What sound card to go for?

[RobDogDog]

Hi folks,

I'd quite like to upgrade my soundcard as I'm having issues with the current one and Windows 10 - (Creattive SB XFI Gamer edition - bought it about 7-8 years ago now).

I've got around £100 to spend but could add to that if something tickled my fancy.

Anyone got any decent suggestions for me?

 

[rids57]

what are you going to plug into it? Do you need 5.1 or 7.1 speaker connections? What headphones will you be using? Main use, gaming or music?

Asus Xonar STX (v1) can be had for around a ton if you shop around but speaker support is limited to stereo or 2.1

PowerColor HDX is a good card for under a ton but is a new kid on the block, so reliability is unknown

Creative Sound Blaster ZxR is a bargain at £150 but is unsuitable for use with low impedance headphones

 

[mistersprinkles]

Why don't you get yourself a DAC instead of a soundcard? Moving sound processing to the outside of the computer reduces interference and results in cleaner sound. Also, HIFI companies like Arcam and Audioquest make much better sounding solutions than soundcard makers. Why don't you pick up an Audioquest Dragonfly? It has a single stereo output, but the sound quality is phenomenally good. You just plug it in and go. No setup no nothing.

 

[bimbleuk]

^^ I went that route last year after years of using SB/Asus cards with an external 5.1 surround speaker setup. Then decided to be more neighborly as I mostly game early in the morning and bought an external Mayflower O2 DAC/AMP and a decent set of phones.

I wouldn't go back but for practicality I do use the monitor speakers via DP/HDMI for when I just want to watch a stream or hear some beeps.

 

[RobDogDog]

Thanks for the replies.

I mainly use my computer for gaming and music. I have the Sennheiser HD 598 headphones - got them for £80 on a Black Friday deal which I was delighted with. I also have a 5.1 surround sound that connects via optical but I only really use that if I have friends over. Would a DAC have an optical output as well?

Thanks again.

 

[JLarks]

Recently bought a Sound blaster z. Still playing with the settings but am liking the sbx pro studio so far. Even with my £40 2.1 set up!

 

[foster grant]

The HDX is nice...but it also likes to uninstall itself lol...sometimes....go for thr sound blaster

 

[Petelock]

+1 for the ZxR.

I've found it really solid for gaming and also plays nicely with my K702's.

 

[rids57]

Thanks for the replies.

I mainly use my computer for gaming and music. I have the Sennheiser HD 598 headphones - got them for £80 on a Black Friday deal which I was delighted with. I also have a 5.1 surround sound that connects via optical but I only really use that if I have friends over. Would a DAC have an optical output as well?

Thanks again.

An external DAC wouldn't be able to send 5.1 even if it had an optical out as it would also need a Dolby encoder as optical (SPDIF) can only carry two channel uncompressed digital audio.

The Creative ZxR would be an extremely poor match for your headphones due to it's high output impedance (38 ohms) and the 50 ohm input impedance of your HD598s. Not all headphones are sensitive to impedance mismatches (AKG K702 for instance) but the HD598s are, their impedance peaks from 50 ohms all the way up to almost 300 ohms around 100Hz. For well controlled bass you should be looking at a damping factor of 8:1 (headphone impedance : Output impedance of the amp) and using them with the ZxR would only be around 1.4 : 1

The HDX has it's own problems, with failing to appear after boot being a biggie. In fact the review sample I had not only failed to appear (after working perfectly for a week) but never appeared again, even though it was in my PC for three months - so I think I can safely assume that it's dead.

The STX is a quality card and built for headphone use. Unlike the HDX it has gain switching and it has a much lower output impedance than the ZxR at 10 ohms. While 10 ohms may still be a little high, the effect will be a lot less noticeable than with the ZxR. My personal choice would be the STX but then I am biased, as I use one for my gaming audio.

 

[mistersprinkles]

If the guy wants to use his headphones why doesn't he just buy a schiit stack from the US company schiit audio? For $200 you get a USB dac and a headphone amp with a very low output impedance that can output a balls to the wall (for $100) 1300mW into 32Ohms.

 

[db2431]

With the 598? Creative z hands down, was £45 Oem recently on the rainforest

 

[rids57]

With the 598? Creative z hands down, was £45 Oem recently on the rainforest

Creative Z has an output impedance of 22 ohms, so there will be a pretty bad impedance mismatch with the HD598s.

