Xonar DG - ultimate budget headphone card?

I have been scouring the internet for some reviews but non are to be found yet.

Superted854 has stated he cannot find any difference between the DG and the D2X, apart from they are louder. Good first review I just need backup. :)

Like you say, still up for £25.00 till next Wednesday!
 
Well I came from Onboard on the Asus P5Q Pro.

Everything seems a lot "cleaner", the different sections/layers are easily distinguishable to me now. Ive been runnin at 80%, 2 speaker, Jazz on the EQ.
Runnin into a cambridge Audio A1 mk3 SE and a pair of Gale mini monitors.
Not really had a chance to test with headphones yet lol :(

The card also come with a half height bracket.
Got the front panel block attached to the side of the card from the start but still cant get auto detect to work :(
 
Is anyone using a 64bit Windows OS with this card? I'm on Win7 64 and I get an unsigned drivers error and it won't let the card work unless I boot up via F8 and choose to allow unsigned drivers to load. Asus better get a fix up soon as customers will start returning these thinking they're faulty when it's just a v2 driver needed.
 
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kirby2096 said:
Is anyone using a 64bit Windows OS with this card? I'm on Win7 64 and I get an unsigned drivers error and it won't let the card work unless I boot up via F8 and choose to allow unsigned drivers to load. Asus better get a fix up soon as customers will start returning these thinking they're faulty when it's just a v2 driver needed.
Click to expand...

Oh god don't tell me this just orderd one.

Surely there cannot be a problem it is a brand new card?
 
Im running W7 ult 64bit.
Dxdiag shows unsigned drivers if you ask it to.
I got no errors installing.

Went into bios, disabled onboard, connected Zonar, rebooted.
It tries to find the hardware but fails.
Popped in the disc, installed fine.

Played TF2 a bit last night sounds like a completely different game to me lol
Again everything ounds a lot more separated than it was using ob
 
I'd go for NS1000, they seem to be capable of a little more detail and bass punch than the DR150s. Better soundstage with Dolby Heaphone too.

Still have both. They are both good headphones although my DR150s get little use now as I have Senn HD600s too. I kind of view the DR150 as a 'poor man's' HD600 and it's surprising how close it gets in sound quality. I much prefer the DR150s to the Senns closer to their price like the HD555 and HD595.
 
Sennheiser HD600 can be had for £180 but it's well over my budget (at least 3 times over it :D).

Asus Xonar DG and Goldring NC1000 it is then.

Now gotta decide on a new mp3 player. Thinking Sansa Clip+ 8GB for £40 or Sony Walkman E445 16GB on offer for £60. Anything else out there worth having a look at?
 
I have the dr150 atm and fancy trying the ns1000. Last closed phones i had were the dt150 and my ears got wayyy to hot. how bad are the ns?
 
robnut said:
I have the dr150 atm and fancy trying the ns1000.
Click to expand...

I also have the DR150's and quite often considering getting the NS1000's. Having an Essence also adds to the temptation. I have to keep reminding myself, I need others things, and that I don't use headphones often enough to justify buying another pair.

Damn temptation. :mad: :p
 
NS1000s at £50, wot a steal! better than my Sens HD215 :P Gettin delivered 2moz :)

Will be great also for my frequent flights to France :)
 
The NS 1000'S are very good at £50.00, i did try the senn HD600'S, just didnt find them as good. Im using the NS1000's on an asus xonar DX soundcard, very impressed so far. The active noise cancellation is excellent, (if slightly hissy), but im really enjoying them so far, music sounds so much better, details that i never heard before come out in tunes now, (im no audiophile but i love music), as for blu ray movies, which i use my pc for, the sound is awsome, watched the dark night last night, absolutely brilliant.
 
I like both my HD600s and NS1000s a lot. The HD600s are more capable socially, but need a decent amp to push past the NS1000s.

Although the NS1000s are quite fussy about which amps drive them well in passive mode, I was very fortunate to stumble across trying them with the FiiO E5. If you wanted a combination to demonstrate what a huge difference an amp can make to headphones, this would be good candidate. Added to that, the ANR (effectively using a built in amp) mode sounds pretty good out of most sources, although thanks to the 300 ohm input impedance, they can lose detail if driven by something that lacks good voltage swing. The hiss in ANR mode can be a pain if you listen to anything with quiet passages.

The HD600s certainly don't sound their best out of an e5. They sound alright out of most sources and amps, certainly not the bloated mess that is inadequately driven passive NS1000s. I currently have my HD600s plugged into a Mackie mixer, which at least manages to drive them cleanly. My e5, cmoy, SU-DH1, bravo tube amp and Sony AV amp all failed to do that (although I must admit I didn't notice the distortions at first). I was going to get a higher spec amp to go with the HD600s but then thought to try the mixer I use for guitar monitoring and was pleasantly surprised. By comparison the NS1000s in passive mode sound dull and slow out of it (same with the Bravo although both are good for bringing out detail on the NS1000s in active mode). Obviously the two headphones have rather different amplification requirements. It's why I advocate matching amps to particular headphones. It's not just down to sound-signature synergy.

So... I'm interested to hear how the DG does with passive NS1000s. It might be great or might fail miserably.
 
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