Non-Audiophile's attempt to decide on a card based on Surround and SPDIF/Digitia

[DarkPurity]

It's straightforward enough. Recently, I decided to get a new sound card and posted here about trying to select one. Really, it turned into my realizing that for all of the knowledge I have involving video cards, processors, software, cooling schemes, how to buy unrefined uranium on Amazon (yes, you can do that), etc, that all of my knowledge of Sound Cards was archaic.

I also found out that the Xonar vs Creative Z debate is less objective and feature based than the one about AMD vs nVidia. All of them have great features and solid sound compared to onboard video, but I've been emulating 3D surround in a headset via the EarForce DSS (or so I thought) sound processor. My motherboard is a P8Z68-V PRO from Asus and while it turned out I had optical out, I was still getting better sound out of the Earforce when "Dolby Bypass" was selected. Otherwise, it ran off of a ProAudio emulator in the box. I tried the optical connection for the first time this morning, only to find out that while the sound was AMAZING in comparison, it was definitely only giving me 2.1 stereo when I did not select "Dolby Bypass" on the box.

If you've looked on the internet about "which soundcard has the best Optical Out" then I'm sure most have run into "It's ones and zeros, it doesn't matter" or "all optical out is the same, might as well use the onboard sound". I discovered today that such claims are quite false. I nearly had abandoned my search for a sound card because of all of that inaccurate advice, when I discovered that the output from the motherboard was NOT encoded Dolby Digital. The indicators on the Earforce DSS showed that while a digital connection was present and functioning, it was not DD 5.1 or 7.1. The "Dolby Bypass" to allow the motherboard to do the real work actually sounded BETTER. Also, it was 48khz out or nothing, and when my rather significant air cooling kicks up, noise is audible on the line.

Since then, I've selected the Asus Xonar XD audio card, for both broad compatibility with DACs and functional, clear surround whether I go with the optical connection or the analog connection that leads to my headphone.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, for those out there who are comparing cards based on DIGITAL audio, there IS a difference. And if you're looking for a good card for gaming, this isn't an eliminated option. The questions to ask yourself seem to be this:

1. Are you going analog, or digital? If digital, most of the "goodies" in the soundcard are moot and won't be used. Those "goodies" are used to enhance the analog sound.

2. If you're going digital, is your DAC going to decode Dolby Digital or DTS? There's a difference, and many cards are one or the other. In my case, the EarForce is looking for DD. If it receives DTS, it instead uses PLIX and I'm likely to miss out on the benefit of the card upgrade on the optical port. The card I chose plays it safe; I've heard it does both, and even if it doesn't, I can still get fantastic analog sound and possibly at least get 5.1 through the PLIX in the Earforce.

3. Do you have good headphones/speakers? Mine are "OK" as a gaming headset goes (X11s), so I realized that I'd get more long-term benefit from an upgraded soundcard than upgrading my headset now. If you have crappy cans or crappy drivers (speakers), then you won't get as much benefit from the soundcard until you resolve that problem. My headphones will be what gets love next.

I chose the Xonar XD out of the Xonar lineup because I read that it handles DD and if I don't go digital to my EarForce DSS, I'll at least use it for the amp and use the bypass. I just wanted to share how I got there, since there aren't many "for dummies" optical audio sources that crop up quickly on Google.

 

[NiHaoMike]

I remember reading about some software package that did the Dolby encoding. Not sure if the latency is good enough for gaming, but it might be worth a try if you can find it.

I'm pretty sure your onboard audio can do 96kHz and maybe 192kHz. 48kHz stuff is really old by now.

But if it turns out onboard is not enough, just look for a sound card with the features you need if you're only using the digital. The higher end models have better analog stuff but often the same chipset.

 

[\dev\goat]

Unfortunately, there is no point to distributing music in 24-bit/192kHz format. Its playback fidelity is slightly inferior to 16/44.1 or 16/48, and it takes up 6 times the space.

http://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

There is some good reading material to help you understand why sample rates above 16-bit 48khz are really stupid. Unless you're a sound engineer trying to perfect a digital mix.

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As far as Dolby Live compatibility, most of the onboard audio chips I've owned in various motherboards have displayed some type of Dolby Live functionality on their specifications. Then after you've purchased it and you're messing around in the drivers trying to enable it, it's nowhere to be found. They haven't paid for the license to use the tech in the driver, but the chip supports it.

Creative was doing this for a long time on the Audigy line of products... You had to pay 5 dollars on the website after you had purchased the card, to be able to use the Dolby Live feature.


Noise from your air cooling shouldn't be leaking into your digital audio at any sample rate. That seems like another issue.

Keeping the above 3 points in mind, there really is negligible difference in sound cards these days from a consumer's point of view, if you're going to be using digital audio. It's all marketing and trickery. (Unless you're running analog audio)

 

[NiHaoMike]

While your ears can't hear above 20kHz or so, some microphones can. Some Kinect games use that to enhance motion tracking and there's even a program out there that plays ultrasonic tones to detect presence and automatically blank the screen for power saving. (The latter is intended for laptops.)

Also, going to 24-bit and some integral multiple of the sample rate allows the signal to be antialiased. (Going to a non integral multiple of the sample rate can introduce distortion of its own.) It can smooth out the waveform by adding intermediate values. A good analog filter does that as well, but it's much easier to do it digitally nowadays. Note that many modern digital amplifiers do that internally in the DSP (they interpolate all the way up to the PWM frequency, which is an integral multiple of the input sample rate for most designs) so don't expect much, if any improvement.

 

[DarkPurity]

http://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

There is some good reading material to help you understand why sample rates above 16-bit 48khz are really stupid. Unless you're a sound engineer trying to perfect a digital mix.

At the risk of sounding like a nerdy Volus, I have "high performance needs" but am on a budget. I can say that my onboard audio IS 48khz only, any attempt to play back other frequencies is either silent or pops and crackles with no "actual audio", just the pops. But yeah, on the software development end I sometimes get roped into musical composition, sound engineering, etc.

As far as Dolby Live compatibility, most of the onboard audio chips I've owned in various motherboards have displayed some type of Dolby Live functionality on their specifications. Then after you've purchased it and you're messing around in the drivers trying to enable it, it's nowhere to be found. They haven't paid for the license to use the tech in the driver, but the chip supports it.

Part of why I picked the Xonar is because there are community-made drivers for it. I've always hated this part of marketing; it's like selling a DeLorean on E-Bay and claiming it's Fusion Powered because it has the BTTF "Mr. Fusion" cosmetic attachment. "Works great...if you build your own trash-powered breeder reactor".

Noise from your air cooling shouldn't be leaking into your digital audio at any sample rate. That seems like another issue.

Actually I noticed it a little on analog at well, it's just not audible at lower volumes, where it is on lower volumes with the digital line. It's probably the onboard card altogether.

Since the DSS is what functions as an amp for my headphones, and the headphone boost is not present on the DX, what powered headsets are recommended as a replacement when I upgrade my headphone? I ask because if the DSS which basically exists for its DD processing doesn't provide a better experience than the analog connection, I'll want a headset with some sort of amp.