Back again! Need soundcard advice.

djkilla

djkilla

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 16, 2008
Messages
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Thought my Klipsch speakers went out so I got the kick-ass Swan M50W 2.1 speakers. Found out it's my Auzentech X-Fi Forte soundcard that died. Love the Swan speakers by the way! So what's the latest and greatest soundcard to get for around $200 or less? Thanks in advance to everyone willing to help!

EDIT: Just read a few posts to skip the soundcard and stay with onboard audio. I listen to LOTS of music and watch a few movies (Xvid, MKV, DVD, etc.). Surely a soundcard has to give better sound than onboard audio. Anyway, with my Swan 2.1 speakers, what should I do/get? By the way, not looking for additional external hardware so it's either onbaord audio or a good recommended soundcard for $200 or less.

P.S. I may play a few of the latest games like Modern Warfare so not sure what would give me the best sound for games. Hope the extra info helps. Thanks again for any advice!
 
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I would get a Xonar DX. I don't think an Essence is worth it since you don't use headphones.
 
You could also go with the Xonar DG, which sells for as low as $25 sometimes. I don't think it gives up much to the DX. No need to spend big money on a card with a headphone amp if you aren't using headphones.

Or maybe one of the HT Omega cards?
 
Those Swans look so nice. But my Klipsch 2.1s are still going strong, and I still like them, but if they ever die it's Swan time :)

Anyway, I used motherboard sound forever and always thought it was pretty good. And it was / is. But for a careful listener with some nice speakers, yeah I would recommend a soundcard or an external USB DAC.

If you want to spend the full $200, the HT Omega Claro was on my short list for a while. Looks really nice-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TC-Froogle-_-Sound+Card-_-HT+Omega-_-29271004
Might be worth reading up on.

edit- I would up going with the Fiio USB DAC combo in my sig, which may or may not work for you, but before I found that the Halo card was quite tempting.
 
you can go with the claro+ if you wont be using headphones. the claro halo is basically the same thing with a headphone amp.

i still prefer outboard dacs like the HRT for purley music..
theres no reason to get the E9 if you dont have headphones. just the E7 will do fine.
 
I can't thank everyone enough for the replys. I compared the entire Xonar line of soundcards and thought I had a card picked out until I got more suggestions. At the moment, I'm completely blown away at the specs and reviews of the HT Omega soundcards. I still have to compare the HT Omega line but we may have a winner with the HT Omega Claro+.

Thanks again to everyone for the replys and I'll continue to check-in to this thread to see if there's any other suggestions before I buy a new soundcard next week.
 
Forceman said:
You could also go with the Xonar DG, which sells for as low as $25 sometimes. I don't think it gives up much to the DX. No need to spend big money on a card with a headphone amp if you aren't using headphones.

Or maybe one of the HT Omega cards?
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I agree with the DG.
 
Still comparing but have a few questions. I see Xonar DG recommended everywhere. What's the difference between this card and a Xonar Essence ST or HT Omega Claro+?

I don't use headphones but do want the best sound possible for music (mp3, etc.), movies (Xvid MKV, etc.) and the latest games coming out. I'm not sure if a $25 Xonar DG will be a good fit for me or a $200 soundcard. If it's a choice between music/movies and games, then I'll take a good card for music since I'm not an extreme gamer. But if there's a card for everything, then I'll take that.
 
Xonar DG is the budget end of the line, and the Essence is the top of the line. This means that the DAC for the line-out and headphone-out is the highest quality out there for an audio card.

The Essence also has a good headphone amplifier chip whereas the DG's is of a budget variety. The Dolby features of the DG/Essence are about the same though.

If you want the best card for music with speakers or headphones, the Essence is it. It's target market, however, is someone that is going to make use of its excellent integrated headphone amplifier. It's marketed towards people using active powered stereo speakers and mid-fi/high-fi stereo headphones, together, basically.
 
