Hi guys,
I bought the Roccat Kave 5.1 for games (they are great, a bit heavy, but great) and I have a cheap 2.1 speakers for listening to stuff when I am not in front of the PC. I am no audiophile by any means, but I can hear nosie from my Realtek onboard sound when listening to headphones - and yes, the mic ports are muted. Besides, jack retasking feature doesn't work with this Realtek 892 chip for me. So currently I have the speakers plugged into the front port. (If retasking worked, I could have plugged it to the blue free port) Like I said, I don't need great quality audio out of the speakers (I cannot turn them up anyways) but I don't want any crackling sounds.
And I don't want to plug the damn speakers to the front audio port! It is disgusting. Not for the audio quality, not for the looks, but for the ports on the RV03 not liking the stereo jacks. They don't seem to stuck in all the time. I lose the right audio once in a while, and I have to push it in again. >_<
So basically I am looking for a sound card that does the following.
1. 5.1 surround + stereo from direct ports out of the sound card. (I know I will have to connect the speakers to the headphone jack, but there is no other option, other than buying speakers with a digital in right? And they aren't seen on cheap speakers)
From what I read, the X-Fi Titanium does support 5.1 + headphones using the 7.1 outputs. Is that true? I don't need headphone and speakers outputting at the same time, but I don't want to mess with the plugs every time I need to switch the output)
Does Xonar DX or D2X support this feature? Because, THEY say Xonars sound better (while I may not be an audiophile, I wouldn't mind getting the most out of the Kaves) and Creative drivers are crap. (except I don't know how those PAX drivers work) Also, there is a Audiotrak PRODIGY 7.1e X-Fi card with a dedicated headphone jack, but that uses X-Fi Extreme Audio chip, not the real DSP based X-Fi chip.
2. PCI-E connectivity as if I buy a second graphics card, the sound card will be smack in between the two graphics cards and the top graphics card's fan will be disrupted. God help the sound card too! XD
Also note that I can get a second hand Titanium for less than a Xonar DX or half the price of a D2X. (as I cannot find second hand DXs or D2X, but D1 is there but that's PCI)
Or can someone recommend me a solution? I would definitely buy a sound card anyway. Need to kill two birds with one stone.
I bought the Roccat Kave 5.1 for games (they are great, a bit heavy, but great) and I have a cheap 2.1 speakers for listening to stuff when I am not in front of the PC. I am no audiophile by any means, but I can hear nosie from my Realtek onboard sound when listening to headphones - and yes, the mic ports are muted. Besides, jack retasking feature doesn't work with this Realtek 892 chip for me. So currently I have the speakers plugged into the front port. (If retasking worked, I could have plugged it to the blue free port) Like I said, I don't need great quality audio out of the speakers (I cannot turn them up anyways) but I don't want any crackling sounds.
And I don't want to plug the damn speakers to the front audio port! It is disgusting. Not for the audio quality, not for the looks, but for the ports on the RV03 not liking the stereo jacks. They don't seem to stuck in all the time. I lose the right audio once in a while, and I have to push it in again. >_<
So basically I am looking for a sound card that does the following.
1. 5.1 surround + stereo from direct ports out of the sound card. (I know I will have to connect the speakers to the headphone jack, but there is no other option, other than buying speakers with a digital in right? And they aren't seen on cheap speakers)
From what I read, the X-Fi Titanium does support 5.1 + headphones using the 7.1 outputs. Is that true? I don't need headphone and speakers outputting at the same time, but I don't want to mess with the plugs every time I need to switch the output)
Does Xonar DX or D2X support this feature? Because, THEY say Xonars sound better (while I may not be an audiophile, I wouldn't mind getting the most out of the Kaves) and Creative drivers are crap. (except I don't know how those PAX drivers work) Also, there is a Audiotrak PRODIGY 7.1e X-Fi card with a dedicated headphone jack, but that uses X-Fi Extreme Audio chip, not the real DSP based X-Fi chip.
2. PCI-E connectivity as if I buy a second graphics card, the sound card will be smack in between the two graphics cards and the top graphics card's fan will be disrupted. God help the sound card too! XD
Also note that I can get a second hand Titanium for less than a Xonar DX or half the price of a D2X. (as I cannot find second hand DXs or D2X, but D1 is there but that's PCI)
Or can someone recommend me a solution? I would definitely buy a sound card anyway. Need to kill two birds with one stone.
