My X-Fi Forte just died, need a new soundcard

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iTravis

Limp Gawd
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I finally gave up on my Forte, after making popping/cracking sound continuously to my headphone it just stopped working as I get no sound from neither speakers nor headphone. A quick google search yielding lot of same issues so I won't even bother to play with it.
Anyway I need a replacement, mainly use it for gaming and music (mostly with my headphone but I do use the Z-5500 occasionally), headphone amp is a must for my Sennheiser HD650. Budget is $250 or less. Any suggestions?
 
popping is not grounding, this is why many folks put the back panel for that card in electrical tape, or even cardboard, seems to have helped :p

Anyways, for dedicated headphone amps on the card, there is only so many, unless you buy a seperate amp or OP AMP to do so. HT Omega has quite a few new models, not sure how good they are, take a look http://www.htomega.com/claro2.html they have a few others to choice from/look at.

I myself love my Asus Xonar DX, I know it can power higher end headsets, however, for Xonars that use dedicated headphone amps in them
Xonar DG
Xonar Essence STX
Essence ST
Xonar ONE
xonar xense(this would be pointelss, as apprently they do not come without the haedset package as well)

Now like I said, not sure what HT Omega offers, not sure what Auzentech offers, and I wouldn`t buy a creative card unless the Titanium HD is in your $ range.
 
I'm using an asynchronous USB source, meaning it slightly buffers the usb data, and the audio and is therefore relatively immune to interference from your computer. It's like a 'brick' that you can throw on or under your desk and you control it via software. It has a headphone amp as well as RCA line out and SPDIF both optical and coax for your speakers.

It's from China and has a few US distributors but the best one is on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Digital-Sound-Card-Musiland-Monitor-02-US-/260437930872

And about 80 pages of discussion (careful some of the people on there are crazy about audio and will spend thousands so take some of the negative stuff with a grain of salt):
http://www.head-fi.org/t/443786/musiland-monitor-02-us


There are other discussions on that forum that may help for other products.
 
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Musiland Monitor 02 US looks like an excellent DAC for the price. It sounds a bit weak on the amp wise though.

And Proneax is right , Head-fi.org is full of crazy hardware audiophiles who will swear to you that upgrading your headphone cables by spending $2000 on isolated balanced hook ups with oxygen free sealed cables will enlighten the very existence of your life on a day to day basis or similar stuff like this nonsense :

On another note... I was reading how certain members could distinguish a difference in SQ between different USB ports. I decided to give it a try.. I currently have my DAC connected to a USB 3.0 port. I also wanted to cross check to make sure that this wasn't the source of my random noise issues. Long story short, I only had the time to compare my two USB 3.0 ports to only one of my USB 2.0 ports (I have something like twelve or so on my comp...) but the sound difference was astounding. In comparison the USB 2.0 sounded dynamically flat, dull and lifeless. It lacked bottom end control, top end extension and wasn't even near as resolving. I certainly wasn't prepared for that dramatic of a difference. In addition my girlfriend noticed and articulated the differences to me immediately. No listening time required for her.. My questions is, has any other member experienced this?
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Claiming he heard an astounding sound "difference" between using a USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port :rolleyes:

Just use common sense and ignore such claims.
 
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dragonstongue said:
popping is not grounding, this is why many folks put the back panel for that card in electrical tape, or even cardboard, seems to have helped :p

Anyways, for dedicated headphone amps on the card, there is only so many, unless you buy a seperate amp or OP AMP to do so. HT Omega has quite a few new models, not sure how good they are, take a look http://www.htomega.com/claro2.html they have a few others to choice from/look at.

I myself love my Asus Xonar DX, I know it can power higher end headsets, however, for Xonars that use dedicated headphone amps in them
Xonar DG
Xonar Essence STX
Essence ST
Xonar ONE
xonar xense(this would be pointelss, as apprently they do not come without the haedset package as well)

Now like I said, not sure what HT Omega offers, not sure what Auzentech offers, and I wouldn`t buy a creative card unless the Titanium HD is in your $ range.
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The card is pretty much dead since it stopped producing sound altogether from the headphone jack to analog connections for speakers. Anyway I heard the Xonar is good for music but not so great when gaming, is that true?

Proneax said:
I'm using an asynchronous USB source, meaning it slightly buffers the usb data, and the audio and is therefore relatively immune to interference from your computer. It's like a 'brick' that you can throw on or under your desk and you control it via software. It has a headphone amp as well as RCA line out and SPDIF both optical and coax for your speakers.

It's from China and has a few US distributors but the best one is on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Digital-Sound-Card-Musiland-Monitor-02-US-/260437930872

And about 80 pages of discussion (careful some of the people on there are crazy about audio and will spend thousands so take some of the negative stuff with a grain of salt):
http://www.head-fi.org/t/443786/musiland-monitor-02-us


There are other discussions on that forum that may help for other products.
Click to expand...

It looks like a good option and a quick glimpse on head-fi shows positive reviews, my concern is I'm not sure if I'll be able to get 5.1 using the optical on that as I did mention I use the Z-5500 from time to time for surround gaming. And within my understanding it needs to encode DD and DTS in order to get 5.1?

Godmachine said:
Musiland Monitor 02 US looks like an excellent DAC for the price. It sounds a bit weak on the amp wise though.

And Proneax is right , Head-fi.org is full of crazy hardware audiophiles who will swear to you that upgrading your headphone cables by spending $2000 on isolated balanced hook ups with oxygen free sealed cables will enlighten the very existence of your life on a day to day basis or similar stuff like this nonsense :



Claiming he heard an astounding sound "difference" between using a USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port :rolleyes:

Just use common sense and ignore such claims.
Click to expand...

That's also what I saw a guy on there claiming is not powerful enough to drive his headphone. And yeh I'm aware of the audiophile advice thing :p

What do you guys think about the Titanium HD? Is it a substantial upgrade over my Forte?
 
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For HD650s, I'd probably look at an Essence STX if you want to do some gaming. Anything lower than that or the Titanium HD wouldn't do those headphones justice. The Essence supports Dolby Headphone (which I prefer to CMSS-3D, but tastes vary) and is pretty widely considered to be the best headphone sound card. It also supports DDL so you can use the optical out.

If you aren't worried about Dolby Headphone or CMSS-3D, then you could look at a USB DAC.

Edit: And I had two Fortes go out just like yours. You can try swapping the capacitors (it worked for one of mine) but it probably isn't worth the hassle. Which sucks, because the analog non-headphone outputs still work perfectly.
 
iTravis said:
What do you guys think about the Titanium HD? Is it a substantial upgrade over my Forte?
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I owned the X-fi Forte , easily the worst soundcard I've ever owned as well. Horrible driver support and continual popping and cracking. I tried the electrical tape tricks and cardboard and still had issues. I only kept using it because I felt ashamed I spent $120 on it. It died thankfully and now I'm spared its agony.

I use my HD650's almost exclusively and I use the Fiio E7/E9 DAC / AMP combo and love it. However if you want to be able to drive out optical/coax to your Z-5500's as well then I recommend you buy the ASUS STX which has a fantastic on-board DAC and a high quality amp (rated to drive cans up to 600ohm's) then it fits all the requirements you need. I've used it with the HD650 and it sounds absolutely sub lime ( I bought the E7/E9 combo over it because the E7 is portable and I want to be able to enjoy my music on the go in full quality).

So bottom line , grab an ASUS STX and enjoy.
 
Xonars are simply awesome sounding, its is true for the most part, they are not as good with gaming as say Auzentech or Creative which are built for gaming, but this is also Windows 7 and beyond now, alot of the "tricks" creative used to do were driven through the HAL, which is now software driven, so, the benefit they might have seen, they will not anymore point period and simple :)

I have the Xonar DX, the DG is apprently almost virtually indentical in regards to the soundstage as the DX and less costly, though it is PCI based vs the DX which is pci-e bridged. The essence STX is top of the line for "non professional" sound cards, I am sure there is better, but for consumer products, seems to be in this order more or less.
Xonar DG
Xonar DX(apprently uses a boosted headset signal for front out but not amped)
Creative Titanium HD
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
Xonar Essence ST(amped)
HT Omega-Various models such as the Claro II/Claro Halo XT(amped)
Xonar Essence STX(amped)

I would look at the specs a little more deeply, and ask opinions of folks who know better, that is if you want a very professional opinion, beyond that, the DG or Essence STX might be more up your alley. For the Xonars, anything X in the name denotes pci-express based anything non X generally means PCI or other.

Just want to throw a few links to show respective differences. I have heard for pure sound the Prelude, Essence ST/STX as well as the Claro Halo XT are in a world of thier own, Creative just simply doesnt compare however, there is also a price difference to account for that. Difference of being a lover of of enthusiast of I suppose, DG is the lowest cost one built for high end headsets, Essence STX/Claro Halo XT are the top end. Changing OP Amps can also make a world of difference, so there really is alot of factors if you take it all into account.

I have the DX, and for me with a pair of Gamecom 367 it works very well, had not have so sensitive hearing, I know it is very clear and pronounced all around, with a terrific amount of punch, but then again, the 367 doesnt require near as much power as the higher end cans :)

Xonar DG http://ca.asus.com/en/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_DG/#specifications
Xonar DX http://ca.asus.com/en/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_DX/#specifications
Creative Titanium HD http://asia.creative.com/products/p...ategory=874&product=19749&nav=1&listby=system
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php#specifications
Xonar Essence ST http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_Essence_ST/#specifications
HT Omega Claro Halo XT http://www.htomega.com/clarohalo_xt.html
Xonar Essence STX http://ca.asus.com/en/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_Essence_STX/#specifications
 
Asus also has their new Republic of Gamers card coming out sometime in the next few months, the Phoebus. Looks like it is targeted at the high-end with a lot of the features of the STX (including a native PCI-e chip, unlike the STX). Not sure if it is worth waiting for, but it is a more gaming focused card if you are worried about it. I've had both a DX and a DG, and they were both completely fine with games.
 
Thank you guys, really appreciate for the helpful advices. :) I somehow got my Forte working again, not sure because it was overheat but I just blew some dust off and reinstalled the driver, seem to work fine for now but well, I expect it will die soon, plus I think it's time for a new card anyway. The Asus Phoebus looks interesting but launch date and price ain't available yet. So it all comes down to the Essence STX, sounds like a pretty good card with lot of positive reviews so it's definitely on top of my list now. I'm just wondering how do I connect my Z-5500 to the card using analog?
 
iTravis said:
I'm just wondering how do I connect my Z-5500 to the card using analog?
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I think the multi-channel output is via digital only, same as the Titanium HD. If you want analog I think you need to get the Essence ST and the Xonar H6 breakout card.
 
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dragonstongue said:
you could always get new OP Amps for the card you have?
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You mean for the Forte? Nah I don't think I would even bother with it, just use till it's completely dead then switch to the Asus Essence :D

Forceman said:
I think the multi-channel output is via digital only, same as the Titanium HD. If you want analog I think you need to get the Essence ST and the Xonar H6 breakout card.
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The ST seems like a better option with better clock circuit from what I heard, the problem is it's a PCI card and since I'm using CrossFire, the 2nd video card just blocks the PCI slot. Guess I'll to wait so I can upgrade both the video card and sound card altogether. :)
 
Look like I still need suggestions since the H6 expansion card is being discontinued, I can find a few but I don't think the price is worth it. So what other option do I have? I need analog connection for my Z-5500 and headphone amp for the HD650.
EDIT: Looks like I'll be going with a 5.1 sound card and a dedicated headphone amp, what do you guys recommend?
 
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Xonar DG 5.1 with its own built in head amp, and its quite a low profile.

As mentioned another option may be one of HT Omegas offerings.
 
I had the forte, had issues with it, got a DX, and never looked back. Granted, I use optical out and dont really need the headphone amp, but the Asus has been problem free ever since I got it, not something I could say about the Auzentech.
 
Empty_Quarter said:
I had the forte, had issues with it, got a DX, and never looked back. Granted, I use optical out and dont really need the headphone amp, but the Asus has been problem free ever since I got it, not something I could say about the Auzentech.
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I agree. If you need the analog output, get the Xonar DX.
 
But the EAX emulation on the DX is not quiet as good compare to X-Fi so will it be inferior in term of gaming? Also I'm looking into either the Fiio E9 or E10 for my headphone, is it a good choice?
 
EAX in windows 7 is a wrapper, software driven, so it will NOT see its true benefit unless you are virtualizing XP os similar. EAX relied on the HAL in XP which was more or less completely removed in Vista and Windows 7, to port calls to the software sound stack(not sure of its proper name) the card has to basically intercept the call to make the sound, it does this via alchemy and such. So, is it inferior to an X-Fi, well that depends on your version of Inferior.

X-Fi are thier own beasts, I hate any company that sits on its laurels and doesnt update drivers, fix problems, or develop new tech. Creative bar none has a very bad track record of kind of only doing what they need to do, and sometimes not even that, but I will keep it civil. I know alot of my buddies had nasty troubles with various creative cards and thier EVGA motherboards, or boards using realtek for the lan and such. In alot of cases it seems Creative decided to use the IRQ of other parts in the system, this is really tough to trouble shoot, heck, shouldn`t even have to. Auzentech is a modded Creative card, they use Creative drivers which are also apprently modded.

Any who, the only 2 true options for staying away from anything creative made as far as the chip in use, is Asus and thier Xonar line or the vast majority of HT Omegas cards.

I guess look at it this way, software is driving the hardware, and so the little "tricks" that Creative/Auzentech are or were able to do, cannot be done easily, are a terrible implmentation of something they have now had years to figure out, or do not work at all. I know a buddy of mine has a heck of a time getting his creative x-gamer to work well in steam based games such as killing floor, he has to put it to software driven, which kills the surround sound so he HAS to use stereo only, in his opinion it just sounds so dull and lifeless as such, whereas in games that can use surround with Alechemy properly he says they just "pop" and sound so nice. Whereas for me, it doesnt matter the game, the card does what its supposed to do, it doesnt realy on odd software of whatever, its just is what it is(of course with the ability of mixing the levels as well)

Anyways, for Windows 7, the thing that seems overall the most important, how many channels at what Khz as well as the SNR, alot of creative cards can hit a very high Khz via many channels, unfortunately the majority of them seem to be 109db SNR or less. From what I understand, the higher SNR over X channels at x Khz quality level basically means more dynamic highs and lows from the directions the card is trying to feed to your sound system, the higher with less loss, the batter the "quality" of the sound.

So is Xonar better for gaming, to answer directly, no, however, they are about quality of the sound they produce, and for this they are excellent. I use my DX for gaming and have 0 issues enabling GX mode(EAX emulation beyond 2.5) 192Khz over 8 channel depth, via my speakers X-540 or my headset Gamecome 367 the sound is just terrific, very punchy and lots of high notes as well. Creative-gaming focused with ability to do other things, Xonar everything focused especially considering the way sound is interpretted via the hardware vs being driven by it now with the current OS.

The DX seems from what reviews I have seen can drive 28 Ohms to 250 Ohms, so it does lack a bit of punch with the bass compared to higher end ones that have a dedicated headphone AMP but, I have read one at headFI that a lad was using an DX for 250 Ohms and said it was pushed hard but it works it seems :p: so, you may lack a bit of punch, but if it has all the connections you want or need, just get the DX with a headphone amp, like the Astro A40 mix amp or something?
http://techgage.com/article/asus_xonar_dx_71_sound_card/4
http://www.head-fi.org/t/553004/dt-770
 
Hardly any game uses EAX any longer, so it really isn't much of a selling point at all. I can't think of a single game that actually uses EAX, and is less than a few years old. In fact, I think most people turn off the EAX emulation on the Asus cards because games don't need it and it can sometimes cause crashes.

Here's a list of EAX supported games. Check it out and see if you care about any of those titles.

http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/technology/welcome_flash.asp?j1=eax
 
The last game I am aware of that I play is BF2, that uses EAX or Killing floor or anything else made by Tripwire such as red orchestra. I do not enable GX as yes it can cause crashes or very strange sounds/static etc, however, if not using GX which it can do natively up to 2.5, its fine, its anything but crappy sound, especially if you have non sensitive ears, it has a hell of alot of punch and really nice highs with everything inbetween.

I am not fond of running some extra stuff to make something else work that I paid $ for that should work by itself :p. I would read up on the creative side and enabling EAX in windows 7 or asking opinions about it, judging from my buddies who have it, they stopped worrying about it when they stopped using windows XP. The sound card does what it should, or it doesnt, it sounds good, or it sounds flat.
 
Thank you dragonstongue and Forceman, you guys have been really helpful. :) By looking at the list I guess it doesn't make any sense to go with a card that supports EAX, the only game I care a little bit is BF2 but well, BF3 is here anyway :D
I never own an Asus card before so I hope this is a good experience. From what dragonstongue points out then the Asus card can produce better sound quality overall and that's exactly what I care about, I was just a bit skeptical but it makes more sense now.
So I decided that I'm gonna get the DX and a dedicated headphone amp, I've heard good thing about the Fiio E9 so what do you guys think about the combination?
Also since I'm gonna use both headphones and speakers so I would need a splitter or something to switch between the two right?
 
Either a splitter or the front panel connection, the DX doesn't have a dedicated headphone output. The E9 should work well with it, but I've never tried it myself.
 
Forceman said:
Either a splitter or the front panel connection, the DX doesn't have a dedicated headphone output. The E9 should work well with it, but I've never tried it myself.
Click to expand...

Line out from DX to Line in on F9 and you're golden. Should sound great and push virtually any set of cans.

Just make sure you don't have the USB plugged in for any reason on the F9 (unless you have the F7 or F17 plugged into the dock) , otherwise you might get a slight buzzing sound.
 
Forceman said:
Either a splitter or the front panel connection, the DX doesn't have a dedicated headphone output. The E9 should work well with it, but I've never tried it myself.
Click to expand...

Godmachine said:
Line out from DX to Line in on F9 and you're golden. Should sound great and push virtually any set of cans.

Just make sure you don't have the USB plugged in for any reason on the F9 (unless you have the F7 or F17 plugged into the dock) , otherwise you might get a slight buzzing sound.
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Thanks guys, just found this thing on Amazon, this will work just fine for me to switch between speakers and headphone?
http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-PC-Headset-Speaker-Switch/dp/B000069E1V
 
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All you have to do is hook speakers up to rear ports, hook headphones to front, then in the DX control panel toggle between the 2 by selecting 5.1/7.1 etc and FP headphones, works like a charm. I have my x-540 on rear, gamecom 367 front panel, ps3 on via a splitter so all it takes is removing one wire and connecting another if I am playing ps3, if I want to use headphones set it to FP headphone, speakers, set to 5.1

Also I have the channels set to 8 and the overall quality set to 192Khz in the sound card and via windows default quality for speakers and microphone.

I am sure you will love it, BF2 and X-FI ultra quality, and BF2 DX with high quality, I honestly do not notice that much difference, maybe a bit more booms and a touch better directionallity, but its not worth the hassle of dealing with the extra crap :p
 
dragonstongue said:
All you have to do is hook speakers up to rear ports, hook headphones to front, then in the DX control panel toggle between the 2 by selecting 5.1/7.1 etc and FP headphones, works like a charm. I have my x-540 on rear, gamecom 367 front panel, ps3 on via a splitter so all it takes is removing one wire and connecting another if I am playing ps3, if I want to use headphones set it to FP headphone, speakers, set to 5.1

Also I have the channels set to 8 and the overall quality set to 192Khz in the sound card and via windows default quality for speakers and microphone.

I am sure you will love it, BF2 and X-FI ultra quality, and BF2 DX with high quality, I honestly do not notice that much difference, maybe a bit more booms and a touch better directionallity, but its not worth the hassle of dealing with the extra crap :p
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My Z-5500 has 3 inputs: front, rear, and sub. From what I read on the DX manual then I suppose to put the speakers' front inputs into the front output of the sound card. They also say the headphone input will go to this front output that's why I think I need the splitter to switch between speakers/headphone input? In this case I need to run a cable from the "Line in" on the Fiio E9 into the front output of the sound card. It's a bit confusing but I think that's how I should connect?
 
The DX has all the connecitons on the card itself for 2.1-7.1, rear, side, front, sub etc. It also has a DEDICATED FP headphone/mic connection for front panel.

I have my X-540 full connected to the rear inputs for front left/right rear left/right and center/sub via its 3 wires, I also have the card connected to my computer cases front inputs for my headsets speakers and microphone. The only reason you would need a splitter for the rear is to have it able to use your tv and speakers or speakers and mic at same time.

The rear or direct inputs are thier own connections and the front or computer case connection(which need the HD input to be plugged onto the little connector on top of the card via its own dedicated connector i.e AC97 or HD audio) So this will allow you to use the speakers connected directly to the cards back panel jacks, and if you choose to you can switch the little toggle in the card control panel to "switch" to front panel for your headset, so basically, you want pumping sound, turn on speakers and set to the 5.1 or whatever your speakers are, it will give the audio to the rear jacks, you want to use your headset, connect the headset to the front of the computer cases jacks switch the toggle to FP Headphone and the card provides power to the computer caes jacks(FP conneciton also gets slightly higher power and SNR as well)

hope this makes sence. As far as a booster, I am not familiar with this thingy you are getting, but if it patches the headset speaker jack through itself and it terminates in the output jack for speakers on the headset, I would just plug it into the computer cases speaker output and plug the headset into it, this way here audio is fed to the unit, it boosts it, and then your ears hear the result of increased POWAH!!! :p
 
I don't know if this is something you're interested in, but you can use an external amp + dac. Things like the nuforce Icon-2 or Icon HD, while both with MSRP of 349, can be found for less than 250 street. They also benefit from little to no interference from your computer and also not taking up a PCI slot.
 
aoya said:
I don't know if this is something you're interested in, but you can use an external amp + dac. Things like the nuforce Icon-2 or Icon HD, while both with MSRP of 349, can be found for less than 250 street. They also benefit from little to no interference from your computer and also not taking up a PCI slot.
Click to expand...

If you want a great starter external DAC/AMP get the Fiio E9 for an amp and the Fiio E10 for a DAC (The Fiio E7 is great as well but better for portable use than a home use DAC).

Both will run you around $180 and since both are split apart from each other upgrading to a better dac down the line is a far easier and cheaper venture.
 
He was planning on going the E9 route anyways, to be able to use the lower cost soundcards and still able to boost the impediance of his headset.

At least with a good chunk of soundcards and something like the Xonar One you can upgrade the opamps to tailor the sound you will get. The E9 and E10 are both classed as headphone amplifier, with the E10 also getting DAC ability, so, E9 as an amp and the soundcard as the DAC should work plenty fine?

And like I stated earlier OP, you do not need any extra splitters etc, the card has a control panel to switch itself from rear jacks to audio front panel jacks all by itself, it has a splitter built in if that makes sence. No need to purchase anything extra, all you need is the computers audio front panel cable usually called AC97 and HD Audio connection to front panel, hook this up the to the DX little input on the top of the card(by the little white chips, best to use the HD audio cable though) http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500/2 (this is good picture to see it) then hook your speakers up to the rear jacks on the card itself.

Flip between 5.1/7.1 or whatever (this is known as analog out in its control panel, it has options of headphone(rear jacks inputs)-2 speaker-4 speaker-5.1-7.1-FP Headphone-FP 2 speaker, FP stands for front panel, as long as front panel audio cable is hooked to the card by setting it to FP it will power it through the computer cases front jacks, this can allow you to use the FP output and the rear panel output all you have to do is open the DX control panel and "flip it" voila, sound where you want it, you also have spdif in dolby digital live or PCM with also having dolby headphone and 7.1 virtual speaker shift among other things, as well audio channel from 2-8 channels and sample rate from 44.1khz PCM to 192khz PCM) so, the DX has more or less what anyone would use. It is also quite low profile, is like maybe 1/3 to 1/4 width so even if it is sandwiched to a gpu it really dont impeded the gpus airflow that much, and the added airflow to the soundcard will help keep it cool and dust free :p
 
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dragonstongue said:
He was planning on going the E9 route anyways, to be able to use the lower cost soundcards and still able to boost the impediance of his headset.

At least with a good chunk of soundcards and something like the Xonar One you can upgrade the opamps to tailor the sound you will get. The E9 and E10 are both classed as headphone amplifier, with the E10 also getting DAC ability, so, E9 as an amp and the soundcard as the DAC should work plenty fine?

And like I stated earlier OP, you do not need any extra splitters etc, the card has a control panel to switch itself from rear jacks to audio front panel jacks all by itself, it has a splitter built in if that makes sence. No need to purchase anything extra, all you need is the computers audio front panel cable usually called AC97 and HD Audio connection to front panel, hook this up the to the DX little input on the top of the card(by the little white chips, best to use the HD audio cable though) http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500/2 (this is good picture to see it) then hook your speakers up to the rear jacks on the card itself.

