Can't decide on new sound card

[Duffman]

Ok, so my MB's included sound card is dying. I am pretty sure it is the card as the mic input does not work properly with two different sets of headphones, each of which work on analog or usb. I've also tried both the rear jacks and the front jacks on my case.

Anyhoo, i'm pretty sure i need a new sound card.

I listen to music on speakers and game on headphones. I don't have anything exciting for speakers. I have a set of Boston Acoustics sub/satellite stereo speakers. For headphones, I have the Sennheiser P166.

I'm not getting anything from Creative. I've read too many bad things about their current support and drivers.

I think my top choice right now is this card:
Auzen X-FI Prelude
It's got the X-FI processor for games and better drivers than the Creative card. Right now, it's out of stock at the egg, which sells it at $175. Amazon/Tiger Direct has it for $199

Then there is the HT Omega Claro which gets good reviews for sound quality but not as good for games.

In the lower price range, I was looking at the Asus Xonar D1

 

[twicksisted]

im very happy with my Asus Xonar D2X if that helps...
it was a toss up for me between that and the azuntech, but after comparing spec for spec and seeing that the azuntech only does 192khz on the stereo channels and 96khz on the rest VS the Xonar 192khz on all 7 I went Xonar...

This is kinda pointless to me though now as i use optical in 96khz 24bit but still

 

[Duffman]

How does that card compare to the D1?

 

[twicksisted]

much higher SNR (signal to noise ratio) than the D1....
PCIE X1

I havent heard them next to eachother but as i said am more than happy with my D2X

EDIT: and if you get the D1 youll always wonder what the D2X sounded like

 

[spearman914]

Asus Xonar gets 2 thumbs up!!

 

[Duffman]

I'm not at my computer. What's the price on the D2x?

 

[kiriakost]

Insanity or not i love my Creative XFi Music .

The Creative drivers for XP that comes with it are good to perfect.
The upgrades on the web , are like unstable nitroglycerin .

You never know when your system will blowup .

But if you stick on the CD software , you are good to go.

 

[Duffman]

I've just read too many stories about creative cards to risk getting one of their cards

 

[Duffman]

oh, i think i need to stick with PCI as my express slots are blocked in some way or will block my vid card's cooling.

 

[spearman914]

Insanity or not i love my Creative XFi Music .

The Creative drivers for XP that comes with it are good to perfect.
The upgrades on the web , are like unstable nitroglycerin .

You never know when your system will blowup .

But if you stick on the CD software , you are good to go.

Creative is crap for there sound cards. U only see a little improvement over onboard for wasting $100-$300. I regret buying my Fatality X-fi

 

[twicksisted]

oh, i think i need to stick with PCI as my express slots are blocked in some way or will block my vid card's cooling.

so is mine, but i just put it in my second PCI-E 16X slot and it works fine

 

[kenkickr]

I had tons of issues with my Fatality X-fi PCI card but the Titanium Fatality Pro to my ears as been awesome. I haven't had the issue were sound would switch on it's own or the card causing games just to lockup/not respond, and my Logitech 5300 series speakers just sound awesome again. The one issue some might agree with is that the Titanium is PCI-E x1 which most boards have a lack of or non at all.

 

[ShadowFold]

I recently sold my Creative X-Fi Platinum due to Vista driver issues and them not sounding any better than onboard. I have an ASUS Xonar in my HTPC, which has Vista, and it sounds awesome.

 

[Thrackan]

so is mine, but i just put it in my second PCI-E 16X slot and it works fine

I had tons of issues with my Fatality X-fi PCI card but the Titanium Fatality Pro to my ears as been awesome. I haven't had the issue were sound would switch on it's own or the card causing games just to lockup/not respond, and my Logitech 5300 series speakers just sound awesome again. The one issue some might agree with is that the Titanium is PCI-E x1 which most boards have a lack of or non at all.

PCI-E is fully "backwards" compatible like that An x1 card will fit x1 to x16 slots and work. Very basically, as long as it's a PCI-E slot and the card fits, it will work.

 

[kenkickr]

I know that I was just saying. Also, I've had no issues with mine in Vista but when I installed the drivers and software I just grabbed them from creative.com instead of using the app DVD.

 

[Kursah]

I recently sold my Creative X-Fi Platinum due to Vista driver issues and them not sounding any better than onboard. I have an ASUS Xonar in my HTPC, which has Vista, and it sounds awesome.

I recently purchased that X-Fi Platinum (it's an X-Fi XtremeMusic, the platinum part is the front panel stuff), not only does it sound better than the decent onboard sound of my P5Q Deluxe, but it's much clearer, louder, crisper, and it was easy as hell to install. All I did was install drivers on my Vista x64 and 7 x64 installs, and bam I was set. I installed the CP Launcher for the EQ capabilities which is definately required, though not as much as onboard.

I agree the upper-end Creative X-Fi's are a pain in the ass from what I've seen they're not worth it, but an Xtreme Music from Creative for about 50 bucks is imo. Great sound, I use and switch between 5.1 and 2.1 all the time w/o issues, my games sound great, music, movies you name it, plus you don't spend so much you're stuck with it the rest of your life. To each their own, I love this little card, it gets the job done quite well and I still highly recommend them!

 

[Duffman]

PCI-E is fully "backwards" compatible like that An x1 card will fit x1 to x16 slots and work. Very basically, as long as it's a PCI-E slot and the card fits, it will work.

Interesting. I didn't know that.

 

[Jakl]

+1 on Xonar

 

[kiriakost]

Creative is crap for there sound cards. U only see a little improvement over onboard for wasting $100-$300. I regret buying my Fatality X-fi

Thats not true ... XFi are a great card , i have use it even in music production, CUBASE and stuff.

NVIDIA messed up technical guidelines, on the motherboards with their chipset ,
and the compatibility between the XFi and them, become a Hell .

All the INTEL based boards NEVER had a problem with it.

NVIDIA never had the balls to admit that NForce was setting PCI timings to wrong clocks,
and the sound card got all the blame .

The common computer buyer does not have knowledge of this details,
and the unsolved confusion still goes , and the blames too.

End something more about sound quality ... Only with expensive speakers you can tell the deference.
I have quad old Yamaha line, and the sound are amazing.
And my recordings too .

If i could find something to blame Creative , would be the poor performance of their ASIO drivers.

 

[Duffman]

I still think i'm gonna steer clear of Creative on this.

 

[kiriakost]

I only wanted to restore the truth , nothing more.

 

[Duffman]

understandable, i just don't want to risk it.

 

[Duffman]

ok, i decideded to get the HT Omega. It gets good reviews and is $40 cheaper than the D2x

 

[Duffman]

Got the card today. Installed and loaded the drivers from their website without issue. Wow, this has really woken up both my old Boston Acoustics speakers and my Headphones. Haven't done any gaming with it yet but so far I am very happy.

The card is very well made. Comes with an Optical cable for what it's worth.

Everyone with onboard audio should really look into a dedicated sound card. This card is 10x better than the SupremeFX II that my mobo came with. Wish my mic input went out sooner!