[crutex]

I'm looking for a sound card under $100.
These are my 2/3 cards that I have narrowed down to. What do you recommend for listening with this setup
sound card -> z2300 headphone jack (going through its amp) -> ad700
or
sound card -> ad700
This is for music listening mostly. Do you have any other sc recommendation? Thanks for your input

 

[Behemot]

Any particular reason to use the z2300 headphone jack? I doubt it would be better from the jack on a card. Or is it just for volume control? You can configure the roll on the mouse to do that and use the card's jack...

As for the source - out of these 3 cards the X-Fi xtreme gamer is the best choice: drivers are solid, the card has pockets of features and decent, clean output. But even if you turn all betterizers off it sounds good. The beauty of X-Fi is its versatility - you can get a lot more from compressed audio files compared to any other source. But it also delivers with flac and wav files and bitperfect playback. Both X-Fi audio and xonar D1 are cut-down versions that lack quality components for analog playback. (However you can pick any of these two and couple it with a DAC/head phone amp combo such as a headroom amp. That will stretch your budget tough.)

 

[obobskivich]

x2 to behemot's suggestions (question is: why would you want the mouse wheel on volume control (I use it too much with browsing/etc, I'd blast my head off with volume up at some point

))

one thing I'd suggest: have you considered upping your budget ~$50 and grabbing the X-Fi Forte from Auzen? you get a built-in headphone amp, all of the X-Fi features, better quality analog output for your speakers and headphones, and Auzen's drivers (which means free DDL

, vs paying another ~$4 down the road (which isn't a bad thing, especially if you're never gonna use DDL, but its still worth nothing))

 

[Kobra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Behemot /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...out of these 3 cards the X-Fi xtreme gamer is the best choice: drivers are solid

I'd say go with the Asus card, if your budget allows it (and if gaming isn't your main priority) then consider the Asus Xonar Essence STX as it's considered to be one of the best cards for audio output (it also sports a dedicated on board headphone amp).

If the X-Fi is famous, it's most certainly for its bad driver implementation (don't even consider using 64-bit windows with X-Fi - you'll be in BSOD and driver hell before you can say Creative!). Do a google search -you'll find tons of info about ppl running in to all sorts of nasty errors because of the Creative way of making windows drivers...

As for audio output, the X-Fi adds all sorts of DSP to alter the sound, some is possible to suppress in the driver settings, but some are HW implemented. Not a good card if you ask me. I've had several different types of X-Fi and earlier Creative cards, swapped to the Xonar as soon as the first version was launched some time back - I will never go back to Creative.

 

[euphoracle]

I have had so many headaches with my X-Fi, I can't recommend it to anyone. My next card will probably be a Xonar...

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kobra /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd say go with the Asus card, if your budget allows it (and if gaming isn't your main priority) then consider the Asus Xonar Essence STX as it's considered to be one of the best cards for audio output (it also sports a dedicated on board headphone amp). If the X-Fi is famous, it's most certainly for its bad driver implementation (don't even consider using 64-bit windows with X-Fi - you'll be in BSOD and driver hell before you can say Creative!). Do a google search -you'll find tons of info about ppl running in to all sorts of nasty errors because of the Creative way of making windows drivers... As for audio output, the X-Fi adds all sorts of DSP to alter the sound, some is possible to suppress in the driver settings, but some are HW implemented. Not a good card if you ask me. I've had several different types of X-Fi and earlier Creative cards, swapped to the Xonar as soon as the first version was launched some time back - I will never go back to Creative.

I've never had any of the issues you report, nor has anyone I know/trust, so lets dial the hysteria down

Xonar and X-Fi both have a lot of DSP crap which can all be disabled (the claim that X-Fi "always does things" to sound is an out and out lie, and I'm calling you on it)

and then on top of this, yeah, suggesting the guy a >$200 US soundcard is totally appropriate for his budget

I would hope we could leave our religious convictions are the door, and actually be helping people along their way, apparently thats too much to ask for, because of course, we're talking about "serious audiophile facts"

 

[ROBSCIX]

Many soundcards and other hardware had a great deal of trouble when Vista was first released however, most of the issues have been patched and fixed.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif Many soundcards and other hardware had a great deal of trouble when Vista was first released however, most of the issues have been patched and fixed.

and this is why I can't suggest Windows Vista for any purpose to any user, because 3rd party developers can only "hack" so far to get their equipment working, if the initial developer is unwilling to accomidate, thats their issue

 

[Kobra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've never had any of the issues you report, nor has anyone I know/trust

Look at this and judge for yourself.

Quote:

...so lets dial the hysteria down

I'm not hysteric, are you?

If you were in some way offended by my post, then you need to dial down. I was only expressing my own personal experiences from both the X-Fi and the Xonar. No need to start a heated discussion out of it.

Quote:

Xonar and X-Fi both have a lot of DSP crap which can all be disabled (the claim that X-Fi "always does things" to sound is an out and out lie, and I'm calling you on it)

You might be right on this, but at the time when I had the X-Fi it only worked on my 64-bit platform with Alchemy and Creative drivers, I found no way to fully bypass the DSP as I can with the Asus drivers (High Fidelity output). I also suffered from constant BSOD with the Alchemy/Creative drivers (I've been a professional technician and IT-consultant for years so I'm not a noob)

Quote:

...and then on top of this, yeah, suggesting the guy a >$200 US soundcard is totally appropriate for his budget

Again, dial down. Then take a look at the base Xonar card, named Asus Xonar DX. If you read my previous post once more, you'll see that I said if your budget allows, perhaps I could have been a bit more clearer on this one... (but we all need some gear to strive for, isn't that what this forum is all about

)

Quote:

I would hope we could leave our religious convictions are the door

You said it the best yourself...

...because I'm a non religious type of guy

 

[iriverdude]

You should know by now, if obobskivich does not have a problem with Creative soundcards, no-one does. :-/ I'm not so blind, I know perfectly well the X-Fi's have numerous problems over the years- 4GB Vista bug, BSOD's, disappearing X-Fi's in device manager, crackling & distortion. Also Creative's brilliant customer relations debable with Vista's drivers disabling half of the features. Had the disappearing bug myself.

 

[obobskivich]

personal attacks, how quaint and professional of you

before I flag up ignore (for all of 17 posts *yawn*)

-> oh wow, you can provide a google link which proves nothing substantial or academic, does not prove that any of those issues were not resolved, and some of those don't even relate to problems, for example:
"Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit Beta Build 5231 * Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio devices. Notes: * To install the driver, do the following .." <- wow, that so proves your point

its already been pointed out that Vista x64 has issues with hardware, this does include Asus, so claiming that ALL X-Fi products will always create BSODs and instability, and that Creative has a rep for "bad drivers" (which is apparently based on "just google for ppl", and the majority of your results are returning nothing but "here's the x64 driver" or "should I buy this?"), simply because Vista x64 is a flaming pile of you know what

but I know, I'm wrong because I questioned your absolutist logic which was based on a single confined personal experience which can be explained quite logically (as to why you had trouble), because we all know that a subjective, feel-good approach is ideal, I really was hoping you'd be mature enough to (as you love to say) dial it down a bit, and maybe accept that your experiences aren't indicative of "all" users' experiences (and who cares WHAT your credentials are, unless you're deploying X-Fi in a commerical envrionment or doing upper tier technical support for the part, you've got no professional bearing with the implementation, not to mention that its still a single experience, not a collective sum of "all users")

and like I said, welcome to the ignore list

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should know by now, if obobskivich does not have a problem with Creative soundcards, no-one does. :-/ I'm not so blind, I know perfectly well the X-Fi's have numerous problems over the years- 4GB Vista bug, BSOD's, disappearing X-Fi's in device manager, crackling & distortion. Also Creative's brilliant customer relations debable with Vista's drivers disabling half of the features. Had the disappearing bug myself.

and you should by now, the majority of your issues are Vista, not X-Fi, and continuing to post all this drib about how your X-Fi "is a piece of crap and Creative is evil" would be a lot more meaningful if you had actually gotten rid of your X-Fi, and transitioned to another device, instead of "keeping it over the years" (it can't be all that bad, if all-go no-stop iriverdude has kept it for a few years)

 

[iriverdude]

Likewise are you "unless you're deploying X-Fi in a commerical envrionment or doing upper tier technical support for the part, you've got no professional bearing with the implementation, not to mention that its still a single experience, not a collective sum of "all users"

No I don't think so. So just because you've had no problems (as have I except a minor one) doesn't mean the major bugs such as screeching and constant BSOD's as soon as the X-Fi is plugged in, doesn't exist.

And again he was not insulting you, why do you take people with opposing views as personal insults?

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Likewise are you "unless you're deploying X-Fi in a commerical envrionment or doing upper tier technical support for the part, you've got no professional bearing with the implementation, not to mention that its still a single experience, not a collective sum of "all users" No I don't think so. So just because you've had no problems (as have I except a minor one) doesn't mean the major bugs such as screeching and constant BSOD's as soon as the X-Fi is plugged in, doesn't exist. And again he was not insulting you, why do you take people with opposing views as personal insults?

no, I don't commerically deploy the X-Fi, but I also don't use my engineering degree or IT credentials to bolster a point in either direction for it (I don't say "this is better than that, and I've got an engineering degree, so I know!")

but sure, lets keep arguing, because you've always gotta be right, which means that Vista comes out of the box and works 100% FLAWLESS with ALL hardware and ALL software from ALL 3rd party vendors, regardless of age, implementation, system requirements, etc

because Vista is THAT good

 

[iriverdude]

The disappearing X-Fi was under Windows XP. I have not used Vista 64 long enough to determine how the X-Fi performs under it. A few people with the same motherboard as me have had BSOD and screeching. Seems most common on Nvidia based boards, and some Intel boards.

My Soundblaster Live, on another system suffered from screeching also.

You should have seen the size of the thread on Creative forums, it was hundreds of pages long. I'm suprised they didn't delete it.

 

[obobskivich]

so now we've moved the issue from being Vista x64 specific to related to your mainboard's stability, which may indicate a hardware issue (you could sell me on that, honestly), or a driver issue (a conflict between the Creative software and whatever mainboard drivers you have (you could also sell me on that, honestly)), either way, the issue is real, but it doesn't seem to be "all users" or "all users affected" (just as Creative/Auzen report conflicts with DDL and nVidia SLI, thats a small fraction of users in a very specific usage scenario, its real, but it isn't widespread enough to worry over)

and I know, you're thinking "but what, you just said theres no issues", no, I said that the issues are not affecting "everyone", nothing is "flawlessly compatable" (unless you buy a mac, and use only mac hardware, and mac software, or a similar solution from Sun, and you're paying the premium for that compatability/stability/brand image), and why jump the gun and flame a product into the dirt because a few users have trouble with it? (if the guy buys it, and it doesn't work for him, then you can say "I told you so", but speculating endlessly on "no you, no you, I'm right, you're wrong, I'm so right, I'm SO right, and it will always fail, you're just a rabid fanboy, I'm RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT" gets nowhere)


I'd like to know what "screeching" is about though (never heard of that issue, is it similar to the hardware failure on early era SB Live boards? (the hiss/click/pop/hum which was usually bad caps))