Asus Xonar DG?

[hat]

ASUS XONAR_DG 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Xonar DG ...

Just noticed this little gem on Newegg. I was considering taking a look at the Xonar D1 after taking my Audigy SE out (didn't have What U Hear... I rarely use it, but it's nice to have it available when I do... and I reckon today's onboard is about as good as an entry level card from the early P4 era anyway), and then I saw this for $20 cheaper (and the D1 is out of stock anyway). It would be nice to be able to use my PCI-E 1x slot for a DX, but I'd rather save $40 and use a PCI slot (they're not even native PCI-E anyway... more of a positioning issue with me being able to stuff it above my video card rather than below and having lots of free room for my video card to breathe).

Looking at a review I found here, it looks like it's got good quality audio, better than onboard anyway. Mostly I'm looking for a card that can put more power behind my speakers so they can be louder at a lower volume, but coming from a card that doesn't have issues. So my questions are:

1. Does it have a recording option like "What U Hear"?
2. Does it support a feature like CMSS-3D where I can expand stereo audio across my quad system?

And that's about it really.

 

[miaharun]

Xonar DG is an entry level card with limited capabilities. However it does have a headphone amp which most cards doesn't have. If you are into movies and games this is certainly not the card! You will be better off with a Xtreme Audio.

However this will most certainly be better than most of the onboard offerings

 

[CJCerny]

No sound card is going to make your speakers sound louder at a lower volume level. Sound cards, and all audio gear for that matter, have "line level" outputs. The output voltage on them is standardized, or supposed to be anyway. I have a DG. I has a nice headphone amp, but turning that feature (it only works on 2 channels anyway) on for what is supposed to be a line level output is going to distort the sound coming from your speakers.

 

[hat]

Xonar DG is an entry level card with limited capabilities. However it does have a headphone amp which most cards doesn't have. If you are into movies and games this is certainly not the card! You will be better off with a Xtreme Audio.

However this will most certainly be better than most of the onboard offerings

I would prefer to avoid Creative at any cost... even if it means using onboard with it (which I'm not particularly opposed to... just want something better cause I can, and there's some decent looking offerings for cheap). I certainly enjoy gaming, music, anime and the like. That's part of the reason I'm looking for a better one.

No sound card is going to make your speakers sound louder at a lower volume level. Sound cards, and all audio gear for that matter, have "line level" outputs. The output voltage on them is standardized, or supposed to be anyway. I have a DG. I has a nice headphone amp, but turning that feature (it only works on 2 channels anyway) on for what is supposed to be a line level output is going to distort the sound coming from your speakers.

I once had a headset that had no volume control (had to use the volume control within Windows), and using my Sound Blaster, it was about as loud as 33% as it was at 100% with my onboard audio. Although, looking back, that could be explained by saying the headset had no external power source, and speakers do.

I'm not looking at the DG for the headphone amp, I'm interested in better sound quality, and a dedicated APU that might help my system perform a bit better in games compared to onboard... and the price on this is quite attractive.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

any asus soundcard has a software driven dsp not hardware based like creatives card. because of this, your cpu still does all the processing for eax and other direct sound effects

 

[cheesy999]

any asus soundcard has a software driven dsp not hardware based like creatives card. because of this, your cpu still does all the processing for eax and other direct sound effects

dosn't matter, with cpu's now its about 2% extra cpu usage max

 

[hat]

any asus soundcard has a software driven dsp not hardware based like creatives card. because of this, your cpu still does all the processing for eax and other direct sound effects

Then what does the sound processor on the card even do?

 

[cheesy999]

Then what does the sound processor on the card even do?

Spends most of its time decoding and encoding codecs - games don't produce sound in DTS master HD etc

 

[hat]

Spends most of its time decoding and encoding codecs - games don't produce sound in DTS master HD etc

Wouldn't the CPU be doing that as well with onboard audio?

 

[cheesy999]

Wouldn't the CPU be doing that as well with onboard audio?

yes, but most onboard audio doesn't support codecs of the bitrate required to make a diffrence

unless your doing audio production the only things a discrete sound card give you are
a)better analog audio quality
b)better range of codecs

 

[hat]

I think I'm gonna take a chance on it, and report back once I have it with my thoughts.

Well, I ordered it, looking forward to a delivery soon, most likely Friday.

 

[Funtoss]

GET IT! my mate has one of that and IT SOUNDS AMAZING on his logitech z 2300

 

[Dent1]

Hat,

From what I can see it doesn't support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, hence why its so cheap. If you don't need those two features it looks like a alright card for the cash.

 

[hat]

Not currently, I connect it to my quad system with analog hookups to the front and rear channels that are 3.5mm on one and and RCA red/white on the other. I was thinking it would be nice to use that optical connection for a nice 5.1 system in the future, but I guess that's not possible with this card... oh well. That was just a fleeting idea anyway, I didn't have any real plans to do that.

