Need advice as to which sound card to invest in.

TheSwede

TheSwede

TheSwede

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Hey all,

Thinking to get myself a sound card again for my Logitech Z-5500 speakers and Logitech G933 headphones. But, have no clue what to get exactly. Mostly be using it for gaming, some music and occasional movies.

Been looking around a bit and found these three that I'm trying to decide between.

Creative Sound Blaster X AE-5

ASUS Strix Soar 7.1

Terratec Aureon 7.1

Also in regards to the cards, should I plug in my PS4 Pro to the sound card or the Z-5500 Control unit ? The unit can take Optical, Coax and 6-channel direct. If I understand right, means I can connect both PC and PS4 to it ?? If not, directly into one of the above cards ?

In any case, I do need some expert advice in regards to the above card from those that have or are using any of them. If you have other recommendations I am open for those as well ! :)

Appreciate any and all help in the above ! :D
 
You don't need one. Your headset is wireless so all the audio processing is done in the headset. Looks like the speakers also have a built in DAC.

Pretty much pointless. :)
 
G933 has also analog cable, but its unlikely to be exactly great headphone.
Though that Dolby Headphone is rather average and some improvement could be gotten from Creative's HRTF.

Anyway Creative's Super X-Fi tech with head shape customizable HRTF would be the goal to aim in headphone gaming:
We hear in 3D with two ears because shape of the head (+pinnae) causes direction dependant changes to signal received by both ears from sound source.
And as you may have noticed there's no standard for precise head shape, meaning those signal changes vary between persons.


For getting surround sound from console to speakers you need to use optical cable and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
Kinda reserving that...
While from PC you won't be getting game 5.1 surround sound digitally into speakers without DD encoder equipped sound card.
And newer sound cards are usually missing that, because AVRs use nowadays HMDI.
So to connect both PC and console to it simultaneously without swapping cables, best would be to use analog connections from PC and digital from console.
 
As mentioned above; Logitech headset is USB so cannot be connected to a sound card. All USB audio devices have their own built in sound processing.

For the PS4; best to connect via optical to the Z5500 speakers. There is no advantage at all to buying a sound card for PC that takes optical in and connecting the PS4 to that, then sound card to the speakers.

For PC use; I'd just use the motherboard onboard audio to connect to the Z5500's 3.5mm inputs. There is no great advantage to having a sound card for 5.1 speakers, unless there is a problem with the motherboard onboard audio, like interference issues for example.

Biggest benefit to using a sound card such as the Creative AE-5, would be when using wired headphones.
 
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