# soundcard choice help



## FireFox (Jul 21, 2014)

Hi all.

I want to buy a soundcard and been honest I don't have a clue where to start, can someone
Give me some advices to choose a good soundcard?
Thanks a lot


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 22, 2014)

Knowing how much you're prepared to spend would be a good start


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Knowing how much you're prepared to spend would be a good start


200-250€ would be a good amount


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 22, 2014)

you wont need anything remotely close to 250euro unless youre an audiophile....

A decent all rounder would be a Creative SB-Z/ZX

For headphones only Creative SB-Z ZxR would be great. If youre more into movies & music than gaming the a Xonar STX is one of the best sounding cards out there.


If youre a gamer its best to stick to Creative cards because Asus's release drivers once in a blue moon & dont include any fixes or tweaks to get their soundcard working better with older/newer games. Ive had a Xonar D2X & an STX, eventually i just could stand the random audio anomalies, glitches & clipping when it came to gaming. Contrary to popular belief Asus's EAX emulation doesnt actually work very well at all. Regardless of EAX supported titles though, I still had random audio anomalies.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> you wont need anything remotely close to 250euro unless youre an audiophile....
> 
> A decent all rounder would be a Creative SB-Z/ZX
> 
> ...


So if I got it right that's mean, for movies and music (Xonar STX) for Gamers (Creative) so that's mean that there's not a soundcard good enough capable to have both solutions just in one?


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## Dent1 (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> 200-250€ would be a good amount



You'd be better off spending that much on speakers, and only €50 on a soundcard.




FreedomEclipse said:


> Ive had a Xonar D2X & an STX, eventually i just could stand the random audio anomalies, glitches & clipping when it came to gaming.



I had those exact same abnormalities with my old Creative.



FreedomEclipse said:


> Contrary to popular belief Asus's EAX emulation doesnt actually work very well at all. Regardless of EAX supported titles though, I still had random audio anomalies.



EAX works on my Xonar


Knoxx29, have you thought about buying a good amp and some bookshelf speakers or studio monitors?


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> You'd be better off spending that much on speakers, and only €50 on a soundcard.


I already have good speakers, that's why I want to get a soundcard


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> You'd be better off spending that much on speakers, and only €50 on a soundcard.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have at home the Logitech Z906 and for the moment i think it's good enough, it costed 330€


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> I had those exact same abnormalities with my old Creative.



Define 'Old Creative'



Dent1 said:


> EAX works on my Xonar



Not on mine, I had bad audio clipping in L4D, TF2, CS:S & Killingfloor

I could hear footsteps, gunfire, sounds of a fight/battle taking place echoing (through many walls in CS:S) in CS:S & guildwars. Hell, it would even cause a CTD in CoD1 when i had EAX turned on in the settings - even with 3D emulation turned on.

ARMA II started off OK then for some reason the sound just ended up being real loud and distorted and nothing i could do in the games options could fix the problem. my speakers were turned down but the audio coming through them was still loud & distorted, I tried reinstalling the sound drivers = didnt fix. I installed 3rd party Brainbit drivers = didnt fix

Switched soundcard to SB-Z = everything is now fine again & has been peachy since.




Dent1 said:


> Knoxx29, have you thought about buying a good amp and some bookshelf speakers or studio monitors?



This is also a good option providing you already have a second GPU that has HDMI out that can function as a soundcard. Optical works too but HDMI supports higher bit-rate for blu-ray obviously.



Knoxx29 said:


> So if I got it right that's mean, for movies and music (Xonar STX) for Gamers (Creative) so that's mean that there's not a soundcard good enough capable to have both solutions just in one?



the Creative SB-Z sounds great, though the STX is much higher fidelity due to the ops and Burr Brown DAC used.The SB-Z ZxR has this but thats more of a premium audiophiles soundcard. you need to use that with headphones or monitor speakers. the ZxR wont do 5.1 unless its via Optical/TosLink & even then it will bypass all the stuff that makes the soundcard soundgood


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Define 'Old Creative'
> 
> 
> 
> ...


None of those soundcards qualify.

The soundcard that comes integrated with the Asus V Formula it's good enough plus my sound system together they do a great job


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## Dent1 (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> I have at home the Logitech Z906 and for the moment i think it's good enough, it costed 330€



Logitech Z906 are good PC speakers, but the PC market has always had a low standard as far as PC speakers, the quality isn't very good compared to entry level home theatre  or audio recording speakers. This is the route I would go to improve audio. The soundcard won't help much. As Freedom Eclipse pointed out your GPU has HDMI so make use of the higher bitrate and additional supported HD formats on Blu-ray.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> None of those soundcards qualify.



So what do you want out of a soundcard then? If you want to blow money for the sake of blowing money then get a XFi Titanium HD, though you still wont be able to do 5.1 unless you Optical/TosLink and like i said, that bypasses all the stuff on the soundcard that makes the sound 'sound good'. it wont sound any different then just plugging it in to your built in soundcard.

According to a quick google of the soundcard that comes with the Asus V Formula, it seems that its not a _'real'_ X-Fi. Under the shield is just a realtek chip. Many people havent bothered with it and one person even went with a cheap Xonar DG which he claims is better than the Supreme FX X-Fi 2. the Supreme FX card is nothing more then the standard built in sound with a software overlay that makes it sound a little fancy.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> So what do you want out of a soundcard then? If you want to blow money for the sake of blowing money then get a XFi Titanium HD, though you still wont be able to do 5.1 unless you Optical/TosLink and like i said, that bypasses all the stuff on the soundcard that makes the sound 'sound good'. it wont sound any different then just plugging it in to your built in soundcard.
> 
> According to a quick google of the soundcard that comes with the Asus V Formula, it seems that its not a _'real'_ X-Fi. Under the shield is just a realtek chip. Many people havent bothered with it and one person even went with a cheap Xonar DG which he claims is better than the Supreme FX X-Fi 2. the Supreme FX card is nothing more then the standard built in sound with a software overlay that makes it sound a little fancy.


i just wanted a soundcard that would be fine with games,music,films ect, but as i can see there is no too much choices out there, btw best solution for me its to build my own custom system


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 22, 2014)

Like i said, the SB-Z or ZX is a great all rounder, my music still sounds good though the Xonars always sounded a little better. To me Xonars always had a little more upper end 'sparkle' when it came to music & movies but that doesnt mean that the SB-Z/ZX is a shitty card and a bad buy. Going back to a creative card was one of the best choices i ever made.

If you already have decent bookshelf speakers then go with a Denon AV unit with a HDMi pass through (as you dont have a second graphics card to function as a soundcard) You got your pioneers, Yamaha's, Onkyo's, Sony's & Panasonics but ive only heard great things about Denon's & Onkyo's. Ive not heard of anyone using a Yamaha AV hooked up to a PC but it shouldnt sound any different than the others.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Like i said, the SB-Z or ZX is a great all rounder, my music still sounds good though the Xonars always sounded a little better. To me Xonars always had a little more upper end 'sparkle' when it came to music & movies but that doesnt mean that the SB-Z/ZX is a shitty card and a bad buy. Going back to a creative card was one of the best choices i ever made.
> 
> If you already have decent bookshelf speakers then go with a Denon AV unit with a HDMi pass through (as you dont have a second graphics card to function as a soundcard) You got your pioneers, Yamaha's, Onkyo's, Sony's & Panasonics but ive only heard great things about Denon's & Onkyo's. Ive not heard of anyone using a Yamaha AV hooked up to a PC but it shouldnt sound any different than the others.


if i dont sell my gtx 580 i can keep it as a soundcard


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## CJCerny (Jul 22, 2014)

I think we need to start over.

OP, how do you have your Z906 speakers connected to your PC?


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

CJCerny said:


> I think we need to start over.
> 
> OP, how do you have your Z906 speakers connected to your PC?


its still in the box i havent connected, i just got it last week


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## CJCerny (Jul 22, 2014)

Does the soundcard on your motherboard have a digital out, either optical or coax?


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## Dent1 (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> if i dont sell my gtx 580 i can keep it as a soundcard



Yes, but it won't work with the Z906.

The Z906 speakers doesn't have HDMI- . This is a huge problem. Goes back to what I was saying earlier about PC speakers having limitations. Not just sound quality but features.

However the Z906 speakers does have digital coaxial and digital output, so you'll be wanting to connect it to your Xonar Phoebus's or motherboard's optical out (SPDIF). I think this is the best alternative for you if you plan on keeping the speakers.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> Yes, but it won't work with the Z906.
> 
> The Z906 speakers doesn't have HDMI- . This is a huge problem. Goes back to what I was saying earlier about PC speakers having limitations. Not just sound quality but features.
> 
> However the Z906 speakers does have digital coaxial and digital output, so you'll be wanting to connect it to your Xonar Phoebus's or motherboard's optical out (SPDIF). I think this is the best alternative for you if you plan on keeping the speakers.


Can you recommend me some good speakers with HDMI?


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

CJCerny said:


> Does the soundcard on your motherboard have a digital out, either optical or coax?


I have to check, but I think it should


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## CJCerny (Jul 22, 2014)

First, don't worry about the HDMI thing for now. The only thing advantage that HDMI has over using the optical output of your motherboard's soundcard directly to the Z906 is that HDMI will transmit the hi-def sound tracks on Blu-ray disks and the optical won't. If you don't playback Blu-ray discs on your PC, it is not a concern.

Second, we want to keep this simple. Start at the beginning, with the simplest setup and see if you are happy. To do this, connect your Z906 to the optical out of your motherboard's sound card. That will give you stereo games, stereo music, and Dolby Digital 5.1 from DVDs. You can use the "Effect" button on the front of the Z906 to spread the stereo sound from games and music to all the speakers. Just make sure to properly set the level of the speakers using the "Level" button on the control box of the Z906 so that all the speakers sound equally loud once you have positioned them according to where the manual tells you to.

If you are not happy with this setup, the next level would be to get a sound card with the Dolby Digital Live feature and connect its optical output to your Z906. That will give you true 5.1 game sound.

The final level is to ditch the soundcard and use the HDMI out of your video card and connect it to a home theater receiver. You would then need to purchase traditional speakers to go with that home theater receiver.

As I mentioned above, start simple. You may find that connecting the digital out of the motherboard's sound card to your Z906 meets all of your sonic needs. The Z906 is capable of faking 5.1 sound from stereo sources and will also decode 5.1 sound from DVDs, so there's at least a chance that you will be satisfied with it if you position the speakers correctly and set their volume levels correctly.


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## Dent1 (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> Can you recommend me some good speakers with HDMI?



I agree with Knoxx29, keep your Z906 speakers and connect and use it's digital output.  I think this is a good starting point.   I don't think you're experienced enough to appreciate anything better. Then in a few years when you've outgrown the audio quality then look into a home theatre system. But I get the feeling you'll be more than happy.

The only thing I'd add is, I would rather use the Asus RoG Xonar Phoebus Solo than the Supreme FX on board. but that's a personal opinion.


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## CJCerny (Jul 22, 2014)

The most important part of any 5.1 sound setup is actually getting the speakers positioned correctly and getting the sound levels set correctly. You can spend a lot of money on soundcards and speakers and home theater speakers and whatnot if you don't have the basics right, you are wasting your time and money. OP, start simple and get those speakers properly located and leveled once you have them connected to your motherboard's onboard sound card. I suspect you will be happy with what you already have.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> I agree with Knoxx29, keep your Z906 speakers and connect and use it's digital output.  I think this is a good starting point.   I don't think you're experienced enough to appreciate anything better. Then in a few years when you've outgrown the audio quality then look into a home theatre system. But I get the feeling you'll be more than happy.
> 
> The only thing I'd add is, I would rather use the Asus RoG Xonar Phoebus Solo than the Supreme FX on board. but that's a personal opinion.


