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I need help finding best windows 7 compatible souncard

post #1 of 8
10/10/11 at 1:14pm
Thread Starter 

I know the ASUS Xonar Essence is the best soundcard but it does not seem to be compatible with windows 7

All suggestions are welcome I have Sennheiser HD 650 Cans and i want the best windows 7 audiophile soundcard

 

thanks Steven

 

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post #2 of 8
10/10/11 at 4:46pm

I have the X-Fi Titanium HD and feel it was worth every penny @ $125. OpAmps arent soldered and can be interchanged, and is capable of driving 300ohm headphones out of the box. It's been running on my W7 rig for the past ~4 months and never had an issue; other than the software volume slider goes mute at 6%. I havent noticed any software glitches, so problematic creative drivers arent really an issue with this card.

There was a thread on slickdeals saying how they are clearenced for ~$48 at Best Buy stores. At that price, its practically stealing..

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post #3 of 8
10/10/11 at 5:04pm

Essence STX isn't compatible with Windows 7? How the heck am I using it?

 

The X-Fi Titanium HD looks good as well, but I know much less about it. In particular I don't know how powerful its amp is.

 

The Essence STX amp is plenty powerful, comparable to a desktop amplifier and with three handy gain settings that allow you to set it as low as you need it for minimal distortion.

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post #4 of 8
10/10/11 at 5:52pm


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by steven1859 View Post

I know the ASUS Xonar Essence is the best soundcard but it does not seem to be compatible with windows 7

 



Why you say that? care to elaborate...

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post #5 of 8
10/11/11 at 8:00am
I also have Asus Xonar STX on win7 64bit using Unixonar drivers and sound is much better than X-fi Titanium HD
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post #6 of 8
10/11/11 at 12:09pm
Thread Starter 

I just assumed since the specs on the Asus Xonar Essence said windows vista or xp and i also heard ther are issues with Asus Xonar on 64 bit system am i wrong about that as well because i really would like to buy the Asus if it is fully compatible with windows 7

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post #7 of 8
10/11/11 at 6:59pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by olegausany View Post

I also have Asus Xonar STX on win7 64bit using Unixonar drivers and sound is much better than X-fi Titanium HD

You've tried both? I'm interested to know what you like better on the STX than the THD. I love the auto bitmatching & audio creation mode on the THD; although it bums me out that it doesnt have balanced terminals.
 

 

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post #8 of 8
10/11/11 at 8:00pm

Xonar Essence ST(X) NOT Win7-compatible? I don't know where you're getting that from, because it wouldn't have the userbase it does if that were the case!

 

Now, while you mentioned you were looking for an audiophile sound card, it's important for me to ask how important gaming features are to you, because that's the only thing that X-Fi cards have on everything else. If you don't care for EAX or CMSS-3D Headphone, then the Titanium HD has little leverage over the Essence STX or external audiophile DACs.

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