I doubt you'd hear any significant difference between the DG and the Essence using powered speakers (particularly if you are playing mp3s). The real benefit of the Essence is in the headphone support.
 
Forceman said:
I doubt you'd hear any significant difference between the DG and the Essence using powered speakers (particularly if you are playing mp3s). The real benefit of the Essence is in the headphone support.
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no, theres lots of difference. check the review on computer audiophile. they used Verity Audio Fidelio floorstanders.
 
Hmm. Best sound? Yeah that sound card works. The issue is the cod game lol. That sound sucks imo.

Get the BFBC2 and the upcoming Red Orchestra 2 for the best in FPS sound. Those really show you what directional sound is about.

GL HF!
 
Forceman said:
I doubt you'd hear any significant difference between the DG and the Essence using powered speakers (particularly if you are playing mp3s). The real benefit of the Essence is in the headphone support.
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I agree with this.
 
Procyon12 said:
no, theres lots of difference. check the review on computer audiophile. they used Verity Audio Fidelio floorstanders.
Click to expand...

Pardon me for being skeptical of the practical and noticeable differences between the cards when they are testing them on $7000 speakers versus the OP's $300 ones.
 
Well, I was prepared to spend $200 on a soundcard but everyone has convinced me to try the Xonar DG. First time I'll be getting a soundcard for $25 but after reading the reviews, it's the card to get. Checked Newegg and noticed there's a $10 rebate. So the card will actually cost $15. Can't lose on this deal!

Thanks again to everyone for the replys. I'm so glad there's experienced people who are willing to help. Looking forward to hearing beautiful sounds through my Swan M50W 2.1 speakers!
 
Forceman said:
Pardon me for being skeptical of the practical and noticeable differences between the cards when they are testing them on $7000 speakers versus the OP's $300 ones.
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its not about cost. your source comes through no matter what your speakers are. good sound is more than just does it hit all the right frequencies.

in computers, we like to think of things like performance on a linear scale, pure performance numbers. good sound doesnt work this way. if a source is thin flat and clinical, its thin flat and clinical on $7000 speakers. if a source is musical, livley, warm and dynamic, its musical, livley, warm, dynamic on speakers and amps that arent horrible.

lets think about this the backwards way: $300 speakers with a $25 source. does that make practical sense?

SAME RATIO: how many people do you think would you pair $7000 speakers with a $500 CD player? i think you would find that not many people would find that practical use of budget. they do that in testing for the same reason they test $75 graphics cards with 980X's. its not indicative of anything in terms of price ratios.

a rule of thumb in the audio world is (and obviously this is not universal) is 1/3 source, 1/3 amplification, 1/3 speakers. if we take the swans $300 as 2/3, that leaves a rule of thumb budget of $150 for a source.

one more thing is this: In the near field, the ratio that you need to spend on speakers and amplifications is even reduced further.

the swans are a very musical set, there will be a marked difference between the DG and higher end stuff. the DG to the $150 HRT Music Streamer II is definetly worth it in my opinion. are you going to see amazing differences in bass extension or clarity? maybe not. there will be difference in the sonic signature the source, and the consensus is that the Xonar DGs musicality just isnt in the same league as many $150-$200 DACs.

one more thing is that the Xonar does not support ASIO! that means resampling of redbook rips and kmixer pollution, NOT GOOD! i highly reccomend ATLEAST a $75 budget to get ASIO drivers when using speakers as good as the Swans!
 
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You're forgetting that the real source is his mp3s - so no matter how good the DAC is (and that's all the soundcard is doing), the limfac is still likely going to be the mp3. I remain unconvinced that the difference in quality between the $25 DG and the $200 Essence whle playing mp3s is going to be noticed by the average user playing through those Swans (or probably any speaker). In short, I'm not buying into the audiophile hype - at least not for computer purposes.

And I'd question the, ummm, what's the polite word here, sense of the person buying $7000 and $500 CD players as well, but maybe that's just me.
 
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Forceman said:
You're forgetting that the real source is his mp3s - so no matter how good the DAC is (and that's all the soundcard is doing), the limfac is still likely going to be the mp3.
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umm no. like i said, its theres more to sound than hitting the right frequencies. id actually argue that the DG ---> HRT Music Streamer II is a larger difference in sonic signature than (properly ripped, no le crap amazon/itunes/zune quality) Lame 320kbps mp3s to lossless rips.

again, you need to stop thinking linearly. you cant think that mp3 to lossless will change the sound in the same way that a better dac changes the sound. sound doesnt work that way. its not like graphics where you can change multiple components and measure the fps and say, yup, this is this % above this. changing the dac/source will change the sound in a different way that mp3 > lossless changes it. you cant say that there wont be a difference because its just mp3s.


And I'd question the, ummm, what's the polite word here, sense of the person buying $7000 and $500 CD players as well, but maybe that's just me.
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this is my "Aha! moment" with you. i originally wrote a much longer and detailed reply, but i decided to delete it as im not sure it would matter.
imagine a group of friends are talking about two basic cars, say a Mazda 3 and a Honda civic. and are trying to decide which one is more fun to drive. different people have different opinions, but one person says theres no difference between the fun. their just basic cars. everyone else is confused, regardless of which you see as better, which one is faster, which one stops better, etc there is a difference between how the cards "feel." then a high end exotic drives by, say a Pagani Zonda F. all the guys drool over, but the one other guy doesnt see the point to such an expensive car, you could buy another 600hp car for 1/10 the price. "Aha!!!" it all makes sense now.
 
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I'm not arguing that there is a difference, I'm just questioning whether the difference makes a difference. Is it a big enough difference that the average user is going to notice - to the tune of $175? My opinion is no, but as you said, everyone has a different threshold of significance.

Or maybe I'm just an audio Luddite.
 
Forceman said:
I'm not arguing that there is a difference, I'm just questioning whether the difference makes a difference. Is it a big enough difference that the average user is going to notice - to the tune of $175? My opinion is no, but as you said, everyone has a different threshold of significance.
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if you take note to my original argument, i was taking offense that $300 swans couldnt portray the difference. i actually would reccomend something in the $75-$150 range. the M-Audio audiophile 2496 for about $90 is sweet spot if you ask me (if he must have internal, the HRT Music streamer II and a few other external devices just smacks every internal sound card under a few hundred bones)

Or maybe I'm just an audio Luddite.
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heh, luddite shouldnt be used in audiophillic dictionary. every new audio technology sounds worse than the previous one. we went from records to cds, to mp3s and now we are entering the age of low quality poorly coded cloud based streamed mp3s. yuck.
my $100 sony walkman cd player circa 2002 with mp3 disc playback capability has better quality audio than every mp3 player under $300-$400 because they keep focusing on games and fancy touchscreens instead of sound. ironically these faster cpus and screens just cause more EMI interference and actually reduce the sound quality. theres a reason the screenless original apple ipod shuffle is touted as the best sounding ipod....

there was a recent article i read about the teardown between a stereo reciever from 1980 to one from the present day, in the same "entry level class" and the internal electronics used in the 30 year old model were just far superior in quality.
 
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Interesting! I've been following the conversation closely. As for me, I did look into the HRT Music Streamer II and it just seemed like a lot of extras to get for good audio. I want great sound but also want to keep it simple. The Swan speakers have the small plug and all I needed was a soundcard that would give me the best sound (better than Realtek on motherboard) that I simply plug the speakers into. I went with the many replys of Xonar DG *BUT* keep in mind that I could easily upgrade to a higher priced soundcard/solution quickly if needed.

The Xonar DG is cheap enough (especially with the $10 rebate) that it wouldn't bother me at all to upgrade to something better. As long as it's simple. Now if I had $700 or more speakers for my computer, then I would consider a DAC or the best route to take to get the best for my investment.
 
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