Sound Cards
Manufacturer
ASUS Xonar Essence STX
“ Note: I'm from Sweden so if the wording or sentence structure is a bit off, I blame the Swedish educational system!! Introduction The ASUS Xonar Essence STX is a two channel soundcard with a built in amplifier and it is a great entry into hi-fi and head-fi, it has a good set of features and handles most games very well, at least with the newer drivers. The card has a good DAC-chip...” --Mr_Owlow
Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium HD PCI-E
“ After my E-MU 0404 USB that serve my workstation @ China dying (I'm using E-MU 1820m back in Singapore), I was thinking of buying another E-MU products. But when I try to look around, the choices is slim at China and the price is high. There is two choices here - either going to Creative products or opt for Asus products. I would like to try out Asus products, but I am...” --yeeyy
AudioQuest DragonFly Asynchronous USB DAC
“ I'll update this once I get my UM Miracles back to really put it through its paces, but the Dragonfly sounds incredible driving my BeoLab 3 (active) speakers. Super easy setup - literally plug and play. I'm using it with ASIO4ALL and it blows away any other USB-powered DACs I've heard. Connected to my BeoLab 3s it's easily on par with my Audio0gd NFB-5.2 in terms of soundstage and...” --Loquah
Musical Fidelity V-LINK 192 - Asynchronous USB To SPDIF Converter
“ This thing does what it's supposed to do and does it well. Noticeable improvement in sound quality. For $200 you can't go wrong. No real complaints from me about the V-link at all. ” --jbarr1989
ASUS Xonar Essence ST Headphone 7.1-Channel Audio Card for Audiophiles
“ I owned the HT Omega Claro Halo card a week before this, mostly for the headphone amp. I RMA'd it for this one and WOW am I glad I did. Even though they use the same hardware, the headphone amp on this one is at least twice as loud. It powers my cans almost as loud as I would want them too, it does a amazing job. This is a extremely good choice for headphones and replaces the need for more...” --RushNerd
Asus Xonar D1 Sound Card (Black)
“ This is a decent card for the price. This card comes with good but not great components. If you want better you will have to dish out more $$ but for the $67 I spent for this I think the quality is more than adequate. This was a breadth of fresh air coming from the Creative camp which has been problematic ever since direct sound was dropped from Windows. This is not to say that the D1 had its...” --maxpain12
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 MIDI Digital Recording Interface
“ Thought it great until I recently comparered its analog out to the DAC on my Onkyo TX-SR876 receiver... Although good to a point, it failed in highly complex loud music passages like the Choral movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony..... where as the volume and the number of instruments and voices increased, the 2496 could not keep the sounds seperate.... they become muddled/mixed a...” --dlaloum
Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX USB External Sound Enhancer for PC, PS3, XBOX 360 and Mac - SB1300
“Recon3D (USB sound processor) findings A little intro may help, as this first-impression review is adapted from a thread discussion. Creative's relatively new Recon3D Surround Sound Processor is a USB sound card that's main function is to turn 5.1, 7.1, or PC 3D surround gaming audio into virtual surround for headphones/headsets and near-field PC speakers. It features adjustable "THX...” --Evshrug
HT OMEGA eCLARO 7.1 Channel PCI Express x1 Sound Card
“ INTRO AND SCOPE OF THIS REVIEW As your author, I am no audiophile and this is my second aftermarket soundcard after first trying an Asus Xonar Essence STX which I had problems with. This review is about this card’s performance while listening to music through it from my Lenovo K330 desktop computer which itself has a noisy 7200rpm HDD. My listening has been through Sennheiser HD 518 and...” --suburbanite
Onkyo Japan SE-300PCIE Wavio PCI Express Sound Card
“Don't get me wrong - it's an amazing soundcard. I've had an Asus Xonar Essence ST w/OPA627AU, but SE300 are simply on another level of this. so, some facts about SE300: -) There is no front_panel output (HD_audio) -) 7.1 output sounds ok, better then Creative Titanium. -) Headphone_output are really good. Headphone_amp of Essence ST, for example, have much more power, but drives low-impedance...” --Ilya--s
