Xonar DX or Xi-Fi Titanium?

dewi · 19 May 2010 at 13:32

I have a set of Cambridge Soundworks DTT 3500 5.1 speakers. These were originally designed to work with the Sound Blaster Live! series of sound cards, which had a digital DIN output. Creative dropped the DIN output from their later sound cards and then thoughtfully neglected to develop Vista (and Windows 7) drivers for their Sound Blaster Live! sound cards.

Unfortunately, the DTT 3500 amplifier only has line inputs for the front and rear stereo pair, not the centre channel or the subwoofer. If I use the line outputs from my onboard sound, I lose the centre channel (which I can live with) and the subwoofer (which makes the sound very thin). I'm using the optical output, but it means I lose the surround sound effects in PC games. I'm therefore thinking of buying a new soundcard to use with the DTT 3500 speakers.

The obvious choice would be another soundcard with DIN output, but the only current card I know of is the Auzentech X-Meridian and X-Tension combination. The X-Meridian no longer seems to be available in the UK (ocuk used to sell it, but not any more).

The other way to go would be to buy a soundcard with Dolby Digital Live (the DTT 3500 has a Dolby Digital decoder), so that I can carry on using the optical digital input. That suggests the Asus Xonar DX or the Creative Soundblaster Xi-Fi Titanium. I'm tempted to go for the Xonar DX as it's £24 cheaper. Is there any compelling reason why I should go with the Xi-Fi Titanium (or even the Xi-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty)?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-002-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-062-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

Yours,
Dewi

iv-tecman · 19 May 2010 at 13:43

The Asus DX range of sound cards pack plenty of features for the money, emulated EAX for games if you need it, but most don't miss it anyhow.

Only question I'd ask you, are you running windows 7? And you are according to the sig.

Asus support for Windows 7 and their range of soundcards, quite honestly sucks..!! Their tech forum is useless, their Win7 and Win7 64bit drivers are dreadful.

i've got a Asus D2 card, and I've had to use Vista 64bit drivers with mine in Windows 7 64bit, as the Win7 beta (yes they are in beta still) blue screened my system to frequent to be of any use.

dewi · 19 May 2010 at 13:54

Yes, I am using Windows 7.

Greebo · 19 May 2010 at 14:21

Although I will agree that the Asus driver support is lacking, I have been using the x64 w7 drivers without any major problems. Just one glitch that the graphic bars don't work if you change the bit rate but who sits there and looks at them anyway?

iv-tecman - have you tried the new driver they put up last month?

Marsman · 19 May 2010 at 14:36

iv-tecman said:
Asus support for Windows 7 and their range of soundcards, quite honestly sucks..!! Their tech forum is useless, their Win7 and Win7 64bit drivers are dreadful.

i've got a Asus D2 card, and I've had to use Vista 64bit drivers with mine in Windows 7 64bit, as the Win7 beta (yes they are in beta still) blue screened my system to frequent to be of any use.

I have seen a few people have issues with the D2. Yes Asus do suck somewhat for their inability to sort out driver issues, especially when they still have beta drivers 8 months after Win7's release. Maybe they are trying to fall into the same hole as Creative did.

Asus are doing themselves no favours by failing to sort out problems. Xonar was a great alternative for anyone who has had problems with Creative's cards, but unless Asus pull their finger out and sort out these issues, it's going to be a case of take your pick, and pot luck, as to whether one will encounter any problems or not.

I have had 2 Xonar's, a DS and an Essence, have used both 32 and 64bit versions of Win7, and have had no issues with drivers.

Marsman · 19 May 2010 at 14:50

Back on topic, I would go for the DX of the two. It's cheaper as you say, and as you are using SPDIF, aslong as the card has Dolby Digital Live, the other features don't matter. You could save yet more money and go for a Trust SC-7600, which is around £35. It also has DDL, but none of the other features of the Xonar and X-Fi. As you are not using analogue connection, the sound quality of the card is not important, as the decoder unit in your speakers will be converting from digital data to analogue audio, not the sound card. Trust says it is compatible with Win7 on their site.

dewi · 21 May 2010 at 13:17

Thanks for your advice. I've ordered a Xonar DX. I was tempted to go for the X-Fi Titanium because a) it's got a proper SPDIF output, so no dongle required and b) some people have reported problems with Windows sounds because the Xonar switches off the SPDIF output when there's no sound to play, but in the end I decided that wasn't worth £24 extra.

Marsman · 21 May 2010 at 14:06

Xonar has a proper SPDIF. I think you are thinking, the Titanium has a proper optical socket. One issue with the optical SPDIF found on the Titanium etc, if someone wants to connect via coaxial, they need to buy a converter. With the Xonar, either can be used with ease, in fact the Xonar can accept the 3.5mm jack type optical lead, where the adaptor will not be needed. That's another type of lead which can't be used with the Titanium.

