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Help buying a sound card??

Funtoss

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Hi, i m thinking of getting a better sound card as i currently have a cheap c-media 8738 sound card lol

i was thinking of getting an ASUS Xonar DG
is it good?
would it make any difference??

please help, thanks :)
 
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It should, yes.
That Xonar is quite good actually, even if it's still driven by C-media (8786 though).
There are better in the Xonar range, but they are also a fair bit more expensive. To my ears, they're worth that extra expense, but if it's mainly for gaming, then this should do just fine :)
 

Funtoss

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i have a logitech x-530 5.1 speakers, would it give better sound and bass?
 

gpost3

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You need to be more specific, what do you mean "better"? Some people like the extra boomy bass, some people like tight punchy bass. I personally aim for accuracy. What is your budget? and what are the speakers and the sound card mainly used for? (gaming/movies/music?)
 

Funtoss

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sound card is for music and gaming but mostly MUSIC :)
umm i want the boomy bass i think

my budget is around $50 NZ dollars
 

Funtoss

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i have x-230 (almost the same -3 speakers) and i doubt you'll hear much of a difference, i think you'd rather invest into some new speakers.
 

gpost3

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Between those two, I would say go with the Xonar. It will work with 64 bit windows
http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/co...s Cards & Components&sc=Sound Cards&os=64-bit

I agree with D4S4, your speakers are the weakest link in getting good sound. Another option is - if you do most of your listening while sitting - then consider getting a pair of good headphones from Sony or any other known company. If you want to get better speakers, then I suggest picking up an Amp from Yamaha, Sony or any brand with a pair of bookshelf speakers but this setup will cost you a lot more.
 
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^ +1.
Cannot beat headphones for music listening.
Handy for gaming too; no-one in the house (or neighbourhood) will complain about all the explosions in Game X ;)
You'll be surprised how much better the sound will be with better speakers, or a decent set of cans, even with on-board sound :)
 

Funtoss

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hmm, what speakers should i buy then?
can anyone tell me speakers that are better than x-530's and also good in bass sound?
 
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how much $$$ do you want to spend? i haven't been checking out the latest speaker models but the price range would be good info for somebody who knows more.
 

Funtoss

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around 200$ NZ
 

gpost3

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For that price, you could get a pair of M-Audio AV40 which will run you around $120 and use the remainder to get an 8 inch home-theatre subwoofer from Energy, Sony or Yamaha (or any decent brand).
 

Funtoss

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how do i connect a home-theater subwoofer to a computer ?? can i connect it to my x -530's?
 
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how do i connect a home-theater subwoofer to a computer ?? can i connect it to my x -530's?

basicly its same like computer speaker but you need to change the jack into 3,5 so you can plug in to your pc or buy adapter for that
 

gpost3

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You connect a home theatre subwoofer using a Y split connector with 3.5 mm headphone jack on one side and 2 (or 1) female RCA jacks on the other. Something like this:



Then you plug that jack into the back of your sound card and configure your audio settings to use 2.1
 

hat

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That's how I have mine set up. I have a quad home theater system and I use these cables that are 3.5mm on one end and RCA red/white on the other. Get those hooked up to the receiver's analog inputs and that's all there is to it...
 

Funtoss

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Wow thanks so much guys! i m going to try this :)
 

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Connecting your home theater to your machine will grant you much better sound quality with onboard sound than you could ever dream of getting from your pc speakers with any sound card out there. I still might look into a sound card for features, and/or noticeably improved audio quality (since you'll actually have something good hooked up to it).
 
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