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Source upgrade: Xonar vs Fiio

W

WesT

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Feb 23, 2007
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Hello [H] audio folks, I'm in need of an audio source upgrade, so I've come to seek your opinions and expertise. I've got some M-Audio AV40s and a pair of Sennheiser HD555s. I believe I've narrowed my search down to either the Xonar DX card or the Fiio e10 USB dac/amp, the prices of which are very comparable. Here are my thoughts and questions...
  1. I listen to music and do light amounts of gaming on this system. Obviously the Xonar would be preferred for gaming because of DirectSound stuff, EAX stuff, yada yada yada. But is there an audio quality compromise with the Xonar as compared to the Fiio e10? My gut tells me that the e10, being a dedicated DAC/headphone amp, should be the more quality performer. However, the only published spec on the e10 is the frequency response of 20hz-20khz, which (on paper) is bested by the Xonar's 10Hz-48KHz. Does someone with experience know if the audio quality capabilities of these two are equivalent, or if one or the other is better?

  2. The HD555s are a relatively low impedance set of headphones, rated at 50ohms I believe. I'm under the impression that this means the Xonar should be able to drive them sufficiently well with its on-board amp. Is there an audio quality tradeoff here vs the e10, or can the Xonar handle this just as well?

  3. The e10 offers the convenience of being able to hook up my HD555s to the headphone out and my AV40s to the line out on the back. Can the Xonar be configured such that I can switch between the headphones and speakers without moving cables around?

  4. The Xonar has more feature flexibility, most of which I probably won't use, but is worth mentioning. Things like Dolby Digital Live, some volume normalization stuff, various audio effects, etc. The e10 has the benefit of being effectively driverless, which probably makes it more futureproof (I'm guessing here). Any thoughts/comments in this area?

In summary, the Xonar seems like a more full-featured product. With the prices being so similar, it seems like the only reason to go with the e10 would be if it performs better from an audio quality perspective. I wouldn't mind not having the features of the Xonar if it meant higher quality audio from the e10 (on the speakers and headphones that I have). But if there wouldn't be discernible difference, I might as well go with the sound card option.

Feedback/comments/criticism is most appreciated!
 
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I haven't heard the e10, only the e7 and it's a decent sounding piece of kit, especially in it's price range. From what I'm told, the e10 is also very good for it's price, but I can't speak to it firsthand.

I've installed a couple of DXs though, and I highly recommend them. The audio is excellent IMHO, very close to the quality of my Sondigo Inferno which cost me nearly double as much. And much better than the E7, but again I can't speak for the E10. For the money, the DX is a great card. It has a front panel connector for a headphone jack, I'm pretty sure you can switch between the two in software, otherwise you'd need to pull the headphone connector out from the front panel when you're not using them. Another option is an inexpensive A/B switch, I've got one of these for switching between AV40s and my headphone amp.
 
I've played on a DX and while I was comfortable and happy with the sound for the price I'm not sure how I'd compare it to the E10. I have a pair of HD555s that sound great even driven by onboard sound from my laptop but they sound even better through the E10. If it were up to me I'd get the DX unless you plan to use the E10 for other systems as well, I personally bought mine specifically for use with my laptop and it works great for that.
 
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From what you wrote, I would go with the Xonar. The E10 is great for streaming music and my foobar2000 files (FLAC, 96/24 WMA, and mp3s) which sound clear on the SHR440s.

However, for example, Team Fortress 2's ding sounds when I hit an enemy (enabled in the preferences section) sound jarring. With the onboard, less so.

The Xonar goes up to 192 and the Fiio goes to 96.

It does great with the Thinkpad, but if you have a desktop, the SNR is better with the card.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Sounds like the Xonar DX is the better piece of equipment for me.
 
WesT said:
[*]The HD555s are a relatively low impedance set of headphones, rated at 50ohms I believe. I'm under the impression that this means the Xonar should be able to drive them sufficiently well with its on-board amp. Is there an audio quality tradeoff here vs the e10, or can the Xonar handle this just as well?
Click to expand...
Going by the HD595 measurements here, it has the same mid-bass impedance bump as HD598.

In my experience, a high-ish output impedance on my Xonar STX (~11ohm, I believe that is the same with even non-amp Xonars, but I could be wrong) bloats the mid-bass and makes it a tad boomy on my HD598. It is subtle, but noticeable. Since I assume you've used the HD555 for a while, you may not care. But if you want to tighten up the mid-bass, you may want to add that to the plus side for an E10.

So while volume and current wouldn't likely be a problem, damping may be.
 
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