Hig end soundcard, tips and info appreciated!

IceDread

IceDread

IceDread

Associate
Joined
21 Dec 2009
Posts
15
Hi

Right now I'm using a Auzentech X-Fi prelude and it's 2010 and Auzentech still has not released anything but bugged beta drivers. Needless to say one is very annoyed as I have a sound card only 2 years old that cost me about 200 euros. I did get music and movies working thou because another user himself had problems and was kind enough to help the rest of us, but the fix does not seam to work for games. For more info see
http://community.auzentech.com/node/99
http://community.auzentech.com/node/209#comment-729

My problem is that I specifically get cracking sounds in this game I'm hocked on:
http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/bat...2/an-audiophile-s-guide-to-bf-bc2-full.aspx##


So I'm thinking about again purchasing a sound card. Needless to say I want to stay away from auzentech since they do not take care of their customers. I am looking for great sound when gaming and for music and movies.


Which company would you recommend? I've heard a lot of bad things about creative's drivers and software for their sound cards but not sure if that holds true for the 100-200 euro range as well.
I see Asus is doing sound cards but are they any good?
Who has good software and drivers and keeps them up to date?

Auzentech is out of the question with their expensive sound cards and their beta drivers and no WHQL drivers or official drivers for win7 while we are well into 2010 already and according to some rumors win 8 will hit the market summer 2011, one does not want to be stuck with a company unable to supply good drivers and take care of their customer in at a decent speed.




This is my current computer.
Windows 7
Corsair 800D | Corsair 850 HX | XFX 5970 | P6T deluxe v2 | 3x2gb DDR31600MHz/CL7 | i7 920 @ 3.2 GHz (just started overclocking) | corsair H50 cpu cooling
Sound: Auzentech x-fi prelude 7.1 | Elac 5.1 surround system + receiver (currently SPDIF optical but can go with coaxial if needed) | Tritton ax pro 5.1 headphones (3 analog+1 for the mic, or this new headphone standard that takes the true 5.1 +mic single cable connection)



Information and tips is very much appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Hi IceDread

Have you considered a budget semi-pro audio interface as opposed to a gaming sound card?

I can personally vouch for both the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 and the E-MU 0404 PCI although the latter I have only heard under Windows XP so I don't know if their drivers have caught up with Vista+. Presumably they have? (might be worth a look on their site). The only other cards I can vouch for are above the £250+ price bracket.

Your money will go a lot further with the studio cards although I appreciate you are running surround and said audio interfaces will not give you seperate analogue outputs for connecting to your surround system. However, having said this the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 for example, comes equipped with an SPDIF output on it "with PCM and AC-3/DTS passthrough" but I am no expert on all these esoteric digital home cinema standards (which is really bad considering the line of work I am in). Still, I am a big advocate of the semi-pro cards due to the conversion quality, driver fexibility and price! The Audiophile mentioned above for example retails online for as little as £54 and in my opinion, beats any of the gaming cards in terms of sound quality into the ground.

However, as I have mentioned time and time again, sound is so personal and subjective you might not agree with me. Someone (I forget who) mentioned in another thread recently on here that your own definition of 'good sound quality' is defined purely on the best kit you have heard. I think this is a great point as I have been privileged enough over the years to work in some of the nicest studios around the UK. I know what a £10k sound rig sounds like but I am next to no help with these surround systems as I don't personally own them myself (although I am very jealous of those who do!). Still, if the best sound you have heard has come from a Fisher Price pair of tin cans up to that date - of course you are going to think they sound good because you have nothing else to compare them to!

Check out what the "with PCM and AC-3/DTS passthrough" on the SPDIF means and see if it will be enough to send digital audio into your system ready to produce the 5.1 you need. If it does, I would say go for the Audiophile, if not, a lot of people on here love the Asus Xonar D2/X although on my system (seperates), the Xonar sounded terrible (even worse the Creative it replaced) but again, the subjective nature of sound quality does not make giving people advice online easy!!!!!

