[Chronos]

Are there any PCI-Express options similar to the Asus DG or any other great budget options for PCI-E?  Does the Asus DX have the amp component too?

 

[NamelessPFG]

 
Quote:

Could you not wrap the front panel cable in aluminium foil?
 
The Audio processor on the Recon3D (SB1350) appears to be close to the same as the previous Creative Labs audio processor, but now has the DAC and ADC built into the audio processor.
The audio specs on the Recon3D (SB1350) are not as good as other (more expensive) sound cards, but the price is only $100.
People will always say they want quality, but usually end up buying for the lower price.

If only it were that simple...it's said that part of the reason these front-panel audio headers work like crap is a shared ground with the USB headers on most cases. I haven't bothered with unplugging the USB and FireWire headers to find out, though, given that I still don't have much use for the front-panel audio jacks.
 
As for the Sound Core3D...details say that it has the same Quartet DSP section as the X-Fi EMU20k1/EMU20k2 we're all familiar with, though the rest of it is still largely unknown save for the integrated DACs and ADCs. One bit of weirdness, though, is that it's stated to have only 64 hardware voices, whereas the X-Fi can handle 128 simultaneous hardware voices.
 
If I had one of the Recon3D cards to test with, I'd certainly attempt to verify EAX functionality and hardware sound acceleration in general for DirectSound3D and OpenAL, but I'm not willing to drop $100 to find out.
 
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Are there any PCI-Express options similar to the Asus DG or any other great budget options for PCI-E?  Does the Asus DX have the amp component too?

Can't think of any, sorry. The good PCIe cards seem to start around $60, and used at that. That's already twice the price of a Xonar DG...

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Are there any PCI-Express options similar to the Asus DG or any other great budget options for PCI-E?  Does the Asus DX have the amp component too?

The Xonar DX does not come with a dedicated headphone amplifier, but it does a decent job of powering headphones, anything in the 25-Ohm to 80-Ohm range is fine.
 
 

 

[Shub-Niggurath]

I just purchased the Titanium HD. Tired of waiting for a review of the Recon3D, plus the Titanium HD seems like the better card anyway

Now I'm excited!

 

[lollerskates]

  Basically I have an Auzentech X-Fi Forte that's crapping out. It's doing the helicopter sound which those of you familiar with the card may have heard of (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m9p7KQFzTA for an example). It's out of warranty so I need to pay Auzentech to fix it. I'm not sure I feel like doing that because if it happens again later on, I'll have to go through the whole process all over again. I'm pretty pissed off and disappointed because the X-Fi Forte is pretty much the perfect card for me.

 
For anyone coming into this thread from google, I fixed my X-Fi Forte helicopter sound by uninstalling the drivers, re-seating the card in a different PCI-e slot, and then re-installing the drivers. It was nothing physically wrong with my card -- I guess it just had a bad mobo connection.

 

[keane1024]

Based on your requirements, I think creative is a pretty good option to consider. Although, I think asus xonar is also not bad.