If the guy wants to use his headphones why doesn't he just buy a schiit stack from the US company schiit audio? For $200 you get a USB dac and a headphone amp with a very low output impedance that can output a balls to the wall (for $100) 1300mW into 32Ohms.

I use a Schiit stack and they are indeed very good for music (only stereo for gaming though) but he also wants to use speakers which are fed optically and the Schiits don't do that. Oh and in the UK that $200 becomes nearly £200.

 

[kingsk1n]

How low is low for headphones? I am looking at a new soundcard for gaming. New pc soon so retiring my extreme gamer as I will have no slot for it. I have 80ohm 770's and was looking at the zxr. Everytime I read something else I change my mind .

 

[rids57]

Problem is your 80 ohm headphones become 110 ohm headphones at around 80~90HZ so the low 2.1 (80/38) damping factor will make a difference and the bass will sound boomy.

The STX on the other hand, with it's 10 ohm output impedance would provide the ideal damping factor of 8 (80/10) and will sound crisper and clearer as a result.

 

[RobDogDog]

An external DAC wouldn't be able to send 5.1 even if it had an optical out as it would also need a Dolby encoder as optical (SPDIF) can only carry two channel uncompressed digital audio.

The Creative ZxR would be an extremely poor match for your headphones due to it's high output impedance (38 ohms) and the 50 ohm input impedance of your HD598s. Not all headphones are sensitive to impedance mismatches (AKG K702 for instance) but the HD598s are, their impedance peaks from 50 ohms all the way up to almost 300 ohms around 100Hz. For well controlled bass you should be looking at a damping factor of 8:1 (headphone impedance : Output impedance of the amp) and using them with the ZxR would only be around 1.4 : 1

The HDX has it's own problems, with failing to appear after boot being a biggie. In fact the review sample I had not only failed to appear (after working perfectly for a week) but never appeared again, even though it was in my PC for three months - so I think I can safely assume that it's dead.

The STX is a quality card and built for headphone use. Unlike the HDX it has gain switching and it has a much lower output impedance than the ZxR at 10 ohms. While 10 ohms may still be a little high, the effect will be a lot less noticeable than with the ZxR. My personal choice would be the STX but then I am biased, as I use one for my gaming audio.

Thank you for all the advice and explanations. I'm thinking I might up my budget as I'm listening to music or playing games pretty much all the time I'm at home so the justification is there. Looking at the Xonar Essence STX II and it's calling to me. Which version do you have? How have you found the audio?

Thanks you everyone else as well.

EDIT:

Another thing, what sample rate should I be running in the Windows sound settings? Just using onboard MB sound at the moment due to the XFI cutting out all the time.

 

[rids57]

I have the older STX (v1) but the STX II is mostly the same except for an additional very low gain setting (up to 32 ohms) for IEMs and portable headphones and it also uses some different op-amps for a (very) slight change to the sound signature.

The audio quality is very good, specially with headphones, which is it's main focus, though it does drive 2.0 and 2.1 speakers very well too. Quality wise, I would say it's not noticeably different to my Schiit Modi / Magni 2 stack and any small improvements from the Schiits are rather subtle.

I have both my STX and Schiit Modi set at 24/96 in Windows as I have some music files that use those settings. Basically set it to the highest values your media uses, though there is no reason not to set the bit depth to 24, which is used by some AAA games anyway.

 

[RobDogDog]

Can I run a 5.1 surround sound off it as well via optical? I'd say I use headphones over the 5.1 80% of the time so it's not essential but it would be nice.

I've been really, really pleased with the Sennheiser 598's. I was running with a Creative Fatal1ty gaming headset for about two years and the change in quality was very welcome.

 

[rids57]

Yes, the STX has 5.1 and 7.1 via SPDIF and Dolby Digital Live

 

[RobDogDog]

Yes, the STX has 5.1 and 7.1 via SPDIF and Dolby Digital Live

Awesome. Think I'll get this weekend out the way, check my finances and then away we go!

 

[RobDogDog]

Well, I got it. Just installed; had to move a graphics card to another slot as it was covering my sound card slot. Took a little while to get working, but I'm now listening to Hendrix and it sounds sweet. Going to get the old surround sound set up tomorrow!

EDIT:

Just got the surround sound setup as well. Holy moly, everything sounds so crisp and I'm only listening to about 40% of it's potential volume. May have to look at a wireless system next .