[muad]

Hi, im new to these forums so hi everyone

I just bought a set of audioengine a5 speakers and im loving them. The question i have is would changing sound card make a difference. Im currently using a creative xfi titanium. I game, listen to music and watch movies equally. I'd rather have sound quality over eax and other crap features. The sound card im considering is the asus xonar essence st or an xfi elite pro. Im just wondering is it worth switching sound cards? or would the upgrade be over kill for these speakers.

Also I kinda need a inline volume controller since the audioengines dont control volume on the sub, so I can only control volume at the software level (bad for sq right?) I was hoping the breakout box could act as a volume control by directly outputting the sound from the rear spdif rca jacks on the back. Is this possible and how's the sound quality from spdif versus normal mini jacks?

any advice is appreciated! thanks in advance

 

[Mr. B]

When I got my A5's I ditched my XtremeGamer card in favor of an external DAC. I thought getting the audio hardware out of my case was a worthy upgrade. You'll have trouble finding a bad word about the Xonar card though.

If you have a CD player or some other good source, I would try listening to the same tunes through your computer and the other source. If you can detect an appreciable difference, a source upgrade may be in order.

 

[muad]

How is the sound quality of the 0404 dac compared to say an essence st or equivalent? What i was thinking was runnning optical out from the xfi titanium i have to the emu0404. That way i could keep the eax and hardware sound processing yet have the dac create the sound. Does anyone know if this would work? If I use the usb for sound would that use extra cpu cycles? Sorry if these questions are noobish.... but I am what I am

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by muad /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, im new to these forums so hi everyone I just bought a set of audioengine a5 speakers and im loving them. The question i have is would changing sound card make a difference. Im currently using a creative xfi titanium. I game, listen to music and watch movies equally. I'd rather have sound quality over eax and other crap features. The sound card im considering is the asus xonar essence st or an xfi elite pro. Im just wondering is it worth switching sound cards? or would the upgrade be over kill for these speakers. Also I kinda need a inline volume controller since the audioengines dont control volume on the sub, so I can only control volume at the software level (bad for sq right?) I was hoping the breakout box could act as a volume control by directly outputting the sound from the rear spdif rca jacks on the back. Is this possible and how's the sound quality from spdif versus normal mini jacks? any advice is appreciated! thanks in advance

I'm running the STX version of the card & also have an Elite pro card. STX card definately better to my ears. If using SPDIF though its probably a waste of time & money. Analog is king on this card. Get a RCA jack splitter & sent the signal to both the sub & speakers from the line out & adjust the volume at the software level through the driver for the sound card.

Just bear in mind though to not turn on the speakers until you see the volume level that the driver is set at before turning them on. Before you turn them on turn the volume on both the speakers & sub all the way down then turn the software volume all the way up. Once that is done turn them on & play some loud music & set the volume on the speakers & sub to just a little louder than you would normaly listen (this is to take into account softer recordings). This is so that the volume won't over drive the speakers in case you boot up your computer & suddenly find the volume all the way up in software & possibly damage something in the proccess.

The RCA jack splitter can be gotten at Radio Shack.

You won't really loose anthing in audio quality if the audio sound properties for the speakers setting in the advaced tab is set to 24 bit 44.1KHz & the driver is set to 48KHz sample frquency or above. This applies to window Vista or Seven. Xonar cards have a pretty much lossless sample rate converter built in to the sound processor. So using the software volume control doesn't have to lose quality. I find the sound to be top notch that way.

 

[muad]

thanks for the advice guys... in the end i went with a Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 DAC with the tube upgrade. Ive always wanted to know what a tube sounds like

Plus it has all the features i could possibly want and allows me to keep my sound card.

 

[Aevum]

i ditched by Auzentech and went to a Echo Audiofire 2, amazing sound,