Good soundcard with Dolby Digital or similar feature.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumpiersorz 

Hello, I'm looking for a good soundcard with a built in amp to replace my Fiio E9, Dolby Digital or something similar is required.


Currently I have my eye on this http://www.dustinhome.dk/product/5010618825/creative-sound-blaster-recon3d-fatal1ty-pro-pcie/#intcmp=searchProvider_SiteSeeker

The amp in this card supports up to 600 ohms, but is there a better option?

I would say to keep the Fiio E9 and plug it into whatever sound card you get.

A Xonar DX or D1 sound card, used $67.

Or a Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium (non-HD) sound card, used or refurb $55.

If you want to save cash, Xonar DG sound card, $25.

If virtual surround over headphones is what you're looking for, why do you need Dolby Digital? That's only for use with home theater systems based on receivers with S/PDIF input.

I can tell you right now that most sound cards with built-in headphone amps, like the Xonar Essence STX, use the exact same headphone amplfier chip as the FiiO E9, so you wouldn't really be upgrading. Is desk space really at that much of a premium?

I'd normally say "X-Fi Titanium HD" for gaming, but it doesn't have that headphone amp chip found in the E9 and the Essence ST(X).

It's not a problem for me because of my choice of headphones (Stax/electrostatics in general require specialized amps to work), but I doubt you're pursuing that route, in which case not having the E9-class amp built-in hurts the value proposition.

Actually, I should ask: what games do you generally play?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lumpiersorz 

I play RTS/FPS/RPG etc.. every game worth playing :)

Then I'd say to keep the E9 and get an X-Fi Titanium HD regardless, because a lot of games that are very much worth playing only sound their best on X-Fi-based hardware.

Thief series most especially, Unreal series, Battlefield series up to 2142, Killing Floor, Star Wars: KotOR, The Witcher, so on and so forth. It would take me forever to list them all, really, but anything that makes use of EAX 3/4/5 will have missing effects without an X-Fi card.

Even those that just use basic DirectSound3D and OpenAL API features with no proprietary EAX extensions or anything have the edge on X-Fi cards that can process the positional audio data in hardware and allow for better CMSS-3D Headphone mixes that sound less like virtual speaker systems and more like binaural recordings and real life.

Maybe you can join me for some UT or BF1942 later?