Auzentech Prelude vs Asus Xonar D2X vs E-MU 0404 USB - Page 2

Prelude is just a modified X-Fi so how can it sound *that* much better? I don't care about 7.1 or 5.1 so feed both my Chaintech AV-710 and X-Fi digitally to my EMU 0404 and then to an Audiolab 8000A IA then to Energy RC1 speakers and Energy 8" sub. This setup also has a feed to Onkyo receiver and another set of Polk Audio speakers and same Energy sub. That gives me three amps to choose from for headphones too.

Better DAC chip, better op-amps, probably better components throughout (capacitors etc.), better design of the analog audio path. I'm just speculating on the last two.

EMU 0404 USB is a very good product and I like it a lot, but if you use it for gaming I won't recommend it at all, it not related to 5.1 or 7.1, it related to the USB or driver(I think), all of my games drop half of the FPS when I use the 0404 USB, but if I switch back to the onboard sound card, the FPS become normal again.....

Your EMU 0404 uses the same opamps as X-fi Elite Pro and a slightly inferior dac so how can it sound better?

When people speak about xFi, they dont refer to the Elite Pro,,

I'm not very fond of girls' periods.

Annoying, crude, and, needless to say, completely out of place here.

If you can't think of something more helpful to post, suggest you find a home elsewhere.

milkweg,

As an owner, like you, of both the AV-710 and E-MU 0404, I find myself in the seemingly endless process of "trying to figure things out" to optimize audio quality. If you don't mind, would you be kind enough to tell me the advantage of "feeding" your AV-710 to the E-MU 0404. This, as opposed to circumventing the AV-710 altogether. I'm still trying to get my arms around all of this, so any input you could provide would be real helpful. Thanks...

Take a joke?

Honestly.....

Anyway, for the best of both worlds and because of Vista and a thing called money (as gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry and highly competitive), I'd take a soundcard that supports Dolby headphone. If you can afford it, I'd definitely consider the new ASUS Essence STX.

A nice comparison of DolbyHP and CMSS-3D, which is needed for gaming tbh in X-fi cards:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/5188995-post3.html

Having heard most of the cards mentioned I think you would be happy with any of them. Although they are all aimed at different markets.
You need to decide what is most important to you in term of features and use that to help make your decision.

I just use the AV-710 as a transport (via optical) to my EMU 0404 so it isn't affecting the sound but you can change sampling rate and bit depth on the AV-710. With the X-fi I use it the same way but with coax to the EMU 0404 instead. In X-Fi use audio creation mode and bit perfect playback and asio if you want. I don't use asio. My system is different now than what I posted up above. Have Lunchbox Pro on the way and use Paradigm Titan speakers and the Energy RC-1 as surround speakers. Got rid of the Polk Audio speakers completely. Got rid of my HD595 headphones and use DT990pro now too.