Dedicated sounds card or HDMI sound via receiver?
- Thread starter erazor51
- Start date
Soldato
Depends on what you want to spend really.
The XONAR ST or STX are simply brilliant. Add a nice set of active speakers and a head set and your sorted.
Go via a reciever or DAC for similar costs for headphones alone rather that speakers too and your sound will potentially be better if its doing the decoding its self. if the PC is still doing it then the sound card would have been the better bet.
The XONAR ST or STX are simply brilliant. Add a nice set of active speakers and a head set and your sorted.
Go via a reciever or DAC for similar costs for headphones alone rather that speakers too and your sound will potentially be better if its doing the decoding its self. if the PC is still doing it then the sound card would have been the better bet.
What are you trying to do?? Is it for gaming? music? movies?
Soldato
Active speakers ?
Such as the Edifier 1600s?
EDIT.....was thinking of buying the ST..but it wont fit my mobo
Such as the Edifier 1600s?
EDIT.....was thinking of buying the ST..but it wont fit my mobo
Last edited:
Yes, any speakers that plug into the mains, which is basically all PC speakers. Passive speakers require a separate amp, but they mainly come under Hi-Fi. In my opinion you'd have to spend a lot on active speakers to make buying a Xonar Essence worthwhile. For speakers like the R1600T a Xonar Essence would be some serious overkill. A better sound card doesn't come anywhere near to making the difference better speakers will. It's never a good thing when the sound card costs more than the speakers do.
Soldato
Point taken 
Cheers Mars
Cheers Mars
At the moment I have sound going out from my AMD graphics card via HDMI to my Yamaha RX-V667 Receiver with Monitor Audio Vector 5.1 speakers.
Is the current set-up better then say having a Creative Sound Blaster Zx and then using the analogue ports on my receiver or its better via graphics cards HDMI?
I use it for everything, games, movies and music.
Is the current set-up better then say having a Creative Sound Blaster Zx and then using the analogue ports on my receiver or its better via graphics cards HDMI?
I use it for everything, games, movies and music.
Sorry, forgot about this!!
Your system seems pretty good, I am not sure I would change anything.
Actually, saying that, I have a really good setup too, Pioneer SC-LX81 receiver and XTZ speakers and sub. The receiver is about the same as Yamaha you have. I am saying this because I did change, I bought the creative Z last year and have hooked it VIA analogue just like what you were thinking of doing.
I find it much better for gaming and way better when using headphones.
Music and movies, well, listen to both and see which you prefer.
So I am after coming full circle
Yes, it's worth it if you do a lot of gaming. I would just get the Z unless you really need the module. The two cards are the same spec. If you don't need a mic, then I would save even more money and get the OEM version.
Your system seems pretty good, I am not sure I would change anything.
Actually, saying that, I have a really good setup too, Pioneer SC-LX81 receiver and XTZ speakers and sub. The receiver is about the same as Yamaha you have. I am saying this because I did change, I bought the creative Z last year and have hooked it VIA analogue just like what you were thinking of doing.
I find it much better for gaming and way better when using headphones.
Music and movies, well, listen to both and see which you prefer.
So I am after coming full circle
Yes, it's worth it if you do a lot of gaming. I would just get the Z unless you really need the module. The two cards are the same spec. If you don't need a mic, then I would save even more money and get the OEM version.Sorry, forgot about this!!
Your system seems pretty good, I am not sure I would change anything.
Actually, saying that, I have a really good setup too, Pioneer SC-LX81 receiver and XTZ speakers and sub. The receiver is about the same as Yamaha you have. I am saying this because I did change, I bought the creative Z last year and have hooked it VIA analogue just like what you were thinking of doing.
I find it much better for gaming and way better when using headphones.
Music and movies, well, listen to both and see which you prefer.
So I am after coming full circle
Nice, maybe i should try it and see how it performs. When playing movies the receiver sometimes displays DTS, DD, DTS-MA, Dolby TrueHD etc when im playing those movies. What will happen via the the analogue setup we are talking about?
Your receiver won't display anything, only PCM. You will need the latest mpc-hc or some other software that decodes audio formats. I use MPC-HC and find it brilliant.
The receiver does display the formats because it's doing the decoding but on MPC-HC you need to enable it like i have shown below:
The receiver does display the formats because it's doing the decoding but on MPC-HC you need to enable it like i have shown below:
You asked me what would happen while playing movies if you changed to analogue inputs, would you still get the DTS and TrueHd etc on the display.
I answered you, You won't get those displayed if you are playing movies through analogue. And if you use passthrough on analogue inputs, like you have configured on MPC-HC, you won't get any sound at all or just static.
Oops sorry my bad, got confused there. Thanks for all the help, im going to go for the Creative ZxR