Help me choose a soundcard

[B0L0]

Hi Everyone,
I've been slowly upgrading my gaming rig over the years, one thing I haven't bought is a new soundcard.
I've been generally happy with the sound output from my onboard sound, but I've recently been looking into investing into a decent set of headphones and don't want to be held back by my sound card.

Usage wise I'd want good output to a pair headphones, I'd be interested in trying dolby surround or some other virtualization as I've been researching for headphones with a good soundstage.

I'd also want to be able to use this card to output digital surround sound to my receiver for movies. Though I noticed most cards don't seem to have toslink straight out the back so I would need an adapter?

My questions are:
1) Is it a good idea to get a dedicated sound card when paired with a decent set of headphones?
2) would I see a big difference outputting a digital signal from the integrated audio vs the dedicated soundcard or is it mostly in the analog that I'd see a difference?
3) If the answers for 1 and 2 lean towards buying a new soundcard, what would you recommend? My budget is around $150

Thanks for your help!

 

[gamerk316]

My questions are:
1) Is it a good idea to get a dedicated sound card when paired with a decent set of headphones?

Yes. A good headset really brings a decent soundcard to life. The difference [to some people anyway] is huge.

2) would I see a big difference outputting a digital signal from the integrated audio vs the dedicated soundcard or is it mostly in the analog that I'd see a difference?

You'll see the biggest difference using analog, however, even when using a soundcards digital output, you are still getting some processing by teh soundcard, but most of the work is still done at the other end of the connection.

3) If the answers for 1 and 2 lean towards buying a new soundcard, what would you recommend? My budget is around $150

$150 is that nice price where theres a lot to look at:

Mid-Range:
ASUS Xonar D1/DX
HT Omega Striker

High-End:
ASUS Xonar D2/D2X [Getting REALLY hard to keep recommending this though...]
Auzentech Prelude [Also getting hard to recommend]
Auzentech Meridian 2G
HT Omega Claro [Non-Halo varients]

Top-Tier:
ASUS Xonar Xense
ASUS Essence ST/STX [Oddly, the PCI ST is the better of the two cards; go figure]
Auzentech Forte
HT Omega Claro Halo [and varients]

The Forte is probably the best all around bet for $150 without going over, though the other cards are no slouches either. Really comes down to what features you need, and how you plan to use the card [gaming, music, movies, etc]

 

[B0L0]

Thanks for your great response!

My priorities are primarily, good gaming positional performance through the headphones and great sounding movies. I'm not a big audiophile, but I'm not a basshead, and often find too much bass annoying , so I definitely don't want a card that colours everything to the bass end by default.
Is there a card there that offers good balanced sound? I imagine if its a bit lacking in the bass end for movies I can always tweak either at the receiver or through software EQ.

 

[gamerk316]

Well, the X-fi chipset [the Forte and Prelude use it for the cards I listed] tends to shine with frequencies you find in gaming, and has a stronger bass compared to the other cards. The C-media chipset [all the other cards I have listed] is more balenced when it comes to audio. It really just comes down to processing, all things considered.

HT Omega and ASUS offer VERY simmilar products all throughout their line right now, probably because they use the same exact chipsets.

One of the important questions to ask is if you have any plans to eventually move to a 5.1 (analog) or 7.1 setup. If you only plan to use headphones, you REALLY should take a look at the ASUS Xense and Essence ST/STX.

After that, the next question is analog or digital. On ASUS cards, encoding to Dolby or DTS is removed on some models, so thats also worth noting...

 

[B0L0]

Well currently I have 2.1 speakers. The plan down the line is not to buy 5.1 computer speakers, but rather to go with a receiver based surround sound system. So the digital output would be the future use.

In the mean time I would be using mostly headphones.
But if the Asus cards don't have Dolby or DTS encoding then that would hamper my future plans for a digital output correct?

I suppose this is difficult as my usage seems to be on 2 extremes... If I were to pick between good headphone fidelity and good 5.1/7.1 digital output, I would pick the latter.

So the forte?

 

[gamerk316]

Well currently I have 2.1 speakers. The plan down the line is not to buy 5.1 computer speakers, but rather to go with a receiver based surround sound system. So the digital output would be the future use.

Ok, just wanted to confirm. The reason I ask, is that some cards [mainly the Essence ST/STX] only have a digital output and setreo RCA outputs, and not the standard PC 7.1 outputs most other cards have.

Also remember, the Digital output is limited to 5.1 Dolby/DTS audio streams.

But if the Asus cards don't have Dolby or DTS encoding then that would hamper my future plans for a digital output correct?

ASUS cards will have AT LEAST one of Dolby Digital or DTS encoding; The DS is limited to DTS and the D1/DX is limited to Dolby. Just a minor thing to note, especially if you [wisely] prefer DTS encoding...

The Forte is one of the best all around canadates on the block; it still does everything really well. I can't really argue against it.

 

[B0L0]

Sounds good to me, all round definitely seems to be what I'm looking for, and the Forte seems to get solid reviews as well. Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[B0L0]

Best answer selected by B0L0.