Should I bother upgrading this setup?

Mr Carrot

Mr Carrot

Mr Carrot

Associate
Joined
6 Jan 2010
Posts
219
Location
CannonSt, London
Hi Sound City guys, i'm currently building a new rig and am looking to refresh all components if necessary at the moment I have a:

Xonar D2

Razer Mako speakers

and

Sennheiser pc 360 (happy with these)

All of this is coming up to 5+ years old (bar the headphones) and am just wondering if there have been any great leaps in soundcards etc. to make an upgrade worth it?

Happy to spend 300+ quid - and would prefer to have speakers and headphones plugged in simultaneously.

Will also be running any new speakers through a Sonos Connect to push streamed audio through in my office during parties etc.
 
A Soundblaster Z, would be worth getting. It has a headphone amp and both connections for speakers and headphones directly on the card. The D2/D2X is really more suited to surround systems.

Sound cards don't really improve that much in terms of sound quality over the years. A £50 sound card today would not sound a great deal different to a £50 sound card 10 years ago. The cost limits how much a sound card can improve, not so much technology advancement. It's mainly features that improve over the years.

Same applies to the more expensive sound cards as well as the lower mid range cards. The Xonar Essence STX is 6 years old now, but the new STX II is only marginally better.

Of course though, the biggest factor is what's connected to the sound card. That really determines the sound quality that you hear, far more than any sound card upgrade.

You could push the boat out and get a Xonar Essence STX II, but to be honest, multimedia PC speakers do not need such a sound card, and neither do the PC360. Don't get me wrong, the speakers and headset are good, but to consider spending £175 on a sound card, you'd really need to get better headphones to make the most of it.
 
Thanks, so a Xonar Essence I plus a set of good moniters for around 300 quid total would be the only reasonable upgrade?

I have felt the D2 to be a spot 5.1 focussed for a 2.1 setup!
 
Mr Carrot said:
Thanks, so a Xonar Essence I plus a set of good moniters for around 300 quid total would be the only reasonable upgrade?

I have felt the D2 to be a spot 5.1 focussed for a 2.1 setup!
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The thing is for desktop 2.1 speakers, they only really get audio source from 2.0 of the soundcard, so they don't work in the same way as the .1 of the 5.1 or 7.1 of the soundcard does.
 
Mr Carrot said:
Thanks, so a Xonar Essence I plus a set of good moniters for around 300 quid total would be the only reasonable upgrade?

I have felt the D2 to be a spot 5.1 focussed for a 2.1 setup!
Click to expand...

If you are concentrating on a speaker setup, then in this case, they (speakers) are more important than a sound card upgrade. The difference between a D2 (which is a decent card) compared to an Essence is not going to be as much as it would be if you spend that £135 extra on the speakers.

Is the Sonos Connect connected directly to the PC, or somewhere else being streamed to?

I think whichever way you are doing it, you'd better off putting any extra money into the speakers than you would a more expensive sound card. Either a SB Z, allowing connection of both Sonos and headset, or stick with the D2 for use with the PC360 and get a separate DAC (digital to analogue converter) and connect the Sonos to that. FiiO D3, for example.

In my opinion, spending £135 on a Xonar Essence only really makes sense if you are concentrating more on headphone use and plan to get better headphones.

No reason though why you can't get an Essence later on. Speakers are more important though. Far better to spend as much you can on them now, rather then to get cheaper speakers just so you can get an Essence as well.
 
^+1

By far the biggest gains of an STX over a Sound Blaster Z are only heard when using headphones so if speakers are your primary listening medium then get a Z or stick with the D2.
I own both the STX and the Sound Blaster Z by the way.
 
I am not using full use of my STX II 7.1 at the moment, as I have moved onto receiver + passive speakers 5.1 setup.

It's still awesome for to use with my headphones, but can't help but to feel the daughterboard is no longer required.

Very tempted to sell off my STX II 7.1, as I have a STX spare :p
 
My personal opinion is unless your into surround gaming i'd avoid soundcards, period. Get a nice dac/headphone setup and laugh all the way as you realise just how much your missing in music :)
 
a DAC is the best option if most of your time is spent listening to music but a sound card (internal or external) is better if gaming is the primary use.
 