Best of luck with the decision!

Tom
 
Last edited:
I recently got a Xonar DX and was disgusted by it...then I realized it was set to speakers rather than headphones....and all this dolby stuff was enabled which is TERRIBLE. It's good for gaming but for watching movies or listening to music it totally destroys the sound.
So now I only use the dolby effect for gaming...and I've replaced the opamp with a LME49860 which is much better than the stock 5532 IMO and now I'm very, very happy with the Xonar.

It also has a good SPDIF out.

I once had an EMU 0404 right after a modded XFI and I didn't find the sound as good....though hughythomas says it is subjective.

My best experience has been with a china "noodle" dac but sadly I blew it up after a year modding it while drunk :( Also it only outputs stereo
 
Thanks gurusan, I'll try those drivers soon and see if they improve the sound and removes the cracking noise in battlefield 2 bad company 2 demo
http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/en-gb/agegate
(yeah it's demo but going live next month, and it sounds great on others comps). Btw, fysics is implemented, so you can blow up buildings with enemies in them or blow up walls etc, I'm 28 but still like games now and then.

Thanks for the info hughythomas, I have some reading to do.

About my surroundsystem, this is what I use:
http://www.elac.com/en/index.html (could not get direct lincs to the producs)
ELAC FS 68
ELAC CC 61
ELAC BS 63
VELODYNE Impact 12, Aktiv 12" Sub.
+1 reciever, yamaha the sound is rather good, at least on the elac components, the velvodyne is not bad but it aint top notch.

About my headphones, they are not headphones per say, or they are, but they are true 5.1 so can't really be used in headphone mode because then I lose the 5.1. I do not use their usb soundcard.
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/index.php/products/gaming_audio_technology/ax-pro/

I would prefer to have one soundcard for both of my soundsystems if possible, first now I'll try out those drivers thou, I'll be back with results.

Thanks again for info and tips.


Edit: I tested those drivers and nothing changed. I removed everything and then restarted, installed, restarted. Once I crack up the volume a little over the analog it cracks and it cracks a lot. If I let the 5.1 headphones themselves take up the volume on it's attatched volume controler, the sound is a lot better with a lot less cracking noise in it. This is very all very annoying. One thing is for sure, no more auzentech products, ever.
 
Last edited:
Yer the E-MU wouldnt be my first choice to be honest. The Audiophile is fantastic for the mony in my opinion although we must look into this SPDIF pass through business.

Hmmm modding the Xonar with better pres? That sounds like a double dare!

Was the difference night and day?

Tom
 
How would the Essence STX compare with an X-Meridian?

I'm trying to justify the cost of the STX! Not sure it's worth it, as I currently have a working X-Meridian...
 
Axel40 said:
How would the Essence STX compare with an X-Meridian?

I'm trying to justify the cost of the STX! Not sure it's worth it, as I currently have a working X-Meridian...
Click to expand...


I went from the X-Plosion to the Essence STX and the difference is astounding, the STX is far superior to the X-Plosion and I would assume it is also the the X-Meridian also.
 
IceDread said:
Thanks gurusan, I'll try those drivers soon and see if they improve the sound and removes the cracking noise in battlefield 2 bad company 2 demo
http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/en-gb/agegate
(yeah it's demo but going live next month, and it sounds great on others comps). Btw, fysics is implemented, so you can blow up buildings with enemies in them or blow up walls etc, I'm 28 but still like games now and then.

Thanks for the info hughythomas, I have some reading to do.

About my surroundsystem, this is what I use:
http://www.elac.com/en/index.html (could not get direct lincs to the producs)
ELAC FS 68
ELAC CC 61
ELAC BS 63
VELODYNE Impact 12, Aktiv 12" Sub.
+1 reciever, yamaha the sound is rather good, at least on the elac components, the velvodyne is not bad but it aint top notch.

