ghostshade
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2012
- Posts
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Hello Head-Fi i needs some help from you regarding choosing a sound card for my new computer that i will built later in 2013.
Right now i have a X-Fi extreme fatality gamer PCI soundcard but since im going to switch to a socket 2011 motherboard without a PCI slot i have to change my sound card. Onboard sound is not an option.
I have had problems with creative drivers in the past but supposely this has been more or less fixed now since win 7. So i guess i could still go with Creative if the drivers work nowadays.
but i have also heard alot of good things about Asus Xonar cards so that is why i ask for your input.
Right now the cards i have looked at the most is:
Creative SoundBlaster X-fi Titanium HD since the reviews i have read about the Recon3D Pro is not that stellar and the new Sound Blaster Z does not seems like that much of a upgrade from the Titanium HD.
from the Asus camp i have looked at:
Asus Xonar Essence STX (PCI-E) which seems like a very very good card
ASUS ROG Xonar Phoebus heard mixed reviews about this card.. also could not find any mention of dolby headphone in any reviews about it but in the manual is does say it has dolby headphone.
I will use the card for gaming at around 80% music at 10% and movies at 10%. Since i live in a small 40 square meter apartment with the living room being around 20 square meter and the fact that i will be having the computer in a corner i will most likely have trouble to set up a 5.1 or 7.1 surround speaker set for listening to music and movies. Please tell me if im wrong regarding this.
So based on that fact im looking at using a headset or headphones for all my audio needs.
So far im looking at the Sennheiser PC 360 headset.
Will that headset work well with any of these cards?
im using a steelseries 5H V2 right now so not the best set in the world. when im listening to music i use Sony MDR-XB700
Another question will be sennheiser PC 360 work well with positioning in games? becasue that is important for me
As far as i can tell the sennheiser headset should be able to use virtual surround from either CMSS 3D or Dolby headphone
for older games i have heard that CMSS 3D is superior but with the reconstruction of the audio stack in Vista are the two technologies on par with each other nowadays?
How does Asus software emulation of EAX 5.0 compare to the creative Titanium HD and its hardware Eax 5.0?
As far as i have understood it Asus use the GX 3.0 game audio engine to simulate EAX.
I dont play many old games and those i do play are mostly point and click and rpgs not fps in that regard is EAX support an essential tech if you are mostly playing newer games or can it be disregarded since very few games today even use EAX?
I am thankful for any feedback
Right now i have a X-Fi extreme fatality gamer PCI soundcard but since im going to switch to a socket 2011 motherboard without a PCI slot i have to change my sound card. Onboard sound is not an option.
I have had problems with creative drivers in the past but supposely this has been more or less fixed now since win 7. So i guess i could still go with Creative if the drivers work nowadays.
but i have also heard alot of good things about Asus Xonar cards so that is why i ask for your input.
Right now the cards i have looked at the most is:
Creative SoundBlaster X-fi Titanium HD since the reviews i have read about the Recon3D Pro is not that stellar and the new Sound Blaster Z does not seems like that much of a upgrade from the Titanium HD.
from the Asus camp i have looked at:
Asus Xonar Essence STX (PCI-E) which seems like a very very good card
ASUS ROG Xonar Phoebus heard mixed reviews about this card.. also could not find any mention of dolby headphone in any reviews about it but in the manual is does say it has dolby headphone.
I will use the card for gaming at around 80% music at 10% and movies at 10%. Since i live in a small 40 square meter apartment with the living room being around 20 square meter and the fact that i will be having the computer in a corner i will most likely have trouble to set up a 5.1 or 7.1 surround speaker set for listening to music and movies. Please tell me if im wrong regarding this.
So based on that fact im looking at using a headset or headphones for all my audio needs.
So far im looking at the Sennheiser PC 360 headset.
Will that headset work well with any of these cards?
im using a steelseries 5H V2 right now so not the best set in the world. when im listening to music i use Sony MDR-XB700
Another question will be sennheiser PC 360 work well with positioning in games? becasue that is important for me
As far as i can tell the sennheiser headset should be able to use virtual surround from either CMSS 3D or Dolby headphone
for older games i have heard that CMSS 3D is superior but with the reconstruction of the audio stack in Vista are the two technologies on par with each other nowadays?
How does Asus software emulation of EAX 5.0 compare to the creative Titanium HD and its hardware Eax 5.0?
As far as i have understood it Asus use the GX 3.0 game audio engine to simulate EAX.
I dont play many old games and those i do play are mostly point and click and rpgs not fps in that regard is EAX support an essential tech if you are mostly playing newer games or can it be disregarded since very few games today even use EAX?
I am thankful for any feedback