Flip between 5.1/7.1 or whatever (this is known as analog out in its control panel, it has options of headphone(rear jacks inputs)-2 speaker-4 speaker-5.1-7.1-FP Headphone-FP 2 speaker, FP stands for front panel, as long as front panel audio cable is hooked to the card by setting it to FP it will power it through the computer cases front jacks, this can allow you to use the FP output and the rear panel output all you have to do is open the DX control panel and "flip it" voila, sound where you want it, you also have spdif in dolby digital live or PCM with also having dolby headphone and 7.1 virtual speaker shift among other things, as well audio channel from 2-8 channels and sample rate from 44.1khz PCM to 192khz PCM) so, the DX has more or less what anyone would use. It is also quite low profile, is like maybe 1/3 to 1/4 width so even if it is sandwiched to a gpu it really dont impeded the gpus airflow that much, and the added airflow to the soundcard will help keep it cool and dust free :p
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Yea it would be perfectly fine to run the E9 with a sound card from its line out port. I only suggested the E10 because its simple and supports 96/24 output via USB while the E7 only supports a max 48/16 output. I wouldn't worry about 192khz as honestly the amount of actual material that supports that quality is just tiny compared to even 96/24 and more often than not even 96/24 won't be used. Many people go overboard on audiophile equipment (headphones , dac and amp) and then use regular .flac for 90 percent of there collection. The quality of the components generally means more than its output ability. Most people simply won't notice the difference between a $400 DAC/AMP combo and a $1500 dollar one , so don't go overboard and start talking about how the cable lacks the silver lining that prevents leakage and prevents interference.

A Xonar DX and an E9 would be a nice combo , just make sure you get a nice shielded 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable for the line in on the E9 and the line out on the Xonar.

If however if you only plan to play music through your PC and are not concerned with being able to drive the headphones on other platforms than just buy an ASUS STX as its the best DAC/AMP combo under $200 bar none. You would have to easily spend quite a bit more to improve upon its sound and only a tiny fraction of people would even notice it. However it will not provide discreet analog outputs for a 5.1 computer speaker set like the Xonar and other solutions. The STX is mainly tuned for headphone usage so if that is unacceptable than go with the Xonar DX and Fiio E9 to amp your cans.
 
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was just showing :p, DX and other higher end Xonars to my knowledge all support 16/44k all the way to 24/192k. Granted I am only using the DX with a cheaper cost headset, but I have not noticed any distortions, static or anything of that sort. I guess there is multiple ways to go, get a lower cost soundcard and upgrade its opamps, or go to a high end one which may have one step up for its opamps(though they are pretty much un needed at this point) or getting a standalone unit as the ones you mentioned for being able to use it where ever, however you choose.

I guess a good thing about something like DX is it can drive muliple speakers, whereas these unit seem only for headphones but are portable. My question is, if they plug headphones into this and this into what, USB or? if so, they may not be getting the true sound(usb can be damn good, but to my ears at least it doesnt have the range a good multi-channel will)

I dont know, I suppose its a to each thier own type deal. There is also astro a40 mix amp, not sure how good they are?
 
dragonstongue said:
was just showing :p, DX and other higher end Xonars to my knowledge all support 16/44k all the way to 24/192k. Granted I am only using the DX with a cheaper cost headset, but I have not noticed any distortions, static or anything of that sort. I guess there is multiple ways to go, get a lower cost soundcard and upgrade its opamps, or go to a high end one which may have one step up for its opamps(though they are pretty much un needed at this point) or getting a standalone unit as the ones you mentioned for being able to use it where ever, however you choose.

I guess a good thing about something like DX is it can drive muliple speakers, whereas these unit seem only for headphones but are portable. My question is, if they plug headphones into this and this into what, USB or? if so, they may not be getting the true sound(usb can be damn good, but to my ears at least it doesnt have the range a good multi-channel will)

I dont know, I suppose its a to each thier own type deal. There is also astro a40 mix amp, not sure how good they are?
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If you use an external DAC that supports Asynchronous USB it will be bit for bit perfect from the PC. What Asynchronous does is it lowers the latency inherit with using USB as a technology (USB 2.0 for instance uses compression to send data streams for instance , Asynchronous compensates for this very issue) so it solves that issue and the sound is true and accurate as it can be without dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a professional level setup.

The A40 DAC/AMP is not worth it , it would be a downgrade from the Fiio E7 even. The A40 mix amp is great for gaming since it allows you to balance voice output and game volume but it doesn't use any kind of decent hardware and I've heard it has all kinds of buzzing issues from friends and its internal components are poorly shielded. The A40 headphones on the other hand are pretty decent but over priced , they sound similar to the 510 series Sennheisers.

