not sure if i should by the asus xonar D2X

dmxdex2020

dmxdex2020

dmxdex2020

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Im finding it tough in buying a new sound card either the asus xonar or the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty.

The card is going to be for gaming. i have heard the xonar might not be able to use EAX 5.0 in a lot of games that is putting me off the card i also heard its emulated EAX 5.0 will this mean not as good as SB titanium?
 
Much better to get a stereo set with either of those soundcards. X-Fi has CMSS-3D headphone. Xonar has Dolby Headphone. These both simulate surround sound over headphones. I have a set of Speedlink Medusa 5.1 and simulated surround via those soundcards on stereo headphones is much better than the multiple driver 5.1 headphones.

I have both a Xonar D2 and an X-Fi Prelude. The X-Fi is marginally better for gaming generally but the Xonar's EAX5 emulation is pretty close. You get marginally better effects in EAX titles and slightly better positioning in all hardware accelerated titles on the X-Fi. There have been occasions when I've had to wait a long time for Xonar driver updates before getting a game working properly with EAX. With X-Fi, it usually works and if now I can usually get things working manually before the drivers are updated.

The main gaming problem I had with Xonar was older EAX 3 and 4 titles not working properly (so you have to use EAX2). Not sure if they'll ever fix this.

The reason I asked about headphones was that different headphones have better synergy with different cards. Headphones with a wide and forward soundstage (like Sennheiser HD555, HD515, HD595, Audio Technica ATH AD700) tend to sound very good with X-Fi. Headpones with a more neutral soundstage (Goldring DR50, DR100, DR150, NS1000, Sennheiser HD580, HD600) thend to work very well on Xonar.

Edit: I should mention that for headphone use, I much prefer the Xonar implementation even in games (at least on my headphones). I only have the X-Fi installed now because I have an external Dolby Headphone processor (Victor SUDH1). If it wasn't for that, I would still have the Xonar installed in my main gaming machine.
 
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So EAX 3 And EAX 4 is never going to work? Games that support EAX and if you are unable to take advantage of it will it make games sound boring and bland? if i play a game with onboard sound and then play a game with the asus xonar will it make a lot even if i cannot use EAX?
 
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dmxdex2020 said:
So EAX 3 And EAX 4 is never going to work? Games that support EAX and if you are unable to take advantage of it will it make games sound boring and bland? if i play a game with onboard sound and then play a game with the asus xonar will it make a lot even if i cannot use EAX?
Click to expand...

No. EAX 3 and 4 work sometimes. With some games no compatible card is detected. I wasn't able to use them in Rome: Total War and Theif: Deadly Shadow. I believe COD2 and a number of other games are the same. It depends on whether the Xonar drivers can fool the game into thinking a compatible card has been detected.

If this is the case, you can usually still use EAX2 so it's unlikely to be worse than onboard.
 
Well Assassin's Creed works fine on Xonar and that's EAX 4.0 so it's not all EAX titles. I think FEAR only works in EAX2 mode though (could be wrong on that).

This review sums up the sort of differences that can be expected rather well, I think: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/asus-xonar_11.html#sect0

Edit: EAX (including 3, 4 and 5) support isn't automatic. Asus have had to update drivers or issue patches to get Bioshock, Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect working (and Mass Effect still sounds nowhere near as good as on X-Fi). Asus aren't exactly known for their swift driver updates so you may find that you're stuck on software mode in brand new EAX titles for some time.
 
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