Next gen sound cards?

Konstantin · 19 Apr 2012 at 11:21

Are there any rumours on the next gen sound cards?
It's been 3-4 years since the Xonar series have come out from Asus, and X-Fi from Creative were released in 2005.

Still on the noble Audigy 2 ZS, I only recently developed an interest to high quality audio gear.

How much difference do you think there will be? Have we reached a near limit of PC audio quality already?

I'm looking into a Hi-Fi setup (B&W 685s & Amp) + good set of headphones (HD600s), so Asus Xonar Essence STX is at the top of my list, because of it's reviews and I/O ports to suit this setup.

Marsman · 19 Apr 2012 at 11:42

Have we reached a near limit of PC audio quality already?

Yes.

You won't get better than either the Xonar Essence or X-Fi Titanium HD, for internal sound cards. More features may appear, but the sound quality can't get much better really, without using more expensive components. Anyone who wants better sound quality would be best going for an external DAC with SPDIF connection, so they can still use a sound card for any gaming effects, etc.

You'd probably have to pay around £300 to get an external DAC that is as good or better than the Xonar Essence. When you consider it has a pretty decent headphone amp too, if you add an external one to the cost, you could well end up paying £400-£450 to get better sound with external DAC and headphone amp. The Essence is good value really.

There is the Xonar Phoebus which is out fairly soon. Apparently, it's released now, but I don't know if anyone stocks it yet. That's for gamers with multi driver headsets though, and 5.1/7.1 speakers.

We've just had Creative's next offering, with the Recon3D cards. If that's Creative's idea of next generation PC sound, then they are going backwards, and a sign that sound cards are not going to get any better than what we have already.

The Essence is a very good choice. The DAC is excellent, if you have the speakers and headphones to take advantage of it. The headphone amp does a good job with the HD650's, and other similar headphones. Granted a separate headphone amp would offer better sound quality for the headphones, but you could spend a few hundred £ on one, and still hear a benefit. Unless you have plenty of money to throw around, then the Essence is a very good starting point.

fastwing76 · 25 Apr 2012 at 15:34

I own both the recon3d and titanium hd, the tHD is way better when it comes to sound quality in movies and music, but I cannot comment on games much since I am in confusion between the both in terms of games effects and positional audio, here is my audio setup
creative titanium HD + schiit Asgard headphones amp connected through rca + denon ah-d5000. the sound is pretty good and I get positional sound effects in games through the amp.

if I were u I would simply wait for the asus phobus that was just released, u don't want to buy something and then regret it, it will be stocked after a month or so just wait for the firs review to come out in a few weeks and decide, I will compare the recon3d in gaming with amp and comment on it.

djxput · 27 Apr 2012 at 13:26

fastwing76 said:
I own both the recon3d and titanium hd, the tHD is way better when it comes to sound quality in movies and music, but I cannot comment on games much since I am in confusion between the both in terms of games effects and positional audio, here is my audio setup
creative titanium HD + schiit Asgard headphones amp connected through rca + denon ah-d5000. the sound is pretty good and I get positional sound effects in games through the amp.

if I were u I would simply wait for the asus phobus that was just released, u don't want to buy something and then regret it, it will be stocked after a month or so just wait for the firs review to come out in a few weeks and decide, I will compare the recon3d in gaming with amp and comment on it.

I Agree - funny I got the same sound card as the OP as wanted a new one; was eyeing the asus xonar line a d2 ... but then heard about the phoebus ... so think Ill wait on that and see how much; although the whole thing with the mic and audio thing looks (childish) so well see about that thing.

MaxP779 · 27 Apr 2012 at 16:17

Yeah the recon 3d is a bit nyaff really. Heres daniel_k's summary of it:
http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=697046&page=2&p=532625&viewfull=1#post532625

The new asus phoebus could potentially lead to a new xonar essence revision where it would be PCI-E but without the bridge chip eliminating some of the jitter or whatever that the bridge chip apparently causes. The phoebus uses a native PCI-E chip and needs no bridge.

Orcvader · 27 Apr 2012 at 17:14

The sound market is pretty much stale now, can't get really better but the Phoebus is probably the one to look out for. The main question is though, will Asus mess up on the drivers? Currently need to use the unified drivers for my DX since the stock ones is buggy...