TALON1973 said:
My personal opinion is unless your into surround gaming i'd avoid soundcards, period. Get a nice dac/headphone setup and laugh all the way as you realise just how much your missing in music :)
Click to expand...
Yea but you have to bare in mind the price difference as well...a half decent DAC with headphone amp would start from around £100+, so comparing to £60 soundcard of course they would sound better, but that's a bit like saying a £200 headphones sound better than a £100 headphone :p
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Yea but you have to bare in mind the price difference as well...a half decent DAC with headphone amp would start from around £100+, so comparing to £60 soundcard of course they would sound better, but that's a bit like saying a £200 headphones sound better than a £100 headphone :p
Click to expand...

While true , you have to factor in the multi-purpose use of it as well. My dac / headphone set-up covers me for tv / pc / console / movies and mostly music . Although mines abit more expensive than the op budget lol .

Although it still doesn't help me in BF4 ......which seems to have pants audio placement :rolleyes:
 
I think the OP is more concerned with speaker upgrade. I get the impression that he is more than happy with the PC360.

I think initially he was hoping there would be some vast improvement by spending a chunk of cash on one of these high end sound cards. As the D2 is a decent card though, there are better gains to be had by either pursuing a speaker or headphone upgrade.
 
ok i'm sold on the new speaker side, but surely a card with dedicated l/r ouput is better than a single front splitter that I currently have with the D2?

I get the impression that an external DAC is better than a sound card from these comments, is there a lot in it between say the STX and an external if my prime use will be for 2.0 speakers?

Or just can the whole lot and go for a seperate amp and speaker set, plugged into the d2, like in the richer sounds deal?
 
The STX does sound better than any other sound card through stereo speakers but the gains are not huge and the card is aimed primarily at headphone users.

Sound quality wise the STX has an excellent DAC that compares well with anything under a couple of hundred pounds plus it has a powerful, decent, though not stellar headphone amp and all the sound card features (Dolby headphone etc).

A lot of people say that you are better off with an external DAC/amp due to noise picked up from the graphics card but the noise background of my STX is utterly black (silent) while my external Schiit Modi picks up some noise though the USB - go figure :D
 
Mr Carrot said:
Or just can the whole lot and go for a seperate amp and speaker set, plugged into the d2, like in the richer sounds deal?
Click to expand...
I think at the end of the day, you might want to have a look across the 2.0 speakers range for both active and passive bookshelf speakers, then you'd have a clearly idea the steps you should take to get there.

Certainly I am using a Edifier 1600T Plus...whilst they are great speakers, I want upgrade to something better. The problem I found is there simply ain't much choices for active 2.0 speakers that's worth upgrading to...most of them are still with the same 4" bass drive same as my current Edifier.

The Wharfedale Diamond 121 is a great set of speakers according to reviews which I would like to upgrade to, but they are passive, so I would need to get an amp as well. The easiest way for me to this is probably just grab a Topping VX1 (a external DAC and AMP in one) for around £65-£75 and hook it up to the 121; but that mini-hifi bundle deal at RicherSounds is quite tempting, as the Denon DM39 would cost only around £50-£75 more than the VX1, and it will have 5W extra output per channel, CD player, and the option to add an active sub to it if preferred as well.

So as I said before...think about speakers first- active or passive...before thinking about getting a soundcard or external DAC/AMP.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Certainly I am using a Edifier 1600T Plus...whilst they are great speakers, I want upgrade to something better. The problem I found is there simply ain't much choices for active 2.0 speakers that's worth upgrading to...most of them are still with the same 4" bass drive same as my current Edifier.
Click to expand...

Monitor Audio BX8 :D
 
Thanks guys,

one final question, if i'm going to be getting passive speakers and an amp does the soundcard even matter? Can I just run this from the mobo out?
 
Mr Carrot said:
Thanks guys,

one final question, if i'm going to be getting passive speakers and an amp does the soundcard even matter? Can I just run this from the mobo out?
Click to expand...
You'd still need a soundcard to act as an DAC for improving the audio, as many amps are just amps for powering the passive speakers without DAC...though the Topping VX1 I mention is a DAC/AMP in one.

The DAC on the Topping VX1 is not as good as the DAC on the D2 soundcard (VX1 max samply rate 96KHz, D2 max sample rate 192KHz)...so if you got a good quality cable, you might get better audio quality connecting the D2 to the AUX in of the VX1, rather than connecting the VX1 to PC with USB and using its own DAC and only having max sample rate of 96KHz).
 
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