USB sound cards: SB Omni or Xonar U7?

BlueWeasel

BlueWeasel

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2006
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463
Looking to upgrade to a better audio setup. My configuration is pretty simple: A 2.1 speaker setup and headphones with a boompro mic. I'm not an audophile, so my headphones are in the $100 range (or less). Currently using the Philips SHP9500 and love it.

I'm looking closely at both the SB Omni and Xonar U7.

The Xonar series seems to have poor reviews, but I'm not sure if that is just with their old line of internal sounds cards or if it includes the U3/U5/U7 series as well. I had a Xonar DGX sound card for a little while several years ago and didn't have any problems with it.

Don't really know much about the Omni, but the reviews seem good.
 
Dunno why you need to go as high as the Omni- you could get the SoundBlasterX G1 for less, and it has everything you need.

And everything you need basically amounts to: a USB DAC, a headphone amp (the G1 is good for 300Ω, your SHP9500's are 32Ω), and gaming software that will allow for surround virtualization and processing. That last bit is basically all that Creative brings to the game these days.
 
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Don't? What are your speakers hooked to now? Headphones?

I'd honestly use onboard for the speakers...
 
The speakers and headphones are plugged into the onboard at the same time using a Y-splitter. The mic plugs into the onboard mic port as well. I know the splitter configuration is not typically recommended but it works OK.
 
BlueWeasel said:
The speakers and headphones are plugged into the onboard at the same time using a Y-splitter. The mic plugs into the onboard mic port as well. I know the splitter configuration is not typically recommended but it works OK.
Click to expand...

Then just plug the speakers in direct- and use whatever DAC/Amp you get for the Philips cans, keep the mic where it is if it works too.

You can get a bit of an upgrade, but seriously, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
 
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