I have an xonar Essence One on the way. However I play pc games and I heard that it won't play surround sound. Should I buy a cheap soundcard that does cmss and Dolby and use the optical out to the dac essence one. That way I can use my headphones for gaming and the dac for music when I need to. Or am I wrong about essence one and surround sound. Also is it better to go pc to dac via optical or USB?![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
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Replacing broken soundcard
- Thread starter Kbfore
- Start date
I have an xonar Essence One on the way. However I play pc games and I heard that it won't play surround sound. Should I buy a cheap soundcard that does cmss and Dolby and use the optical out to the dac essence one. That way I can use my headphones for gaming and the dac for music when I need to. Or am I wrong about essence one and surround sound. Also is it better to go pc to dac via optical or USB?Creative cards do CMSS-3D, Xonars do Dolby... Essence One does neither. As to your question, have you used virtual surround before? Do you know for a fact you'll miss it? Some people don't care for it, others can't game without it... For me it depends on the game.
You could always get a cheap DG/DGX if you wanna experiment with it. Tho the Essence One becomes kinda redundant if you feed it optical from the card, basically working as an amp only (an expensive one at that) instead of DAC/amp. If you used it via USB you would be bypassing any installed sound card, tho I'm not terribly familiar with the Essence One and how it'd work if you feed it optical.
What headphones are you using?
You could always get a cheap DG/DGX if you wanna experiment with it. Tho the Essence One becomes kinda redundant if you feed it optical from the card, basically working as an amp only (an expensive one at that) instead of DAC/amp. If you used it via USB you would be bypassing any installed sound card, tho I'm not terribly familiar with the Essence One and how it'd work if you feed it optical.
What headphones are you using?
the essence does not do virtual surround, nor can it output to a surround sound amplifier or speaker set. do you have 5.1 speakers? if no, i wouldnt worry.
here's how i would do it though:
1. alternate sound card set as windows default audio device
2. xonar essence one on usb, and set to only be output for one particular audio application, for example set foobar to output to xonar.
no, it would still work as a DAC and Amp. it would no longer function as a sound device. so you'd loose the ASIO and Asynchronous usb function.
Yeah but it's just semi redundant as a DAC... Obviously it's still actually working as a DAC since it's ultimately the last step before analog output but he has two devices performing the same role. If he's not very critical or has a pair of high end headphones the One might be total overkill, that's all I was trying to get at.
If you're gonna use both and switch ass suggested above, there's a neat little app developed by a forum reader that allows you to switch global output between either from the notification tray, thread shouldn't be hard to find... Though if you do that you wouldn't be taking advantage of the Essence One amp at all times, so it'd be a case of using one device for some things (say the card for gaming) and the other device for other uses; unless the Essence One can handle optical input and USB duties simultaneously (in which case you can easily go from using just the Essence One or both it and the card).
If you're gonna use both and switch ass suggested above, there's a neat little app developed by a forum reader that allows you to switch global output between either from the notification tray, thread shouldn't be hard to find... Though if you do that you wouldn't be taking advantage of the Essence One amp at all times, so it'd be a case of using one device for some things (say the card for gaming) and the other device for other uses; unless the Essence One can handle optical input and USB duties simultaneously (in which case you can easily go from using just the Essence One or both it and the card).
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no its not. there is no digital to analog conversion before the xonar, thus no redundancy.
no. from computer audio to headphone output there are 3 stages:
1. audio interface
2. dac
3. amp
sometimes they are all in one box, like the xonar essence, sometimes there are in 3 boxes. if he connects one sound card to the digital input of the essence, #1 has been shifted from the xonar to the sound card. nothing does the same thing as another.
We've arguing semantics, tho I admit the way I worded that wasn't entirely accurate on either case.
Happy?
He's either spending $50 just for Dolby Headphone on top of the $500+ he spent for a very nice DAC/amp, which is not a terrible value proposition if he just really likes DH and he's happy with the Essence One, or he's spending $500+ on a DAC/amp he may not really need. Maybe the impression of him that I gathered is unfair and he totally knows what he's doing, that's why I asked what headphones he planned to use with all this tho.
Happy?
He's either spending $50 just for Dolby Headphone on top of the $500+ he spent for a very nice DAC/amp, which is not a terrible value proposition if he just really likes DH and he's happy with the Essence One, or he's spending $500+ on a DAC/amp he may not really need. Maybe the impression of him that I gathered is unfair and he totally knows what he's doing, that's why I asked what headphones he planned to use with all this tho.
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you made it sound like something was going to be processed twice.
i understand you better now.
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this is a good question. i'm one of the people that can't stand CMSS-3D and DH.
Great response thank you. I'm using a pair of denon 7100s. I kind of took a leap into some nice audio. I was sick of using my psyko 5.1 headphones. The audio was soo bad. I needed closed headphones due to the situation I work/play in. I think I will try the Essence one by itself and see if I miss the Dolby. I can always add a soundcard after. I have a lot to learn sculpting the audio correctly. I know little about flac and lossless files and foobar. Also if I have to enable asio.....etc. so it should be interesting for me. Are there good websites to learn about this? I've been reading in here and head-fi and utube for info.
When removing old broken soundcard (creative x-fi) and replacing with E1 from USB, what steps should I take to remove ALL old drivers and software like creative apps? Is there specific software that I should get from the Internet? For example - exact audio copy/ foobar2k. Will E1 come with software/drivers? What settings should be set under advanced speaker properties in control panel audio? My default settings are 16bit, 44100hz(cd quality). Do games and music files use different settings? Should I run bit-perfect? What is that and why is it better than standard? Sry for so many ?'s....I'm an audio beginner. TY
Dac/amp arrived today. I can't wait to hear it. I hate to ask but I'd love a response about the questions above. Also is there positional software that can sim surround sound (like rightmark 3d sound)? I've been reading the nameless guide to pc gaming audio on head-fi but its a little complicated. What is rapture3d? Worth a download? Thanks.
Not to be a jerk about it but have you tried googling for answers?
Most of the terms you are asking about should be easily find able that way.