[toosmall]

Hello everyone.
 
I've bought a new rig and ordered a decent pair of cans (Creative Aurvana Live)
now I wanna get a bit more out of it and get a sound card and maybe an amp ( from what i could gather its not really needed for cals)
 
now my main use is games but i also play music and movies.
I need the card to have Dolby digital live and DTS connect since its also gonna be connected to my home theater ( nothing fancy just a 800$ Yamaha receiver + speakers bundle)  
 
now there are so many features i have no idea what to pick
i was looking both at the Asus cards and some creative ones, i found a pretty nice deal on the X-Fi Titanium (not hd) but I've some awful things about it, also couldn't find drivers for it on the creative site witch isn't a good sign.
 
my budget is about 200$ but its not set in stone, if i can get a lot more out of a bit more money I'm ok with spending a tad more also if it possible to spend less it would obviously be better
 
any suggestion will very much appreciated. 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I've bought a new rig and ordered a decent pair of cans (Creative Aurvana Live)
now I wanna get a bit more out of it and get a sound card and maybe an amp ( from what i could gather its not really needed for cals)
now my main use is games but i also play music and movies.
I need the card to have Dolby digital live and DTS connect since its also gonna be connected to my home theater ( nothing fancy just a 800$ Yamaha receiver + speakers bundle)  
now there are so many features i have no idea what to pick
i was looking both at the Asus cards and some creative ones, I found a pretty nice deal on the X-Fi Titanium (not hd) but I've some awful things about it, also couldn't find drivers for it on the creative site witch isn't a good sign.
my budget is about 200$ but its not set in stone, if i can get a lot more out of a bit more money I'm ok with spending a tad more also if it possible to spend less it would obviously be better

The Creative Labs website does have drivers for the Titanium (non-HD), you can get a refurb Titanium for $44.99 from Newegg and it does come with a drivers CD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102043
 
The Titanium does come with DDL, but not DTS-Connect, but I would assume you would do fine with just DDL.
 
The Xonar DX or D1 sound cards ($65-$81) also come with DDL

 

[Gazoozles]

What is a good desktop amp/dac thats a step up from the fiio's? Would you recommend getting a amp/dac first or a sound card?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

What is a good desktop amp/dac thats a step up from the fiio's? Would you recommend getting a amp/dac first or a sound card?

So your looking for something for your PC computer?
I'm biased for the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card.

 

[toosmall]

How is the sound quality on the non HD titanium though?
 
I've read on some other forums that's its quite bad, but it kinda felt like the words of blind fanboysm towards asus cards.
 
also with these headphones would i be better served with an amped card or a card + fiio amp or with these the difference wont big enuogh to notice the amp?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

How is the sound quality on the non HD titanium though?
 
I've read on some other forums that's its quite bad, but it kinda felt like the words of blind fanboysm towards asus cards.
 
also with these headphones would i be better served with an amped card or a card + fiio amp or with these the difference wont big enuogh to notice the amp?

For sound cards, I think it's more important to get the card with the features you want.
The 32-Ohm CALs (Creative Aurvana Live) is fairly easy to drive, so an amplifier is not really needed.

 

[toosmall]

thanks man, you have been really helpful.
gonna get the non HD for now, will save the money left for my water cooling dream.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

The Titanium does come with DDL, but not DTS-Connect, but I would assume you would do fine with just DDL.

 
Creative doesn't do a good job of advertising this (or anything else, for that matter), but all X-Fi cards that have Dolby Digital Live support also have DTS Connect, unless you're running XP, where DTS Connect isn't available for some reason, regardless of what card you use.
 
Even if you have an older PCI X-Fi card that didn't come with either, you can buy a cheap license key to get support for both, and they aren't sold separately.
 
Just figured I'd point that out.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
Creative doesn't do a good job of advertising this (or anything else, for that matter), but all X-Fi cards that have Dolby Digital Live support also have DTS Connect, unless you're running XP, where DTS Connect isn't available for some reason, regardless of what card you use.
 
Even if you have an older PCI X-Fi card that didn't come with either, you can buy a cheap license key to get support for both, and they aren't sold separately.
 
Just figured I'd point that out.

Cool, never would have guessed they came with DTS-Connect.
Just check the Creative website, found the software update for DTS-connect.
 
It weird, the X-Fi Titanium (non-HD) main product page only list as coming with DDL, not DTS-connect
But implies that you need something like PowerDVD (which comes with DTS-Connect) to use DTS-Connect with the Titanium (non-HD).
I'm assuming the original release of Titanium (non-HD) did not come with DTS-connect and Creative just added it with a later driver release?
Could be Creative decided that as lot of Blu-ray movies were using DTS audio, they though it best to add DTS-Connect to their drivers?