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Sound card for Movies and games

post #1 of 10
10/27/11 at 9:34am
Thread Starter 

hello everyone, i'm new here, so i hope i made this thread in the right section. if not, please admin move to the right place

 

Well, im new here but i always stalked head-fi for infos to get the right product for my usages

 

 

Based on the tons of posts i read here,I've ordered an audio technica ATH-AD700, i will use it only for gaming(competitive), and movies

i know they lack bass and i really dont care about this, i just want a clear sound,very good soundstage,imaging,details and a sound that ''suround'' me, like if they are coming outside, not from the headphone (AD700 is suposed to do this well)

 

now that i have ordered the headphones, i just want a sound card for games and movies, but i really don't understand much of the specs that diferent manufacturers have

 

i was looking for the Xonar GD, because of the built in headphone AMP and dolby headphone technology

is this card good for gaming and movies? i dont want that the card have good music performance, only gaming performance and god sound in movies

 

some people say that creative sound cards are better for gaming and movies, but i really dont know and never used an soundcard, only onbard audio

 

and whats the diference between EAX 5.0 and GX2.5?

does it improve gaming sound experience?

 

should i buy other model than xonar DG?

 

sorry by the tons of questions but im really confuse :/

 

 

 

 

 

 


Edited by Tuny - 10/27/11 at 9:36am
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post #2 of 10
10/27/11 at 9:59am

The Xonar DG is a great bang-for-the-buck offering, but if EAX support in older games is important to you, you might be better off with an X-Fi Titanium or one of the better cards (Prelude, Forte, Titanium HD) if you've got the money to spend.

 

If EAX isn't a concern (likely because you're playing newer games), then it's a matter of whether you'll prefer CMSS-3D Headphone or Dolby Headphone. I'm not going to say which is better until I can properly evaluate both, but I can say that CMSS-3D borders on being an aural wallhack, particularly in older games that use DirectSound3D or OpenAL, where it does NOT emulate speakers, but processes virtual sound sources directly for proper binaural sound. You even get height cues!

 

Note that the AD700 does not need a dedicated headphone amp. It's pretty sensitive, and I noticed no benefit from using my X-Fi Forte's headphone amp or an old receiver's headphone-out.

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post #3 of 10
10/27/11 at 10:18am
Thread Starter 

oh thanks by the fast reply

 

and yes i will not be playing older games, i think the only and the oldest i will be playing is Counter strike source(2004), but the modern games are the most played by me, so dolby headphone is the best in my case right? i heard too that CMSS3D isn used in atual games anymore, is that true?

 

another thing that confused me, whats the diference of EAX and CMSS3D?

 

anyway, i will not be playing older games, but for movies, is dolby headphone better or not?

 

thanks again for the help

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post #4 of 10
10/27/11 at 2:16pm

EAX is Environmental Audio Extensions, GX 2.5 is Asus's way of trying to emulate EAX.

In the past EAX was the thing to have for computer gaming, EAX works great with Win XP,

but EAX seems to have been slowly side lined once Windows Vista came out.

I believe computer games started using alternative sound engines.

 

The Asus Xonar DG (PCI) is a low cost sound card that offers a built in headphone amplifier.

The DG can do Dolby Digital 5.1, both for analog 5.1 speakers and stereo headphones (Dolby Headphone 5.1)

Most DVD movies use Dolby Digital 5.1 for sound

The Xonar DG is a really great bang for the buck sound card.

 

CMSS3D is Creative Labs proprietary sound positioning software for headphones.

I believe CMSS3D is just a little bit better for headphone gaming over Dolby headphone 5.1

 

I really prefer Asus Xonar software over Creative Labs software.

Get the Xonar DG, it will do the job for you.

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post #5 of 10
10/30/11 at 8:13pm

Titanium HD is a huge card for Creative.  It has a Burr Brown DAC and socketed op amps for everyone output.  

 

Courtesy of our friend ROBSCIX.

 

Nothing better for gaming.

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post #6 of 10
10/31/11 at 12:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coupe View Post
Titanium HD is a huge card for Creative.  It has a Burr Brown DAC and socketed op amps for everyone output.  

Courtesy of our friend ROBSCIX.

Nothing better for gaming.

Nice op-amps on the Titanium HD

I figured out the Titanium HD does not have a dedicated headphone amplifier.

But the Xonar DG does, but may not really help as the AD700 is very easy to drive.


 

 

 

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post #7 of 10
10/31/11 at 4:56am

The AD700 doesn't benefit with amplification. I'd only worry about it if you were looking into higher-end cans that require dedicated amps for proper operation anyway (AKG K701/702, non-Fostex orthos, and especially anything electrostatic like Stax or Koss ESP/950).

 

The difference between EAX and CMSS-3D Headphone was nicely summed up by PurpleAngel above, so I don't have to explain much. Counter-Strike Source doesn't use EAX, but I'm pretty sure Battlefield 2 was released around the same time (within a year or two) and uses EAX 5, just to give a reference of when games are likely to use EAX. Just know that CMSS-3D Headphone is a functional alternative to Dolby Headphone on X-Fi cards, and which one you prefer will likely boil down to personal preference.

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post #8 of 10
10/31/11 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 

thanks everyone by the awnsers, really helped me

 

i will go with the xonar DG right now, the other ones are too expensive for me

one last question,are the GX2.5 and dolby headphone features in xonar DG worse in terms of quality than a xonar essence ST for example?

 

for now the DG is suficient for me, later when i upgrade the headphones i will take a better and more expensive card

 

thx for all replies again

 

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post #9 of 10
10/31/11 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuny View Post
thanks everyone by the awnsers, really helped me

i will go with the xonar DG right now, the other ones are too expensive for me

one last question,are the GX2.5 and dolby headphone features in xonar DG worse in terms of quality than a xonar essence ST for example?

for now the DG is suficient for me, later when i upgrade the headphones i will take a better and more expensive card

thx for all replies again

 

All the Xonar sound cards use the same CMI8788 audio processor, except the DG, with uses the slightly older CMI8768.

I'm going to guess the GX 2.5 and Dolby Digital 5.1 (which includes Dolby Headphone 5.1) are about equal on all the Xonar cards.

The CMI 8768 was designed to play DVD movie 5.1 quality sound, 96KHz/ 24bit.

The CMI 8788 was designed to play Blu-ray movie 7.1 quality sound, 192KHz/ 24bit.

 

In the U.S.A. you can mail order the Xonar DG for $25 and there is a $10 mail in rebate this month.

I've used the DG, DS, DX and STX, the DG does a decent job, get it.
 

 

 

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post #10 of 10
10/31/11 at 6:49pm
Thread Starter 

oh now its all crystal clear for me

 

i will go with the DG, and after some time i will upgrade for another one to watch HD movies

 

thanks for all the awnsers i know that i will make the right thing now

 

 

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