Not heard of the SPDIF switching off, while I used it with my Xonar I never noticed it at least.

dewi · 21 May 2010 at 14:32

You're right. I meant that the X-Fi Titanium has a proper optical socket, so I could plug my optical lead straight in. The Xonar DX uses an adaptor, which is bundled with the card.

As for the Windows sound problem, the problem appears to be when using Digital Dolby Live via the optical connection, and only when using certain Dolby Digital decoders. The problem appears to be that the default state for the Xonar DX's optical output is either off or stereo PCM (it's not clear which from the posts I've read). When you run a game or start an application such as iTunes or Windows Media Player, the output switches to Dolby Digital. The decoder auto-detects Dolby Digital, and everything's fine. The problem seems to be that some Dolby Digital decoders are slow to auto-switch, and/or make a popping noise when switching in/out of Dolby Digital. So when playing Windows sounds, the card switches to Dolby Digital, but the decoder takes so long to auto-switch that the sound has nearly finished playing by the time it switches. If your Dolby Digital decoder switches quickly and quietly (and I hope that mine does), then there's no problem. As far as I understand, the X-Fi Titanium's optical output stays in Dolby Digital mode once selected, so the decoder doesn't have to keep auto-switching in and out of Dolby Digital. This sounds like a driver issue that Asus could easily fix.

C64 · 21 May 2010 at 14:54

iv-tecman said:
The Asus DX range of sound cards pack plenty of features for the money, emulated EAX for games if you need it, but most don't miss it anyhow.

Only question I'd ask you, are you running windows 7? And you are according to the sig.

Asus support for Windows 7 and their range of soundcards, quite honestly sucks..!! Their tech forum is useless, their Win7 and Win7 64bit drivers are dreadful.

i've got a Asus D2 card, and I've had to use Vista 64bit drivers with mine in Windows 7 64bit, as the Win7 beta (yes they are in beta still) blue screened my system to frequent to be of any use.

I have a dx and the drivers have been fine and i have used several sets.
Compared to creatives 1 driver every 3 years and they still haven't fixed x-fi 64 bit issues.
Most people have no problems what so ever with the xonars, just because you had problems with a d2 and your particular setup means nout.
I wouldn't go anywhere near a creative card unless you like snap crackle pop sounds.

powerarron · 22 May 2010 at 02:05

Although sound blaster X-Fi did have hardware support for Creative's own EAX 5.0, this is no longer a major concern because most games don't use EAX now. Go for Xonar DX if you are considering both gaming and movies due to Dolby. About the driver support, I believe you can find a lot posts about Xonar and X-Fi in this forum.

chefso1 · 22 May 2010 at 02:22

Either one would suffice (Xonar DX or X-Fi Titanium), but they are the cards two year old, do you want to try the latest model?

dewi · 22 May 2010 at 21:23

chefso1 said:
Either one would suffice (Xonar DX or X-Fi Titanium), but they are the cards two year old, do you want to try the latest model?

Can you suggest which newer card I should have bought? Creative have just announced the X-Fi Titanium HD. but the difference between the X-Fi Titanium and the X-Fi Titanium HD is that the latter uses better D/A converters and op-amps, so the two would sound identical when using the digital optical output. The newer Asus cards similarily have upgraded analogue circuitry, or else are aimed at HDMI audio/video. Auzentech seem to be getting hard to find.

Marsman · 23 May 2010 at 19:43

chefso1 said:
Either one would suffice (Xonar DX or X-Fi Titanium), but they are the cards two year old, do you want to try the latest model?

Which latest model?

dewi said:
Can you suggest which newer card I should have bought? Creative have just announced the X-Fi Titanium HD. but the difference between the X-Fi Titanium and the X-Fi Titanium HD is that the latter uses better D/A converters and op-amps, so the two would sound identical when using the digital optical output. The newer Asus cards similarily have upgraded analogue circuitry, or else are aimed at HDMI audio/video. Auzentech seem to be getting hard to find.

For the purpose you bought the DX, that card is fine. I don't know what Chefso1 is talking about. Buying a Titanium HD, if that's what he is talking about, is pointless. You are paying for analogue components, which are not used when SPDIF is used.

dewi · 16 Jun 2010 at 20:43

Thanks very much, all. The Xonar DX does just the trick. I now get 2.1 sound in e.g. iTunes and 5.1 sound in games. My DTT 3500 amplifier/decoder has no problems at all with switching in/out of Dolby Digital mode.