Thanks for the Infos, that was my final conclusion, Z906 + Xonar Phoebus solo...


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

CJCerny said:


> The most important part of any 5.1 sound setup is actually getting the speakers positioned correctly and getting the sound levels set correctly. You can spend a lot of money on soundcards and speakers and home theater speakers and whatnot if you don't have the basics right, you are wasting your time and money. OP, start simple and get those speakers properly located and leveled once you have them connected to your motherboard's onboard sound card. I suspect you will be happy with what you already have.



That's correct


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## GhostRyder (Jul 22, 2014)

Ill give you my opinion since I hit a similar conundrum you seem to have now awhile ago.  When it came to Audio on my machines I never really put much thought into it because I just wanted to hear the effects of the game/video/etc.  Now a days when it comes to sound cards the built in ones often give such a good experience that it has almost rendered the market for sound cards dead.  That being said, sound cards do exist out there better (In some cases much) than the integrated on the top boards but they mostly appeal to people doing audio editing and such where they need extreme levels of quality.

I bought a Samsung 1000Watt 5.1 Surround sound speaker system (Its a blu-ray player system) and plugged it in the optical port on my system.  I had been given a creative sound blaster audigy card from a friend that was top notch and pretty pricey which I used for a short while.  I thought the whole system sounded amazing plugged into that card like that but then my curiosity got the better of me and I tried the on board optical to see if the quality changed.  It did not sound any different to my ears and gave the exact same effect I was expecting playing games/movies/etc.

In short, my opinion is that the on board (You have the maximus so you have a real nice one) controllers are so nice now you would probably not notice a difference in quality even with a real expensive card unless your doing some extreme audio engineering/editing.  I would recommend trying your speaker system first on the on-board with an optical connection and seeing if you like that.  Do that before investing the money on a sound card because you might be pleasantly surprised how great it sounds.

Just my advice based on experience...


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

GhostRyder said:


> Ill give you my opinion since I hit a similar conundrum you seem to have now awhile ago.  When it came to Audio on my machines I never really put much thought into it because I just wanted to hear the effects of the game/video/etc.  Now a days when it comes to sound cards the built in ones often give such a good experience that it has almost rendered the market for sound cards dead.  That being said, sound cards do exist out there better (In some cases much) than the integrated on the top boards but they mostly appeal to people doing audio editing and such where they need extreme levels of quality.
> 
> I bought a Samsung 1000Watt 5.1 Surround sound speaker system (Its a blu-ray player system) and plugged it in the optical port on my system.  I had been given a creative sound blaster audigy card from a friend that was top notch and pretty pricey which I used for a short while.  I thought the whole system sounded amazing plugged into that card like that but then my curiosity got the better of me and I tried the on board optical to see if the quality changed.  It did not sound any different to my ears and gave the exact same effect I was expecting playing games/movies/etc.
> 
> ...



really good accurate advices, Thanks,


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## KingPing (Jul 22, 2014)

GhostRyder said:


> Ill give you my opinion since I hit a similar conundrum you seem to have now awhile ago.  When it came to Audio on my machines I never really put much thought into it because I just wanted to hear the effects of the game/video/etc.  Now a days when it comes to sound cards the built in ones often give such a good experience that it has almost rendered the market for sound cards dead.  That being said, sound cards do exist out there better (In some cases much) than the integrated on the top boards but they mostly appeal to people doing audio editing and such where they need extreme levels of quality.
> 
> I bought a Samsung 1000Watt 5.1 Surround sound speaker system (Its a blu-ray player system) and plugged it in the optical port on my system.  I had been given a creative sound blaster audigy card from a friend that was top notch and pretty pricey which I used for a short while.  I thought the whole system sounded amazing plugged into that card like that but then my curiosity got the better of me and I tried the on board optical to see if the quality changed.  It did not sound any different to my ears and gave the exact same effect I was expecting playing games/movies/etc.
> 
> ...




