What Sound Card Is Best ?

[fireblade77]

Hi guys sorry if this has been asked already but i have looked at another thread and it looks like alot of u hate creative so i want some honest answers plz not just i hate creative everything else is better
i would like to buy a new sound card for my pc and i do love my sound.
i still have the 1st creative soundblaster X-FI Fatality with 64mb onboard ram on the sound card.
now for me its been a good card and i had a few problems with vista when it 1st came out but all seems to be fine over the last year with vista home prem 32bit and vista ultimate 64bit.
i have windows 7 pro 64bit coming on the 22nd of this month which i will use on a spare hard drive.
i want to try and keep the price under £100 ($163) but if spending a little more makes a big difference i might.
so all i see is people saying how amazingly better these cards are than my x-fi fatality.
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card £83

Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-Express Sound £80

and then some people say these cards are better

Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 Cinema £73

Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 PCI-Express £120

i mean come on are all these really that much better than creatives sound card ?
im sure they are better than my old x-fi fatality but then im sure creatives newer cards are better than my x-fi too.
so out of all of the above and i will throw in some creative ones below can people who know what they are talking about plz give me some advice as to which is best and why plz ?

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 £100

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card £80

will i hear or notice any difference between pci -express and pci ?

i want this card 1st for gaming then a little for music and films but gaming is 1st.
i have the logitech z5500 5.1 speakers and my headsets are sennheiser hd570 stereo headphones and the sennheiser pc350 gaming headset which imo dont sound that great next to my hd570's and i used to have the pc150's and pc 160's which i think sound better than these pc350's or is it just my creative x-fi fatality doing this
so come on guys which is best and is it really worth me spending anymore than this on a sound card ?
will the lack of eax make any difference cos creative have that alchemy thing to get round this dont they ?
if its not too much trouble can u list some problems u have had with ur x-fi cards that u didnt like so i can see if i had same problem or maybe something i have but didnt even notice.
thx guys ur help is needed

[Wile E]

With the HD570's, you will likely be able to hear the difference between the Creative cards, and the Auzen or Asus cards. You probably won't hear the difference between the Auzen and Asus cards tho.

For gaming and surround, I'd grab the Forte, personally.

As far as PCI vs PCIe, you won't hear a difference, but going PCIe is probably a better idea as PCI is slowly fading away. Some newer boards don't have any PCI slots at all, as a matter in fact.

[LittleLizard]

for pure audio quality, the forte but for bang for the buck i would grab the asus

[fireblade77]

wow that was a quick reply thx
so i read that this auzentech x-fi forte is built around creatives x-fi chip so does this mean it will share all the driver problems that creative had and perform the same as the creative x-fi or is it a totally different card from a creative x-fi ?
and will all the creative haters say stay away from this card ?
if it is the same as the creative then how is it any different from
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1

or

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card
which are both cheaper ?

[LittleLizard]

Originally Posted by fireblade77

wow that was a quick reply thx
so i read that this auzentech x-fi forte is built around creatives x-fi chip so does this mean it will share all the driver problems that creative had and perform the same as the creative x-fi or is it a totally different card from a creative x-fi ?
and will all the creative haters say stay away from this card ?
if it is the same as the creative then how is it any different from
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1

or

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card
which are both cheaper ?

thats the whole point. the xfi chip while a little old, it has great quality but creative software makes it sound not so good. there it comes into play auzentech. XFI chip + Auzen quality = WIN.

the asus is based on a cmedia codec that sounds almost as good if not equal or better than the x-fi. the only problem i heard with the asus is that they require a lot of tweaking in the drivers to get them to sound to their best

[btarunr]

If you're a headphone listener, and not a speaker listener, I'd recommend X-Fi Forte for its AMP circuit. Sounds amazing.

And no, the bus interface doesn't make any difference with Creative's audio processors. The X-Fi PCI-Express version uses a native PCI-E interface, and doesn't rely on PCI - PCI-E bridge chips.

[fireblade77]

i do spend more time on my headphones playing games than my z5500 speakers when the wife is home as she wont put up with call of duty 4 and world at war very loud.
she gets fed up with DOGS COMIN RIGHT AT US while she is trying to work or watch tv
do u think that this card would make my sennheisr pc350's sound alot better than they do now cos they dont sound that great to me.

[LittleLizard]

either choice will give you a nice boost in the quality but i would go with the forte

[Zubasa]

I lean towards the Xonar Essence ST/STX.
On the EAX part, find me a post-XP game that uses EAX
EAX is dying and I see no point with putting up with Creative drivers and bloatware.

Another plus side for the Xonar is that it can easily be modded, and the amp chips can be upgraded.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

I lean towards the Xonar Essence ST/STX.
On the EAX part, find me a post-XP game that uses EAX

UT3. Games based on that engine too.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by btarunr

UT3. Games based on that engine too.

The point is 90+% of games don't really uses EAX anymore, and the Xonar still have EAX 2.0 and with the later EAX emulated .
EAX is becoming like Physx now, I certian won't buy a card solely for EAX 5.0.

[Marineborn]

i use the creative fatality series, and they sound crisp with a nice pair of speakers, lots of tweak options too, my 2 cents

[btarunr]

Right, but it stays as a feature, so does hardware audio acceleration with OpenAL. The absence of DS3D HW in Vista/7 doesn't change anything for gamers.

