Sound Card and Speaker Upgrade Question

[Slipshot]

I am looking at purchasing a sound card and speaker set while getting away from the onboard sound. I figured since I spent a lot of money for my new rig, why not throw in an a little more to make my gaming and music experience a little more enjoyable? That said, from reading the forums it seems to me that everyone likes the Asus Xonar DX or D1 cards, but would you make any other recommendations as to what other products to look at?

Secondly, I am the hunt for some new computer speakers as my current set are finally starting to crackle and die after 10 years of use (btw can you believe they are Creative lab speakers>). Which 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speaker setup would you go with if you had purchased one of the Asus cards listed above?

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

I would go for the DX/D2 card. (cheaper one). you will not notice the difference with the bigger card unless your into proffesional audio. (which i assume your not since your already using onboard in the first place)

for speakers, go to a store and choose something of which you like the sound best. dont buy more expensive speakers because they are expensive so they must be good. cheap speakers can still be good.

for that sound card I would advice going for a nice Logitech set of speakers. they are of good quality and produce quite good sound. find a nice kit that suits your budget

 

[outlw6669]

For the price, the Xonar DX or Xonar D1 is about as good as you can get.
Another decent option would be the HT|Omega Striker, although it is slightly less feature rich.
For speakers, the Logitech x540 can not be beat for the price!

 

[NathanSuite]

For the sound card, I'd recommend Creative. Speaking for myself, I had a card from them on my old Dell and that worked like a charm. I'm even planning on getting a higher end SC from them for my Dell's successor.
As far as the speakers are concerned, I'm not too picky with those so I don't know what to tell you.

 

[outlw6669]

If your Creative card worked with no issues, you are one of the lucky ones....

Creative's cards offer sub par sound quality, are overpriced, have nearly non-existent support, broken drivers and are a generally pore choice for a sound card.
Do your self a favor and get a HT|Omega Striker or ASUS Xonar D1/DX.
ALL of those cards offer better sound quality than ANY of Creative's offerings along with working drivers for ALL OS's and cost less to boot.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

For the sound card, I'd recommend Creative. Speaking for myself, I had a card from them on my old Dell and that worked like a charm. I'm even planning on getting a higher end SC from them for my Dell's successor.
As far as the speakers are concerned, I'm not too picky with those so I don't know what to tell you.

yes you are one of the lucky ones.

im not. never buying creative sound card again.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

im still using it simply because i cannot afford a new card... AAAARGGG

 

[Slipshot]

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