Benefits of a Sound Card?

[ShadowFold]

Originally Posted by apheX?

Ill tell you your conclusion before this turns into a topic of different opinions being thrown into a box. There has always been discussions about Onboard vs Sound Cards, and generally the conclusion is something like;

If your an audio freak and like perfect audio etc, get it
If you like the sound of the features on the card like the XRAM/Crystalliser/CMSS-3D, get it.
If you have money that you wont get angry about losing if you dont notice a difference, get it.
If you dont really have the money for it or dont see it a worthy price to pay for something that has been debatable for years, dont get it.

+1 totally agree

[Wingo101]

What do you guys think of this Card, it just arrived in South Africa: Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe

Is it a good buy for future proofing?

[ShadowFold]

I have the PCI version in my HTPC and its amazing. Go for it!

[crtecha]

Originally Posted by erocker

More db's!!! Louder is better.

Does it go to 11?

[DanishDevil]

If you can't get an Auzen, and you don't want to have someone ship it to you, then it's probably your best bet. Like others have said, many like the ASUS cards. I prefer the Auzens of course

[Wingo101]

I want to buy locally so that I can get support on my products.

Can I use the Xonar HDAV 1.3 for gaming?

[ShadowFold]

If onboard can, I'm sure a Xonar can

[Wingo101]

They don't mention any thing about the great Vista support as the Xonar D2X.

ASUS Xonar D2X -Solution to Windows Vista Gaming Audio Problems
With the introduction of Windows Vista, the whole audio architecture landscaped has been changed. This has resulted in teething problems for gamers - with the possibility of losing all surround sound or hardware accelerated Direct3D and EAX while gaming in the Windows Vista environment. To circumvent this problem, the ASUS Xonar family of audio cards utilizes an ASUS exclusive technology - the new DS3D GX extension in the Xonar D2X driver; to provide full support for surround sound and hardware accelerated features by translating DirectX to the DS3D GX. While other solutions like OpenAL requires special installation and game support, DS3D GX doesn't. Gamers can enjoy DirectX gaming with hardware enhanced surround sound and EAX effects automatically and immediately after installation.

[ShadowFold]

It works fine on my Vista HTPC.

[eidairaman1]

For Older Music, such as MIDI, id Recommend the PCI 512/LIVE Series EMU10K or w/e the DSP is, MIDI output for Playback was Excellent compared to Onboard and Future Cards.

[Wingo101]

Who still uses MIDI format?

[qamulek]

Originally Posted by apheX?

Ill tell you your conclusion before this turns into a topic of different opinions being thrown into a box. There has always been discussions about Onboard vs Sound Cards, and generally the conclusion is something like;

If your an audio freak and like perfect audio etc, get it
If you like the sound of the features on the card like the XRAM/Crystalliser/CMSS-3D, get it.
If you have money that you wont get angry about losing if you dont notice a difference, get it.
If you dont really have the money for it or dont see it a worthy price to pay for something that has been debatable for years, dont get it.

Hope This Helps!

EDIT: I just read and remembered that there has been countless complaints about Creative's Support and 64bit drivers seems to be one of them?

+1 on most of it. I don't really care for Xram, but I do like how the crystalizer makes the sound seem better. Only reason I did want a sound card was for 3D sound in games to help me with first person shooters, but honestly I sometimes have a hard time even noticing which direction I hear someone eating a sandvich in TF2. I think the only difference between the asus and creative is the EAX:

Originally Posted by Wingo101
What about the EAX? ASUS only supports EAX 1 & 2, Creative supports 5?

This was the only reason I purchased Creative over Asus, and in the end I found that I didn't even like EAX. It seemed like all EAX did was the settings where you can make it sound like you were in a : "theatre","jazz", "restaurant", "toilete??".... ya I really don't care about the EAX settings =/

Xiphos:
creative and 64 bit does not play well together .....
at least that is the case for me

From what I remember creative pci sound cards and vista did not work well together. Also those PCI sound cards had a problem where sound would pop and crackle, but creative said this was due to poor PCI implementation on particular motherboards. I certainly didn't want to risk whether or not PCI was doing ok on my motherboard so I refused to buy the PCI soundcards, but after looking at reviews of the PCIe creative xi-fi card I decided to try it out. With windows-vista-sp1-x64 installed the soundcard worked with no hicups with the drivers that came with the card. When I bought the card I couldn't find the newest drivers from creatives convoluted website[all I found was stuff advertising the card, no place to download drivers], so I just rolled with the drivers that came with the card. I've been using those same drivers all the way up to Fallout3 where I finally decided to scour their website to update the drivers hoping that maybe Fallout3 would crash less often x.X

[Wingo101]

I don't know if you could find the drivers, but you download them from here.