If your going to consider external DAC/AMP's Nuforce or Fiio is a great starting point. But if you want Asynchronous USB output from it than I would recommend the Musiland Monitor 02 US , which you can purchase on Ebay for $125. It supports USB 2.0 and a maximum of 24bit/192kHz through USB 2.0. It has its own driver for windows that will allow it to run an ASIO driver for bit perfect output. There is a thread over on head-fi if you wanna check it out on it. For the price range its very hard to beat , the only downside is that it doesn't have the greatest amp so you may want to consider something like the Fiio E9 to drive your cans along with it (all you do is select line out in the software and it will turn one of the headphone ports into a line out and bypass the internal amp , simple).

Also it ships from China so it will take a at least a week or more to get.
 
Xonars also have ASIO, I know they are not perfect in this regard though. I suppose for the cost, the Xonars are probably the best all rounded sound cards, you can get better by upping thier opamps, or getting these other fancier gadgets you are referencing it seems :p

As far as the other posters in regards to HT Omega, look at thier basic component listing, all thier newer cards are using the exact same chip as what ASUS uses through the majority of their Xonar lineup-Cmedia Oxygen chip, difference will be some of the other added chips and such. The Claro Halo XT is the best they offer to my knowledge, the Xonar Essence STX is still apprently better though.

I guess it just boils down to what the user wants/needs and the cost they can afford. Xonars seemingly are the most well rounded, and not that expensive, as far as the OP wants, the DX seems to be the best pic, just needs an added AMP for the headphone side, nothing else really :)
 
dragonstongue said:
Xonars also have ASIO, I know they are not perfect in this regard though. I suppose for the cost, the Xonars are probably the best all rounded sound cards, you can get better by upping thier opamps, or getting these other fancier gadgets you are referencing it seems :p

As far as the other posters in regards to HT Omega, look at thier basic component listing, all thier newer cards are using the exact same chip as what ASUS uses through the majority of their Xonar lineup-Cmedia Oxygen chip, difference will be some of the other added chips and such. The Claro Halo XT is the best they offer to my knowledge, the Xonar Essence STX is still apprently better though.

I guess it just boils down to what the user wants/needs and the cost they can afford. Xonars seemingly are the most well rounded, and not that expensive, as far as the OP wants, the DX seems to be the best pic, just needs an added AMP for the headphone side, nothing else really :)
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The Xonar Essence STX is probably hands down the best DAC under $200. It also happens to have a really good amp built in as well. The only way to get better sound is to start considering $500-600+ DAC's with balanced outputs.

However that external one I was talking about in my previous post is just fantastic for $125.
 
dragonstongue said:
The DX has all the connecitons on the card itself for 2.1-7.1, rear, side, front, sub etc. It also has a DEDICATED FP headphone/mic connection for front panel.

I have my X-540 full connected to the rear inputs for front left/right rear left/right and center/sub via its 3 wires, I also have the card connected to my computer cases front inputs for my headsets speakers and microphone. The only reason you would need a splitter for the rear is to have it able to use your tv and speakers or speakers and mic at same time.

The rear or direct inputs are thier own connections and the front or computer case connection(which need the HD input to be plugged onto the little connector on top of the card via its own dedicated connector i.e AC97 or HD audio) So this will allow you to use the speakers connected directly to the cards back panel jacks, and if you choose to you can switch the little toggle in the card control panel to "switch" to front panel for your headset, so basically, you want pumping sound, turn on speakers and set to the 5.1 or whatever your speakers are, it will give the audio to the rear jacks, you want to use your headset, connect the headset to the front of the computer cases jacks switch the toggle to FP Headphone and the card provides power to the computer caes jacks(FP conneciton also gets slightly higher power and SNR as well)

hope this makes sence. As far as a booster, I am not familiar with this thingy you are getting, but if it patches the headset speaker jack through itself and it terminates in the output jack for speakers on the headset, I would just plug it into the computer cases speaker output and plug the headset into it, this way here audio is fed to the unit, it boosts it, and then your ears hear the result of increased POWAH!!! :p
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Thank you, this totally makes sense as I don't have to order the extra splitter :D
So basically I just need to run the HD/AC97 audio cable provided with the case into the connector on the card so I can switch between 5.1 Speakers and FD headphone in the DX control panel, gotcha :p
Once again I really appreciate for the help guys, I just ordered the Xonar DX and the E9 to play around with this weekend. :D By the way what do you recommend for a good shielded 3.5"mm cable to run from the FP of the case into the Line in of the E9?
 
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