Which card? - improving blu ray sound

fozzybear

fozzybear

fozzybear

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I'm getting a blu ray player for my PC shortly. I'll be using headphones mostly whilst watching blu ray.

Are there any specific cards that work well with headphones and blu ray? I'm currently putting up with on board sound and, whilst using speakers, the sound is too muffled and bassy (is that a word? :)).

Price range would be around £50. I know there are more expensive cards but I'm afraid that's my limit. Uses are mainly for the blu ray and music with the odd bit of gaming thrown in.

Cheers.
 
Blu-ray uses HD audio tech like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. A sound card capable of using these would be 3x your budget at £180. Unless you have decent speakers it would be rather pointless going down that route, assuming you had the money to get the card.

The Asus Xonar DX or D1 is the best card you can get for around £50. It has Dolby Headhone, which will create a surround sound image with a pair of stereo headphones, which is good for movies and gaming.

What headphones do you have?

As for the sound from onboard being muffled and bassy, that is likely going to be your speakers fault. Many PC speakers have over bloated bass. Unless you have a very old motherboard that has pretty dire onboard sound.
 
Thanks Marsman,

Unfortunately, I only have a pair of Creative Fatality headphones. They're ok for what I need them for now but would like to get some new ones in the near future as I'll be increasing the amount of films I watch.

Would it be the usual Goldring recommendations for headphones around £50? Are there any better (similar price) sets for movies?
 
Tbh, the Goldring phones really are the best value for money at their respective price brackets. You can do better, but not without spending a lot more.
 
Average prices for the DR50 are about £20, DR100 £40, DR150 £60. The NS1000 are also available currently for £50, which is a great buy, if they still are at that price.

As Siumatfung mentioned, the HD555's are also good phones. Usual price seems to be £70 for those.
 
Marsman said:
Blu-ray uses HD audio tech like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. A sound card capable of using these would be 3x your budget at £180. Unless you have decent speakers it would be rather pointless going down that route, assuming you had the money to get the card.
Click to expand...

Umm.... My X-fi gamer doesn't have any problems outputitng DTS-HD when using Power DVD and outputting over analogue.

Personally I've only tried watching blu-rays once through headphones, but it sounded really good with through my x-fi with the CMSS 3D turned on though a set of stereo headphones.
 
A Xonar DX/D1 will make a significant difference with Dolby Headphone, compared to onboard sound. Creative have a similar thing with CMSS 3D. I have the X-Fi Xtreme Music, and I just watched a clip from Star Wars: Clone Wars. With CMSS 3D turned off, the sound through my DR150's was just stereo, I could easily tell where the sound was coming from just. It sounded like one would expect stereo phone to sound like with no audio enhancement. With the CMSS 3D on however, the sound jumped into life. The sound was everywhere, it really did make me smile. :)
 
This thread could help me out as I posted a thread like this with regard to my shuttle not outputting Dolby through my THX550 speakers that have analogue connections, so if I bin the 7.1 HD onboard sound on the Shuttle and either put an X-FI or Xonar in instead I will get the full sound I need.
Sorry to thread hijack but I have been waiting days for an answer before I spend any money on a Blueray player as I have already spent enough on the shuttle and still not getting what I want.
 
Well using Power DVD on my x-fi if I turn on the information options it shows as the audio track being the DTS-HD with the varying bit rate and there is a noticeable difference if I switch it down to the standard DTS sound track.
 
I have an X-fi in my main PC, not sure if I want to take it out of there or not, could do and replace it with the Supreme FX the P5E got bundled with or buy a xonar, certainly not getting 5.1 through my speakers now when I play a DVD I know that as the voice is not coming out of centre speaker instead coming out of right/left channel.
 
BinnsY said:
Marsman said:
Blu-ray uses HD audio tech like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. A sound card capable of using these would be 3x your budget at £180. Unless you have decent speakers it would be rather pointless going down that route, assuming you had the money to get the card.
Click to expand...
Umm.... My X-fi gamer doesn't have any problems outputitng DTS-HD when using Power DVD and outputting over analogue.

Personally I've only tried watching blu-rays once through headphones, but it sounded really good with through my x-fi with the CMSS 3D turned on though a set of stereo headphones.
Click to expand...

Yes very good point, something I did not consider. Power DVD decodes the HD audio formats to be outputted over analogue as you say.
 
fozzybear said:
And that would be the case for both the X Fi Gamer and the Asus Xonar DX?
Click to expand...

That is correct.

The sound card whichever you choose will improve the digital to analogue conversion and audio output compared to onboard. The decoding of Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD will be handled by the software.
 
To be fair, if you don't already have PowerDVD or some equivalent software to play them it isn't cheap so could rapidly run back up to that price :P
 
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