[lukeman3000]

I need a sound card that has
 
Dolby Headphone
Dolby Digital Live
Digital optical output
 
I prefer Dolby Headphone over CMSS-3D (seems to have better positioning), but sometimes, I like to game on my plasma tv and use my real surround sound system. So for that, I need dolby digital live so that I can send a 5.1 signal to my receiver via digital optical cable.
 
I was looking at a Xonar DG, but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have DDL.
 
My current setup is a Titanium X-Fi paired with an Astro Mixamp (for Dolby Headphone).
 
I send a 5.1 DDL signal from my sound card to my mixamp, when then does Dolby Headphone.
 
The problem is that for some reason, the audio is crackly whenever I use DDL. Any ideas?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I need a sound card that has
 
Dolby Headphone
Dolby Digital Live
Digital optical output
 
I prefer Dolby Headphone over CMSS-3D (seems to have better positioning), but sometimes, I like to game on my plasma tv and use my real surround sound system. So for that, I need dolby digital live so that I can send a 5.1 signal to my receiver via digital optical cable.
 
I was looking at a Xonar DG, but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have DDL.
 
My current setup is a Titanium X-Fi paired with an Astro Mixamp (for Dolby Headphone).
 
I send a 5.1 DDL signal from my sound card to my mixamp, when then does Dolby Headphone.
 
The problem is that for some reason, the audio is crackly whenever I use DDL. Any ideas?

Asus Xonar DX or D1 sound card.

 

[lukeman3000]

Quote:

Asus Xonar DX or D1 sound card.

Is the only difference between those cards their interface?
 
The DX is a PCI-e interface while the D1 is a PCI interface -- both cards are almost the exact same price. Is one interface better than the other? Does PCI have lower latency than PCI-e, or vice versa?
 
In short, which card should I get, and why?
 
Also, I was looking at both the D1 and the DX, and neither seem to have a digital optical port .. ?
 

Edit: Ok, looks like there's a SPDIF to digital optical adapter that's included?
 
But anyways, what about the differences between PCI and PCI-e?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Is the only difference between those cards their interface?
 
The DX is a PCI-e interface while the D1 is a PCI interface -- both cards are almost the exact same price. Is one interface better than the other? Does PCI have lower latency than PCI-E, or vice versa?
 
In short, which card should I get, and why?
 
Also, I was looking at both the D1 and the DX, and neither seem to have a digital optical port .. ?
 

Edit: Ok, looks like there's a SPDIF to digital optical adapter that's included?
 
But anyways, what about the differences between PCI and PCI-e?

I would get the DX, as it's PCI-E, it's more future proof.

 

[lukeman3000]

Quote:

I would get the DX, as it's PCI-E, it's more future proof.

Ok, great.
 
The ONLY thing that I dislike about the Xonar is that I'm not sure where I would be at in terms of EAX effects.
 
I still play games like F.E.A.R. that use EAX (without OpenAL support), so having the Creative Titanium X-Fi is nice because it is able to faithfully reproduce those EAX effects. And I must say, it greatly enhances the game.
 
That said, will I pretty much have to give up EAX effects if I move to a Xonar? I have heard that Xonar has GX2, but it only emulates EAX, so I'm not sure how well it might perform.
 
Perhaps the mixamp is causing my distortion and I should look for a different DH encoder..

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Ok, great.
 
The ONLY thing that I dislike about the Xonar is that I'm not sure where I would be at in terms of EAX effects.
 
I still play games like F.E.A.R. that use EAX (without OpenAL support), so having the Creative Titanium X-Fi is nice because it is able to faithfully reproduce those EAX effects. And I must say, it greatly enhances the game.
 
That said, will I pretty much have to give up EAX effects if I move to a Xonar? I have heard that Xonar has GX2, but it only emulates EAX, so I'm not sure how well it might perform.
 
Perhaps the mixamp is causing my distortion and I should look for a different DH encoder..

 
Asus soundcards have software OpenAL and EAX up to version 2, while your X-Fi Titanium has hardware OpenAL and EAX up to version 5, as well as X-Fi specific DSP effects that improve positional cue accuracy, height and depth perception, and those aren't available on any hardware other than Creative. Any games that have higher quality audio running on OpenAL and/or EAX versions higher than version 2 will either have buggy or lower quality audio (read, stock audio).
 
EDIT: Newer revisions to Asus' GX feature are mainly about fixing compatibility issues that plagued initial versions.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Ok, great.
 
The ONLY thing that I dislike about the Xonar is that I'm not sure where I would be at in terms of EAX effects.
 
I still play games like F.E.A.R. that use EAX (without OpenAL support), so having the Creative Titanium X-Fi is nice because it is able to faithfully reproduce those EAX effects. And I must say, it greatly enhances the game.
 
That said, will I pretty much have to give up EAX effects if I move to a Xonar? I have heard that Xonar has GX2, but it only emulates EAX, so I'm not sure how well it might perform.
 
Perhaps the mix-amp is causing my distortion and I should look for a different DH encoder..

Is that the Titanium HD or older Titanium (reguler) sound card
From what I heard, Asus's GX is kind of iffy, not that great for imitating EAX 5.0, much better just to use Creative's for EAX 5.0.
If your motherboard has an optical output? and has DDL? you can plug the Mix-amp. into the motherboard's optical output.
What make and model motherboard do you have?

 

[gamerk2]

Well, I can attest that GX is kind of hit or miss on a game by game basis.  Remember that ASUS emulates EAX 5 effects through their driver now when GX is enabled.  The emulated EAX 5 is nice, but I know some games hate having it set (Mass Effect comes to mind).  Can't comment on F.E.A.R personally.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Well, I can attest that GX is kind of hit or miss on a game by game basis.  Remember that ASUS emulates EAX 5 effects through their driver now when GX is enabled.  The emulated EAX 5 is nice, but I know some games hate having it set (Mass Effect comes to mind).  Can't comment on F.E.A.R personally.

I'm buying up brand new copyies of Mass Effect 1, 2 ,3 and try it with my old Titanium (non-HD), do the Daniel K. drivers (version 2.5) work better then Creative own drivers?
Do you know if you install all 3 Mass effect games at the same time, does the Mass Effect 3 over write and update Mass Effects 1 & 2 gaming engine?

 

[Roller]

My insight on Daniel K drivers is mainly about restoring features, but that predates the headhunting business that happened in 2009. Current Creative modded driver availability refers to different software features, different stock signature or OS compatibility. Overall, trying the stock drivers first is a good way of going at it.
 
Newer Mass Effect games don't replace audio renderer features of previous games, and that's a great thing as the newer Mass Effect games have worse audio.
 
About Asus GX feature, it only emulates voice count, not EAX 5 (nor EAX 3 or 4, for that matter) that includes several features that are exclusive to hardware X-Fi chips.