Lazlo
Member
Hello everybody,
this is my first thread. Hope I'm doing everything right. I would like to hear an opinion of the audiophile peops around.
I have a Z87X-UD4H by Gigabyte which sports the ALC898 Codec. Specs wise its supposed to have a 110dB SNR and a gaming headphone amplifier that is able to drive 600 Ohm Cans.
I have lying around an Asus Xonar Ds soundcard which is supposed to have a 107 db SNR. And I was never really content with the mic in functionality.
I was also thinking about possibly buying a new card.
I'm using a Sennheiser PC-161 Headset ( I would guess that's about medium end) for gaming and creative T20II (good bang for the buck) for normal use. I have seperate HIFI equipment to watch movies and listen to music.
To be honest I didn't recognise a noticeable difference between the new onboard sound and the old Xonar DS i had in my old rig. In contrast to my old board.
Now I'm wondering. Is the ALC898 especially good for onboard? Is the Xonar ds not that good for a discrete sound card? Is my hearing deteriorating? Are my headset and speakers not good enough to hear the difference?
And important question: Should I think about buying a new soundcard.
On a side note with the DS i always had the problem that the mic picked up sound from the headset and there was no option for noise canceling in the software. Do other Xonar cards have this option. The onboard has it and it works like a charm.
Opinions would be greatly apreciated. I'm kind of undecided at the moment.
Greetz Lazlo
this is my first thread. Hope I'm doing everything right. I would like to hear an opinion of the audiophile peops around.
I have a Z87X-UD4H by Gigabyte which sports the ALC898 Codec. Specs wise its supposed to have a 110dB SNR and a gaming headphone amplifier that is able to drive 600 Ohm Cans.
I have lying around an Asus Xonar Ds soundcard which is supposed to have a 107 db SNR. And I was never really content with the mic in functionality.
I was also thinking about possibly buying a new card.
I'm using a Sennheiser PC-161 Headset ( I would guess that's about medium end) for gaming and creative T20II (good bang for the buck) for normal use. I have seperate HIFI equipment to watch movies and listen to music.
To be honest I didn't recognise a noticeable difference between the new onboard sound and the old Xonar DS i had in my old rig. In contrast to my old board.
Now I'm wondering. Is the ALC898 especially good for onboard? Is the Xonar ds not that good for a discrete sound card? Is my hearing deteriorating? Are my headset and speakers not good enough to hear the difference?
And important question: Should I think about buying a new soundcard.
On a side note with the DS i always had the problem that the mic picked up sound from the headset and there was no option for noise canceling in the software. Do other Xonar cards have this option. The onboard has it and it works like a charm.
Opinions would be greatly apreciated. I'm kind of undecided at the moment.
Greetz Lazlo
to give me some info on the mic in noise canceling features of higher grade / different Xonars it would be still greatly apreciated though.
