trawetSluaP
Member
Hi all, decided to grab a set of MMX 300s and was wondering which soundcards you guys would recommend to drive them!
Soundcard for MMX 300s
- Thread starter trawetSluaP
- Start date
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
If it's within your budget I can highly recommend the Creative Sound BlasterX AE 5 for £111, REALLY damn good soundcard and from my own experience it slightly beats out the older Asus STXII.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cre...ng-51-sound-card-dac-black-w-rgb-aurora-light
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cre...ng-51-sound-card-dac-black-w-rgb-aurora-light
Last edited:
trawetSluaP
Member
Have looked at that one. Have £200 to spend and then saw the ROG Claymore on sale at £150, so I only really wanna spend £50 haha. Seen the Creative Z for £50 on Scan's site too, would that be good enough?
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
I've had the Z and it's utter trash, Do yourself a favor and save up for a few weeks to get something decent.
trawetSluaP
Member
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Yeah the Z is trash. My buddy had one and was just buggy as all heck.
Personally I would never get a soundcard I go with external DAC/AMP units. They are cheaper and actually sound better. Though the cheap ones only let you use 1 headphone and doesn't have expandability to a surround sound setup
Personally I would never get a soundcard I go with external DAC/AMP units. They are cheaper and actually sound better. Though the cheap ones only let you use 1 headphone and doesn't have expandability to a surround sound setup
trawetSluaP
Member
What would you recommend?
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
The Fiio E10k is a popular cheaper option. If you want a dedicated MIC you'd have to plug it into the motherboard. The E10k can only output to Headphones/headsets(with a built in mic) or a line out (3.5mm connection) to a stereo or something like that.
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Comes down to 1 choice that you may want to think about also.
Do you want extra clutter on your desk ?
Do you want extra clutter on your desk ?
trawetSluaP
Member
Not really. I like my desk space to be smart and clean..
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
I've tried, Extensively, The Asus STXII which is an immense soundcard, External AMP/DAC combos and the new Sound Blaster AE5, The latter being brilliant.
I know there are the elitists out there that say "AMP/DAC or nothing !!!" but if you aren't a recording master looking for that last millionth of a Hz then you won't notice the difference.
I have the Soundblaster AE5 and an external Beyerdynamic clone AMP/DAC and the difference now is so small in quite a lot of scenarios i.e games, Music etc....Yes with the soundcard you have drivers but that's not a bad thing.
Last edited:
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
The clutter from a Fiio E10k is so small. That thing is tiny and can be hidden. You're just gonna see the cables from the headset. Not any different from a sound card
And you can't hear a difference because the Beyer A20 clone is trash as is the A20 itself. You need something better to hear the difference.
The Fiio E10k is better than any sound card I've heard, yeah it goes on the desk but it's tiny so I don't see it as a negative. It's really just whatever you want OP. I'm just giving options. Knowing your options before making a choice is always nice to have.
trawetSluaP
Member
Indeed. So is the Fiio at £60 gonna be a significant improvement over a £100 Gaming branded sound card?
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Even if it wasn't saving that much money is worth it alone in my opinion. You will lose out on the "virtual surround" stuff but honestly I find it all to be useless and cannot hear a difference. Unless you need virtual surround for a stereo setup it's wasted on a headphone.
trawetSluaP
Member
looz
Active member
Actually, the newest W10 supports virtual surround, though dolby atmos requires a store purchase and is bit of a hassle. So technically you don't even lose out on that, even if the benefits can be questionable.
Plenty of games support decent virtual surround though, and many have Atmos built in.
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Actually, the newest W10 supports virtual surround, though dolby atmos requires a store purchase and is bit of a hassle. So technically you don't even lose out on that, even if the benefits can be questionable.
Plenty of games support decent virtual surround though, and many have Atmos built in.
Yeah true but you can still hear everything even without surround sound. Heck I can hear it through a 2.0 speaker setup in R6S.
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Actually, the newest W10 supports virtual surround, though dolby atmos requires a store purchase and is bit of a hassle. So technically you don't even lose out on that, even if the benefits can be questionable.
Plenty of games support decent virtual surround though, and many have Atmos built in.
I actually use the Dolby Atmos feature from the Windows store on my Rift headphones, Makes such a brilliant difference, Well worth it IMO.
