Asus Xonar DX problem
Oct 1, 2013 at 6:37 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 30
gonefission

gonefission

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So today I went out and bought myself a brand new Xonar DX to replace the on board sound card on my motherboard. I plugged it into the PCI-E and plugged in the power, no issues. Installed the drivers, no issues. Plugged my headphones into the jack and hit "Play". Issues. For some reason, it sounds absolutely terrible. There is pretty much no low end, the mids are screechy, and the highs are just ridiculously piercing. The overall quality is not very clear, either. Certainly not how its meant to sound (I hope). 
Where did I go wrong/what have I forgotten? I'm positive that both hardware and software was installed correctly. I didn't get a dud, did I?
As for my computer, I am running 64 Bit Windows 8 and my motherboard is a Gigabyte Z77x-D3h
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:01 AM Post #4 of 30
Yep that's the right output connection,  sorry was thinking of another card, just ignore me!
redface.gif
 
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:05 AM Post #5 of 30
gonefission said:
  So today I went out and bought myself a brand new Xonar DX to replace the on board sound card on my motherboard. I plugged it into the PCI-E and plugged in the power, no issues. Installed the drivers, no issues. Plugged my headphones into the jack and hit "Play". Issues. For some reason, it sounds absolutely terrible. There is pretty much no low end, the mids are screechy, and the highs are just ridiculously piercing. The overall quality is not very clear, either. Certainly not how its meant to sound (I hope). 
Where did I go wrong/what have I forgotten? I'm positive that both hardware and software was installed correctly. I didn't get a dud, did I?
As for my computer, I am running 64 Bit Windows 8 and my motherboard is a Gigabyte Z77x-D3h
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio? In the BIOS?
What is the make and model of your headphones?
You could try installing the third party drivers "Unified Xonar Drivers".
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:07 AM Post #6 of 30
Did you remember to plug in the extra 5V power to the sound card, I've made that mistake a couple of times. Otherwise could it be your headphones are too high impedance for the DX?
 
I'm using  Foobar > Xonar DX > V100
and no issues there
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 6:56 PM Post #8 of 30
kookoo said:
  Did you remember to plug in the extra 5V power to the sound card, I've made that mistake a couple of times. Otherwise could it be your headphones are too high impedance for the DX?
 
I'm using  Foobar > Xonar DX > V100
and no issues there
Click to expand...

yup, that all got plugged in correctly, ortherwiseit wouldnt have even worked in the first place, right?
I'm using foobar > DX > vmoda m100, no impedance issue there I'd say
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 7:23 PM Post #10 of 30
gonefission said:
  oh...no, how do you do that?
I'm currently using v-moda m100s and I havensome Beyerdynamic Dt990 pros coming on the way
Click to expand...

When you first turn on the computer, usually you need to hit the delete key (with in the first 5 seconds?) and before the OS starts up, to get into the BIOS, should have basic instructions in the motherboard manual.
There is a setting in the BIOS that enables/disables the motherboard's built in sound card, might be labeled "HD audio" or something like that.
So switching it to "disable" makes it a little easier for windows to know what sound card you want to use.
 
I'm sure there are videos on the internet that show how to get into the BIOS.
 
Also you might consider returning the Xonar DX and getting the Creative Sound Blaster Z (SB1500) sound card ($95, Amazon).
SB-Z has the same DAC chip (CS4398) as the Xonar DX, but the SB-Z also has a headphone amplifier, better for driving headphones over the DX's high impedance line-out/headphone output jack.
 
Also the Xonar DX will only drive the 250-Ohm DT990 headphones to no louder then just above a whisper.
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:19 PM Post #11 of 30
purpleangel said:
  When you first turn on the computer, usually you need to hit the delete key (with in the first 5 seconds?) and before the OS starts up, to get into the BIOS, should have basic instructions in the motherboard manual.
There is a setting in the BIOS that enables/disables the motherboard's built in sound card, might be labeled "HD audio" or something like that.
So switching it to "disable" makes it a little easier for windows to know what sound card you want to use.
 
I'm sure there are videos on the internet that show how to get into the BIOS.
 
Also you might consider returning the Xonar DX and getting the Creative Sound Blaster Z (SB1500) sound card ($95, Amazon).
SB-Z has the same DAC chip (CS4398) as the Xonar DX, but the SB-Z also has a headphone amplifier, better for driving headphones over the DX's high impedance line-out/headphone output jack.
 
Also the Xonar DX will only drive the 250-Ohm DT990 headphones to no louder then just above a whisper.
Click to expand...

 
Oh ok, sure, I'll give that a go. But will that make the old audio ports on the motherboard useless?
And yep, I know, which is why I took your suggestion from the last thread I posted and ordered the PA2V2 amp!
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:32 PM Post #12 of 30
gonefission said:
   
Oh ok, sure, I'll give that a go. But will that make the old audio ports on the motherboard useless?
And yep, I know, which is why I took your suggestion from the last thread I posted and ordered the PA2V2 amp!
Click to expand...

 
Ok well I tried it and so far the good ol' stock standard one still seems to be coming out on top. 
 
Oct 1, 2013 at 8:56 PM Post #13 of 30
gonefission said:
   
Oh ok, sure, I'll give that a go. But will that make the old audio ports on the motherboard useless?
And yep, I know, which is why I took your suggestion from the last thread I posted and ordered the PA2V2 amp!
Click to expand...

Disabling the on-board audio in the BIOS, makes useless the motherboard's built in audio ports.
But as you have the Xonar DX, I can't see any reason for needing the MB's built in audio ports.
 
Oct 2, 2013 at 5:35 AM Post #14 of 30
purpleangel said:
  Disabling the on-board audio in the BIOS, makes useless the motherboard's built in audio ports.
But as you have the Xonar DX, I can't see any reason for needing the MB's built in audio ports.
Click to expand...

 
Well, I was hoping that they'd still work so that I could have my speakers connected to the mobo ones and then I could use the sound card for my headphones.
But since that didnt work, was there any chance you have any more suggestions? Is it possible that I just got a dud?
 
Oct 2, 2013 at 11:10 AM Post #15 of 30
Looking at the specs, I see no mention that the card has actually has a built in headphone amplifier, also confirmed by PurpleAngel...
 
 
Quote:
purpleangel said:
  ....but the SB-Z also has a headphone amplifier, better for driving headphones over the DX's high impedance line-out/headphone output jack.
 
Also the Xonar DX will only drive the 250-Ohm DT990 headphones to no louder then just above a whisper.
Click to expand...

 
It seems that it only has an unamplified high impedance line level out. It might be able to drive very low impedance headphones somewhat but even they will be affected adversely by the high output impedance from the DX's output socket. Unless you have a amp/headphone amp to connect to the DX's line out I'd say you bought the wrong card for the job.
 
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