leeperry
Galvanically isolated his brain
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- Apr 23, 2004
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It's a $30 soundcard, did you expect a miracle?
It's a $30 soundcard, did you expect a miracle?
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?
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.
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
[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]
AD1988B only support 48kHz AFAIK.
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