a few questions about pc sound

[shaido7]

I have logitech z5500 5.1 speakers,sennheiser hd280pro headphones, an x-fi extreme pc sound card i think its the music version not sure,anyway I would like really good sound from my pc. I watch movies,listen to music im not a big audiophile where i tweak a lot of setting sbut i want the sound to be crystal clear and lossless at high volume,and i play games the games i play require surround sound to know where my enemy is on the map.

what pc sound cards are there that are better than the x-fi or perhaps what can i do to acheive better sound than what i have and would it be worth upgrading over what i have now? I know that theres prolly no way to improve everything i probably have to go with either something for music,or movies and games right? or am i wrong? the sound i have now to me is good but i would like to know if i can improve and what would be a good way to go.

basically i would like to get even better sound than i have now crystal clear
and im not sure whats my options are. I used to think creative was the best sound but ive been reading forums and people say thats not true.

I noticed some people were saying these are good cards but didnt realy compare them to each other ...M-Audio or Auzentech's new HDA X-Plosion or is there better? if you go with a card other than a creative x-fi with eax how much of a difference in sound would there be in gaming. would you notice a big or little difference without creatives eax i mean if i replaced my card it would be with a high quality replacement? i would spend at the most 300 for a good sound card but doubt i would pay that much.

 

[kstrat2001]

One of the problems here is that you do multiple things on your computer that all use different sound codecs and optimizations.

In other words. The professional solutions mentioned (M-Audio, etc) are not fine tuned for gaming. They will work but most games are designed to sound best on creative's solutions. Then again if you want to record music I've found creative cards to be rather clunky.

If you really need better sound you can get an external receiver/amplifier with many bells and whistles along with a professional set of speakers. But in my opinion thats a waste. The difference in spending a couple hundred bucks and a couple thousand isn't really significant enough to make me want to give up my savings. The good thing is that you at least realize that on-board audio is unacceptable.

 

[halcyon]

To always strive for improvement is what drives us. However, for gaming surround you have a member of the best family of audiocards available. For personal loud-speaker surround sound you'll have a tough time justifying an improvement over the Z-5500's...again, I say for "personal loud-speaker surround sound". That written, I believe the Creative Gigaworks S750 system would be an improvement in audio quality with less audio "gaps" between the satellites and better dispersion properties. I don't however, feel that their cost would be quite justified to the owner of the Z-5500's, especially since you'd lose the functionality of the Z-5500's DD/DTS decoder and pre-amp-type controller. ...for gaming audio there's not a whole lot more to do, besides the aforementioned, unless you want to replace the Z-5500's with a home theatre receiver/amp and use 5.1 (or greater) home theater speakers.

I further believe you could improve in your headphones...stepping up to higher quality cans and perhaps adding a headphone amp...but this is heading for diminishing returns and if you don't rate yourself as an audio enthusiast the costs may not be justified. Senn HD555's, 595's, 600's, 650's. Grado cans like the SR325i's that I use (SR225's are nice as well and quite a bit more economical) sound GREAT for bass-centric music yet I'd not recommend them for more than say, 2 hours continuous use, they're just not comfortable to wear for long sessions. The Senn HD595's or HD600's are the sweetspot here, but unless you're a heavy headphone user I'd say it'd not be worth the $200+ expenditure.

The new X-Fi cards (ExtremeGamer+) include software DD and DTS decoding with the included Power DVD software...so that might be attractive for your movie-going desires. Further, Creative specs the APUs on these cards as being 15% faster...a few more framerates saved, perhaps? However, starting @ $90 this seems like deminishing returns, as well, for an X-Fi EM owner.

If gaming is paramount to you I'd stick with Creative. A popular card, the Auzentech Explosion is around $140 and doesn't support EAX 5 and does not have a DSP chip to offload audio processing from the CPU. If movie-watching was your primary application and this was a home-thearter PC AND you already had a 5.1+ receiver/amp...and a strong dual-core CPU (to make up for the hit on gaming audio processing), I'd recommend considering the Explosion. That's an awful lot of "ANDS"... with what you've stated, a card like the Explosion or Turtle Beach Montego DDL may not be your best options.

An X-Fi is a great jack-of-all-trades card and seems better suited to your application. You have one. Have a Coke and a smile and be happy.

Lots of thoughts I've listed, yet, I think the best thing you could probably do would be to go with a home-theatre reciever and some reasonable bookshelves and add a sub, if you must. This would likely give you the most noted improvement with the longest-lasting pleasure. However, this is not a $200 upgrade so I'd wait until I had, say, $700+ (descent new receiver, sats, and sub) and invest here IF...IF I were you and were dissatisfied with my current X-Fi/Z-5500 combination.

Sorry for the length.

 

[shaido7]

Thx Guys,

I think both posts were great I do however have a few more questions. If I were to upgrade my cans I would not know which can to upgrade to since i cannot hear them do you have any suggestions. maybe a local store where i can try them out or a good review site?
my criteria is little or no outside noise coming in or out of the cans I want crystal clear sound and good bass reproduction at same time. I think i would want cans that are best for movies and games over music. I like to listen to my cans at very loud volume. I think what i listed is normally what people look for. I was trying to figure out of the cans you listed what would be the best bet for me. I have the hd280 silver pro.Im not sure what the difference is between the black hd 280pro and the silver.

I wont pay anymore than 300 for the cans and around 200 is a more comfortable amount for me,yet 300 is doable if it is worth it.I am looking for the best pair of headphones in the 200-300 range . I have just discoverd the wonderful world of headphones I used to have to keep my volume low and bass down for my wife. with these 280's i can now enjoy sound again so i would say i would be wearing headphones alot of the time when im on my machine.
what headphone amp would you recomend?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience....

 

[halcyon]

Try to be careful listening to your headphones louder than really necessary, if you value your hearing. TBH just loud enough to make out all the details is I think a safe bet, especially for long listening sessions.

I was going to recommend the Senn HD280 Pros...but you have them. All the other Senns I suggested are open-back and no good at cutting out outside noise...the same goes for the GRADOs. Even so, I can highly recommend the open-back Senn HD595's for their upfront and balanced sound.

This has some good info... http://www.headphone.com/guide/by-headphone-type/sealed-noise-canceling-type/

There's a lot of in-ear headphones and those would be great out canceling out background noise...Shure's or Ultimate Ears. Again, I warn you about you listening too loud, that's a habit you may want to stay away from...especially if considering in-ear headphones. Tinnitus and hearing loss are no joke.