Best soundcard?

[rezo]

I have a pair of Audio Technica ATH M50Xs, my old ASUS Xonar DX broke so I'd like to buy a new soundcard. The onboard sound of my Gigabyte Z390 board is ♥♥♥♥♥ compared to the soundcard so id like to buy another one.

What is better between the;

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX

and

Asus Xonar DGX

which one is a better choice? Or are there better options out there (that are reasonably priced)

[🪻🧋Sylvie💮🍃]

Get Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5.

[_I_]

creative quit making good drivers for win7+
get the xonar

[rezo]

Ill probably get the Xonar SE because it has a rating of 116dB which is comparable to my old one which sounded very good when listening to Spotify or FLAC. The Sound Blaster X AE-5 is 122dB but is also £130 so no thanks xd

I know the snr dB rating isnt what makes it good but its the only thing that they like to show off;

"It delivers up to 32-bit 384kHz playback with a 122dB DNR, ultra-low distortion and jitter."

so its easily comparable I suppose.

[Ulfrinn]

id rather just get an external USB or SPDIF DAC if i wanted good audio

[xSOSxHawkens]

First, ignore those saying it wont be worth it, most either have never tired hardware audio, or have not done so in the past 5-10 years thinking its no longer needed.

I have not met a *single* person who has *actually* used a modern HW Audio Card that hasnt thought it was amazing!

That said, if you plan to game go for the SB-Z, it has much better positional audio.

If you plan to go for movies and media consumption go for an external DAC/AMP.

The Soundcard will give you 99% of the quality of the external but with *much better 3D positional audio*!!!

The external will give you ~1-2% better quality for pure 1:1 exact reproduction, but will *NOT* have any type of 3D suppot for advanced game effects.

I personally think that unless you have a $10K+ sound system the SB-Z is the better choice.

Originally posted by _I_:

creative quit making good drivers for win7+
get the xonar

Fake News...

Their Win 7 drivers *at launch* sucked.

Their Windows 10 drivers *at launch* were OK.

They have updated and working windows 10 drivers for their X-Fi era cards and newer. Considering X-Fi cards are from the XP Era and still supported EAX5 I am not sure how much older you want them to support...

Your not still truing to use an Audigy line card are ya? Those were EOL back in 2007...

[Kaihekoa]

I switched to a sound card from external DAC/amp and think it's great. All depends on the card though. For stereo audio, the EVGA Nu Audio is superb.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Don't waste your money on Xfi or Audigy, those are very old, look at the AE5 or look towards a Usb dac + amp

[Ulfrinn]

personally, i just bought a $30 USB surround sound adapter from hyperx. it gives me dolby digital headphone with any pair of stereo headphones and it makes a HUGE improvement to sound quality

[xSOSxHawkens]

Originally posted by BurntByHellfire:

personally, i just bought a $30 USB surround sound adapter from hyperx. it gives me dolby digital headphone with any pair of stereo headphones and it makes a HUGE improvement to sound quality

Thats a good step up. I have a few dif DD certified USB haedphone adapters like that.

Imagine that difference between regular onboard and that, now double it again Thats the quality of true hardware level. I would easily say the quality of the hardware level surround to be about twice that of DD Headphone, which itself is about twice over regular on board.

Odly enough I find that high end realtek is better than USB Dolby Digital Headphone. Just dont use the Realtek surround, run regular stero and configure using game menus in those that support it. But again, this is only for the top end models of realtek with isolated cirutry and such, otherwise the DD-Heaphone USB still works out better.

None are as good as a good sound card though...

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Don't waste your money on Xfi or Audigy, those are very old, look at the AE5 or look towards a Usb dac + amp

SB-Z is still a decent option.

Also, sadly, if wanting to run 7.1 analog multichanel to a home theater amp off the sound card, an older PCIe X-Fi will be the only option. Creative went down to 5.1 out only on the cards with Z and beyond and use the extra jack as a dedicated powered headphone port. X-Fi was the last to have 7.1, but they do have updated drivers (last I checked, they had more up to date drivers than the Z series lol). Personally I have always found CMSS-3D to sound better than SBX-Pro Studio 3D anyways, though the modern ProStudio drivers are *much* nicer.

[Ulfrinn]

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

Originally posted by BurntByHellfire:

personally, i just bought a $30 USB surround sound adapter from hyperx. it gives me dolby digital headphone with any pair of stereo headphones and it makes a HUGE improvement to sound quality

Thats a good step up. I have a few dif DD certified USB haedphone adapters like that.

Imagine that difference between regular onboard and that, now double it again Thats the quality of true hardware level. I would easily say the quality of the hardware level surround to be about twice that of DD Headphone, which itself is about twice over regular on board.

Odly enough I find that high end realtek is better than USB Dolby Digital Headphone. Just dont use the Realtek surround, run regular stero and configure using game menus in those that support it. But again, this is only for the top end models of realtek with isolated cirutry and such, otherwise the DD-Heaphone USB still works out better.

None are as good as a good sound card though...

its quite a step up in price though to get a good DAC.. the FIIO K10 is like $75.. also, im cautious if it'd really sound that much better because the sort of "echo" that DD adds to voices for example makes them sound so much more natural, and fuller

[xSOSxHawkens]

Originally posted by BurntByHellfire:

Originally posted by xSOSxHawkens:

Thats a good step up. I have a few dif DD certified USB haedphone adapters like that.

Imagine that difference between regular onboard and that, now double it again Thats the quality of true hardware level. I would easily say the quality of the hardware level surround to be about twice that of DD Headphone, which itself is about twice over regular on board.

Odly enough I find that high end realtek is better than USB Dolby Digital Headphone. Just dont use the Realtek surround, run regular stero and configure using game menus in those that support it. But again, this is only for the top end models of realtek with isolated cirutry and such, otherwise the DD-Heaphone USB still works out better.

None are as good as a good sound card though...

its quite a step up in price though to get a good DAC.. the FIIO K10 is like $75.. also, im cautious if it'd really sound that much better because the sort of "echo" that DD adds to voices for example makes them sound so much more natural, and fuller

If you are going for games and movies and effect go internal Soundblaster and not external DAC.

And yes, it does sound *way* better.

[rezo]

I mean anything sounds better than gigabyte's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ onboard sound, I bought this Z390 board expecting decent audio but it is awful. My old Maximus VII Hero had much better sound so tbh I think a SB-Z is a good bet because its (relatively) cheap and DACs are a bit too extra, I just want decent audio and I usually just play csgo or apex.

I already have a Hifi system with a turntable for high end audio

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Most motherboards have Realtek hd audio, nothing special. No motherboards really already have good onboard audio to be honest.

[tacoshy]

Aorus Z270X Gaming 9 had the Soundblaster ZxR soldered to the Mainboard...

Others have really good ESS Sabre DAC's with Nichion or Burr Brow capacitors. But usually only found on high end boards.

[Talby]

Originally posted by rezo:

I mean anything sounds better than gigabyte's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ onboard sound, I bought this Z390 board expecting decent audio but it is awful. My old Maximus VII Hero had much better sound so tbh I think a SB-Z is a good bet because its (relatively) cheap and DACs are a bit too extra, I just want decent audio and I usually just play csgo or apex.

I already have a Hifi system with a turntable for high end audio

Quite true, if your monitor has a headphone plug try setting your gpu hdmi/display port as your sound output and enable some v-surround like windows sonic - have done that in a pinch and it works well enough

Personally I am using a SB Play!3, and largely prefer the SBX surround since it is tuneable to your liking. Also gets rid of the “Realtek mic hiss” that is very common, and why I got it in the first place.