Besides the $80 premium Essence STX asks over the X-Fi Forte doesn't make it a good buy if you're looking at the headphone amp. Forte's amp is too good to let you spend another $80 on Essence STX. Unless you're a really discerning listener.

[Zubasa]

The OP already have a Fata1ity, so I say he either keep the card or go strait for the top.
EAX 5.0 never really changed much for gamers either, its not like every game utilizes every effect of the later EAX versions.
I can tell you that very few games really make a difference with EAX 3.0 and up.

If the OP is truely concerning sound quality, the Xonar Essence do sound best in my opinion.
Sound quality is more important all around then some niffy candy effects.

[btarunr]

There's a noticeable difference between X-Fi Fatal1ty and X-Fi Forte. The same between X-Fi Forte and Essence STX is very low and sort of doesn't justify the additional $80 unless price isn't a problem.

[fireblade77]

after reading this and some reviews on elite bastards i think the x-fi forte is sounding like my better choice over the Xonar Essence STX and cheaper too.
keep on sending in ur comments as im not rushing into this.
on a comment i said earlier....
has anyone else got the sennheiser pc350's and had something like the sennheiser pc150's or 160's in the past and thought that the pc350's are not as good ?
i mean the surround sound is good but just lacking so much bass so they dont sound as good as the quality of sound from the 160's or anywhere near like my hd570's.

[PP Mguire]

I have an X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium PCI-E and i think its amazing. When i first got it the drivers blew my nut sack but now they have released some good Windows 7 drivers and a decent Creative Console. Having used X-Fi since it first came out i havent ever been impressed with it until now.

Just as a side note to what another is saying, just because it dosent SAY its using EAX dosent mean its not.

[Cold Storm]

As a x-fi forte own. I gotta say that this is one hell of a card.. The amp feature for headphones is just amazing. a set of Sennheiser HD650's sound just great. It doesn't trump my bro's Vacuum tube set up, but it's amazing non the less. Plus the fact that it's a easy mod card is what's even better. My berberry omp amp just goes from one card (Xplosion) straight to the x-forte without having to solder anything.

TO me, The x-forte is one hell of a card. it does everything you want. The headphone stuff alone got me to buy it.

[WarEagleAU]

I have the same card as you do and although I like it, I can tell its not performing like it should. My speakers will change up from what they are to just the center channel and woofer, then back to the front right and left and center for like distance and woofer, etc. I would personally recommend the X-Fi Forte from Auzentech. Auzentech has cards based on the CMedia "oxygen" codec that Asus uses as well but with the Xfi and their use of Cmedia tagged together, its the better of the three cards around.

[niko084]

Originally Posted by fireblade77

has anyone else got the sennheiser pc350's and had something like the sennheiser pc150's or 160's in the past and thought that the pc350's are not as good ?
i mean the surround sound is good but just lacking so much bass so they dont sound as good as the quality of sound from the 160's or anywhere near like my hd570's.

The headsets remember are not focused on musical reproduction.
The PC350's kinda like an amp, more clean power helps them out a bit but over all they will not be as bass happy as some of the smaller units.

I was personally not a fan of the 150s/160s, but HD555s on the other hand.

The the sounds of it you like your bass heavy, in which case you will not want to get into the full size cans, they are much more geared to audiophiles in general sense.

[fireblade77]

Originally Posted by niko084

The headsets remember are not focused on musical reproduction.
The PC350's kinda like an amp, more clean power helps them out a bit but over all they will not be as bass happy as some of the smaller units.

I was personally not a fan of the 150s/160s, but HD555s on the other hand.

The the sounds of it you like your bass heavy, in which case you will not want to get into the full size cans, they are much more geared to audiophiles in general sense.

i dont like my bass very heavy and its not just music its in game which is the biggeest problem and i have to set my settings to 2 speakers not headphones cos in headphone setting it just sounds really cheap or should i say even cheaper than 2 speaker setting.
i mean the hd570's in every way blow the 350's away but they dont have a mic

[Cybrnook]

Just throwing this in, I use the D2X Asus and I LOVE IT!! By far the best card I ever owned and plan on using it for some years to come! Drivers are constantly being updated to which is good in my book!

[fireblade77]

can anyone tell me if i was to buy the forte after hearing this x-fi fatality for the last 3 years or so when i play my games or play music do u think i will be saying wow what a difference or just well i guess it sounds a little better cos if its a case of hmmmm well i guess it sounds a tiny bit better then its not really worth me blowing £120 is it ?

[KainXS]

I don't think so, I know you can tell the difference between a Xonar card and a fatality though, I upgraded from a fatality to a Xonar Essence a while back, well worth it it my opinion but I have never had that auzentech.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by fireblade77

can anyone tell me if i was to buy the forte after hearing this x-fi fatality for the last 3 years or so when i play my games or play music do u think i will be saying wow what a difference or just well i guess it sounds a little better cos if its a case of hmmmm well i guess it sounds a tiny bit better then its not really worth me blowing £120 is it ?

Thats why I strongly recommand the Xonar Essence so that you truely notice the difference.

Just see for yourself: