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For all intents and purposes, it's a great card. At this point, I don't see any reason to recommend against it.I am getting the Asus Xonar D2X...How is it?
The Xonar D2X is great for audio. I love mine with my 2.1 speaker setup. The XFi is considered by many to be inferior for straight music/movie use. I don't have any experience with the XFi (although I did try an Elite Pro a couple years back but it never worked right in my system and CL tech support was worthless) but I will say it's a step up from an Audigy 2 for sure.
If you must get an XFi, the Auzentechs are the only way to go, although if you're not gaming at all and EAX isn't an issue, I don't see why you'd want to go with a Creative Labs card and have the issues related to them (reports of popping/clicking/bloated drivers/etc).
After trying games with both Asus's EAX emulation (for eax games) and Dolby Headphone + Dolby Prologic II (for all games) -- I find this far superior quality audio in 3D games to CMSS3d (upmixing and headphones) + hardware EAX acceleration. But hey, your mileage may vary.
DSP effects are even more subjective than overall sound quality, so my comments were assuming stereo output. Personally, I've never liked CMSS, Pro-Logic or any of the upmixing technologies, as they always sound good on some sources but not on others, and I don't feel like switching back and forth.
"Realtek codec-based"? You mean AC'97, do you? Nope. The card uses C-Media's Oxygen HD chip, the CMI8788 (which ASUS calls AV200). Not an AC'97 chip.$170? For a generic Realtec codec-based card using a bridge instead of a real PCI express chip?
So?Which forces you to suppy extra power via a floppy cable
Uses the same "Realtek codec-based" (what does that even mean?) CMI8788 as the Xonar.Or HT Omega Claro is $159 - still less then the Xonar!
"Realtek codec-based"? You mean AC'97, do you? Nope. The card uses C-Media's Oxygen HD chip, the CMI8788 (which ASUS calls AV200). Not an AC'97 chip.
So?
Uses the same "Realtek codec-based" (what does that even mean?) CMI8788 as the Xonar.
Every sound card manufacturer tries to sell every sound card as the Holy Grail. ASUS is no different from any other manufacturer. It seems you equate marketing and hype to bad products, when in fact they're entirely unrelated.Asus took an old chip, added a bridge and is trying to sell it as a holy grail.
Every sound card manufacturer tries to sell every sound card as the Holy Grail. ASUS is no different from any other manufacturer. It seems you equate marketing and hype to bad products, when in fact they're entirely unrelated.
Every one I have talked to, who had the Asus and the Auzentech, prefer the Asus by miles apart!
Take a look at some reviews - like Guru 3D (with out the space), Every one agree Asus is a great sound card, why not to love it?
An audio analyzer can determine that fairly easily. Most reviews use RightMark's Audio Analyzer in loopback mode, which isn't a preferable way to analyze analog output performance, but it's at least sufficient.When it come to pure sound quality, what is better ?
Asus may be a better bet for the future as they are fully committed to their cards now and have brought much of their extensive resources to bear on making them the best sound cards available for all purposes. I admire their recent efforts in this arena and they are going just as far, if not even further, than Auzentech ever did in this arena.
Pro-sumers do not exist by the way. Never met one. Or do you mean someone who
spends enough money to buy pro gear on things that are consumer-grade?
(I call them morons, and they do exist, agreed)
Ah, lol, some good arguments sure.
I am anti-sound card for music. At least for Vista. I have been pleased with the output quality of my laptop via the Trends Audio UD-10 usb to coax converter into my Sherwood 6500.
A prosumer would be a consumer who buys entry-level professional gear but does not use it for professional purposes.
OK, thanks for this - so prosumers actually buy professional equipment and just do not use it as it is meant to be used... I stand by my previous definition then
Anyway, that means there is no prosumer gear a such. It is either pro gear or consumer gear.
As for audio the question is - does it have balanced inputs and outputs at +4dBU level. If the answer is no - it is not a piece of pro gear.