said:
Do you even PCI-E bro-ette?:p
Click to expand...

I do :)

GotNoRice said:
This has really all been gone over already, but for the slow folk; a Soundcard is more than just it's DAC. 99% of USB dacs give you little than the most basic of functionality. Soundcards give you more. Things like on the fly Dolby and DTS encoding, CMSS-3d, etc. Now if you don't need or care about functionality, then great, but there are many who do. The OP said right in his first post that he isn't even using the DAC on the soundcard, but just digital output, so this thread was never about internal soundcard analog output quality.
Click to expand...

I'm not using the DAC, because the AMP has only DIGITAL or HDMI input, No 5.1 analog input...
 
leSLIe said:
I'm not using the DAC, because the AMP has only DIGITAL or HDMI input, No 5.1 analog input...
Click to expand...

If you got ATI video card, just install the audio driver and run audio over HDMI to the receiver.
If your M/B has on-board sound and DTS encoder, run audio over SPDIF to the receiver.
Problem solved.
 
Yeah, ^ that up there. If you have a full-blown A/V receiver you're using for audio output, a sound card would be actual overkill; go for HDMI or SPDIF output to it, save some money, and rock on.
 
I wish had found this thread before sooner. Now I have a dedicated card, a couple of USB DAC/headphone amps, and I am not loving either one solution. Glad to hear you guys are happy with your choices.
 
Saturn_V said:
I don't hate my Xonar DGX card. It does have a great headphone amp. But I wouldn't buy a Asus sound card again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've got a D2X that sounded great, but the driver support was abysmal. Switched to an SB Z and haven't looked back. I think the D2X sounded better for music, but for gaming the SB is way better.
 
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