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Looking for a new soundcard for my Sennheiser PC360 G4ME

post #1 of 6
10/12/11 at 1:07pm
Thread Starter 

Hello everyone,

 

Like the title of the topic sais, i'm looking for a new soundcard for my Sennheiser PC360 G4ME.

 

I bought the headphones like 2 months ago and now i'm buying a new pc, so it's time for a new soundcard. (Atleast i think)

 

Atm i have a Creative Soundblaster X-FI Extrememusic soundcard. It has always been a good soundcard for me but now it's time for a new and better one i think.

 

I've been looking up and reading alot on the forum here, but don't really understand all the technical sound stuff to be honest.

 

So that's why i'm asking for some help. So maybe a few notes:

 

* First of all: will it be worth upgrading to a new soundcard?

* Second: I only use my headphones for gaming, meanly FPS (BF3 all the way), movies i don't really watch on my pc and for musique i don't use them either. So yea what i'm looking for then: a soundcard that can produce nice surround sound and has a good bass for explosions etc.. Ofcourse it needs to hear to low tones like footsteps and stuff aswell..? Sorry if i'm saying something wrong here.

* 3the: might be important to.. the price.. i don't really have a price in my mind. Audio is important and i want to pay for it! I know my Sennheisers aren't the best at all, but atleast i think they were a good buy :)

 

EDIT: little info that i forgot: soundcard drivers need to be compatible with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

 

So this is kinda it.. Hopefully someone can help me :)

 

Oh and sorrry for my bad English! It's not really my main language..

 

Greetings,

 

CoUg4r


Edited by CoUg4r - 10/12/11 at 1:10pm
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post #2 of 6
10/12/11 at 2:27pm

If you're content with the XtremeMusic and don't want to plunk down the cash for an X-Fi Prelude, Forte, or Titanium HD, you could consider getting the S/PDIF adapter and a dedicated DAC...but that route would end up being more expensive.

 

At least in my experience, current Auzentech drivers are usable and allow you to trim the fat during the install process. I don't know about the Titanium HD since I don't own one.

 

In any case, while you'd get a sound quality improvement, most of your spatial imaging will come from the use of CMSS-3D Headphone, which is still the same on the newer cards.

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post #3 of 6
10/19/11 at 10:39am
Thread Starter 

First of all, sorry for the late respons. Been out of town for a few days.

 

Like i said in my post above, i don't mind spending money on a new soundcard, cause sound is verry important and i want to pay for it.

 

After reading your post, i would prefer getting a new soundcard instead of getting that S/PDIF adapter and a dedicated DAC..

But if i read it all good, i won't really notice any diffrence in CMSS-3D positioning, either with the soundcard i have now or a new one?

Ofcourse sound quality is important to, and that will increase then, right?

 

BTW: isn't there a diffrence between CMSS-3D positioning sound and Dolby-surround sound? Thought i seen that somewhere.

 

So to come to a point then: what do you suggest me to do in my case? What would be the best to do?

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post #4 of 6
10/19/11 at 5:43pm

If you've got the money for the X-Fi Prelude, Forte, or Titanium HD, go for it! Of course, the external DAC route may very well improve sound quality and bring out those positional cues better, but that's more beneficial to audiophiles. It may make more sense to just buy a higher-end sound card now and worry about getting a higher-end DAC later, especially since you may want to carry your sound card along to newer PC builds, and the old PCI interface isn't getting any newer.

 

I have no first-hand experience with Dolby Headphone in games (only through a foobar2000 plugin and DVD playback software, where it doesn't impress me that much), so I don't really compare it to CMSS-3D Headphone. However, I'll just say this: in a game that uses DirectSound3D or OpenAL that describes sound properly (with 3D spatial coordinates, NOT 7.1 speaker positions like XAudio2 and FMOD do), CMSS-3D Headphone practically becomes an aural wallhack because it's processing each virtual sound source individually instead of mixing them all to virtual speakers and then processing those. You even get height cues!

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post #5 of 6
10/20/11 at 12:25pm

You could go with an External DAC/head amplifier and use the X-Music's S/Pdif output.

 

This way you have all the features of the X-fi card for gaming and the upgraded sound of the new DAC/head amp.  You can find combo DAC/head amps or you can just go with a DAC depending on your headphones and what you want.

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post #6 of 6
10/22/11 at 12:23am

Creative Labs is launching two new sound cards soon, so maybe wait a month.

Otherwise i would say go for the Titanium HD, keep an eye out for when they are on sale or has a mail in rebate.

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