Creative's website is not laid out so well.

[Wingo101]

What is the difference between the Xonar HDAV1.3 & HDAV1.3 Deluxe

[MKmods]

Originally Posted by Wingo101

So what would be better for Vista 64bit, ASUS Xonar D2X 7.1ch PCI-e or Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional

I like the Realtek 889 onboard a LOT (Gigabyte uses it on their mobos).. But I have a Asus Xonar D1 that is just amazing (I notice a big difference especially with headphones The Asus worked just fine with Vista Ult 64 bit too.

The headphones on the Asus card are much clearer and louder to me, and I use a pretty inexpensive set.

Originally Posted by Wingo101

What is the difference between the Xonar HDAV1.3 & HDAV1.3 Deluxe

looks like the extra card.. Unless you are an audiophile (and use crazy speakers) get the cheaper Asus cards like the D1 or DX

[apheX?]

Originally Posted by Wingo101

What is the difference between the Xonar HDAV1.3 & HDAV1.3 Deluxe

the only difference i see is from the picture at the bottom. The deluxe has that extra PCI card. im guessing its only to provide more connections.

I might actually get that card, discussing and looking at it all this time is making me more and more hungry for it. Ill have to see how the onbaord is on my new mobo before i get it.

[spearman914]

Usually it provides better quality like no cracks or little sound skips etc.

[a111087]

i use old creative audigy card, it is SO MUCH better than my on board sound card.
you would be able to tell the difference momentarily!
(I use headphones most of the time)

[apheX?]

I just looked at both on Scan first of all the price! but the deluxe is the same price as the normal so get the deluxe if it is the same in SA.

I found out what the extra card has though;

Normal
1 x Aux Audio in
1 x HDMI In (Type A)
1 x HDMI Out (Type A)
1 x Line In/ Mic In (Jack)
2 x Line Out (RCA)
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) In
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) Out

Deluxe
1 x Aux Audio in
1 x HDMI In (Type A)
1 x HDMI Out (Type A)
1 x Line In/ Mic In (Jack)
10 x Line Out (RCA)
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) In
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) Out

EDIT: this doesnt make sense The extra card has 6 connections but the normal card has 2 so with the extra card with 6 connections ~ 2+6 = 8 not 10


Better View of it

[spearman914]

Originally Posted by apheX?

I just looked at both on Scan first of all the price! but the deluxe is the same price as the normal so get the deluxe if it is the same in SA.

I found out what the extra card has though;

Normal
1 x Aux Audio in
1 x HDMI In (Type A)
1 x HDMI Out (Type A)
1 x Line In/ Mic In (Jack)
2 x Line Out (RCA)
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) In
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) Out

Deluxe
1 x Aux Audio in
1 x HDMI In (Type A)
1 x HDMI Out (Type A)
1 x Line In/ Mic In (Jack)
10 x Line Out (RCA)
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) In
1 x S/PDIF (Coaxial) Out

EDIT: this doesnt make sense The extra card has 6 connections but the normal card has 2 so with the extra card with 6 connections ~ 2+6 = 8 not 10


Better View of it

It's either a typo or the image is fake. lol

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by Wingo101

Who still uses MIDI format?

For MIDI music Downloads from around 99-2004, when i played them back on the PCI 512, they sounded excellent because of the DSP on that card, playback onboard or Xfi cards sound like crap so i want to capture that essence in different formats.

[LittleLizard]

the only real gain that is for having a soundcard is lower cpu use, but i see an article that explains that newer onboard sound (realtek 88x) have the same quality of an xfi

[eidairaman1]

fact of electircal noise still lays with motherboards, the more that is integrated onto a motherboard the more noise produced.

[Wingo101]

I checked around some more & found another difference between the two cards, the deluxe features something to do with video enhancement?

Video Specification Video Resolution
-DTV Resolution: 480i, 576i, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i up to 1080p
-PC Resolution: graphics, Sgraphics, XGA, SXGA, UXGA
Enhanced Splendid HD Modes
-Photo, Video, Gaming modes selectable (Gaming mode requires ASUS graphics card)
Color Depth and Range:
-Color depth: supports higher 24, 30, 36, 48-bit/per pixel color depths (RGB or YCbCr)
-Color range: supports broader xvYCC color space standard

Also, the bundled accessories are different:

Deluxe:

Accessories 4 x 3.5mm-to-RCA adaptor cable (8ch)
2 x S/PDIF optical adaptors
1 x DVI-to-HDMI cable
1 x H6 Extension Board Cable

Standard:

Accessories 2 x S/PDIF optical adaptors
1 x DVI-to-HDMI cable

Anybody know what the video TAB is?

[Wingo101]

Bump