thoughts on if i would benifit from a sound card

[Tripp]

well the title says it all really haha, at the moment i am using the on board sound.

i have a pair of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1NHXEQ6NQK4M6KSS0HVN

and a corsair vengeance 1500 headset.

would i benefit from a dedicated sound card, and if so what would you recommend (reasonable price though please) ^_^

thanks

 

[Feronix]

Erh...
Since all your gear appears to be USB you won't even be able to plug them into a sound card with audio connectors. The USB connection would bypass the dedicated sound card in your system (as you'll still have to plug it into the motherboard).

Are your speakers completely USB, or USB for power and audio jacks for sound? Even if the latter, only your speakers would benefit from the sound card.

 

[Tripp]

Erh...
Since all your gear appears to be USB you won't even be able to plug them into a sound card with audio connectors. The USB connection would bypass the dedicated sound card in your system (as you'll still have to plug it into the motherboard).

Are your speakers completely USB, or USB for power and audio jacks for sound? Even if the latter, only your speakers would benefit from the sound card.

the speakers have a 3.5mm input as well as the usb input fella

 

[maniac]

a reasonable price is different for everyone mate, a student may have one idea of a reasonable price, while a single full time worker may have another idea...

being a student myself, I would suggest the asus xonar dg, apart from the fact that I own one, its the best you can get for the price (got mine for 27 eu, new in box), or if you can afford more I would go higher in the asus range, deffo avoid creative though.

 

[Tripp]

a reasonable price is different for everyone mate, a student may have one idea of a reasonable price, while a single full time worker may have another idea...

being a student myself, I would suggest the asus xonar dg, apart from the fact that I own one, its the best you can get for the price (got mine for 27 eu, new in box), or if you can afford more I would go higher in the asus range, deffo avoid creative though.

so sear clear of creative's stuff then haha, well say £50/£60 as a reasonable price

 

[Feronix]

Do you need a proper headphone amp? Even though your current headset will bypass the sound card maybe it's an idea for the future.

 

[SuB]

Unless you can find an X-Fi, don't get a Creative card, the recon3d based stuff is shit. end of.

Look at the Xonar range and pick something for your budget, you can't really go wrong with them tbh mate.

 

[Tripp]

right thanks for all the input guys

 

[SuB]

No probs, let us know what you get and how you get on s'always nice to hear what people think of new sound gear. (Contrary to a lot of very suddenly popular belief (in no small part due to some f'ing stupid and ill-informed youtube videos who have blind followers), I still maintain there is a noticeable, tangible difference)

 

[Dicehunter]

With SuB, Xonar are the dogs hanging bits !!!!!

 

[SuB]

With SuB, Xonar are the dogs hanging bits !!!!!

I still like X-Fi cards, Auzentech are VERY high on my list, I'd still be using a Prelude if it wasn't standard PCI

But yes, I do love my Essence and will likely get a 7.1 version at some point, although it's pointless as my receiver is downstairs

 

[Dicehunter]

I still like X-Fi cards, Auzentech are VERY high on my list, I'd still be using a Prelude if it wasn't standard PCI

But yes, I do love my Essence and will likely get a 7.1 version at some point, although it's pointless as my receiver is downstairs

I use to have the X-FI Titanium fatal1ty Pro and that was an awesome card, Infact I tried it again not too long ago and it sounded better than Creatives Recon line and Z series which I find odd considering it's quite a few years old now when compared to their newer stuff.

 

[barnsley]

My friend has a Xonar DS. Its the dogs bollocks when it actually works. The drivers are pretty unreliable and it'll stop responding on occasions. Its Cheap though. You can really hear the difference.

 

[Dicehunter]

My friend has a Xonar DS. Its the dogs bollocks when it actually works. The drivers are pretty unreliable and it'll stop responding on occasions. Its Cheap though. You can really hear the difference.

They are awesome cards, There's a 3rd party driver around that's meant to be miles better than the officials.

 

[barnsley]

They are awesome cards, There's a 3rd party driver around that's meant to be miles better than the officials.

ooooh I'll have a look . thanks for the heads up! He was even thinking about getting a creative 'card because of how its been.

 

[SuB]

I use to have the X-FI Titanium fatal1ty Pro and that was an awesome card, Infact I tried it again not too long ago and it sounded better than Creatives Recon line and Z series which I find odd considering it's quite a few years old now when compared to their newer stuff.

The newer stuff isn't new, it's rumoured that they've rebadged some really old chips (Either Audigy, or pre-audigy) and called them recon3D they are no-where near as nice/good as the X-Fi series. They then added like 4x the markup and called it a day.

Everything since x-fi has been a step backwards, you only have to look at the components on the recon3d board, or the massive lack-there-of and you can tell they're cheaply made crap now. It's a shame because nothing could touch x-fi chips for games. I guess with windows dropping that sound pipeline they felt it necessary to dispense with x-fi and all the decent processing that went with it.

thus, it seems, the industry continues to be this way

 

[Dicehunter]

ooooh I'll have a look . thanks for the heads up! He was even thinking about getting a creative 'card because of how its been.

Here you go, Apparently these lower latency and are a lot more stable

http://maxedtech.com/

The newer stuff isn't new, it's rumoured that they've rebadged some really old chips (Either Audigy, or pre-audigy) and called them recon3D they are no-where near as nice/good as the X-Fi series. They then added like 4x the markup and called it a day.

Everything since x-fi has been a step backwards, you only have to look at the components on the recon3d board, or the massive lack-there-of and you can tell they're cheaply made crap now. It's a shame because nothing could touch x-fi chips for games. I guess with windows dropping that sound pipeline they felt it necessary to dispense with x-fi and all the decent processing that went with it.

thus, it seems, the industry continues to be this way

I noticed the lack of parts on the recon and z series cards, Compared to the Titanium series they are desolate

 

[SPS]

They are awesome cards, There's a 3rd party driver around that's meant to be miles better than the officials.

Unified Xonar Driver, in my experience it can be a bit hit and miss. They increased DPC latency for me (even though there is a low-latency version). I use Schiit stuff now anyway.

EDIT: You beat me to it

 

[Dicehunter]

Unified Xonar Driver, in my experience it can be a bit hit and miss. They increased DPC latency for me (even though there is a low-latency version). I use Schiit stuff now anyway.

EDIT: You beat me to it

I take no credit, Coffee helped me ^_^

 

[barnsley]

I've sent him the link. Fingers crossed its more stable.
Thanks guys