[Spardasieg]

Alright I have this motherboard with on board sound: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131615&Tpk=P5KPL%20AM%20epu its not so great. I only can use 2 speakers because of on board sound card limiting me.

I was thinking about getting a new sound card and I am a bit of an audiophile but honestly do not know much about computer audio. The headphones I use on my computer are ATH-ES7 and the speakers I use are LOGITECH X-530 5.1. Is there something better for under 50 dollars or is this the best I can get, note I only need a 5.1 sound card and I know Asus makes a 7.1 for about 20 dollars more then this. I am not brand loyal so whatever brand is fine.
 
Is the DS version much better btw?
 
Edit: Found this which seems interesting : http://techreport.com/articles.x/19997/6

 

[Spardasieg]

Anyone? Oh and yeah about the DG, I have a headphone port on my speakers, will the amp function work through that? Because my front audioport on the top of my desktop is dead.

 

[kevral]

There's been a couple of discussions about the DG here (try search for my posts).
 
As far as I recall, a couple of us agreed that it was a good card for the money. Sound quality is decent, if not quite up to the Essence ST (which costs several times as much) and it has Dolby Headphone. The built-in headphone amp does a decent job with low impedance phones, but don't try to run 600 ohms off it.
 
If you're going to use the headphone amp, you need to plug the headphones directly into the sound card's headphone port. You can then plug your speakers into line-out and use the Xonar software to switch between the outputs. 

 

[Spardasieg]

Hmm I see seems worth a shot if at all it will be a bit better and I will have my 5.1 speakers back. Oh that sound neat. I also have one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8V234-WHT-APL-Headphone-Splitter/dp/B0000UV2AW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299616568&sr=8-1 
 
Will that work because I do use the mic port for a mic....which is also the line out port correct? Unless I am mistaken...? 

 

[Remior]

Xonar Dg it's a great Sound Card for the money, but oriented overall for hedphones:
 
-Dolby Headphone.
-Headphone amplifiers till 150ohms
-5.1 (7.1 simulated)
-And all for less than 40$ or 30€, etc
 
I have the Xonar Essence ST and the Xonar DG on a secondary PC. To my ears the sound from DG it's very very good, less deep bass than ST and a bit energic on mid range (ST its more neutral and natural). If you have audio jack on frontal panel from your tower you can conect your headphones, the amplifier for headphones works too on front panel .
A great review from techreport:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/19997

 

[Spardasieg]

Sadly my front port has problems, its a static mess, I have an Antec 900 case, many people have the problems. WIll the split connections work?  
 
Quote:

Xonar Dg it's a great Sound Card for the money, but oriented overall for hedphones:
 
-Dolby Headphone.
-Headphone amplifiers till 150ohms
-5.1 (7.1 simulated)
-And all for less than 40$ or 30€, etc
 
I have the Xonar Essence ST and the Xonar DG on a secondary PC. To my ears the sound from DG it's very very good, less deep bass than ST and a bit energic on mid range (ST its more neutral and natural). If you have audio jack on frontal panel from your tower you can conect your headphones, the amplifier for headphones works too on front panel .
A great review from techreport:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/19997

 

 

[Remior]

The split will works perfectly but you must to have in mind that the amplificación for headphones will work on both spliter outs (for headphone no problem but if you conect speakers... it may damage them; the better way its to try to fix frontal port or change impdance every time you conect-disconet heaphones only...)

 

[Spardasieg]

Ok well I got the card, Installed it, only two of my speakers seem to work in Windows Media Player 12....
 
All the other speakers work find in games, etc....
 
What could be the problem? I went through all the settings I could...nothing. I did install the drivers and everything, so it should work....

 

[Remior]

Maybe didn't you set on Windows 7 the 5.1/7.1 Surround option??



 
It's on Spanish but you will take the idea. You must set on Xonar DG panel and on Win 7 too.
 

 

[Spardasieg]

Yeah I tried that and about everything else, not sure why its not working...The speakers are fine, the center one seems to go on when playing music in VLC which is strange. 

 

[Remior]

How many audio chanels have you selected on the Xonar DG Audio Center? Audio output setting it's on 5.1 on Xonar Adio Center?

 

[Spardasieg]

Yeah its at 5.1 in the Xonar control panel, they work fine with movies and games, just not in media player.
 
The sound outlit in the front also does not work anymore(Worked but was fuzzy) Any connection? 

 

[Spardasieg]

Upsetting, the two speakers that are working do sound much better but I really bought this for 5.1 music...the other stuff is secondary. 
 
 

 

[Remior]

Do you have only the problem with music on mediaplayer and the rest work fine for games and movies??
 
Mp3 music its always on stereo (only 2 chanels) if you dont put any plugin (on winamp there are a few plugins that make stereo to simulate 5.1) for convert stereo to 5.1 on windows mediaplayer i think it's impossible to listen any mp3 on 5.1....

 

[Spardasieg]

 
There is no plugin? Hmmm every other media player has given me issues, winamp doubles all my files and lags like hell. Media monkey doubles them, Soundbird is just awful, that one freezes my whole computer. Never liked Foobar....
Damn this is no good...