Asus Xonar DG question

Combat Fighter · 30 Mar 2011 at 14:48

Hi there as these are offer this week I was thinking of getting one for my media pc (that's hooked up to my plasma) for a bit of added quality over the onboard sound. Currently I connect to my surround sound via an optical cable (from a Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4) and it works great so I was hoping the Asus Xonar DG has an optical output?

I've already got a Asus Xonar Essence STX in my main gaming rig which is fantastic quality and obviously I don't expect the DG to be as good as that for the money as it cost 5 times as much!

So would the DG suit my needs for my media pc?

Participant · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:06

Yes it has an optical port, but does your motherboard not do audio over HDMI? That way you'd get DTS-HD (if your receiver supports it) as well as audio and video over one connection.

Marsman · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:22

Pointless purchase I'm afraid. Good card yes, very good actually for the money, but when using SPDIF (optical/coaxial) you are sending digital data. The surround sound system is converting that data into sound. Whether it is sent from a £20 sound card, or a £100 one, makes no difference, as it's just data.

Combat Fighter · 30 Mar 2011 at 16:33

Robbie G said:
Yes it has an optical port, but does your motherboard not do audio over HDMI? That way you'd get DTS-HD (if your receiver supports it) as well as audio and video over one connection.

The motherboard is not the problem. In my media pc I've got a Nvidia 280GTX which does output hdmi (with an adapter) but obviously does not support any audio.

My current HTPC does sound good through my surround sound system (LG HB965TZ) which it should do as it's a high end surround system but you can definitely tell the difference in quality when I use a different source, ie Bluray which is breathtaking, it sounds better than the cinema!

As I mentioned before since owning my Asus Xonar Essence STX on my gaming rig it really has made big difference and sounds amazing connected to my Audioengine A5's (with separate sub as well).

Or should I look further up the Xonar tree for a better version?

ace962 · 30 Mar 2011 at 17:01

DON'T DO IT! The card is great if you want 5.1 using the individual jack plugs, but the SPDIF will only output stereo PCM not 5.1. I bought this card for my media PC which has crappy on board sound, and I wish I have never bothered!

james.miller · 30 Mar 2011 at 17:28

ace962 said:
DON'T DO IT! The card is great if you want 5.1 using the individual jack plugs, but the SPDIF will only output stereo PCM not 5.1. I bought this card for my media PC which has crappy on board sound, and I wish I have never bothered!

of course the DG does support DD and DTS streaming. You are right though, it wont be any different from the onboard output.

Combat Fighter the only upgrade path for you would be uncompressed audio over hdmi which ridiculously is cheaper if you replace your gpu with something like an ati 5450 than it is buying a hdmi sound card. I wouldnt bother with either, tbh.

Combat Fighter · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:07

Cheers for the advice guys. I might get a new gpu in the future.

james.miller · 30 Mar 2011 at 19:09

stick your 5970 in there and test out the audio output. that'll tell you if its worth upgrading or not

Participant · 31 Mar 2011 at 15:35

Combat Fighter said:
The motherboard is not the problem. In my media pc I've got a Nvidia 280GTX which does output hdmi (with an adapter) but obviously does not support any audio.

It would if you connected an SPDIF cable between your sound card and your video card.