Alright i just received my Asus Xonar DX sound card, when i first installed it and listened to some music it sounded great. Just for the record i bought this as an open box product on newegg. Alright now just cruising the web sitting on ts i notice occasional sound anomalies such as a quick crackle, or a beep. These didnt happen on my x-fi xtrememusic. Also BF2 sounds terrible when i enable EAX (crackles all over) and even in software mode i get some slight crackles.

Another issue, crysis seems to sound worse than with my x-fi and the stutters that i got in the game seem a bit harsher now.. anyone else experiencing these issues with this card or the D2X? I want to give this card a chance but EAX really does make a difference and the whole reason i switched from creative was because of all the crackles!

I had thought that for gaming a creative x-fi card would be better. The xonar has to emulate eax 5.0 effects - the reviews I read said this could cause the crackle/pop noises you're experiencing, depending on the game. Also, since it was an open box item from the egg, it could have been previously used and returned precisely because of that problem. Sorry, I know none of this info is particularly helpful to you.

On another note, I just bought an xtrememusic. I had been debating between it and the open box xonar on newegg. Since you have used both, which do you prefer (when they both work correctly)? I game and listen to music equally, usually using the audio creation mode on the card when doing the latter. Thanks for your input.