Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 vs Creative Sound Blaster X AE-5

Kalith

Kalith

Kalith

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Joined
20 Sep 2010
Posts
22
Hey all,

I've had my Xonar DGX for quite some time, it came with my PC originally, unfortunately it seems something has blown during a powercut and the microphone port doesn't work anymore. I can get audio but mic not working, tested two headsets and they work fine on another computer.

So, I see the thread about the AE-5 and it seems quite a popular card, though the price is quite a bit higher. Wondering if I'm going to actually hear the difference and get value out of it, can anyone recommend the AE-5 or am I better off sticking with another Xonar 5.1? PC used for games predominantly, currently using Sennheiser GSP 600 if that's relevant.
 
With its very low impedance GSP 600 doesn't need much voltage, but very low output impedance of AE-5 wouldn't be bad thing for high damping factor and driver control.

Though powercut really shouldn't do much to sound card.
You sure there wasn't some Windows update triggered by restart?
 
Upto £90-100 the AE-5 is an excellent soundcard - not really a fan of the price going above that though - not that it wouldn't justify a higher price in terms of sound performance/quality, etc. but once it gets above that I'd start expecting a bit more in terms of output options and accessories in the box, etc.

I've not spent extensive time with the Xonar range but I've a bit of experience with a variety of soundcards in general and I'd take the AE-5 over most other options currently as it seems a bit better supported as things stand and they've actually put a bit of thought into the AE-5 design (though there is still 1-2 things like capacitor selection I'd tweak if I was being super fussy) unlike a lot of offerings lately they are very reference design with the cheapest parts that will do the job.
 
Check all your Windows settings as I had a hard time getting my mic to work recently as well. Check the mic and background apps settings to make sure.

I have both cards. Totally different sound as to be expected but is the AE-5 worth more than double the price?

Yes especially for gaming. If it was for movies though I would say no just because of a personal liking for the Xonar sound as it emulates a speaker surround system rather than putting you in game like the Creative cards do.

Just my personal opinion though.
 
Yes, it was the stupid Windows settings!

I went into the Security -> Privacy -> Microphone settings.
'Microphone access for this device' was already set to On, however the 'Allow apps to access your microphone' section was set to Off.

I never knew this existed, spent all my time messing about in the Playback/Recording options + Windows Sound page + messing around with drivers. The places you'd actually expect to make your devices work.

Switched the option on which changed the entry in the Recording tab from 'Currently Unavailable' back to 'Default Device'.
It still didn't work at that stage, however I went into Right click -> Properties -> Custom and found 'Front Mic' was enabled again, probably when I tried reinstalling driver last night, removed that and mic is working.
 
I imagine a good few people end up spending money replacing hardware due to issues like this :( good thing you got it sorted.
 
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