[leeperry]

It's a $30 soundcard, did you expect a miracle?

 

[AndroidVageta]

It's a $30 soundcard, did you expect a miracle?

No didn't expect a miracle but certainly expected something better than on board!

However, it would seem that I'm kind of lucky in that my on board doesn't seem to be half bad and that my receiver seems to have a pretty decent headphone output!

Well, if anything, my current on board to receiver setup is doing pretty decently for now (actually sounds GOOD after comparing it to the DG!), at least until I can afford a better sound card and headphone amplifier!

Either case...I've learned that:

A. Just because its a dedicated sound card doesn't always mean its automatically better than on board.

B. On board audio CAN be pretty decent.

C. Headphone out on receivers aren't always crap.

D. You get what you pay for!

Lots of lessons learned, eh?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Quote:

It's a $30 soundcard, did you expect a miracle?

No didn't expect a miracle but certainly expected something better than on board!
However, it would seem that I'm kind of lucky in that my on board doesn't seem to be half bad and that my receiver seems to have a pretty decent headphone output!
Well, if anything, my current on board to receiver setup is doing pretty decently for now (actually sounds GOOD after comparing it to the DG!), at least until I can afford a better sound card and headphone amplifier!
Either case...I've learned that:
A. Just because its a dedicated sound card doesn't always mean its automatically better than on board.
B. On board audio CAN be pretty decent.
C. Headphone out on receivers aren't always crap.
D. You get what you pay for!
Lots of lessons learned, eh?

I guess I did not read the begining of this post well enough.
A $350.00 receiver would power headphones better then a $30 sound card.
(my Onkyo 706B receiver easily powers my 250-Ohm headphones)
When you use the Denon receiver to power your headphones, you are no longer using "on-board", which confused anyone reading this thread.
On-board (when using headphones) means your are plugging the headphones directly into the motherboard's headphone jack.
 
 

 

[francisdemarte]

You have an "outboard" high quality amp and dac with your receiver.
 
Why are you even using the analogue out from that card? Run the optical from the card to the receiver and let the receiver do the DAC conversion. I bet it will sound much better.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

You have an "outboard" high quality amp and dac with your receiver.
Why are you even using the analogue out from that card? Run the optical from the card to the receiver and let the receiver do the DAC conversion. I bet it will sound much better.

I second that, the Dolby Audio processing on the Denon are better then the DG.
What brand and model motherboard are you using?
 
 
 

 

[Remior]

Quote:

So I got a new Asus Xonar DG sound card due to
the built in headphone amp and quality sound
processor.
Coming from onboard ALC890 through analog to
my Denon AVR-1610...and cheaper receivers are
considered to have cheap headphone quality. So a
new sound card...what a upgrade! So I thought...
Using Sony PFR-V1 headphones and JBL Studio
S38II (stereo only) by the way.
Anyways, get the card, hook it up, install the drivers
and wooow...no difference what so ever.
Actually...its worse. Much worse. Bass drops off
hard core, sound is hollow and very...I don't
know...lacking...just over all very unimpressed and
extremely disappointed.
This is both using headphones and my speakers.
Now before I get a bashing, I know its only a $30
sound card and I know its not a Essence ST...but
damn, was expecting something better than
onboard at least! I know that, minus the "amp",
even a Audigy 2 sounds above and beyond this
P.O.S.!
I just don't understand how onboard and a cheap
headphone out on my receiver sounds MUCH
better than a dedicated sound card with
headphone amp...or maybe my receiver isn't that
bad and onboard is not as terrible as its made out
to be?
Oh and one last thing...its not the cheaper amp on
the card either...using in-ears with no amplification
the sound is the same hollow crappy sound.
Anyways...just a heads up to other potential buyers!
This card is certainly going back to where I bought it.
/rant - mini-review - opinion

Did you even configure Windows for an Audiophile Mode?
Most of people don't know how to do it. The difference it's HUGE between a W7 configured or not. Even with onboard soundcard the difference it's Huge.
The Xonar DG it's a bargain, it's a very good sound card for somebody who don't need proffesional sound/hardware to edit music or something like that.
I have the Xonar DG and the Xonar Essence ST and i can say the difference between the two it's much less than the price with a Windows 7 well configured of course 
 

 

[rus1234]

[size=medium]Hello,[/size]
[size=medium]I have a Windows XP and an Asus board with “[/size][size=9pt]ADI AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC”.[/size]
[size=9pt]I plug directly to the PC by 1/8”, and am going to order the Sennheiser 518 or Samson SR850.[/size]
 
[size=9pt]Would I be able to hear an improvement with the Xonar DG, or  a cheap X-Fi card?? (@$40)[/size]

 

[SkinnyPuppy]

Quote:

Did you even configure Windows for an Audiophile Mode?
Most of people don't know how to do it. The difference it's HUGE between a W7 configured or not. Even with onboard soundcard the difference it's Huge.
The Xonar DG it's a bargain, it's a very good sound card for somebody who don't need proffesional sound/hardware to edit music or something like that.
I have the Xonar DG and the Xonar Essence ST and i can say the difference between the two it's much less than the price with a Windows 7 well configured of course 
 

Audiophile Mode? Do tell.
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

[size=medium]Hello,[/size]
[size=medium]I have a Windows XP and an Asus board with “[/size][size=9pt]ADI AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC”.[/size]
[size=9pt]I plug directly to the PC by 1/8”, and am going to order the Sennheiser 518 or Samson SR850.[/size]
[size=9pt]Would I be able to hear an improvement with the Xonar DG, or  a cheap X-Fi card?? (@$40)[/size]

So your using Windows XP with a motherboard with built in sound (ADI AD1988B).
and you are going to plug your headphones (518 or SR850) directly into the headphone output jack that is built in to the motherboard.
The Senn 518 is 50-Ohms
The Samson SR850 is 32-Ohms.
Both headphones would work decently with the ADI AD1988B.
 
