Worth it to upgrade to discreet sound card?

A

Artex

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
Messages
118
I currently have an MSI X58 Big XPower motherboard that uses a Realtek ALC889 chipset that supposedly has a 109 SNR.

I've been thinking about moving to a higher end discreet card like the Asus Xonar Xense or STX, but I am still confused about a few things...

Right now I'm hooked up to a set of Z5500's using the analog connections. I know that the STX is really a stereo/headphone card, but can it output to 5.1 channels through my logitech speakers?? I don't use a standalone receiver and I don't plan to at this point.

If it cannot do 5.1, I like the Xonar Xense since it does have analog connections, but I don't need the included headphones.

The other Asus cards (i.e. Xonar D2X 7.1) have a lesser signal-to-noise ratios - such as 118, but would I really notice a difference between 109 & 118 with my speaker setup?
 
Highly doubtful you'd notice a difference unless you really like cranking it to 11. In which case you should invest in earplugs or make sure your medical plan covers hearing aids.
 
You will not be able to tell a difference with those speakers. Also to answer your other question, the STX only does multi-channel over the digital out.
 
SithSolo1 said:
You will not be able to tell a difference with those speakers. Also to answer your other question, the STX only does multi-channel over the digital out.
Click to expand...

I guess this is what I'm confused on. With the digital out, wouldn't that be passing the audio to the DAC of the Z5500 then, completely bypassing the soundcard's DAC?
 
Artex said:
I guess this is what I'm confused on. With the digital out, wouldn't that be passing the audio to the DAC of the Z5500 then, completely bypassing the soundcard's DAC?
Click to expand...

That's correct. It would be no different than using the digital out on your motherboard if it supports it. Also I believe you would only get multi-channel during movies. To get multi-channel in games you need to use analog or bitstream the audio over hdmi to a receiver unless your sound card supports on the fly DTS/Dolby encoding.
 
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