Soundcard advise

[Azurite]

Thinking about getting me one of these: CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI TITANIUM HD

I believe ive heard that Creative are the leaders for soundcrads. Asus have some interesting cards also, and i like the ASUS XONAR ESSENCE ST. Would like a boost of sound especially when i play music. Whats your opinion/advice?

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Before you get a sound card consider HDMI out of your GPU.

But go with the ASUS Xonar. reason being is it doesn't suffer from crippled Creative drivers. But both will satisfy you very well.

 

[rwiuviberwVFIUBER]

Before you get a sound card consider HDMI out of your GPU.

But go with the ASUS Xonar. reason being is it doesn't suffer from crippled Creative drivers. But both will satisfy you very well.

What do you mean crippled? Just curious as I was thinking of getting the Fatal1ty

 

[trazomfr]

Asus essence ST / STX is an excellent choice. These are typical audiophile cards and you can change the original AOP to adapt the sound as you wish.

 

[Azurite]

Asus it is then. Tx for replies

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

What do you mean crippled? Just curious as I was thinking of getting the Fatal1ty

For a long time Creative has had drivers that would crash, thus causing a game to crash BFBC2 is most noted for this. I am not 100% sure if they fixed it yet but my sound blaster in a fairly new rig i just built has had the Creative driver not work already. Also i am not 100% sure if it is will ALL the creative line. But i do know that the Titanium series as well as the one i have suffer from it.

Other wise they are good cards, go ahead and take your chances, i doubt you'll have any issues. But for me, i prefer not to buy a device with noted driver issues. (video cards don't count)

 

[Excalabur50]

I have just given away my soundblaster titanium as the card was ok but the drivers are absolute garbage i will never buy creative again if you want a card go Asus!

 

[BaMb1N0]

i personally think that creative have made and still do some really, really nice hardware. where they screw it up is with the drivers, just like AMD/ATI. i had been using creative stuff for almost 15 years. about a year ago i switched to an asus xonar D2X which i have been really happy with so far. no driver issues whatsoever. but it's not really a gaming card, more like home theater and hifi. the creative ones are just better supported in games. not that the asus ones wouldn't work but there may be one feature or another that's not around for you when using a xonar. on the other hand i personally think xonar's audio quality is higher in general.

in use with:

Toslink@Onkyo TX-SR605E with Canton Chrono 501 flatspeakers on my desk.

in use for:

music, movies, games

 

[dipzy]

I think the Asus ST/STX requires an additional card like the one below if you want to use 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speakers

 

[fcb]

I think the Asus ST/STX requires an additional card like the one below if you want to use 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speakers

Yup, that extra card provides all the needed connectors for the diff channels of 5.1 and 7.1. I believe the Op Amps are also changeable on this additional card: Xonar H6.

http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_H6/

 

[SparkleDJackson]

The st and the hdav1.3 are the only ones compatible with the h6. But you can pick up the h6 for 20-30 quid. Also the st and the stx use a different slot than eachother aswell. Prob not an issue tho. I returned my xfi titanium to overclockers and will be getting the st and h6 with it as i had already bought the thing cos it was fairly inexpensive then i head about the driver issues

 

[fcb]

The st and the hdav1.3 are the only ones compatible with the h6. But you can pick up the h6 for 20-30 quid. Also the st and the stx use a different slot than eachother aswell. Prob not an issue tho. I returned my xfi titanium to overclockers and will be getting the st and h6 with it as i had already bought the thing cos it was fairly inexpensive then i head about the driver issues

ST is based on the PCI, while STX is using the PCI-E. I don't think there is too much of a diff in performance. Component wise, everything on the soundcard should be the same.

I haven't tried the STX, although I currently have the ST. If you're looking for 5.1 setup, I'd definitely go for the DX. The DX is a really good card. For the price it performs exceptionally. No driver problems thus far.

The Creative X Fi Titanium that I have doesn't have any problems though. Drivers are working as they should. But, I must say that Creative software has a lot of stuff included.