Creative® Sound Core3D™ Quad-Core Audio Processor Versus Xonar DSX

I have core3d on my sniper m3 and it's pretty crap tbh and the DSX is a pretty good soundcard.

What headphoens/speakers do you have etc?
 
Creative haven't made anything that good in awhile IMO - and I've even become a bit disenchanted with my X-Fi since bypassing the stock op amps and realising how muddy sounding they actually are :S

EDIT: Looks like the default OP AMP on those boards is the 2134? I've been playing with one of those family on my recent experiments and its a very plain sounding op amp - stick the OPA2111KP in there if you have the kit and you should have a far more lively sound. (Infact the 2134 is the "audio" version of the 2132 I've been playing with and is infact a de-rated chip with worse sound quality than the 2132 even - I would strongly recommend anyone using that sound hardware with the rear ports looks into replacing the op amp the stock one is very stable but also very unremarkable sounding almost to the point of dulling the sound).

(If your using the front panel headphone amp that doesn't apply).
 
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Rroff said:
Creative haven't made anything that good in awhile IMO - and I've even become a bit disenchanted with my X-Fi since bypassing the stock op amps and realising how muddy sounding they actually are :S

EDIT: Looks like the default OP AMP on those boards is the 2134? I've been playing with one of those family on my recent experiments and its a very plain sounding op amp - stick the OPA2111KP in there if you have the kit and you should have a far more lively sound. (Infact the 2134 is the "audio" version of the 2132 I've been playing with and is infact a de-rated chip with worse sound quality than the 2132 even - I would strongly recommend anyone using that sound hardware with the rear ports looks into replacing the op amp the stock one is very stable but also very unremarkable sounding almost to the point of dulling the sound).

(If your using the front panel headphone amp that doesn't apply).
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Cant be to do with the faff...I bought a DSX to use in a spare PC but it wont fit...so I was going to fit it to my X99 rig...But only if its worth it over the Core 3D
 
Doesn't surprise me - regardless of how good the rest of the sound hardware might or might not be the Creative is only ever going to sound bland with the 2134 in there - surprised that is the default op amp - sure its very stable and forgiving but it never shows off hardware in its best light.
 
Rroff said:
Doesn't surprise me - regardless of how good the rest of the sound hardware might or might not be the Creative is only ever going to sound bland with the 2134 in there - surprised that is the default op amp - sure its very stable and forgiving but it never shows off hardware in its best light.
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Where do you buy these op amps? Out of interest would using the front panel audio be better ?
 
I'm not sure what chip is driving the front panel headphone amp - but its soldered to the board so can't be replaced like the one used to drive the rear output.

The "amp up" feature uses a standard DIP8 (important to note if your buying op amps as the SMD/SOIC versions would need to be soldered onto a converter board) socketed op amp so its really easy to swap out aslong as you get the chip the right way around in the socket.

Gigabyte supposedly does a couple of packs of alternative op amps but I can't see them to actually buy anywhere in the UK.

This is the list of supposed certified op amps (added my opinion of the ones I've experience of):

OPA2134 - very plain sound
OPA2111 - lively, quite "airy"
OPA2107 - no experience [reputation for deep, dark sound]
OPA2604 - no experience [apparently boring]
OPA2227 - heard bad things not tried
LM4562 - similar to the 2111 - think some of the boards come with it as an alternative in the box
LM49720 - no experience
NE5532 - basically what you find in the Xonars
JRC4558 - my impression was the mid-range easily gets "saturated" sounding muddy and hard to pick out individual sounds but looking on google it seems to have been hyped up a lot in the past
LT1358 - no experience
AD827 - "full" and a bit lazy sounding but good detail.
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I usually buy mine from mouser but they ship express from the US so expensive for small quantities other options would be the likes of digikey and farnell, the likes of maplins didn't have a great selection last time I looked.
 
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