Benefits of a Sound Card?

Wingo101 · Jan 5, 2009

KainXS said:
what kind of speakers or headphones will you use with the soundcard,

Razer Barracuda HP-1 Headphones
Logitech Z-5500 Digital Speakers

Wingo101 · Jan 5, 2009

Okay guys, I've narrowed it down to two Sound Cards:

Asus Xonar D2X 7.1ch
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

They both cost about the same, which one should I get?

ShadowFold · Jan 5, 2009

Xonar for sure. Unless you are gonna stay with XP for the rest of your life.

apheX? · Jan 5, 2009

Yeah i would go for the ASUS because Creative dont have propper 64bit support.

btarunr · Jan 5, 2009

erocker said:
More db's!!! Louder is better.

You mean dBA, the unit to measure signal noise ratio. Yes, SNR is an important factor, but only till say 120 dBA, beyond which "the measure of clarity" is imperceivable to the normal listener, not even audiophiles.

If you're looking for a high-end sound card that just sounds awesome, Xonar Essence STX, HTOmega Claro Halo would be my picks, both for their headphone amps.

apheX? · Jan 5, 2009

btarunr said:
You mean dBA, the unit to measure signal noise ratio. Yes, SNR is an important factor, but only till say 120 dBA, beyond which "the measure of clarity" is imperceivable to the normal listener, not even audiophiles.

If you're looking for a high-end sound card that just sounds awesome, Xonar Essence STX, HTOmega Claro Halo would be my picks, both for their headphone amps.

He has 5.1 speakers that need plugging in. The Xonar Essence STX doesn't support that.

btarunr · Jan 5, 2009

apheX? said:
He has 5.1 speakers that need plugging in. The Xonar Essence STX doesn't support that.

Yeah, but his 5.1 speakers are Z5500. He can always use the card's SPDIF connection which very much does provide multi-channel output.

Wile E · Jan 6, 2009

apheX? said:
Yeah i would go for the ASUS because Creative dont have propper 64bit support.

I have no problems with Creative under Vista x64. Why are people claiming Creative has bad x64 support?

imperialreign · Jan 6, 2009

Wile E said:
I have no problems with Creative under Vista x64. Why are people claiming Creative has bad x64 support?

beats me . . . I think it stems from the dodgy Vista x86/x64 drivers for the X-Fi's when thsoe drivers packs rolled out.

There have still been the occasional issue with Vista x86/x64 when running more than 4GB of RAM, but many of those problems have been resolved.

But, as Shadow hinted at - the X-Fi's do run a tone better in XP (and direct hardware acceleration, also) . . . but the Titanium's are the most solid X-Fis for the Vista OS, I've only heard of a few very minor issues with them.

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Benefits of a Sound Card?

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