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Soundcard Suggestions?

S

synthetikv

n00b
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
36
Hello all, I've been outta the loop on audio for awhile. But my old logitechs are dying a slow death and it was time to replace the speakers.

I went with the Corsair 2500's they seem to be getting the best reviews of the current stuff out.

I'm looking for a sound card to use with them. I've read the Xonar's are the best currently out but there's alot of different models so I'm a bit confused as to what i actually need.

Basically the rig is for video games (mostly wow), and some music. I have a MSI P55-GD65 with onboard realtek garbage that I'm currently using as my old soundblaster died a couple years ago. I do use a headset for vent but it is a usb headset so the soundcard really only needs to power the speakers.

I'd like to keep it under $100 if possible. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
At that price, Xonar DX or D1 would probably be my number one choice, unless you can find a used D2 or D2X. DX and D2X cards are for PCI-E bus and D1 and D2 for PCI. D2 and D2X have higher quality DACs than DX/D1 and include DTS Connect in addition to Dolby Digital Live.

On budget level (<$50) you can consider Xonar DS (PCI-E) and DG (PCI) that are great cards for the price too. DS is DTS-only card, so it doesn't have Dolby Digital Live or Dolby Headphone, while DG does (but it doesn't have DTS). According to spec sheets, DS has slightly better quality components than DG. If you consider using headphones, I would pick DG out of these two, just because of Dolby Headphone.
 
Is there any good reason to ditch PCI for PCI-E? I mean, if I'm perfectly happy with my X-Fi PCI, there's nothing to be gained from switching to a PCI-E card is there?
 
No, just compatability concerns with future motherboards that drop PCI support.
 
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