[constipationnow]

 
Hi!
 
I'm going to buy a new soundcard. Which one would be the best for this setup:
 
Setup:
- VIA VT1818 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC (Onboard M4A87TD/USB3)
- Sony MDR XB500
 
Buy-Options:
Asus Xonar Dg
Asus Xonar DX
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Or any other within the pricerange ~75$
 
Purpose:
- Soundquality. More clarity for mids and highs and general boost. Want it to sound "better", want to notice a difference between onboard and this new one.
- Investment for future speakers, midclass maybe logitech z-906
- Investment for future headphones
- Music (dubstep/hiphop)
 
 
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Asus Xonar DG, it's the only one that comes with a dedicated headphone amplifier, rated up to 150-Ohms.
The DG is half the price of the other two cards.
The DG comes with opticcal digital output.

 

[constipationnow]

Quote:

Asus Xonar DG, it's the only one that comes with a dedicated headphone amplifier, rated up to 150-Ohms.
The DG is half the price of the other two cards.
The DG comes with opticcal digital output.

 
what difference between DG and DX/D1 would you notice if you compared those?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

What difference between DG and DX/D1 would you notice if you compared those?

The DX/D1 are rated for full Blu-ray audio
The DG is half way between DVD & Blu-ray for audio.
The DG, DX, D1 power headphones about the same.
The DX/D1 can do analog speaker 7.1, the DG analog speaker 5.1
The DX/D1 use the CMI8788 audio processor, the DG uses the CMI8786.
The DG & D1 are PCI, the DX is PCI-Express
They all come with Dolby Digital (Dolby Headphone surround sound).
 
 
 

 

[constipationnow]

Quote:

The DX/D1 are rated for full Blu-ray audio
The DG is half way between DVD & Blu-ray for audio.
The DG, DX, D1 power headphones about the same.
The DX/D1 can do analog speaker 7.1, the DG analog speaker 5.1
The DX/D1 use the CMI8788 audio processor, the DG uses the CMI8786.
The DG & D1 are PCI, the DX is PCI-Express
They all come with Dolby Digital (Dolby Headphone surround sound).
 
 
 

 
sorry i wasnt clear enough. i meant difference in soundquality
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Sorry i wasn't clear enough. i meant difference in sound quality.

Sound quality with headphones, I'm going to guess all three Xonars are very equal.
And if you get the Logitech Z-906 and I'm guessing you going to use the digital optical connection.
there would be no difference in sound quality for the speaker sound.
 
 

 

[NamelessPFG]

Unless you play games that use DirectSound3D or OpenAL (in which X-Fi-based cards have a massive edge), save yourself some money and get the Xonar DG.

 

[constipationnow]

if DG is equal to DX/titanium/D1 in soundquality, i'd save some money like NamelessPFG said by buying DG.

 

[GeneralSmirnoff]

I love my Xonar DG. Battlefield 3 sounds amazing with the virtual 7.1 audio and I think that it has a pretty decent onboard amplifier. Sound quality wise, I recall reading almost everywhere that there's not much difference in sound quality between the 3. The Titanium has some software that would give you more options in some (Mostly older) games and that software is also emulated on the Xonar's pretty well. Thats about it.
 
When choosing a sound card I needed one that was going to use a PCIe slot but reading as how the DG and DX had almost identical SQ I said screw it, saved a few bucks, moved my GPU down a few slots, and slapped in my DG! Even with speakers (2 Philips bookshelves) the sound quality improvement is very noticeable. Explosions now have bass that I never knew existed. Rockets flying by feet away from you give me goosebumps and I have a better mental visualization of there sounds are coming from.

 

[constipationnow]

Quote:

I love my Xonar DG. Battlefield 3 sounds amazing with the virtual 7.1 audio and I think that it has a pretty decent onboard amplifier. Sound quality wise, I recall reading almost everywhere that there's not much difference in sound quality between the 3. The Titanium has some software that would give you more options in some (Mostly older) games and that software is also emulated on the Xonar's pretty well. Thats about it.
 
When choosing a sound card I needed one that was going to use a PCIe slot but reading as how the DG and DX had almost identical SQ I said screw it, saved a few bucks, moved my GPU down a few slots, and slapped in my DG! Even with speakers (2 Philips bookshelves) the sound quality improvement is very noticeable. Explosions now have bass that I never knew existed. Rockets flying by feet away from you give me goosebumps and I have a better mental visualization of there sounds are coming from.

nice, thats exactly what i want to hear read some more reviews on newegg and other professional site reviews, seems good enough, ill buy this next weekend

 

[constipationnow]

 
 
 
 
Guys Btw as u can see above there are different modes for the impediance on the ASUS Xonar DG. on the website for my Sony XB500 it says the impediance is 40 ohms. this means i can only go for pro-gaming mode that ranges between 32~64 ohms right?
 http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665774410#specifications

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 
 
 
 
Guys Btw as u can see above there are different modes for the impediance on the ASUS Xonar DG. on the website for my Sony XB500 it says the impediance is 40 ohms. this means i can only go for pro-gaming mode that ranges between 32~64 ohms right?
 http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665774410#specifications

I believe these is some leeway on the gain setting, I think you can set it for whatever sounds good to you.
But the 32~64 mode is were the XB500 would normally be set to.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[nsdjoe]

Do these Xonar cards have a way in software to mute the headphone output?  I'll be alternately running headphones and the line-out jack to a speaker amplifier, and I'd hate to have to keep reaching behind the computer to plug/unplug the headphones.

 

[Gilly]

With the DG, if you used the optical output to run a DAC then an amplifier, would you get any of the surround DSP effects like you would the X-Fi Titanium? I am currently in the same boat as the OP, I have HD595's though, and would like a solution that I can upgrade to later, which would be a DAC/ Amp (Fiio E17 maybe???).
 
Many thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

With the DG, if you used the optical output to run a DAC then an amplifier, would you get any of the surround DSP effects like you would the X-Fi Titanium? I am currently in the same boat as the OP, I have HD595's though, and would like a solution that I can upgrade to later, which would be a DAC/ Amp (Fiio E17 maybe???).

As far as I know, using the optical output on the DG bypass the DG's audio processing.