M-Audio Revolution to Asus Xonar

[theforce]

Hi guys.
I am really happy with my M-Audio Revolution 5.1 but i want to upgrade to Vista 64-bit since i need to have a lot of RAM since i work with a lot of memory hungry apps.
There aren't any 64-bit vista drivers out for my soundcard and i was thinking of getting a new one. I am using Megaworks 550 THX which is an analogue set of speakers from what i know and i wanted something that matches the audio clarity in music of the M-Audio. Is this thing a nice side-grade or excels in music reproduction than the M-audio in analogue connection?
Thanks for the replies.

 

[MystaEB]

Well.. I'll let you decide. Here are the specs for both cards:

M-Audio Revolution 5.1

dynamic range: 106dB (typical, -60dBFS input, A-weighted)
signal-to-noise ratio: 109dB (typical, A-weighted)
THD+N: 0.00185% (-95dB)
WDM driver sampling rates: 32k, 44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, 96k, 172.4k**, 192k** (**output only)

Source: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.main&ID=a6cdbf5177802c58a370e87c79f47cdb&showing=specs

Asus Xonar

Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted):
Up to 118 dB

Input Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted):
Up to 118 dB

Output Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (A-Weighted):
Up to 0.0004% (-108dB)

Input Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (A-Weighted) :
Up to 0.0004% (-108dB)

Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input ):
<10Hz to 46kHz

Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage
2 Vrms (5.65 Vp-p)

Sample Rate Conversion Quality
Almost lossless, high-fidelity floating-point filters, with:
-140dB THD+N (typical value for 44.1K->48KHz, 24bit)
145dB Dynamic Range (typical value for 44.1K->48KHz, 24bit)

Source: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1989&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0

On paper, the Xonar is the better card. I think the Xonar at the moment is pretty much tied for best sound card available alongside the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression most reviews have given me.

 

[kkbigal]

On paper, the Xonar is the better card. I think the Xonar at the moment is pretty much tied for best sound card available alongside the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression most reviews have given me.

Someone linked a review on these boards comparing the 2 cards. Basically these 2 are very much the cream of the desktop audio crop. From the audio tests they ran, the Xonar actually has better sound production than the Prelude, but at the time the Prelude gave a few more fps in games due to the hardware acceleration .

The other post I've just seen today says the Xonar is getting EAX 5.0 support - something that's only ever been available on Creative cards until now.

The listening tests they ran were subjective with some listeners preferring the sound of the Prelude over the Xonar and vice versa. However, they all agreed that both cards sounded better than the X-fi Fatality they were running in the same test and the audio bench marking software gave top marks for the Xonar pretty much across the board, higher even than the Prelude.

Ultimately, the review recommended the Prelude if you're running XP where you still got the benefits of the hardware acceleration the card offered. For Vista, they recommended the Xonar.

I think I'm very tempted to take the plunge with the Xonar