New soundcard for my rig
Hi
I have started this new thread since the topic somewhat changed.
As I concluded in my other thread I need a new sound card.
But I think I need som help here.
I have not used a discrete sound card in quite a long time.
I have narrowed my selection to these two contenders.:
Auzentech Xi-Fi Prelude and ASUS Xonar D2
The Auzentech is based on the Creative Xi-Fi chip and the Xonar is using an Asus branded C-Media CS5381.
The specs are very similar and the reviews and tests are usually neck and neck.
It is often hard to pick a winner.
That is the problem.
I am going to use it along with my home theater amplifier using the Optical Out. That means that I want to encode the sound to either DTS or Dolby Digital Live.
But I figure that also means that EAX support doesnt matter much in my case.
The Prelude supports EAX 5.0 and the Xonar 2.0 (I read something about a newer driver supporting EAX 5.0 also, but that is unconfirmed by me)
Does anyone in here have any experience with either card and their drivers?
The Prelude is essentially using Creative drivers and those aren't always the best, to put it mildly.
On the other hand, how is Asus' support for the Xonar?
From past experience I know that they aren't exactly keeping up with the graphic card drivers, they are always 2-3 revisions behind.
The Prelude is the most expensive here in Denmark, but I have found it a lot cheaper in Germany.
Therefore my options are not based on price alone, the two cards will cost roughly the same to me, although the Xonar D2 will probably be just a tad more expensive.
I must admit though that the software bundle and accessories for the Xonar is quite appealing, they have included a lot of nice software and connectors.
The Prelude is more a bare bones solution, you get the card and a drivers cd.
Btw: Why on earth are all my posts so lengthy?
Maybe I should post more often, maybe that will help.
EDIT: A small addition.
I will be using the card for gaming, listening to music and perhaps a bit of music creation using a small midi-keyboard I have stashed somewhere.
The performance regarding movies are not that critical I watch movies using my dvd-player.
I have started this new thread since the topic somewhat changed.
As I concluded in my other thread I need a new sound card.
But I think I need som help here.
I have not used a discrete sound card in quite a long time.
I have narrowed my selection to these two contenders.:
Auzentech Xi-Fi Prelude and ASUS Xonar D2
The Auzentech is based on the Creative Xi-Fi chip and the Xonar is using an Asus branded C-Media CS5381.
The specs are very similar and the reviews and tests are usually neck and neck.
It is often hard to pick a winner.
That is the problem.
I am going to use it along with my home theater amplifier using the Optical Out. That means that I want to encode the sound to either DTS or Dolby Digital Live.
But I figure that also means that EAX support doesnt matter much in my case.
The Prelude supports EAX 5.0 and the Xonar 2.0 (I read something about a newer driver supporting EAX 5.0 also, but that is unconfirmed by me)
Does anyone in here have any experience with either card and their drivers?
The Prelude is essentially using Creative drivers and those aren't always the best, to put it mildly.
On the other hand, how is Asus' support for the Xonar?
From past experience I know that they aren't exactly keeping up with the graphic card drivers, they are always 2-3 revisions behind.
The Prelude is the most expensive here in Denmark, but I have found it a lot cheaper in Germany.
Therefore my options are not based on price alone, the two cards will cost roughly the same to me, although the Xonar D2 will probably be just a tad more expensive.
I must admit though that the software bundle and accessories for the Xonar is quite appealing, they have included a lot of nice software and connectors.
The Prelude is more a bare bones solution, you get the card and a drivers cd.
Btw: Why on earth are all my posts so lengthy?
Maybe I should post more often, maybe that will help.
EDIT: A small addition.
I will be using the card for gaming, listening to music and perhaps a bit of music creation using a small midi-keyboard I have stashed somewhere.
The performance regarding movies are not that critical I watch movies using my dvd-player.
0
Comments
You should only use your computer to decode a bitstream if your home theater receiver doesn't support the relevant format because the result will nearly always be downmixed to stereo on the digital output (standard computer digital bitstream is 48kHz stereo PCM wave). Some cards may offer a feature to upconvert stereo sound to surround sound, but this feature rarely works on the digital output and you wouldn't want this feature anyway because your external amplifier is perfectly capable of performing the task.
