Asus Xonar DX pcie vs the onboard sound of X99 range of motherboards

mogwai

mogwai

mogwai

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I am currently deciding on the components for my new X99 build and am looking at the Asus X99 range. I currently have a Asus Xonar DX pcie sound card. Is this sound card better than the sound cards that are built into the X99 range?

I have Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II connected to the card at the moment
 
mogwai said:
I am currently deciding on the components for my new X99 build and am looking at the Asus X99 range. I currently have a Asus Xonar DX pcie sound card. Is this sound card better than the sound cards that are built into the X99 range?

I have Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II connected to the card at the moment
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Those onboard sound chip will only be as good as entry level dedicated soundcard like the Xonar DG or DGX at most...your Xonar DX will still be better.
 
The xonar dx is old now no idea why it's still £65 ish not worth the price imo would rather put that towards external dac or buy the cheaper xonar DG.
The Dx isn't worth it's current price say that as an owner it should be like £40 tops it doesn't have a built in headphone amp like the xonar DG.
 
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In defence of pricing.

Sound tech hasn't changed and with little or no competition i can't see it changing.
 
The only changes in sound tech in recent years is on motherboards and that is just them trying to make it smaller and smaller so they can try and compete with discrete cards on the feature set. Sound quality though is a distant second and even the best motherboard audio can be bested by mid-range sound cards.
 
I've just bought one of these (Asus Xonar DX PCIE 7.1), so a quick necro just to review.

The sound quality is noticeably better than my RoG motherboard (probably listening to voice is the easiest way to evaluate).

It needs a floppy connector to power it, one comes in the box.
They don't mate at all and the thing flops about and doesn't make a good connection (the card will complain if it can't see 5volts here). Maybe I'll add some glue to fix this later

The ASUS drivers are still being updated and I saw Win10 64bit ones on there.

Before install I disabled my motherboard sound hardware, but the ASUS install still hung, complained about not being able to see a soundcard and required a reset.
It had actually loaded the drivers and it worked, but not the control application

A second install loaded the application, but don't bother with it, it is a steaming pile of crap and looks like it was designed by a five year old.


an alternative is the xonar unified drivers
http://maxedtech.com/
 
Had one of theese a while back. Had to stop using it though due to having tightly spaced sli graphics cards. Board at the time was a high end Asus Z87 maximus 6 formula. One of it's major selling points was the supposed quality of it's onboard audio. In truth it was awful, the DX was vastly superior in every regard. On an msi X99 board now, and tbh the onboard audio on it isnt much better than the asus boards was.
 
I've been using the integrated Realtek on my Asrock X99 WS-E for over a year now and it's pretty good. I was using a Xonar D2 before but it was PCI so couldn't use it with my new board. There is a difference such as lower amplification but it's not enough to warrant the cost of a new card. I might get one at some point if the price is right or just get an external amp for my headphones.
 
I've got a Xonar DX upstairs in a box as it wasn't loud enough when using headphones, however I got a Fiio E11K the other day so I might try it again.

That said, the ALC1150 and the built-in headphone amps on this MSI Gaming 5 mobo are not bad at all...
 
I've got three options.

1. Onboard X99 quad CPU Creative thingy (so much software)
2. Xonar DX with emulated Creative game effects i.e the flaky GX mode!
3. Outboard USB DAC/Amp + headphones

For me it's an easy choice the USB DAC/Amp. Simple connections, no drivers, no setup issues.
 
I used the onboard sound on my x99-A when my DX wouldn't work with it, sounded fine, id still take a dedicated soundcard though, so got myself a Xonar U7 (USB).
 
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bimbleuk said:
3. Outboard USB DAC/Amp + headphones

For me it's an easy choice the USB DAC/Amp. Simple connections, no drivers, no setup issues.
Click to expand...

Also no Dolby Headphone or other HRTF. Some people ( like me :p ) like this effect when playing games or watching movies. I turn it off for music though.
 
I've just put my DX back in just to test, I honestly can not tell any difference whatsoever whether I'm listening to Meghan Trainor or Megadeth :p
 
bitslice said:
I've just bought one of these (Asus Xonar DX PCIE 7.1), so a quick necro just to review.

The sound quality is noticeably better than my RoG motherboard (probably listening to voice is the easiest way to evaluate).
Click to expand...

I'm really not seeing this, I was intrigued after reading your post so put my DX back in...and I can't tell any difference whatsoever, no matter what music genre.

I've not exactly got cheap headphones either, SoundMAGIC HP200s and Beyerdynamic DT990 pros (250ohm).

In what way did you find the DX better? Genuine question :)

Maybe the ALC1150 and headphone amp implementation on the MSI Gaming 5 are just quite good, I dunno.
 
Hmm, after further testing I'm kinda getting it now when I incorporate the E11K into the equation, the sound on the DX is much more 3D and has more low end power, but I don't think it's a fair fight then as the ALC1150 is double amping with the Fiio which seems to impact the sound compared to the DX, not really it's fault. The ALC1150 still sounds better with the E11K than vanilla though.

So from best to worst:
DX+E11K > ALC1150+E11K > ALC1150 = DX
 
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Having owned a Xonar D2, Xonar dsx, Xonar Phoebus in the past and now using onboard on my Gene Viii which is Supreme fx 2015 i can say I feel like motherboards have finally reached a point where a dedicated sound card seems pointless to me, if i want to go any better i'd be going down the route of stand alone high quality gear.
 
powelly2010 said:
Having owned a Xonar D2, Xonar dsx, Xonar Phoebus in the past and now using onboard on my Gene Viii which is Supreme fx 2015 i can say I feel like motherboards have finally reached a point where a dedicated sound card seems pointless to me, if i want to go any better i'd be going down the route of stand alone high quality gear.
Click to expand...

Agreed, if you're not using an external amp they're impossible to tell apart, to me anyway. It was only when I introduced the amp that things changed, the DX seems to respond to being amp'd better, not massively so, but still better - and I get the feeling that's more to do with dual amping the sound rather than the ALC1150 itself.

If you're not using an amp I really wouldn't bother with a soundcard.
 
The stx has it's own amp, so yes I'm confident that would sound better, I'm on about the unamped dx tho as it's the only one I can compare it to personally.
 
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