If you are using HDMI or SPDIF optical or coaxial to connect the PC to the speakers then a sound card is pretty much useless because it's being used only as a pass though device, in short the sound card is not doing any sound processing at all. Use a sound card if you are going to use the analog outs.

To the OP. Unless you have high end ANALOG speakers or high end headphones your onboard sound is good enough. And since you will be connecting the 5.1 though optical you are not going to use the sound card the way it's supposed to.

Regarding which brand is better for music, games, etc., IMO both are great for music, but for games Creative ones have the edge (i'm talking about high end sound cards, which are the ones worth buying).


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## Dent1 (Jul 22, 2014)

Knoxx29 said:


> Thanks for the Infos, that was my final conclusion, Z906 + Xonar Phoebus solo...



Yes. Keep in mind I'm only recommended the Asus RoG Xonar Phoebus Solo because your specification says you have it already. You spent good money on it so you may as well use it (opposed to on-board).

Also I tend to get more noise when my on-board is connected to my case's front panel audio, I only use headphones occasionally so its not really a big issue.


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## FireFox (Jul 22, 2014)

Dent1 said:


> Yes. Keep in mind I'm only recommended the Asus RoG Xonar Phoebus Solo because your specification says you have it already. You spent good money on it so you may as well use it (opposed to on-board).
> 
> Also I tend to get more noise when my on-board is connected to my case's front panel audio, I only use headphones occasionally so its not really a big issue.



That's right i have the Xonar Phoebus Solo, Next week I will put it back in my rig,

Thanks a lot guys, you're amazing


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## GhostRyder (Jul 22, 2014)

KingPing said:


> If you are using HDMI or SPDIF optical or coaxial to connect the PC to the speakers then a sound card is pretty much useless because it's being used only as a pass though device, in short the sound card is not doing any sound processing at all. Use a sound card if you are going to use the analog outs.
> 
> To the OP. Unless you have high end ANALOG speakers or high end headphones your onboard sound is good enough. And since you will be connecting the 5.1 though optical you are not going to use the sound card the way it's supposed to.
> 
> Regarding which brand is better for music, games, etc., IMO both are great for music, but for games Creative ones have the edge (i'm talking about high end sound cards, which are the ones worth buying).


Yea that was something that I found interesting when I first learned of it because to me it ruined the point of many sound cards I saw on the market.  Though sound was never something I paid much attention to it was a revelation when i realized that.



Knoxx29 said:


> That's right i have the Xonar Phoebus Solo, Next week I will put it back in my rig,
> 
> Thanks a lot guys, you're amazing


No sweat, enjoy!


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## CJCerny (Jul 22, 2014)

The only feature you will be getting from the Xonar would be Dolby Digital Live. That feature will give you games in true 5.1 sound if they have multi-channel sound. Other than that, there won't be any difference from the onboard sound. All the other features of the Xonar only work on the analog outputs and you are using the digital output.


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## Dent1 (Jul 23, 2014)

CJCerny said:


> The only feature you will be getting from the Xonar would be Dolby Digital Live. That feature will give you games in true 5.1 sound if they have multi-channel sound. Other than that, there won't be any difference from the onboard sound. All the other features of the Xonar only work on the analog outputs and you are using the digital output.



The Asus RoG Xonar Phoebus Solo doesn't support Dolby Digital Live, which is a shame as most of the other Xonars do which is a huge selling point.

There is usually DSPs and presents applied on a driver level by default which can alter the difference between on-board and dedicated.

But overall I agree with your message. Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect is one of the only reasons to buy a dedicated sound card in 2014.


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