Edit: But seriously. Good review. I remember being interested about this a while back. In the end though, since I'm no audiophile, integrated hd audio is fine for me.
I think there is no more inventions and performance inmprovement to gain with any soundcards/onboard audio since about 5 years ago. In fact there is nothing improved/changed/different. They all perform the same, all have the same features and options. the 0,0004 % difference is not going to be heard by anyones ears. (not on pc speakers anyway) You can only see visual differences on the computergenerated graphs. (see! brand B is better then brand A, it has a 0,000001% higher spike in loudness graph) It is just gimmicks, kitch whatever you want to namen it. Like; orange/green/bloo glowing cards, gamer-names branding and the useless "plug-led-indicators" for your wirings, because you setup your speakers and let it be there for years unless you change a mobo, or are moving your gear to a new house whatever. But then its still useless, because why would you move stuff around in the absolute dark, hitting your head against anything under you desk, tripping over your officechair or some lost footpeddals from your racing steer...
Hmmm, not everything it was billed to be, maybe the encoding will be faster on the D3 version!?
Not entirely sure what to go for now, Bindi, from what you have said, it is a good allround card, but the Sondigio (sorry if the spelling is wrong) one sounds like it is just as good, but half the price (from what I have found after the googeling).
Am I to take it that the Creative offerings are not worth it at all?
As a casual gamer I am more concerned about movie and music quality, the games I just need to hear it and not get distorted, and from that view the Xonar sounds pretty good, but is there a better option for less? Because this looks pretty solid
spdif was specificly designed for cheap fiber connections and 75ohm phono cable. Oxygen free cables are a scam, they have never been shown to be any better than non oxygen free cables (it's claimed that oxygen free is better as patches of copper oxide form diodes inside the cable and so the cable has a different impedance for one phase of the ac signal to the other producing distortion but this is complete BS). The included cables should be fine, most of the time spdif works without proper 75ohm cable anyway.
Regardless spdif is more of a consumer digital audio standard, the clock is derived from the data stream (to save money by just using two stand wire) and as such it's quite common to have the reciving device sensing the signalking level at the wrong time and thus getting incorrect data (thus distortion). I2S is a better standarrd and is what is used between cdplayer transports and their DAC's but I don't see any consumer cards with this connection standard (probobly because it would use the entire back plate up).
After I am doing reading the reviews on this soundcard and if everything is GOOD, you better believe that I will be ordering it as soon as I get some money in my hand. The hell with creative. they god some serious problems over there.
Originally Posted by wafflesomd I doubt any involved with live sound reinforcement would even consider this card.
when you wind up as the DJ for informal parties at uni, and are on a budget, then an X-Fi is the best choice.
doesn't mean I wouldn't like to have some pro DJ equipment, I just can't afford it. :'(
the reason we can go as high as 2900 watts is we're slightly off campus, which is rural anyway, and the sound engineering students can borrow speakers and amps but not anything more. ( use my friend's decoder, which normally feeds the 7.1 in the room)
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Edit: But seriously. Good review. I remember being interested about this a while back. In the end though, since I'm no audiophile, integrated hd audio is fine for me.
Any1 knows if NV will launch a SoundStorm again?
Not entirely sure what to go for now, Bindi, from what you have said, it is a good allround card, but the Sondigio (sorry if the spelling is wrong) one sounds like it is just as good, but half the price (from what I have found after the googeling).
Am I to take it that the Creative offerings are not worth it at all?
As a casual gamer I am more concerned about movie and music quality, the games I just need to hear it and not get distorted, and from that view the Xonar sounds pretty good, but is there a better option for less? Because this looks pretty solid
Regardless spdif is more of a consumer digital audio standard, the clock is derived from the data stream (to save money by just using two stand wire) and as such it's quite common to have the reciving device sensing the signalking level at the wrong time and thus getting incorrect data (thus distortion). I2S is a better standarrd and is what is used between cdplayer transports and their DAC's but I don't see any consumer cards with this connection standard (probobly because it would use the entire back plate up).
I hope so.
the midi is good, and I might get one because of that (more ASIO outputs! )
Kewl review.
Not yet, but I've just spoken to Asus and the guy believed it was in the pipeline.
Secondly: Does this board output surround over spdif optical? Did you test it with a surround reciever?
Thanks
The RCA jacks are dual jack with optical, the adapter for a Toslink is supplied in the box.
Thx for the Review!
P.S. Fusion
Thanks for the reply. Could you possibly post a pic of the adapter?
I doubt any involved with live sound reinforcement would even consider this card.
when you wind up as the DJ for informal parties at uni, and are on a budget, then an X-Fi is the best choice.
doesn't mean I wouldn't like to have some pro DJ equipment, I just can't afford it. :'(
the reason we can go as high as 2900 watts is we're slightly off campus, which is rural anyway, and the sound engineering students can borrow speakers and amps but not anything more. ( use my friend's decoder, which normally feeds the 7.1 in the room)
Middle image, page 1. The four things in the circle. The pic is clickable.
You're so lazy :P