Replacement Sound Card Required

mysticsniper · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:39

I have had enough of my old Audigy 4 sound card and want some thing newer. I am using Z-5500 speakers and will want to use the full 5.1 for games.

Budget is around £100 - £150

Cheers

Auraomega · 5 Jul 2011 at 14:04

If using optical you only need something with DTS/DD, a second hand D1/X would do the job as would a DS. If you're using analogue connections then something like the D2/X would be great.

mysticsniper · 5 Jul 2011 at 16:17

I am using the optical at the moment, as I have an external breakout box.

But would I be better using analogue, as I keep hearing that the DAC on the Z5500 is not the best.

Auraomega · 5 Jul 2011 at 18:32

I've never had the chance to hear it personally, but I'd imagine you would get better quality audio from analogue connections, yes, however you then have other things to consider (cable quality, how electrically noisy the inside of your PC is, etc).

Either way I'd say the best option would be to go for a second hand Xonar, the DS or D1/X for optical or the D2/X for analogue connections, the DS being around £30, D1/X £35 and D2/X around £55 on the MM.

mysticsniper · 6 Jul 2011 at 11:23

The inside of the rig, isn't that bad tbh. Except with I have my 480gtx on full blast, but then its quieter then my previous gpu.

had a quick look in the MM, and nothing much there tbh. So will have a gander online.

Cheers

Marsman · 6 Jul 2011 at 11:54

Using optical/coaxial, you are not getting true 5.1. Without real time 5.1 encoding from Dolby or DTS, optical/coaxial is only stereo. The Z5500's would be applying upmixing to that stereo, which gives you sound over all speakers. Using analogue, 5.1 would be direct, so no encoding/decoding needed. If you would rather use optical, then as Auraomega said, either a Xonar DS, which would give you real time DTS 5.1, or a D1/DX, which has real time Dolby 5.1. D2/D2X has both Dolby and DTS real time encoding.