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Asus essence ST or Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Poll Results: Which would you buy?

Poll expired: Jan 24, 2012  
  • 0% (0)
    Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro
  • 100% (3)
    Asus Essence ST
3 Total Votes  
post #1 of 10
1/21/12 at 3:56am
Thread Starter 

Which one of these would be the better card? I'm using a set of senheiser pc360's so the amp isn't necessarily required.

 

Any advice would be appreciated. Im looking to buy by thursday as thats when the essence st will have sold by.

 

ive found the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro for a mere 80 quid before a bit of haggling, then the essence card is an auction, ive set my maximum bid to 115.

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post #2 of 10
1/21/12 at 1:42pm

You're using a Sennheiser PC360? Sounds like you're buying with gaming in mind.

 

The X-Fi DSP has an edge in terms of gaming features, but Creative wasn't known for good analog output quality until the later X-Fi Titanium HD, which is where the Xonar Essence ST has an edge. Whether you'll be able to hear the difference, I don't know.

 

If you are gaming, what games do you generally play most of the time?

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post #3 of 10
1/21/12 at 2:03pm
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by NamelessPFG View Post

You're using a Sennheiser PC360? Sounds like you're buying with gaming in mind.

 

The X-Fi DSP has an edge in terms of gaming features, but Creative wasn't known for good analog output quality until the later X-Fi Titanium HD, which is where the Xonar Essence ST has an edge. Whether you'll be able to hear the difference, I don't know.

 

If you are gaming, what games do you generally play most of the time

v

 mainly play battlefield 3, skyrim, racing games and flight sims and stuff. but i use the computer for everything including blu ray films and flac audio ect.

I

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post #4 of 10
1/21/12 at 2:17pm
Thread Starter 

also forgot to say, I only got the pc360's because theyre the 555's witha  mic stuck onto it and i bagged em for 80 pounds so cant argue with that. I was gonna get a pair of hd 650's off a mate for 200 pounds then decided to go lower on the budget. but like i said i use them for everything.

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post #5 of 10
1/21/12 at 4:12pm

BF3 and Skyrim both use software audio. (Pre-BC2 Battlefield games and Morrowind would sound better on the X-Fi, though, due to their use of hardware sound acceleration.) Racing and flight sims tend not to reveal much of the advantages of positional audio compared to first-person titles, though it's still cool to notice when someone just flew over or under you using nothing more than sound.

 

Looking over your first post, you said you already set a maximum bid on the Essence ST, which likely means you've already committed to buying it legally, unless someone outbids you. I suppose you can just wait and see if you win the Essence ST or not, and if you don't, go buy the X-Fi Elite Pro if it's still available.

 

(Also, unrelated note: are any of those flight sims IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 or Rise of Flight?)

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post #6 of 10
1/22/12 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by NamelessPFG View Post

BF3 and Skyrim both use software audio. (Pre-BC2 Battlefield games and Morrowind would sound better on the X-Fi, though, due to their use of hardware sound acceleration.) Racing and flight sims tend not to reveal much of the advantages of positional audio compared to first-person titles, though it's still cool to notice when someone just flew over or under you using nothing more than sound.

 

Looking over your first post, you said you already set a maximum bid on the Essence ST, which likely means you've already committed to buying it legally, unless someone outbids you. I suppose you can just wait and see if you win the Essence ST or not, and if you don't, go buy the X-Fi Elite Pro if it's still available.

 

(Also, unrelated note: are any of those flight sims IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 or Rise of Flight?)



As it goes I haven't actually placed a bid yet, I set a snipe up do it'll bid that in the last few seconds however I can still easily cancel that. Which is a better all rounder?

 

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post #7 of 10
1/22/12 at 1:45am
Thread Starter 

Been reading some reviews on both again, and by the looks of it, the Asus card sounds better and has better features when you factor in the 7.1 daughter card, I think I was swayed by the break out box (I'm a sucker for stuff like that). Also it's pretty old tech, it's second hand and is likely to fail much sooner than the Asus card which is still brand new and sealed. Any thoughts?

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post #8 of 10
1/22/12 at 7:44pm

Well, were it not for the issue of gaming, this question would be a no-brainer in favor of the Essence ST.

 

It's just that Creative keeps a lot of PC gaming audio tech under their tight control, knowing that it's pretty much the only thing keeping their products selling, and increasingly less so as more and more developers start using software audio engines and people stop caring about older PC games.

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post #9 of 10
1/24/12 at 9:50pm

The ST/STX is clearly superior to the X-Fi Elite Pro in everything exept gaming. It also has great potential to get even way better with easy mods. To me the ST/STX is a no brainer posably even if your gaming unless you do gaming exclusively.

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post #10 of 10
1/24/12 at 11:22pm

The Sennheiser PC360 is 50-Ohms, easy to power.

The Asus Xonar DG (PCI) comes with a headphone amplifier rated up to 150-Ohms (give or take)

Has the same Dolby Digital (Dolby Virtual surround sound) as the Essence ST.

And it's a cheap price.

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