Best soundcard out of these 5 options?

[Kelly Keyboard]

This will be used for strictly a stereo setup (no sub either) using analogue connections only, therefore I want the best analogue sound out of these 4 options. I have a very high end dedicated amp and bookshelf speakers so the limiting factor will alway be these 'mainstream' soundcard, not the actualy audio equipment.

I will be using this primarily for music (95% of my music are mp3's [and of that about 50% are 320Kbps files], the rest are FLAC files) and some movies (ripped XviD/DivX/x264 avi's w/ mp3 stereo soundtrack).

Some very light gaming aswell (i.e. the occasional game of BF2, Oblivion, Doom3, Half-Life 2), although I play games for about 2 hours a week if that.

I've chosen these card as they are the only ones I can buy locally. I live in Australia and do not want buy online because I consider it too much of a hassle (yes I have done it before) and the online range is practically the same and the same price anyway.

***NOTE: ALL PRICES AURE IN AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS***

I do'nt need ANY surround sound/multi speaker support. Things like DTS/DD Live encoding/decoding are worthless to me as I will only be using the analogue portion of the card anyway.

I don't want to spend over $200, unless I can get a much better card for only like $10-20 more, rather than $50-60 more.

So... which one would give me the BEST ANALOGUE SOUND FOR A STEREO SETUP?

Asus Xonar D2/PM - $199.00

Asus Xonar D2X - $$215.00

Auzentech X-Plosion Cinema - $134.00

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer - $169.00

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro - $196.08

My setup:

Win XP SP3
Asus P5B
Q6600 @ 3Ghz
8600GT
WD 500Gb SATA2

Thank you in advance

 

[Socket eh?]

The Auzentech prelude should be in the same price range, but if you can't get that, then just get the extreme gamer. The rest just have features it sounds like you won't be using anyways.

*You can always get your local store to order something for you.

 

[rainless]

The Auzentech prelude should be in the same price range, but if you can't get that, then just get the extreme gamer. The rest just have features it sounds like you won't be using anyways.

*You can always get your local store to order something for you.

Hell... If that's the case he can always just order whatever it is himself and save the profit they'll be making.

I'd go with the Xtremegamer myself... but even that is overkill for what you're trying to do if you're just talking about running stereo. Hell... I just run stereo myself (computer into the PC jack on my TV) and the onboard sound of my two year old DS3 is more than sufficient.

EDIT: If I remember right the P5B has, more or less, the same audio output features of my DS3. Why not just use that since the bulk of your audio is being handled by an external receiver anyway? The cards you listed are really for people with surround sound setups that are possibly outputting directly to digital speakers and don't have receivers.

 

[Hookem]

None of the above for stereo only...There are 2 very nice PCI stereo only cards that pretty much dust all that business up there.

The Audiotrak Prodigy HD2 is a bad to the bone stereo only card...It even has a headphone amp...The real cherry on top of the HD2 is you can roll the opamps and change how the card sounds...Allows you to taylor the sound to your speakers and your paticular taste...And for 75.00 bones you cant beat it with a bat.

http://www.audiotrak.net/products/prodigyhd2/

Another killer card is the ESI Juli...More expensive than the HD2...But...Well check it out for yourself.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan05/articles/esijulia.htm

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/esi-julia/index.html

But if you want the best sound quality then you do not want a PCI solution...What you want is a USB/DAC...Reason ??? A USB/DAC is only seen by your computer as another audio device...No drivers needed...Best thing about them is they are outside the case...The sound quality is not effected by noise associated with spinning fans, power supply's and the computer just doing its thing...Add they are not affected by jitter and you can pretty much bank on them having much better sound quality versus your usual consumer computer sound card.

The Fubar II is a very popular USB/DAC for not much money...Well about 150 not much...You can buy Do It Yourself kits for a good sounding DAC for about 50 bones.

Make no mistake...If you do not care about EAX, surround sound, then you want a USB/DAC.

Especially since you are running out to a amp to power bookshelf speakers.

An intresting solution for you paticular setup is to buy a USB T/Amp...Does away with your reciever...If you have some nice bookshelves you are in business.

I have seen shoot-outs between some pretty nice Denon, Yamaha recievers and a couple of T/Amps...This 200.00 dollar T/Amp was chosen over some 5k recievers by professional audio guys.

Brave new world out there for computer as source high quality sound...Or it is for me anyway.

USB/DAC...The only way to fly for your application.

In my humble opinion of course.

 

[Hookem]

Here is the distributor in Australia for Audiotrak...I will root around for USB/DAC's that can be had in Australia...You would even be better of with the EMU-2020 though...Search around for DAC's DownUnder...You will not be dissapointed.

http://www.audiotrak.net/aboutus/distributors/?c=Australia

 

[Hookem]

http://www.headphones.com.au/pbrowse?catID=2

http://www.headphones.com.au/psingle?productID=239

Good as I can do right now...You might want to go Head-Fi and look in the classifieds for guys in Australia...You will have to join the forums and PM the seller.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/

I will go ahead and make a post a WTB USB/DAC in Australia thread for you.

Really have not heard of any of the DAC's from Headphonics and have no idea where they are related to your location...Here is a google map of their location.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=...31.94155,115.84224&spn=0.005281,0.011759&om=1

Just do yourself a favor and buy a USB/DAC...If not buy either the Audiotrak or ESI-Juli.

Laters from the Lone Star State...YEEEE...HAW...Hookem Horns !!!!! LOL...Sorry bout that.

I'll be back...Hopefully with some links or a seller in Australia from Head-Fi.

 

[Hookem]

Highly recommended by guys in Australia.

http://coemaudio.com.au/Sources/DACs/

 

[Blazing fire]

Nice post tusken!

Am I right to say ESI juli for music, auzen prelude 7.1 for games (because of EAX5)?