Looking for a new sound card..

[Hz0inside]

Hi,

Ive been thinking about my speaker/sound card setup and im in the market to replace my card. I currently have a SB XFi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro series card with the Logitech Z5500 speaker system. Ive had no problems with this setup but ive had it for a couple years and wonder if im missing out on better quality music through optical or w/e.

I would like to try to get the best sounding music possible to either headphones or the system but i dont know that much about what to look for in a sound card as far as specs. Ive heard of ASUS, Ausentech along with others. Im not worried about the price of the card either.

I guess my question is should i be looking more at Auzentech, or Asus cards and any good suggestions as if i should go optical from the speakers or line in or w/e?

thanks for any help.

 

[festerovic]

Personally, I think the sound quality is better when you use analog outs on the Creative cards. Switching to digital, to me, makes the sound slightly less punchy. So you should try the switch and see if you like it, the cables are cheap. It won't be a big difference.

Auzentech and Asus both have some great cards. On paper they have better specs than the creative cards, but I'm not sure you will hear a big difference other than slight bias at certain freqs. This is kind of standard with any av equipment, and why people are partial to some brands over others.

Some of the cards have specific features that may interest you, such as hdmi out, dolby digital live, and the ability to bitstream certain formats over the spdif cables.
Here's a page from newegg with some potentials:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008658%20600011892%20600011982&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=20


Bottom line: if you want to blow money go for it, but don't expect it to sound a lot different. The card you have is pretty nice still.

 

[Emperus]

Ideally, i'll recommend sticking to your current card.. Otherwise, for a no budget limit scenario, the Asus Xonar D2/D2X would be good..

 

[Hz0inside]

Thanks Festerovic for the reply, i always thought digital was better than analog, maybe not that much of a difference.

Im thinking between these two cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271005

Is it beneficial in any way to use a 7.1 card with 5.1 speakers? not sure.

thanks for the help

 

[Hz0inside]

Hey Emperus,

I dont have a budget for the card, i just want to try something new other than creative..had a couple cards from them over the past 10 years.

 

[festerovic]

i use 5.1 on 7.1 systems because most audio is mastered to 5.1 in dvds and tv broadcasts. The extra 2 channels are there in blue rays though. The settings in the control panel will still ask if you want to output to 2, 4, 5.1, or 7.1. The reason to keep it 5.1 instead of 7.1 if you don't have the extra speakers is to make sure positional and rear audio get processed to go out the rear channels. Thats why you'd select 5.1 in your options.

 

[Hz0inside]

hmm i havent seen anything better by logitech than the z5500 5.1..but i could do another brand haha..these are good for me though.

 

[DrAcoustic]

The Asus card is a top quality piece of hardware - Nice review here:

http://pcsoundcards.org/digital-sound-card/asus-xonor-xense-premium-gaming-audio-set-acoustics-powered-by-sennheiser

DrA

 

[Hz0inside]

Thanks DrA for the reply, im leaning towards that asus from the review now haha.

 

[Hz0inside]

Best answer selected by Hz0inside.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar