Best Sound card for listening to music?

Thanks for your replies guys. I want the best possible sound experience from my comp.

Would the Asus Xonar essence be a lot better than a xfi xtreme music?

Do you have the card? What are your experiences?
 
How serious are you about your music?

Have you thought about getting an audiophile sound card? They offer superior A/D /D/A conversion and although something like the M-Audio 2496 does not offer as much connectivity as something like an Xonar - the sound reproduction will be far more accurate and thus, better.

The aforementioned sound card can be had for little money off a certain auction site as well...less than you would pay for a top end xonar...although don't expect surround this is purely stereo.
 
hughythomas said:
How serious are you about your music?

Have you thought about getting an audiophile sound card? They offer superior A/D /D/A conversion and although something like the M-Audio 2496 does not offer as much connectivity as something like an Xonar - the sound reproduction will be far more accurate and thus, better.

The aforementioned sound card can be had for little money off a certain auction site as well...less than you would pay for a top end xonar...although don't expect surround this is purely stereo.
Click to expand...


I Have had a xfi extreme music for a couple of years, and want the best music quality. Are the M Audio cards better than the Essence for music?
 
Reality|Bites said:
You'll hear a bigger improvment from a better speaker setup than you will from a better sound card.
Click to expand...

Meh - yes I agree but having a great sound from source is VERY important for accurate sound reproduction.

To the original poster: If surround sound is important to you forget about an audiophile soundcard but if you truly want an awesome stereo listening experience I would recommend 3 things:

1. Great speakers. I would recommend above everything the Monitor Audio BR-2s. £200
2. Good amp. The Pioneer AR09 for example would be great. £140
3. Excellent sound card. The M-Audio range have fantastic convertors for the money. Something like an Audiophile 2496 would serve you well here. £55

Well this is similiar to the setup I have in my studio for just general listening and its the envy of all my music loving friends haha!
 
hughythomas said:
Meh - yes I agree but having a great sound from source is VERY important for accurate sound reproduction.

To the original poster: If surround sound is important to you forget about an audiophile soundcard but if you truly want an awesome stereo listening experience I would recommend 3 things:

1. Great speakers. I would recommend above everything the Monitor Audio BR-2s. £200
2. Good amp. The Pioneer AR09 for example would be great. £140
3. Excellent sound card. The M-Audio range have fantastic convertors for the money. Something like an Audiophile 2496 would serve you well here. £55

Well this is similiar to the setup I have in my studio for just general listening and its the envy of all my music loving friends haha!
Click to expand...

I have a similar setup, only difference being the amp. I'm using a NAD C320BEE with the 2496 and BR2s and it's a good low/medium budget combination for the pc. :)
 
Uriel said:
Soundcard is a source. A good amp will show up flaws in a poor source.
Click to expand...

What he said! Computer only understands 101010101s. Sound that we hear is inherently analogue and thus needs to be converted. A good soundcard will accurately convert the digital 10101010s into analogue allowing your amplifier to boost the signal. Then the signal will pass to the speakers which turn the analogue electricity into physical excitement of air molecules ie sound waves which we hear.

Obviously if you get a computer soundcard like the xonar,x-fi etc they all wax lyrical about advanced new sound enhancing algorithms but remember that everytime you mess with the original sound (in the way that these cards do at both the hardware and software level) you are distorting the accuracy of the original sound waves.

Typically at home, none of us will have the sort of high-end mixing gear that our favorite records were mixed/mastered on and therefore we will not be hearing the production as the artist/producer/engineer intended.
 
Last edited:
Obviously this is all very personal as we all have different ideas of what 'sounds good' but I was absolutely astonished when I heard Creative's Crystalizer technology.

To my ears it just sounds like a multi-band compressor.

Now, EQ, limiting and multi-band compression are all essential tools availible to the mastering engineer used in order to 'enhance', 'excite' 'spice up' the mix of your favorite albums. Why on earth do Creative think that we should apply MORE multi-band compression to professionally mixed/mastered tracks when its someone's job to sit in a room and tweak a release to make it sound professional. Correct me if I am wrong here but I'm just like wtf! It isn't even algorthymically a good sounding compressor either!!!!

Rant
/end

Monitor Audio BR-2s are great JoeMama! Best Hi-Fi speakers I have heard at that price!
 
I think the idea is that it makes lower quality MP3s sound better, which it does to my ears...but who listens to low quality mp3s these days?

When I had my XFI I just listened to everything in studio mode and liked it best that way. Now I just have a pure bitstream over ASIO to my DAC and the only things that influence the frequency response is my amp and headphones.
 
good man! In all fairness I don't have enough experience of the X-Fi to make a valid judgement it does sound good for the cash. I got the audio one and for £30 its not bad at all but the crystalizer is just a joke to anyone like me, who works in audio!
 
Yeah that was the whole point of the Crystalliser - making lossy source material sound 'better'.

Better to just listen to lossless / high bitrate stuff in the first place.

I do actually think it's quite handy for some game audio - but music? Forget it.
 
hughythomas said:
How serious are you about your music?

Have you thought about getting an audiophile sound card? They offer superior A/D /D/A conversion and although something like the M-Audio 2496 does not offer as much connectivity as something like an Xonar - the sound reproduction will be far more accurate and thus, better.

The aforementioned sound card can be had for little money off a certain auction site as well...less than you would pay for a top end xonar...although don't expect surround this is purely stereo.
Click to expand...


Apologies as I wouldn't usually do this but you are talking out of your bum my friend. The Xonar Essence is a better card period.
 
speedyj said:
Apologies as I wouldn't usually do this but you are talking out of your bum my friend. The Xonar Essence is a better card period.
Click to expand...

I've got a 2496 and was thinking about a new card sometime soon.

Could you tell me in what way the Xonar is the better card? I'm assuming you've compared both to each other.

Thanks
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom