[preferedu]

only difference between the Xonar DG and DGX  electrically  is the PCI  bridge chip and of course the connection .
it was cheaper to do  that than desighn a whole new pcie card . Sound cards in that price range are an endangered species 
with on board solutions getting better.  

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

Thanks.  I am on the fence.  I am considering purchasing either the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (80 ohm) or the new Beyerdynamic Custom One (16 ohm).  The new Beyers would not even require a headphone amp, and I know the DT770 will need one, but the 80 ohm model should be fine with even the DGX amp.  
 
As most of my music is in MP3 format (from Amazon) I doubt they have many encoded at 192 Khz.  I predominately will use the card for gaming over music.  So I am really curious if the Essence or TiHD offer any advantages in virtualization.  I understand EAX is emulated in Windows 7, so not sure if the TiHD offers any advantage there?  

 
It still does, for the games that use it. Let me clarify a few things:
 
-The new Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 sound stack removed DirectSound3D support. Most older games that used EAX did so through DS3D. It is NOT emulated in any way; your DS3D games are reduced to stereo, maybe even mono, with no reverb/chorus/occlusion/etc. effects.
-OpenAL remains unaffected. This is why ALchemy, DS3DGX, 3DSoundBack, etc. can even work in the first place: they wrap the old DS3D calls to OAL, thus restoring hardware sound acceleration and EAX. Obviously, you don't need to use it on games that are OpenAL-native to begin with (Battlefield 2 being a great example).
-Only the X-Fi DSP handles EAX 3/4/5 natively due to Creative refusing to license them out like they did with EAX 1/2.
-Asus claims to emulate the higher versions with DS3DGX, but I remain unsure how well it holds up to the real deal in terms of compatibility and quality.
-For that matter, Creative's own software OpenAL renderer that claims to support up to EAX 5, used with the X-Fi MB(2) software packages, USB "X-Fi" devices, Recon3D cards, and probably their upcoming Z-series cards too, has issues that even the hardware X-Fi OpenAL renderer doesn't. Not just EAX 5, but even basic EAX 1/2-era games.
-EAX aside, the way DirectSound3D and OpenAL work allows CMSS-3D Headphone to create a proper 3D binaural mix. Dolby Headphone is incapable of leveraging this extra positional data, instead downmixing it to 5.1/7.1 before it does its work. Needless to say, this gives CMSS-3D Headphone a substantial imaging advantage. Kind of like having an aural wallhack, as I say all the time.
 
For gaming, I'd still advise going with the X-Fi Titanium HD, if you can afford it...unless you really want that FiiO E9-class amp on the Essence STX and you only play games that use XAudio2 + X3DAudio and FMOD Ex (for which the X-Fi DSP brings no benefit because it's not being used by the game engine).

 

[Newt182]

Quote:

Check Asus's Phoebus website, nothing on auto sensing for the Phoebus.

 

Late reply but I'm posting because I have just got my Phoebus. I didn't reply before as I wasn't sure where I had read that the card has auto-sensing. Anyway, got my card and I can confirm that when you plug in headphones audio is automatically switched from the speakers to the headphones, and when unplugged audio is switched back to the speakers. You can manually select the output in the control panel too.

 

[jasonf]

cool, thanks for that - didn't know about those drivers

 

[Ptruslow]

yeah, he is correct, the only difference is one little PLX chip on the board, nothing else changes between the DG and DGX

 

[tan1415]

  I would recommend not using 16-Ohm headphones (Beyer Custom One) plugged directly into sound cards, sound cards have a high impedance (at the headphone jack).
So you would need to get an add-on external headphone amplifier with a low impedance, like the O2 (Objective 2) headphone amplifier, new $155.
The DT770 Pro 80-Ohm would be better for plugging straight to the Essence or TiHD (or DGX).
 
I'm far from an EAX expert, But I'm fairly sure Windows 7 does not emulate EAX, in any way.

Hi,
 
What do you mean? Will it damge the headphone?
 
Another question...my pc has a front jack. Will thesound card be able to power it thru the frpont jacks?
 
How is the onboard amp?
The DS has wolfson dac ,w hile the DGX has a cirrus logic  one

 

[romeozdistress]

  Hi,
 
What do you mean? Will it damge the headphone?
 
Another question...my pc has a front jack. Will thesound card be able to power it thru the frpont jacks?
 
How is the onboard amp?
The DS has wolfson dac ,w hile the DGX has a cirrus logic  one

you just have to plug the jack cable into the soundcard itself and you can use your front jack. i always have to use the xonar audio center to switch it though. it makes a huge difference over onboard not sure if there is actually a huge difference between this and say $100 card for playing music.

 

[BigTerminator]

There is a HUGE difference. I went from onbaord to a Xonar Essence ST and it made my Logitech Z3's shine like no other. Then when I got proper studio monitors my listening experience jumped incredibly. Invest once and the card will last forever as a great sounding card. 

 

[368986]

  you just have to plug the jack cable into the soundcard itself and you can use your front jack. i always have to use the xonar audio center to switch it though. it makes a huge difference over onboard not sure if there is actually a huge difference between this and say $100 card for playing music.

You should be careful using your front jack. Unless you have a higher end case most of the connection cables to the front jack are pretty lousy.

 

[kraken2109]

  You should be careful using your front jack. Unless you have a higher end case most of the connection cables to the front jack are pretty lousy.

Agreed, I have the Xonar DG and Antec 900 case and both headphone and mic front panel are noisy.

 

[evolucian911]

Late Reply but i still own thte dgx and its great for the price. thinking of upgrading but not sure if i should get the creative xfi titanum..( long ago i owned a platinum i thik the first one) or the stx.. even better if i can get something cheaper than stx but better than dgx with headphone amp. most of the cards i see im still unsure if they "realy" have built in amps. my old jvc dx3 sounds hungry on the dgx.