Xonar DG - ultimate budget headphone card?

Uriel said:
Ooer - and I thought my posts were getting a bit tangential...

Splitter setup should be fine. It's very similar to what I've been running until very recently. The A1 doesn't have pre-outs does it?
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Sorry!

It has 'Rec out' phono on the back next to the inputs. No idea if that's like a line out or pre out. I'll look up the manual, fair point.

What splitter were you using? How much is it worth spending for my modest setup?
 
Yeah just use a splitter cable. Search for 3.5MM STEREO PLUG TO 2x JACK SPLITTER, on the famous auction site. Loops from That Cable. I bought a 5m 3.5mm cable from them, very good quality.
 
Marsman said:
Nothing doing. Doesn't matter though, not to me anyway. EAX is something I have never bothered with.
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Just thought of something else. You wouldn't be running FEAR on Steam would you?

Due to the directory system all Steam Games using DirectSound3D must be added to AlChemy manually, either by pointing steam to the game's .exe or the registry key. Nothing on Steam is autodetected by AlChemy. See the section on source engine games in the link I posted (n.b. Valve changed the sound in most source games from hardware to software a few years ago - so most of it is out of date but you can follow the method).

In my experience, AlChemy pretty much always works but sometimes you need some tweaking to get there. I find the simplest way is just to point AlChemy to the game's .exe, rather than messing about with finding registry keys.
 
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Uriel said:
Just thought of something else. You wouldn't be running FEAR on Steam would you?
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No. Crossed my mind when I tried it the first time, it could be something patching might fix. Updated with the patches, still no different.

I did wonder about the games registry detection. So I pointed Alchemy to the game's .exe.
 
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Uriel said:
Another thing I'd be interested in you trying would be running a game that requires AlChemy and seeing if you can enable EAX with both cards installed. I tried this a while ago without success. Newer X-Fi drivers might help though.
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Sorry Marsman, just been reminded of this. When I tried Xonar and X-Fi in same system Alchemy actually stopped working entirely. Only a full uninstall of the Xonar and reinstall of the X-Fi solved it :(.
 
Just got this sound card & i'm utterly impressed. It's so much more immersive, especially in games.

I know this is likely to be very subjective but I was wondering what people's favourite settings are for gaming & listening to music (i'm guessing that they're likely to be different).

At the moment i'm using 6 Channels & DH-1 for gaming & 2 Channels & DH-1 for music, what are your opinions?
 
I tend to use DH1 for movies games and music, 2 channels for music and 6 for movies and games on my Xonar dx.
 
Uriel said:
Sorry Marsman, just been reminded of this. When I tried Xonar and X-Fi in same system Alchemy actually stopped working entirely. Only a full uninstall of the Xonar and reinstall of the X-Fi solved it :(.
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Ah ok. Well that would certainly explain why it didn't work. Pain in the rear for people who may want to use both cards in the same machine, but it's likely to work for anyone wanting an X-Fi for EAX.
 
I have to say, I'm tempted to get a DG. After putting my Essence in my gaming PC, and trying it with other games, I prefer DH to CMSS 3D more now. I thought DH had a slight edge before, but that was with Valve games, which some, maybe all have their own sound processing to a degree.

Uriel said:
Velbac has been recommended as a Virtual Audio Cable application for running an X-Fi and Xonar together by Stephen Wall who does most soundcard and headset reviews for Guru3D. He's ROBSCIX on Head-Fi and and a few other forums.
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Hmm, that might be quite tempting. If I decide to get a DG, I'll have to read more into this VAC.
 
Velbac looks interesting. Much cheaper then to get a DG and use that program than to get an external amp that supports Dolby Headphone. Thanks for that!
 
Just remember that installing a Xonar seems to kill AlChemy on the X-Fi. That gets rid of a good deal of X-Fi's appeal to me.

I just hope it's not a physX style lockout where features stop working when rival hardware is detected. Surely it can't stop working when all alternative sound devices are detected? That would mean that onboard, graphics card based sound and USB headsets would all cause problems.

It could be a conflict with DS3D-GX I suppose, but it still didn't work for me with the GX button turned off.

Edit: I asked about this on Creative's forum. Someone confirmed the issue is with newer Xonar drivers. Apparently if you disable the DS3D-GX process in task manager AlChemy will work. Unfortunately it sounds like there's also an issue with FEAR 1 with Alchemy 1.4. It supposedly works up to 1.3.
 
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Defo a tempting sound card. I'm looking of getting a sound card myself up to £70. This is one I'm mostly tempted by due to its price.
 
PapaLazaru said:
So just to confirn, GX allows EAX in games.

I am happy with most of the settings, bar the channels.

2 for music?

8 for games?
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2/6 Channels doesn't make any difference if I play music in Foobar, it does however change when you play mono/stereo content such as the one on Youtube.
 
Since getting this card i've started to care more and more about the quality of my sound.

Are VLC & Windows Media Player fine to use? Or are music players better, I just tried one called Foobar and it did seem to make a noticeable difference.

Also does the player make a difference to Dolby Headphone, or is this just emulated from stereo anyway?
 
I'm not an audiophile but to me Foobar it sounded a bit clearer & provided a better sound effect - it was more immersive.

I'm inclined to say it's not a placebo effect as there's one difference I can clearly make out: switching between 2 & 6/8 channels made no difference to the sound in Foobar, whereas it made a massive difference using Windows Media Player and VLC didn't sound right at all with surround, even at 2 channels; the audio for each instrument seemed to keep switching places. So I suspect it might have something to do with the different software's compatibility with DH?

Overall I found Foobar to be the best.
 
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