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Asus Xonar DX sound card vs. HDMI video card for listening to music [not movies]

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c627627

c627627

c(n*199780) Senior Member
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Feb 18, 2002
My video card is nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti PNY XLR8 which can bitstream on some Blu-ray software so it is better for HD sound than my sound card Asus Xonar DX.


But is HDMI video out better or worse for non-HD sound music or games?


Side question: I'm still not 100% clear on if TrueHD audio of non-copyright material can be done through Windows XP or Windows Vista/7/8 only?
 
Last edited:
With my Xonar Essance I make sure everything comes out of the sound card. But then again I have it hooked up to my sound system via analogue toslink.

I think I'm inclined to say that the HDMI might give a better sound than direct from the back of the sound card. Technically HDMI would give a better connection.
 
Whether it sounds better or not should be entirely dependent upon what DAC and speakers exist on the other end of the cable.
 
I am not sure I understand, the question is not about bitstreaming TrueHD Blu-ray sound, it is about playing an Audio CD directly from your computer to your stereo, a crappy sound card will be worse than a very good sound card, right? So speakers are important but irrelevant to the question:

Uncompressed Audio CD files through video card HDMI vs. through toslink Xonar DX?
 
c627627 said:
I am not sure I understand, the question is not about bitstreaming TrueHD Blu-ray sound, it is about playing an Audio CD directly from your computer to your stereo, a crappy sound card will be worse than a very good sound card, right? So speakers are important but irrelevant to the question:

Uncompressed Audio CD files through video card HDMI vs. through toslink Xonar DX?
Click to expand...

Sound card quality is relevant only if you've got 3.5mm (or whatever) cables going straight from the sound card to your speakers. If the HDMI and toslink are going to the same device, then the output produced ought to be identical. Filters and effects imposed by the Asus or nVidia drivers are a separate matter.
 
OK, so whoever connects their video card to their stereo system using HDMI... they no longer need a sound card [as long as they only use that stereo system for sound], correct?
 
petteyg359 said:
Your GPU is a sound card - it just happens to lack analog output.
Click to expand...

I was never really sure about this.

Do you know if anyone has ever done a comparison between a high end sound card and the hdmi audio that comes out of a amd or nvidia sound card?

I know technically HDMI is suppose to be better than toslink.
 
kmo_9000 said:
I was never really sure about this.

Do you know if anyone has ever done a comparison between a high end sound card and the hdmi audio that comes out of a amd or nvidia sound card?

I know technically HDMI is suppose to be better than toslink.
Click to expand...

Digital audio is digital audio. It can be encoded differently, but the actual audio data should be the same on any device. The quality changes happen in the DAC (hence the market for expensive OPAMP replacement chips) and electric-to-kinetic (speakers) stages.

Cable X or cable Y is irrelevant, as long as all of the bits are getting across the wire.
 
I just took out my sound card completely. Thanks for the advice and for posting petteyg359.


Do you know why unencrypted TrueHD cannot be played on Windows XP and requires Vista/7/8?
 
It appears that only Sound Card can encode surround sound from a game into a Dolby Digital format to be sent to the receiver.

This would mean that I should not get rid of the sound card as HDMI out on the video card cannot be used for Dolby Ditigal Live games use?
 
DDL is not a feature of all chips, since it is something that has to be paid for to be used. it is not a feature that any video card will have unless you want to pay more for it and NV/ati are willing to do it. the solution they offer is much cheaper keeping the cost down they card for the cards. retail wise if they added a chip to do DDL you might be looking at another 50-100 on top of what you pay now for them. that would also mean higher power usage and different design of the card. as it will take a bit of processing power to do DDL processing in real time.
 
In other words, since I have a Xonar DX sound card, which does have Dolby Digital Live (DDL) feature, it would be best for me to have default sound go through the video card (because video card can do Blu-ray HD audio) and then switch to Sound Card only when/if playing video games with DDL feature. Definitely not take out and sell the sound card then.

Thank you Evilsizer.


I guess the revised view would be to either have a DDL sound card or no sound card at all in your system, if you can use an HDMI cable to get the sound out of your system.
 
well i use the sound card for all my audio needs. as it does pass through the already encoded signal to the receiver from bd movies. really just letting it handle all the digital audio makes sense and is easier. im not sure why you would switch back and forth between the two.

think of the optical link as a network cable, it is going to pass through any data it sees. the audio type or format that gets played is coming from the disc or what ever data source you have. then at the end for audio formats is what ever your receiver can do. as in TrueHD from you bd gets pass right to the receiver and is decoded by the receiver as such. unless you have a older receiver that just decodes that signal to DD. as TrueHD signal is both DD and trueHD in a sense when the receiver sees it.

hope that clears a few things up...
 
It cleared things up as far as not getting rid of the card cabpable of DDL as the sound card is *required* for Dolby Digital Live.

In the last post however, you seem go be saying that TrueHD can be sent through toslink. HDMI is required for TrueHD and DTS-HD. You cannot use a sound card without HDMI for TrueHD and DTS-HD. Xonar DX and most sound cards cannot pass TrueHD or DTS-HD, as HDMI is required for that.


If you do movies moreso than games therefore, video card should be used as default sound > then manual switching to sound card for gaming with DDL. And vice versa if you game moreso than watch Blu-rays.
 
hmmm then im lost how the sound card wouldnt be able to do true HD or DTS-hd for that matter. since the audio path or stream is still encrypted be it sent via HDMI or the sound card optical output. guess i need to go do a bit of reading...
 
The sound card does not have HDMI, required for TrueHD and DTS-HD, that is why.


Also, it appears you cannot do TrueHD/DTS-HD under Windows XP no matter what. Windows Vista/7/8 are required.
 
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