If you watch a lot of DVD movies, then get the Xonar DG with it's built in Dolby Headphone.
 
If you play a lot of PC computer games, then get a used X-fi card, Xtreme Gamer or Titanium (non-HD).
Do not wast money on the Creative Labs Audio Xtreme sound card, it uses an older audio processing chip then the Gamer or Titanium.
The X-Fi cards with EAX 5.0 goes great with Windows XP for gaming.
 
If you just want the best sound quality for headphones, get the Xonar DG.
 
 
 

 

[leeperry]

AD1988B only support 48kHz AFAIK.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

AD1988B only support 48kHz AFAIK.

If he bypasses the AD1988B and uses a digital link to the Denon receiver, he should get 192kHz.
 
 
 

 

[Remior]

Quote:

Audiophile Mode? Do tell.
 

Windows it's a crappy OS for sound quality on stock, you need to configure it to get a proffesional/much better sound.
I'm a bit hazy to translate this tutorial i made for a spanish forum (i use the same name on it ) but you can translate it with google :
 
http://foro.noticias3d.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=4184720#post4184720
 
(google translator)
http://translate.google.es/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforo.noticias3d.com%2Fvbulletin%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D4184720%23post4184720&act=url
 
Another good information (on english, i suppose must be much more information on english forums):
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Windows-7-Audio-J-River-Media-Center-14-Configuration
 
Over all most important things:
1.- Desactivate all Windows sounds 
2.- Use properly players who let you use plugings like ASIO or WASAPI (Foobar, Winamp, AIMP, etc) (Windows stock APIs it's an horror, Direct Sound it's anti-audiophile....)
3.- Give more priority to sound on windows process/options (Fidelizer make a good job on it)
4.- Configure properly the sound card audio options on control panel.
 
Sorry for my bad english

 

[germanium]

Many receivers do not have a dedicated headphone amp though some do. The ones that don't have a headphone amp use the poweramp that powers the speakers & just throw in some 430ohm resistors in series with the headphone jack. So much for headphones needing low output impedance to sound decent. On a 250 ohm phone this is a damping factor of well less than 1. Most of the damping is provided by the damping pads on the back side of the drivers themselves. If you remove those pads you will find out just how much damping they provide which is a lot. Electrical damping hardly figures into thier sound at all relative to the physical damping provided on the back of the drivers.
 
Headphones are quite unlike speakers as with speakers use electrically controlled resonance to shape thier low frequency response where as with headphones they control these resonances physically as the magnets are not strong enough to provide that control themselves in headphones. This is also due to the different nature of the acoustic load. Headphones aren't trying to fill a room with sound, only the space between the driver & the eardrum wheras speakers need to fill an entire room with balanced sound hence need to have less physical damping & instead tune the drivers resonance with proper size cabinate & electrical damping to get the correct sound.

 

[SkinnyPuppy]

Quote:

Windows it's a crappy OS for sound quality on stock, you need to configure it to get a proffesional/much better sound.
I'm a bit hazy to translate this tutorial i made for a spanish forum (i use the same name on it ) but you can translate it with google :
 
http://foro.noticias3d.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=4184720#post4184720
 
(google translator)
http://translate.google.es/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforo.noticias3d.com%2Fvbulletin%2Fshowthread.php%3Fp%3D4184720%23post4184720&act=url
 
Another good information (on english, i suppose must be much more information on english forums):
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Windows-7-Audio-J-River-Media-Center-14-Configuration
 
Over all most important things:
1.- Desactivate all Windows sounds 
2.- Use properly players who let you use plugings like ASIO or WASAPI (Foobar, Winamp, AIMP, etc) (Windows stock APIs it's an horror, Direct Sound it's anti-audiophile....)
3.- Give more priority to sound on windows process/options (Fidelizer make a good job on it)
4.- Configure properly the sound card audio options on control panel.
 
Sorry for my bad english

I've already done most of this, thank you for the link. Just downloaded Fidelizer, gonna run it now. Again, thanks for the effort.
 
Why don't you submit an article with this info?

 

[Kyress]

sorry for resurrecting this, but it's still relevant. If the sound you're getting isn't okay then there's probably a problem with the front panel headphone jack of your case. Connecting your headphone directly to the sound card should fix your problem. At least that's what fixed the problem for me.  You shouldn't be experiencing bad sound at all and it's not really about the price tag, there's some research on this and it shows that the difference between an expensive sound card and a cheaper one isn't really noticeable for -almost- everyone.