About my headphones, they are not headphones per say, or they are, but they are true 5.1 so can't really be used in headphone mode because then I lose the 5.1. I do not use their usb soundcard.
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/index.php/products/gaming_audio_technology/ax-pro/

I would prefer to have one soundcard for both of my soundsystems if possible, first now I'll try out those drivers thou, I'll be back with results.

Thanks again for info and tips.


Edit: I tested those drivers and nothing changed. I removed everything and then restarted, installed, restarted. Once I crack up the volume a little over the analog it cracks and it cracks a lot. If I let the 5.1 headphones themselves take up the volume on it's attatched volume controler, the sound is a lot better with a lot less cracking noise in it. This is very all very annoying. One thing is for sure, no more auzentech products, ever.
Click to expand...


I'm using the Asus Essence STX connected by Spdif to a Onkyo 607 Amp and 7.1 Kef 3005SE speakers, I also have it connected to the same amp via RCA analogue for zone 2 for stereo with a pair of Dali Lektor 3s. I am very happy with it, sounds fantastic compared to the Azuntech X-Plosion I had previous. Its great with headphone too, including a Headphone amp which drives my Grado's no problem.
 
hughythomas said:
Hmmm modding the Xonar with better pres? That sounds like a double dare!

Was the difference night and day?

Tom
Click to expand...

I'm still pretty new to the audio world but so far nothing has been night and day :) It's certainly noticeable though....I also put some additional filtering caps on the aux floppy power input and some interference I was hearing at high volumes on my amp have disappeared :)
 
Asus Xonar Essence STX I dont think I can connect the 5.1 headphones to?
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/i...nology/ax-pro/

I'd prefer to have a single card for both the headphones and the spdif to my surround system.

Looks like Asus Xonar D2X/XDT or Asus Soundcard Xonar D2 7.1 is the asus alternative?
However I am looking for good gaming sound and I read around a little like here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=199417&page=2 all thou that thread is a bit old, it seams like people are not that happy with the gaming sound of asus?

Why can't there just be good cards and good drivers.. I hope the industry learns to follow standards so it evolves and does not get stuck with creative or any other single company but a competing market.
 
Last edited:
IceDread said:
Asus Xonar Essence STX I dont think I can connect the 5.1 headphones to?
http://www.trittontechnologies.com/i...nology/ax-pro/

I'd prefer to have a single card for both the headphones and the spdif to my surround system.

Looks like Asus Xonar D2X/XDT or Asus Soundcard Xonar D2 7.1 is the asus alternative?
However I am looking for good gaming sound and I read around a little like here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=199417&page=2 all thou that thread is a bit old, it seams like people are not that happy with the gaming sound of asus?

Why can't there just be good cards and good drivers.. I hope the industry learns to follow standards so it evolves and does not get stuck with creative or any other single company but a competing market.
Click to expand...


The Essence STX you can connect headphones to, it come with an integrated headphone amp and dolby headphone, so you could invest in a decent set of Audiophile Phones instead of the Trittons. Like I said, I have it connected via Spdif and RCA and Headphone simultaneously. As for Gaming, its definitely better than the Azuntech I had before.

If you want the best headphone soundcard around then the STX is it.

It will do what you are asking, you can connect it to an Amp via Spdif, a Stereo amp via the RCA plugs and your headphone via the headphone socket at the same time, the software supplied will allow instant switching between sources and the drivers are bug free in Vista and W7. Sound quality is second to none and it can be modded easily if you wish. There is also a ST version which supports a 7.1 analogue breakout box if you want analogue surround.

http://hothardware.com/Articles/ASUS-XONAR-Essence-STX-Headphone-Amp-Card/
 
Yes I've been avoiding discussing the 5.1 phones...but really it needs to be brought up.

5.1 headphones are never a good option. If you have some money to spend then sell your 5.1 cans on the bay and get some decent headphones.
 
Gaidin109 said:
The Essence STX you can connect headphones to, it come with an integrated headphone amp and dolby headphone, so you could invest in a decent set of Audiophile Phones instead of the Trittons. Like I said, I have it connected via Spdif and RCA and Headphone simultaneously. As for Gaming, its definitely better than the Azuntech I had before.

