yeah the D2X will take the 360's S/PDIF input and pass it out via RCA (it can be a D/A)
if you're going to do digital passthrough, that should work just fine as well, just make sure you enable things proper in the card (you'll prolly have to unmute some stuff, and the computer has to be on for the Xbox360 to get sound, aside from those two little bits, its no problem (my system is always on, so that doesn't bug me, but I know for some people, they shut the machine off))
as far as the digs against X-Fi, yeah, we had this debate in another thread, the general consenous is, head-fi hates Creative too much to see past its own nose, Vista x64 driver support sucks for basically everyone, and Creative has done what it can
now, the HT Omega Claro series is nothing special at all for gaming, and here's why:
its based on the CMI8788 which = Auzen X-Meridian, bgears benspirer (don't you feel jolly having just spent $160 on something that you could've gotten for $90?), and a few other boards
CMI8788 supports EAX 2.0 max, and its slow when running that
don't believe me?
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 review
but unlike Asus (who based their AV200 off of the CMI8788), HT Omega doesn't have any modification to the chip or firmware/drivers, meaning there is no EAX 5.0 emulation support, and all of that jazz
as far as "only get the D2X if you're gaming", did anyone read his first post? or are we in the business of just ignoring everything the first post says, and just screaming "buy this i haz it"?
honestly, I'd get the D2X, it does everything you need it to, its got awesome quality, and it probably has the best (current) Vista support
NOW
as far as the PCIe vs PCI debate, there is no debate, because PCIe provides ZERO ADVANTAGES over PCI for current solutions (I know, I've had this debate to, only idiots will argue the whole "PCIe has more bandwidth")
lets see if I can just explain this away before some "genius" comes and tries to explain why PCIe cards will be faster:
ALL CURRENT CONSUMER AUDIO CHIPSETS (except X-Fi Titanium (EMU20k2)) ARE PCI BASED
which means your Xonar D2X and Xonar D2, use the exact same PCI based AV200 (CMI8788) processor, theres just a little bridging chip from TI or Intel or whomever that sits between the processor and the interface, this bridge chip connects to PCIe x1 or x4 at full bandwidth, and provides PCI output (meaning full bandwidth, of PCI, not PCIe), meaning that there is no performance gain (now, quality is another story, because a lot of people do note the D2X as the better sounding part, due to minor hardware revisions and minor firmware changes, as well as better drivers, whether or not this ever translates to the D2, who knows (it has gotten driver updates, thats for sure, including EAX 5.0 support, but they can't really revise hardware retroactively (at least not change hardware bought in the past, who knows if they updated the ones on shelves now))
NOW as far as the EMU20k2 goes, afaik its just a bridged PCI processor (since EMU20k1 is a PCI processor), so it also derives no benefit from PCIe, other than being able to use a PCIe slot
so please, can we not have some "genius" jump in and scream "no but if you get a PCIe card today, you'll be able to play 7.1 video games with 24/192khz audio and no lag because PCIe has BANNNNNNDWIDTH", no, you won't, because even if the processor is native (or "native") PCIe, nothing on the market can handle that much throughput (read, consumer market, the DSP systems from professional companies like SSL and Avid can do it, but they don't support OpenAL or DirectSound, you'd actually have to assign each channel to a mix bus and all of that joy (because those are pro interfaces))
I'd go with the D2X, in short, because it'll probably give you less trouble in Vista (otherwise I'd go with the X-Fi Prelude or X-Fi Elite Pro), and if the S/PDIF thing gives you some confusion, you know where head-fi is, lol