If you care about EAX at all you should go with a card with a Creative chipset. They rarely license EAX to anyone and are the only people who support the technology in hardware. Read more about EAX. In my opinion, if you decide to go without you're not missing anything.
Differences in sound card quality are really only noticable if you're using the card's analog outputs. As far as driver quality is concerned, Creative's drivers have always been quirky and it takes them some time to kick out a stable drivers. On the other hand, I haven't had trouble with C-Media drivers in the past. However, I do tend to use a lot of Creative cards but that has more to do with the connectivity options than anything else.
-drasnor
I have read a bunch of reviews and according to most of them the card is top notch.
I was looking at the Prelude also, but not anymore since the drivers appear to be umm... not so good. And they are not updated very often.
Furthermore the Prelude cannot encode DTS in windows xp, rather strange.
The bundle included with the Xonar is also worth mentioning, there is a lot of software etc.
This card will work exactly as well for your setup:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118105
because it is capable of generating the exact same digital bitstreams.
On the plus side, if you ever decide to switch to headphones or go analog from the computer you'll have an alright sound card for the job.
-drasnor
The Xonar is a great choice, MJO.
I have now installed the Xonar D2 but I am not so thrilled.
First of all the sound pops more or less every time a sound starts or stops, I have never experienced this before.
I am using Windows XP SP3 btw.
Previously I have used nvidia Soundstorm and a Soundmax integrated soundcard that was fitted on my previous Abit AN9 32X Fata1ity.
Both these card were able to encode Dolby Digital Live and I was not experiencing any pops, hissing or any other problems.
How come that it is different using the Xonar?
Everything is hooked up to the same home theater amplifier as before, and that has never been the cause of any problems.
That actually takes me on to the next problem, my Subwoofer is silent when using DD Live or DTS interactive.
It doesn't make any sound or rumble at all.
With my previous soundcards that was no problem it played wonderful.
Please help, everything is connected in exactly the same manner as before I am even using the same optical cable.
I hope that I will not regret buying the Asus Xonar, it wasn't exactly the cheapest solution available.
Note: The sound is much better through headphones but it does pop and skips a lot.
This behavior happens frequently if you're unlucky (lots of people are) and you can Google to see what others have done. Here's what's worked for me in the past:
If your machine has sound built into the motherboard, disable it in the BIOS. If you have audio cables connected from your optical drives to ports on the sound card, remove them. Mute your microphone channel, line in, CD-in, and basically anything that says "in". Turn off all environmental effects (things with names like like CMSS, TruBASS, etc.)
If the problem persists, check that your card isn't sharing interrupts with any other system device. If it is, move the card to a different slot. When all else fails, try a different motherboard.
If you managed to get your sound card to generate a multichannel bitstream you'll need to tweak the speaker matrix in your sound card utilities so that it generates a channel for your subwoofer. I wasn't kidding when I said no one would want this feature.
-drasnor
Both sound solutions supported Dolby Digital Live encoding meaning that the audio stream was encoded in the hardware before being passed on to the amplifier.
I can confirm that I am not using any prologic settings and never have been, the amp is set to straight, meaning that it doesn't do anything to the signal provided from the source.
Thanks for the advice, I will be trying the suggestions.
I just can't figure out how this problem has evolved from one minute to the next?
The onboard sound is disabled, I did that right away.
I will do some more trouble shooting hoping that I can solve the problems.
Late last night i installed the latest beta driver. (it is actually quite old)
And it didn't seem to help at all yesterday when I tested, it still popped and hissed all over the place.:thumbsdow
But when I booted up the machine today everything is working wonderful.
No pops, no hissing, no skipping just clean great sound.
I did find my bass to, I boosted the level on the amplifier directly, that did the trick.
Only problem I have now is that I need to adjust it everytime I want to watch a dvd, otherwise the bass will be to dominating.
But I guess the Xonar D2 can be a bit tricky setting up, but when it finally works it is very rewarding.