 

[Dent1]

I was thinking it would be nice to use that optical connection for a nice 5.1 system in the future, but I guess that's not possible with this card... oh well. That was just a fleeting idea anyway, I didn't have any real plans to do that.

You could still do that with this card but with limitations.

In the future if you bought a 5.1 system you'll only lose the ability to encode. You can still decode and get Dolby & DTS from DVDs and DVDrip movie downloaded online or whilst use Prologic on the 5.1 system to fake surround sound.

 

[Peejay]

I have this sound card and LOVE it. Although I'm mostly a headphone guy, they definitely sound better than my onboard realtek with speakers, so for 30 bucks, why not?

Also for any xonar I recommend these modded drivers:
http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

 

[hat]

yes, but most onboard audio doesn't support codecs of the bitrate required to make a diffrence

unless your doing audio production the only things a discrete sound card give you are
a)better analog audio quality
b)better range of codecs

For point a: analog only? If I had onboard optical S/PDIF the sound quality would be the same as with a dedicated sound card?

 

[hat]

Damn, I ordered on Wednesday... so I figure UPS 3 day shipping: Thursday, Friday, Saturday... yet tracking says scheduled for Monday the 25th. Doesn't UPS ship on Saturday?

 

[hat]

Well I just got it and I'm pretty happy with it... I haven't found an upmixing option, but other than that I'm happy.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Well I just got it and I'm pretty happy with it... I haven't found an upmixing option, but other than that I'm happy.

I use 3rd party unified drivers with my Xonar which can be found HERE

Id like to say Asus's driver support for its soundcards is awesome but in reality they dont really give that dept. much attention at all. I used to have a lot of problems with Asus's own drivers. all that went away when i found and installed these ones.

Theres also a 5.1 upmix option in the installation so make sure you select that.

Brainbit's drivers are a massive improvement over the Asus drivers

 

[ToTTenTranz]

There's a lot of wrong info in this thread.

Every game that supports OpenAL (i.e. Unreal Engine games), will have its sound processed entirely by a X-Fi card, and sometimes it allows access to sound effects that aren't available in software mode. Either that makes a difference in the system's performance or not, it depends on how powerful the system is.

Creative is the one and only vendor selling soundcards with "audio processor units" (and the X-Fi variants of Auzentech). Asus and others offer only codecs, with all the sound decoding, spacialization and reverb effects being done through the CPU.

 

[hat]

There's a lot of wrong info in this thread.

Every game that supports OpenAL (i.e. Unreal Engine games), will have its sound processed entirely by a X-Fi card, and sometimes it allows access to sound effects that aren't available in software mode. Either that makes a difference in the system's performance or not, it depends on how powerful the system is.

Creative is the one and only vendor selling soundcards with "audio processor units" (and the X-Fi variants of Auzentech). Asus and others offer only codecs, with all the sound decoding, spacialization and reverb effects being done through the CPU.

If the sound card offloads everything to the cpu, then what does the sound card even do then? Merely provide a medium for drivers with these software features to be installed on?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

In a sense -- yes. since hardware acceleration died with Vista.

now days you are just paying for small hardware changes like different opamps or built in headphone amps and the more you pay the better sound your card makes.

thats not to say that cheaper soundcards wont sound good. But i jumped from a...

Genius 5.1 > M-Audio >Audigy 2 ZS > Xtreme Music > Titanium Fatality Pro > Xonar D2X > Xonar STX

and the only real memorable cards were the Audigy 2 ZS and my current Xonar STX.

when i jumped from the fatality pro to a Xonar STX i could hear the difference instantly and music & movies have never sound so good.

however due to poor implementation and support with their DS3D GX system thats supposed to bring EAX back to games similar to how creative alchemy works.

playing an EAX title has always been a hit or miss affair and having it on when playing EAX supported games would make my games crash.

things have improved though and i dont crash much anymore. but EAX still sounds really off. im playing killing floor with EAX on and its a total mess... with EAX on, I can hear stuff happening from right across the the other side of the map to the next. and the reverb is all outta whack, theres way to much of it and it echos like if you were shouting into a deep crevasse.

I still believe that this can be fixed though. since Xonars DSP is software driven im sure its possible for someone to look at the drivers and do a little tweaking.

 

[hat]

I've heard a lot about these opamps... but what are they exactly?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Unfortunately this is a grey area for me, I know that swapping out the omp amps on pretty much any sound card alters the sound they make. higher quality opamps = better fidelity, possibly less background noise. better highs, better lows etc etc.

It shapes your sound. unfortunately this is the best answer i can currently give as im just getting ready to head out