1. #1

    Surround Sound Card

    First I'm sorry if there is any other posts on this topic recently but I haven't seen any since the end of 2011.

    I'm looking for a sound card for my system in the below 200 range. I have 2 requirements, I want it to have surround sound for gaming and have a built in headphone amplifier. I have AKG Q701's. I have been looking at the Asus Xonar Essence and the new Creative Labs Recon3D Fatality pro sound card as well as the older Xi-Fi Titanium HD card. I was wondering if anyone has experience with these cards (especially the new recon 3D) and would suggest any of them. If there are also other cards or even external options that would provide better results for under $200 those suggestions are welcome as well. Thanks for your input.

  2. #2
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    I personally have an Asus Xonar DX, however if I was to buy a sound card with a headphone amp, it would be the Asus Xonar Essence STX. I know at least a few people on these forums have it and are very happy with it.

    However there are also external dedicated amps you can get, however they will not necessarily take full advantage of the sound card then.
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  3. #3
    Would It be better to go with a cheaper 7.1 card without an amp and buy an external amp or is it better to get a card with one built in?

  4. #4
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    I'm not totally sure, however I would say if you have the money which it seems you do, get the Essence STX, as it is a great sound card with amazing features and capabilities.
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  5. #5
    I'd back the essence suggestion. A soundcard with a good headphone amp + a fairly decent set of cans + dolby headphone is actually pretty damn good. Getting some low end audiophile headphones and the above (there's few sound cards can really drive very top end headphone) would probably give better all round sound than a "proper" 5.1 etc headset.

    dolby headphone demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fligG_SLnOc

    I actually took a Xonar U3 for use on my laptop (USB external) and really couldn't be more impressed with it. Does dolby headphone, stero + mic or optical out (with an upmixer). Not bad for a USB soundcard.
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  6. #6
    Thanks for the help, I will most likely pick one up. I just have one more question about the Xonar DX. Does this card have everything in the essence besides the amp? From what I can tell they seem to be quite similar. (excluding the inputs)

  7. #7
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    From what I've read and ultimately part of the reason I got the Xonar DX is because people who know more about sound cards than me have said it is an insanely good deal and worth every penny for $90, apparently Asus could sell it for more. O_o
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    My brother's using a Xonar DX2 (the DX's older, more well-learned sibling), and while it sounds good while listening to music and watching movies, something just sounds off with it when gaming. It might be that it can only process 32 voices in hardware at a time, it might be that I'm spoiled by EAX (the Xonar line only supports EAX 2.0, which puts it in the same league as a Sound Blaster Live! card), or, hell, it could be just a placebo effect... I don't know.

    All the cards the OP listed will do just fine in regards to fidelity; they all do 24bit/192k playback and recording, and they all have ~108+dB SNRs. It's just all the extra features and goodies thrown in that bear consideration.

    Between the Xonar DX and Recon3D, only the Recon has a built-in headphone amp (supporting headphones rated up to 600ohms) and TOSlink ports on the backplate (with the Xonar, a little dongle/adapter for TOSlink connectivity comes in the box). There's also hardware support for things like Dolby TruStudio Pro and CrystalVoice (omg CrystalVoice is amazing... if you like trolling in vent every now and then, this is totally for you, lol).
    I'm not really going to explain what they do, as I'm assuming, since you bought (or are using, at the very least) a £500 pair of headphones, you're a bit of an audiophile and you already know what they do, or you at least have a good idea.

    So, yeah, considering features, tech, and maybe company history, I'd have to toss my vote to the Recon3D.


    Lastly, for sake of transparency, I do own a Recon3D (Fatality Pro), but I tried to keep it as objective as possible. I bought the card a little over a month ago and I think it's amazing, but I don't have any quality headphones lying around, so I've no idea how the headphone amp performs aside from "it works" (I've been using a set of Klipsch ProMedia 5.1s for almost 9 years now, and I can't imagine gaming any other way, lol).
    It replaced an Audigy2 that died out, unsurprisingly, after ~8 years of heavy pc gaming...

  9. #9
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    Creative X-fi Titanium (fatality) is a nice card its never done me any wrong sound quality is the mutts nuts i use it for music mainy and gaming on the side.Either way ASUS and Creative do some real nice cards tho ime pretty sure creative have been in the buisness a while longer than asus when it comes to sound cards.Tho i could be wrong.

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