Thinking about getting a soundcard

[Excalabur50]

Ok peeps thinking about getting a soundcard NOT a dac as they as far as I know won't drive optical as well as headphones so i'm thinking about the ASUS Strix Raid DLX 7.1 PCI-E Gaming Sound Card any thoughts on this card
Now I know people HATE the Creative cards but the only one that compares to the Asus is the ZXR
The Asus is $279Au
The ZXR is $349Au
I will be driving the Sennheiser Game One's and an Onkyo TX-NR636 with Boston Acoustic speakers and sub
Thanks all

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Why not a soundblaster X7, it has optical too and has recieved good reviews

 

[Excalabur50]

Why not a soundblaster X7, it has optical too and has recieved good reviews

Don't want to pay $529Au for it

 

[tinytomlogan]

Ive got the full X7 set up on my desk. I wont be replacing it anytime soon.....

 

[Excalabur50]

Ive got the full X7 set up on my desk. I wont be replacing it anytime soon.....

I know you do and the fact it's still on your desk speaks volumes but I just don't think I can justify the mahoosive price jump but you both have me thinking that's for sure

 

[SPS]

Considering it's just for headphones just get a headphone amp. You can probs still run optical out of the mobo?

 

[Dicehunter]

I know you do and the fact it's still on your desk speaks volumes but I just don't think I can justify the mahoosive price jump but you both have me thinking that's for sure

I've had a plethora of soundcards and trust me when I say, They aren't worth the price.

Get an external AMP/DAC combo, Better quality, Plug'n'play and no software to go wrong, All hardware based.

 

[Tolemac]

Considering it's just for headphones just get a headphone amp. You can probs still run optical out of the mobo?

That what I do. You can pick up a S.M.S.L headphone amp for pennies on Amazon. I paid £40GBP for mine and it runs from the optical at the back of the mobo. It sounds great as well paired with my Panasonic RP-HTF600 headphones

 

[AlienALX]

I've had a plethora of soundcards and trust me when I say, They aren't worth the price.

Get an external AMP/DAC combo, Better quality, Plug'n'play and no software to go wrong, All hardware based.

Hmm. I tried to game with my Aune valve DAC/amp the other day and it just kept crackling and cutting out. I seem to recall the same issues with gaming before too.

My two favourite sound cards are my D2X and XFI Titanium. IIRC both of them have DACs on them too.

That said the biggest change was when I enabled 192khz on both. OP - see if you can do that. If you can you will notice the difference immediately with high quality WAV rips or FLAC. Then just get an amp.

 

[Lazlo]

... a soundcard NOT a dac as they as far as I know won't drive optical as well as headphones ...
Thanks all

May I ask what you mean by that?

 

[SuB]

Gaming in any way shape or form? - Get a decent Soundcard, most of the Asus Offerings are grand (avoid creative)

Music only - Just get an Amp/DAC

 

[AlienALX]

BTW. I would buy the ZXR. Wouldn't mind one myself. Far better drivers now too.

Gaming in any way shape or form? - Get a decent Soundcard, most of the Asus Offerings are grand (avoid creative)

Music only - Just get an Amp/DAC

I totally agree, apart from the Asus/Creative thing. I prefer my SB Tit (haha) to my D2X. The D2X software is very old and clunky too. Asus have not updated it since launch and it looks terrible.

That said how it all sounds is subjective. I probably just prefer the OP amps in the XFI.

 

[SuB]

XFi is it's own entity, anything X-Fi and older by creative is great, anything ZX / ZXR and newer is pretty trash, might as well use onboard or software. (since it's using software anyway)

 

[NeverBackDown]

Gaming in any way shape or form? - Get a decent Soundcard, most of the Asus Offerings are grand (avoid creative)

Music only - Just get an Amp/DAC

Totally disagree here.
Amp/DAC is better in every situation. In addition what you are doing with it isn't what matters, it's really just the headphones that will end up making it better for gaming or better for music. There are headphones that can do both however.But outside that, external amp/DAC is a much better and simpler route.

The only area it might not be better at is movies for 7.1. but you'd be better off with a receiver at that point

 

[Excalabur50]

Well I need to run my 7.1 ATMOS receiver which is why I need the optical, I tried to use HDMI for the amp BUT due to my screens resolution and high refresh rate it didn't work too well and gave me more trouble than it was worth
I also game alot I play BF, MWO and just bought into Star Citizen, as well as other games periodically and want to drive my Game Ones better than my onboard can
The pluses for the Asus are great quality cards but I've heard lots that they are SH*** on the driver and software side
The pluses for Creative are better drivers for the most part but are SH*** now with the hardware side
Windows 10 drivers are not so good for Asus but a mate of mine has the Zx and he had zero issues with drivers even with the anniversary update to windows
Now if I get a dac and use the onboard for the optical is that going to confuse my system IE to watch a movie am I going to need to unplug the dac cause windows wont see it in the sound menu cause if that turns out to be the case it would drive me mental and I wouldn't buy a dac id just get a soundcard
Thanks all for the responses too BTW

 

[Kilbane]

Optical won't carry ATMOS, or in fact anything above standard 5.1 Dolby DTS. DTS HD or MA and above require a HDMI for the bandwidth required.

 

[Excalabur50]

Optical won't carry ATMOS, or in fact anything above standard 5.1 Dolby DTS. DTS HD or MA and above require a HDMI for the bandwidth required.

Yes true but I can still play my movies in 5.1 which is ok
TBH I just wish it was easier to run HDMI without having to set the receiver up as another screen it's really frustrating how convoluted Windows makes thing that should be simple

 

[SuB]

Totally disagree here.
Amp/DAC is better in every situation. In addition what you are doing with it isn't what matters, it's really just the headphones that will end up making it better for gaming or better for music. There are headphones that can do both however.But outside that, external amp/DAC is a much better and simpler route.

The only area it might not be better at is movies for 7.1. but you'd be better off with a receiver at that point

Disagree all you want, I'm afraid you're wrong. Quite a few games often need soundcards for the proper surround processing, and won't output their full potential without one. Even if it's processing a 7.1 setup into binaural, it always works better on a discreet soundcard designed to do it, even if that's a crappy Creative one using software, it'l still beat the crap out of any stereo DAC in doing it, simply because they aren't designed to do it, the sound 'quality' might be lacking, but 'gaming' sound is very, very different to 'music' sound.

 

[AlienALX]

RE - DAC - tbh this one is subjective. Firstly you needed to be around when music was analogue and then you need to prefer the sound of analogue sound to digital. And again, that all comes down to what you like as a personal preference.

But honestly, relying on one for your gaming is a bit naive. I tried to use mine for gaming and it just went bad. It had no idea what was going on, and there are no driver updates at all for it.

So yeah I am 100% with SuB on that one.

 

[SPS]

Something that supports surround is always going to be better for 3D positional audio.