Which sound card would you buy?

[Seinken]

Hey guys, I'm kinda torn about two different cards, for my new rig I bought a PCIe version of their X-Fi -- which happens to not be an X-Fi at all, not to mention the myriad of problems I've run into, such as people in Ventrilo sounding kind of like ... I dunno, an alien? it's only when I'm tabbed into CS:S.

The card I currently own also randomly cuts out, it is on the PCIe bus and it shares an IRQ with the 8800gtx I have but I don't know if it's supposed to be like that or not, not that I can change it anyway.

The two cards I am considering to replace it:

ASUS Xonar D2X (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132005)

Creative Fatal1ty (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005)

One of my good friends has the Fatal1ty and says it's a great card, I don't have anything to go on about the Xonar except it looks pretty ;).

Anyone have any personal experience or could recommend a better purchase?

[Trap05]

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude - The Xonar doesn't have the EAX support for gaming and Auzentech actually makes Creative fix broken drivers which is impressive in and of itself :)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156005&Tpk=prelude

[Seinken]

Alright I'll give that one consideration too, might wait for a bit more input and I'll do some google searchin' on it.

[Spion]

The Xonar has EAX capabilities :)
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=1989&modelmenu=1
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=245434
so far as i know it works by translating EAX calls into DS3D GX calls.

[Trap05]

3D Gaming Sound Engines/APIs
Vista: DirectSound3D® GX 1.0, EAX®2.0&1.0, DirectSound® HW, DirectSound SW, A3D®1.0, OpenAL generic modes, 128 3D sounds processing capability
XP: EAX®2.0&1.0, DirectSound® HW, DirectSound SW, A3D®1.0, OpenAL generic modes, 128 3D sounds processing capability

Are we on EAX 5.0 or 6.0 these days? Point is unless you get an X-Fi or and X-Fi Prelude you won't get the newest EAX support for games. I'm sure I read Creative doesn't lisence EAX above 2.0 to anyone else.

[Spion]

actually it does up to EAX 5.0 (the lastest version)

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36243/135/%3Cbr%20/%3E
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Xonar%20D2X

b. Upgrade to DS3D GX 2.0

doing a quick google search will tell you that DS3D GX 2.0 supports up to EAX 5.0. So yes, the Asus Xoanar D2X is a viable alternative to creative's XFI :)

[Trap05]

Hmm good to know. This wasn't the case when I was looking to replace my Audigy 2 ZS a few months ago.

[dealmaster]

What do you guys think of the Razer Barracuda AC-1? It's on sale at buy.com for $60 and I have the $20 off coupon. I was thinking of getting it to replace my faithful Audigy 2 ZS. I know at their regular price they're a ripoff, but how about at the discounted price?

[nd4spdbh2]

What do you guys think of the Razer Barracuda AC-1? It's on sale at buy.com for $60 and I have the $20 off coupon. I was thinking of getting it to replace my faithful Audigy 2 ZS. I know at their regular price they're a ripoff, but how about at the discounted price?

that would be a step backwards lol... if you already have an audigy 2 zs there isnt much point in upgrading..


If you want a great sound card at a good price... look for the X-FI Xtrememusic... its the same card as the highest end model X-FI's minus xram and the front bay drive thing.... I love my xtreme music fo sho... espically because i got it for 50 bucks haha.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=313-4369&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=27530&lid=627063


If you want a bloddy fuggin amazing sound card and price dont scare you... the Auzentech X-FI prelude HANDS DOWN!

[resoluteK]

I think Fry's still has the x-fi music for $50 in store. That's where I got mine (was a oem package).

I also have two Razer AC-1's and think they're a very good value at $40-$50 from buy.com.. I use them for the optical out to my 7.1 HT setup. Because of this, the sound quality blows away my piddly 2.1 setup that the x-fi is hooked up to. Consequently, I can't really compare the sound quality, but I'm satisfied with both products for their different uses.

[RedSkull]

+1 for the auzen prelude. Ive been incredibly satisfied with it so far.
the dolby digital connect works and sounds great for gaming.
and actually to my surprise the ASIO support for music creation is pretty damn good I can run it at actual latency in my host app ~44.1k24bit
Input 6.99ms
Output 3.26ms (more than adequate for live drumming off VST samplers)
it hasnt crackled or skipped a bit yet so ive been holding off on an external box for DAW work