If you want to buy a sound card get the good one so you don't have to regert later
I would pick Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX sound card, it cost a little more but quality is much better
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soun...TF8&qid=1364587203&sr=1-3&keywords=sound+card
Nope. Nope.
Nope.
That card is one of the worst things you can do.
First of all, Creative's been a mess with the drivers for so long that I can't recommend them to anyone.
Also, I don't like PCBs for sound devices with so little components on them. Sound is an analog phenomenon, you can't just use digital components everywhere and expect it to sound as good as an analog system. It just won't, compare a good vinyl to a MP3 128kbps, for example.
Furthermore, the use of words like "TruStudio Pro" "Recon" "3D" or brands like "THX" trigger a lot of red flags to me. They are almost all gimmicks. My motherboard supports (read, ASUS paid for the licenses of) THX TruStudio Pro. I tried it. I uninstalled it. Not a single of the effects were worth it for me. I would also like to point out that you can buy a license for THX TruStudio Pro and use it on any cheap Realtek codec. And it will work, maybe you have to hack some PCI IDs, but it will work.
And, what about the use of a big chunk of plastic (?) to cover the chip? And the LEDs? I see this as a unit marketed to gamers, not for high quality audio. Clearly, this unit's strong point is that it looks good.
I would also like to point out that it reiterates on digital optical output a lot, when digital output does not require any fancy hardware to work properly. The best digital output is the one with no modifications whatsoever that goes directly to a receiver. And some people defend coaxial as a better media for digital audio than optical.
The high-end amplifier is just a Maxim MAX97220A. Creative's design uses a single chip to handle both the front panel and the I/O output. The MAX97220A can only handle one at a time, disabling one when the other is used. The Xonar has two amplifiers, a Texas Instruments R4580i for the headphones, dedicated, and a New Japan Radio Corp. JRC5532 for the stereo output. This looks way stronger to me than Creative's solution.
I don't doubt Creative hardware skills, but Asus uses Cirrus Logic DACs. They're pretty nice chips, and I would buy those any time if I had to choose between them and Creative's.
And, about the "Core3D". The best consumer-grade sound card right now is the Essence ST (and the two derivatives, Essence STX with PCIe support, and the ROG Phoebus for the gamer market, basically an Essence STX with a beautiful face). That card uses an OxygenHD DSP (relabeled as ASUS Virtuoso AV100/AV200). I'd rather trust C-Medias solution, considered by some as the best PCI DSP than Creative's.
And I've had Creative cards (X-Fi Titanium), and cards that used Creative chipsets (Auzen Bravura). The driver support was horrendous on both, having to rely on third parties (PAX) for the drivers.
