[jason761]

I am planning to buy a USB amp for my headphones. I usually listen to music and play games. Are there any USB amps that are good for music and gaming for my headphones? I use a laptop btw. Are the Asus Xonar U3 any good?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I am planning to buy a USB amp for my headphones. I usually listen to music and play games. Are there any USB amps that are good for music and gaming for my headphones? I use a laptop btw. Are the Asus Xonar U3 any good?

I'm sure for the price ($40) your not going to find anything better.

 

[jason761]

I'm sure for the price ($40) your not going to find anything better.

Which one of these USB amps are good for gaming and music?
I'm either gonna buy this
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=58718&vpn=70SB109500002&manufacture=Creative%20Labs&promoid=1404
Or
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=62228&vpn=XONAR%20U3&manufacture=ASUS

 

[jason761]

Anyone?

 

[PurpleAngel]

The Creative might be better for gaming and the Asus better for DVDs with Dolby Digital audio.

 

[jason761]

Quote:

The Creative might be better for gaming and the Asus better for DVDs with Dolby Digital audio.

How is the Creative better for gaming? Are there more features and stuff? If i play music with the Creative does it sound better than the Asus one?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

How is the Creative better for gaming? Are there more features and stuff? If i play music with the Creative does it sound better than the Asus one?

With a low priced Creative external USB sound card, it's hard for me to guess what it really has feature wise
If the Creative USB sound card supports EAX 5.0 and your game has native support for EAX 5.0, then that great.
Usually older games come with native EAX 5.0 support.
Modern games are coming with their own audio gaming engine, so it hard to say if the Creative will have any real advantage, depending on the game.
I'm a Xonar fan myself.
Music wise it's a toss up, Creative or Asus.
Use foobar as a music player, seems to be good.

 

[jason761]

With a low priced Creative external USB sound card, it's hard for me to guess what it really has feature wise
If the Creative USB sound card supports EAX 5.0 and your game has native support for EAX 5.0, then that great.
Usually older games come with native EAX 5.0 support.
Modern games are coming with their own audio gaming engine, so it hard to say if the Creative will have any real advantage, depending on the game.
I'm a Xonar fan myself.
Music wise it's a toss up, Creative or Asus.
Use foobar as a music player, seems to be good.

So how about music, does the Creative and Asus sound the same or different? I also sometimes watch movies too. So which one is more suited for movies?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

So how about music, does the Creative and Asus sound the same or different? I also sometimes watch movies too. So which one is more suited for movies?

As most movies use Dolby Digital and the Xonar comes with Dolby Digital, I'm guessing the Asus is better for movies.