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Up on the cutting block today at bit-tech is the Sondigo Inferno 7.1 sound card, which seems to use the C-Media Oxygen CMI8788 chip, along with four AKM AK3496 DACs, six JRC 4560 op-amps and full ASIO support. Like the HDA X-Plosion, this thing does Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect encoding and has basically the same control panel/drivers as the X-Plosion. It also does EAX up to 2.0, though probably not correctly. Not like the X-Plosion, the op-amps on the Inferno are not replaceable.
Spec-wise, this card is pretty close to the X-Plosion, but it's hard to tell if audio performance will be up to snuff with the Audigy 2/X-Fi, as bit-tech didn't do any extensive RightMark tests (why?). Overall SNR is rated at 110dB, however, surpassing the X-Fi's rated 109dB SNR.
Interestingly enough, a gentleman named Len Layton, who developed Dolby Headphone technology, as well as operating as VP for C-Media for some time, started Sondigo and designed this here card. The Inferno uses both C-Media and Dolby Headphone technology, so it's a "from the mouth of babes" sort of card. It's a promising foundation at the very least.
$149 at the Sonigo store, which might be a good price.
Spec-wise, this card is pretty close to the X-Plosion, but it's hard to tell if audio performance will be up to snuff with the Audigy 2/X-Fi, as bit-tech didn't do any extensive RightMark tests (why?). Overall SNR is rated at 110dB, however, surpassing the X-Fi's rated 109dB SNR.
Interestingly enough, a gentleman named Len Layton, who developed Dolby Headphone technology, as well as operating as VP for C-Media for some time, started Sondigo and designed this here card. The Inferno uses both C-Media and Dolby Headphone technology, so it's a "from the mouth of babes" sort of card. It's a promising foundation at the very least.
$149 at the Sonigo store, which might be a good price.