Suggestions for PCI Express sound card with Digital Live and DTS

Simon D · 25 Jul 2010 at 18:41

Any suggestion on a new sound card just moved to HD5870 crossfire setup now and I need to find a good PCI Express sound card with DTS® and Dolby Digital®-EX output.

I was using X-Fi Pro with no problems, but had to buy the Connect Pack from the Creative store to get Dolby Digital Live and DTS.

I been look at a ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 S/H, any problems with the cards from ASUS?

I waiting on reviews on the Creatiive Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Sound Card

Thank

Simon

jellybeard999 · 25 Jul 2010 at 19:27

What are you looking to connect to? Does it need to decode or bit-stream?

Simon D · 25 Jul 2010 at 19:46

I am running a AMP with optical input which can decode, so card does not need to decode but must have a optical output

jellybeard999 · 25 Jul 2010 at 21:59

Any reason you're against onboard? Using optical, it's generally considered not worth upgrading.

Uriel · 25 Jul 2010 at 23:01

It's fairly rare for onboard to have DDL or DTS Connect. Without it you will only get pre-encoded 5.1 content over optical.

To have 5.1 in games etc, using an optical connection, DDL or DTS Connect are pretty much essential.

The X-Fi Titanium or Xonar D2X will do the job. If you can live without DTS Connect, the Xonar DX will do the job but cheaper. Assuming you want to use the card for gaming, I wouldn't recommend any other brands, unless you still use Windows XP.

Marsman · 25 Jul 2010 at 23:26

The EX58 UD5 has Dolby Digital Live, so unless the OP needs DTSC too, no need for a sound card really.

Simon D · 26 Jul 2010 at 06:39

Yes I am lucky that the Motherboard EX58 UD5 has Dolby Digital Live.

I play movies on the PC as well and I have a 5.1 speaker system/amp and a 30" screen, which is great for games as well.

Been looking at both X-Fi Titanium or Xonar D2X, best price I have seen them at £90. Do you need a power supply for the X-Fi Titanium?

Both Creative and ASUS have been slow on driver’s release; both seem to have problems.

Maybe the price on the X-Fi Titanium will drop when the HD X-Fi Titanium is released.

RedGooner · 26 Jul 2010 at 10:01

I use this Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series PCIe, and output via optical to my Amp, and all is great. But when i game, i put headpones and mic into front bay, so get best of both...
Red

Marsman · 26 Jul 2010 at 11:24

I am still not sure as to why you want a sound card, unless it's because you want DTSC aswell as DDL?

Simon D · 26 Jul 2010 at 16:23

Marsman said:
I am still not sure as to why you want a sound card, unless it's because you want DTSC aswell as DDL?

Yes I use DTS as well for movies and games

RedGooner your Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series PCIe sound card do you need power for it?

Marsman · 26 Jul 2010 at 18:08

Simon D said:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series PCIe sound card do you need power for it?

The console bay will require power, not sure if it's the small floppy type, or the molex type.

The card itself gets all the power it requires from the PCIe slot.

Simon D · 26 Jul 2010 at 18:36

Marsman said:
The console bay will require power, not sure if it's the small floppy type, or the molex type.

The card itself gets all the power it requires from the PCIe slot.

Thanks

Flanno · 26 Jul 2010 at 23:01

Marsman said:
The console bay will require power, not sure if it's the small floppy type, or the molex type.

The card itself gets all the power it requires from the PCIe slot.

It doesn't actually. The card and the front bay get all their power from the PCI-E 1x slot. There are 2 thick cables that go from the soundcard to the back of the bay. 1 for analog, 1 for digital. You can see the way my soundcard is hooked up. I recommend a couple of ferrite chokes on the 2 cables connected to the soundcard end though. Helps with any interference coming off the front bay. I added them after I took that pic below.

Marsman · 27 Jul 2010 at 01:03

Groovy, that's useful then.

gatecrasherlok · 2 Aug 2010 at 15:35

I use a Xonar d2x and mine has worked perfectly from day one. I can vouch that Asus has been very slow on driver releases though which bound to get anyone annoyed. If I recall there are only 2 driver releases for this particular card.

Simon D · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:06

gatecrasherlok said:
I use a Xonar d2x and mine has worked perfectly from day one. I can vouch that Asus has been very slow on driver releases though which bound to get anyone annoyed. If I recall there are only 2 driver releases for this particular card.

That one of my concerns with the ASUS cards.

siege2 · 14 Aug 2010 at 09:33

gatecrasherlok said:
I use a Xonar d2x and mine has worked perfectly from day one. I can vouch that Asus has been very slow on driver releases though which bound to get anyone annoyed. If I recall there are only 2 driver releases for this particular card.

after looking at this I looked up mine and it has only 2 driver updates, Xonar D2X driver for Windows 7 32/64bit Version.