If you want the best headphone soundcard around then the STX is it.

It will do what you are asking, you can connect it to an Amp via Spdif, a Stereo amp via the RCA plugs and your headphone via the headphone socket at the same time, the software supplied will allow instant switching between sources and the drivers are bug free in Vista and W7. Sound quality is second to none and it can be modded easily if you wish. There is also a ST version which supports a 7.1 analogue breakout box if you want analogue surround.

http://hothardware.com/Articles/ASUS-XONAR-Essence-STX-Headphone-Amp-Card/
Click to expand...

I like true 5.1 for headphones thou, feels like better positioning in games. I have a pair of sennheizer HD 650 but the positioning there is not as good and nor is the sound, not for metal anyway, they can not keep up with fast phase music which some metal bands has with a lot of guitars and drums.

Which headphones would you recommend instead?
 
Last edited:
Are you connecting the HD650's directly to the Prelude?

The HD650's need a dedicated headphone amp to maximise their potential. I am sure you are aware of this, I mention it because it's somewhat surprising anyone can find 5.1 phones better for music than the HD650 properly amped.

There's that 'true 5.1' description again. Isn't there anyone who owns 5.1 headphones that knows what 'true 5.1' is?
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you need a gaming card IceDread - go for the Essence STX everyone has a semi over it (perhaps it sounds better than the Xonar D2X I had?!). Make sure to check the sync of the sample rates between the Asus driver panel and Windows itself though for optimum sound fidelity (although this might disable your DSP effects but carebear tbh).

Tom
 
He wants to use his 5.1 phones though. Unless he buys the daughterboard to go with the ST, he can't connect the 5.1 phones. Can this daughterboard still be bought? I have not seen it anywhere, and I have never seen it advertised as coming with the ST, like some people have told me.

If a card is to be used that isn't an Auzentech or Creative, then that only leaves Asus, for gaming at least. The D2X has no EAX simulation, some guy on a different forum did say, it's better to use Asus' simulated EAX than not to have it at all. That leaves only the DX really.
 
IceDread said:
I like true 5.1 for headphones thou, feels like better positioning in games. I have a pair of sennheizer HD 650 but the positioning there is not as good and nor is the sound, not for metal anyway, they can not keep up with fast phase music which some metal bands has with a lot of guitars and drums.

Which headphones would you recommend instead?
Click to expand...

The headphones are fine, they are far superior to the 5.1 you have, get a decent soundcard, you have to have a headphone Amp. What amp are you using?, the soundcard or amp is more likely to be the problem than those 650s, either that or they are faulty. Not keeping up with Metal is a strange one.

What sort of connection does those 5.1 phones have, why will they not connect to the STX yet they do to your current card?
I have a set of those and some Grados as well, I listen to metal, and have no such problems.
 
Last edited:
The HD 650 I had connected directly to the receiver that I have SPDIF connected to. My Yamaha receiver RX-450 (yeah maybe a bit old but works fairly well) should be strong enough to power the HD 650 without problems or? The bass in these headphones, it feels like it lingers just a little bit to long, might be imagination thou but that's the feeling once I go from my surround system or from the tritton.

Btw, I am not saying that tritton overall is the better headphones, I just really liked them for better positioning in games, tritton lacks maybe a little power to it's sound, but for gaming I've found them to be good. Has anyone tried them for fps games? http://thexboxdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/screenshot-4.png All thou mine has 1 power connector to it. I use pic 7 for connecting them since it fit, prelude can not take the other connection that is directly on part 1 all thou one of those connectors are for the separate power that does not go into the computer.

When I first compared my HD 650 to the Tritton, I've a neighbor that imports them with his company so I got them at a better deal, I started comparing them in games and the precision of where a hand grenade blew up or from where someone was shooting from was just amazing in difference. Maybe the cmss 3d didnt work as it should for the hd 650 or maybe I missed something, could try it out again to see the difference again, it was one year since I compared them.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom