Typically most of Asusâs products have a shorter shelf-life so, yes, there's probable cause for concern, but an unproven track record is better than a POOR established one.
Oh yeah, you (article writer(s)) said you had a chance to sit down with the engineers......
If you still have their contact info, please DO put in the suggestion about a notebook-compatible version.
There's currently the USB 2.0 "Xonar U1" -- but it doesn't do EAX5 emulation or 24-bit 96-kHz, and it only does STEREO on the analog outputs.
Bought it two weeks ago and use the latest drivers. So far the drivers are less mature than Creatives (I had a x-fi extrememusic)
No EAX in any Dark Engine games which means System Shock 2, Thief 1 and 2. The games simple crash if I enable hardware acceleration + EAX. (Thief 1 I believe uses EAX 1 and SS2 and T2 EAX2)
Originally Posted by Kaleid Bought it two weeks ago and use the latest drivers. So far the drivers are less mature than Creatives (I had a x-fi extrememusic)
No EAX in any Dark Engine games which means System Shock 2, Thief 1 and 2. The games simple crash if I enable hardware acceleration + EAX. (Thief 1 I believe uses EAX 1 and SS2 and T2 EAX2)
Will try more games once I have time.
Try the new patch, it fixes quite a few EAX problems and it's only 250k
Originally Posted by Aterius Gmork Can you recommend a different card (not Creative)? I really do not need all this EAX (or whatever) surround sound gaming enhancing bs, Quake III Arena is already running with more frames than I can handle. I use it for listening to music. No (professional) recording. The thing is... I am a student, and with these headphones I am already playing with fire, there is no way I could spent another £250 on a sound card. I have around £330-£350, preferrably less.
Then perhaps you should consider spending £125 on headphones and £125 on a decent sound card.
£125 will get you a very nice pair of headphones, and certainly good enough quality for an internal soundcard. I'd recommend Grado SR-125's, I have a pair of SR-80's and they're utterly fantastic, others swear by Sennheiser HD595's. Can't help with a sound card though, but there are a few threads in the AV forum about it. :)
So has anyone tried using this card in a game that supports EAX 5/Advanced HD? e.g. F.E.AR., Battlefield 2, GRAW, etc. I have a Xonar D2X with latest drivers and I can't enable EAX Advanced HD... is it really only a DX feature?
Originally Posted by steveo_mcg Why, only a few people could/would make use of them. A discrete sound card, imo, is better than on board for a simple reason, i don't want to listen to every piece of data that is exchanged inside the box.
That's true.
I guess what really bothers me is the representation of this soundcard as being "high end"... It's not.
It's a fancy gamer soundcard, and that's about it. If it was left at that, it would be one thing. However, when you start discussing SNR, channel seperation, noise levels and such, you're really venturing into the audiophile range anyways. When you posit that this is a "high end" card in that light, it's an obvious falsehood.
Even if it's never reviewed, it would be interesting to have the data from a decent (what's a better adjective, professional?) soundcard (m-audio, etc...) for comparative purposes.
I'm producer/dj of electronica and as such I'm not a stranger to audiophiles (hate the hobby) and high end sound equipment. As of right now I'm using a e-mu 1820M. It's a PCI card (2 actually) with a breakout box via cat5. This is a $500 audio card, I'm routing it via balanced TRS cables to KRK RP8's monitors. I have partially treated my area with bass traps and properly placed speakers to reduce phasing and standing waves.
Besides not being in the realm of expertise or the having the viewership to test professional grade sound cards... errmm "audio interfaces" aren't really applicable. Ironically so this card is very bad for gaming, it doesn't support eax, dolby digital or any of those other "consumer grade features" I can run surround sound if I route the input outputs myself. likewise I've managed to get it to use stereo sound for games but it's far from the convenience of say a soundblaster or onboard solution.
does it sound better then a soundblaster or Ac'97?
Absolutely, I can also simultaneously run 8 inputs and 8 outs and sidechain 16 channels through ADAT. I don't think a soundblaster will be doing that any time soon. but the uses are totally different and the need for extremely high quality AD converters are needed in studio settings. Driver quality, input output and software features are what's needed on a consumer grade soundcard. No one worth their salt will be mastering audio on a soundblaster. for reference here's the relevant specs from a 1820M. the biggest difference in terms of computer noise will be using balanced connectors I dont' know of a consumer soundcard that does, save for using optical.
Professional: +4dBu nominal, 20dBu maximum (balanced)
Consumer: -10dBV nominal, 6dBV maximum (unbalanced)
Frequency Response: 0.0/-.35dB, 20Hz â 20 kHz
THD+N (1 kHz at -1dBFS): -105dB (.0006%)
SNR (A-weighted): 120dB
Dynamic Range (1 kHz, A-weighted): 120dB
Stereo Crosstalk (1 kHz at -1dBFS) < -115dB
Mic pre and line inputs-2
Type: TFPro⢠combination microphone preamp and line input
Frequency Response: +0.8/-0.1dB, 20Hz â 20 kHz
Stereo Crosstalk (1 kHz min gain, -1dBFS): < -120dB
Line Input:
Gain Range: -12 to +28dB
Max Level: +17dBV (19.2dBu)
THD+N (1 kHz at -1dBFS, min gain): -94dB (.002%)
Dynamic Range (A-weighted, 1kHz min gain): 100dB
SNR (A-weighted, min gain): 100dB
It's really interesting to see that while many believed sound card biz is dead, almost in every forum sound card or recent Xonar reviews has always got the most of comments or replies.
I'll take it as a sign that people still not satisfied with onboard audio, and still want a decent sound card somehow....
Its been a long time since creative had any genuine competition in the soundcard market and by extension there was a real alternative to buying whatever they were putting out and putting up with terrible driver support, so its definetely an exciting event now it's happenning.
I'm quite tempted to replace my audigy 2 with one of these, though I'm not in a particular hurry to do so yet. I have my suspicions that the small number of occasional stability problems I have experienced are all down to the creative card and its drivers (pull a headphone/speaker lead out while the pc is running = hard crash, run certain multiple audio programs at once = hard crash with looping audio etc, sometimes after a reboot the error reporting will lead back to an known error with creative drivers too, which they seem to have no intent to fix)
I've had an XtremeGamer card for a year. Originally it worked under Vista X64, but *something* (perhaps Windows updates/driver updates) broke the microphone support around 9 months ago.
Creative have washed their hands of it a long time ago because 'it is an OEM card'. This was the final straw, and I vowed to adopt the first reasonably-priced alternative.
And here we have it! I'm going to hold of for a few weeks for financial reasons, but this DX sounds like the card for me.
Creative, it's hopefully the beginning of the end, and quite frankly it's long overdue.
I've got an X-fi collecting dust in my case while I use the on-board audio because Creative never got around to building the linux drivers they promised years ago. A sound card that only works in one OS and requires crawling behind the computer to switch the speakers from the onboard to the discreet every time is pretty useless, and so I'm using the onboard because it works. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't have an extra PCIe slot, i would already have one of these.
Originally Posted by Woodstock if they released a pc-express, i would buy one in a heartbeat (would proably have to import one from the states but i would)
It is PCI-Express. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Article but still retains the high quality hardware, a few Dolby features and the new PCI-Express x1 interface.
I've had one in since last weekend, encountered one issue which is that my zalman 5.1 (6 actual speakers interpreted froma 5.1 signal) don't work properly if I set the control panel to 5.1 in windows and theres reverb/desynched output also on 4 or more speaker settings .. but if I leave that on 2 speakers in the control panel and 5.1 in the windows speaker settings the 5.1 does seem to work properly in games (where I want it to really) and the two speaker setting sounds a little better I think for music/watching things than the old audigy 2 did anyhow, so I'm fairly happy with it.
*edited: my poor ping problem has re-occurred I've justnoticed so perhaps that was entirely unrelated after all.
"When asked, they explained that this is purely because the power from a PSU is far cleaner than it is from the motherboard, meaning you again get far less interference and therefore better quality sound. At least, thats how the theory works."
I noticed that they have now come out with a standard PCI version of this card (sold on Newegg). It has no extra power connector like the PCI-E version does. I would think this changes the truth of what they told you? Otherwise why wouldn't they have added it to the PCI version also?
iirc correctly the pci version was released before the pci-express, so they made the decision either after it was too late to add to the pci edition or to give an advantage (selling point) to the pci-e edition
Originally Posted by tcool93 Just responding to this comment:
"When asked, they explained that this is purely because the power from a PSU is far cleaner than it is from the motherboard, meaning you again get far less interference and therefore better quality sound. At least, thats how the theory works."
I noticed that they have now come out with a standard PCI version of this card (sold on Newegg). It has no extra power connector like the PCI-E version does. I would think this changes the truth of what they told you? Otherwise why wouldn't they have added it to the PCI version also?
The PCI version was out in the first place, the PCI-E one came later.
I originally thought it was due to the PCI-PCIe converter chip on the board, but Asus Taiwan told me directly it was because of "better quality". Whether PCI is simply grounded better or there's some issue with PCI-E I couldn't say for sure.
Comments 51 to 74 of 74
:-)
If you still have their contact info, please DO put in the suggestion about a notebook-compatible version.
There's currently the USB 2.0 "Xonar U1" -- but it doesn't do EAX5 emulation or 24-bit 96-kHz, and it only does STEREO on the analog outputs.
I could sell you the same pair for 4000â¬
...or 4⬠(which ic what they cost) :D
No EAX in any Dark Engine games which means System Shock 2, Thief 1 and 2. The games simple crash if I enable hardware acceleration + EAX. (Thief 1 I believe uses EAX 1 and SS2 and T2 EAX2)
Will try more games once I have time.
Try the new patch, it fixes quite a few EAX problems and it's only 250k
Then perhaps you should consider spending £125 on headphones and £125 on a decent sound card.
£125 will get you a very nice pair of headphones, and certainly good enough quality for an internal soundcard. I'd recommend Grado SR-125's, I have a pair of SR-80's and they're utterly fantastic, others swear by Sennheiser HD595's. Can't help with a sound card though, but there are a few threads in the AV forum about it. :)
I'm producer/dj of electronica and as such I'm not a stranger to audiophiles (hate the hobby) and high end sound equipment. As of right now I'm using a e-mu 1820M. It's a PCI card (2 actually) with a breakout box via cat5. This is a $500 audio card, I'm routing it via balanced TRS cables to KRK RP8's monitors. I have partially treated my area with bass traps and properly placed speakers to reduce phasing and standing waves.
Besides not being in the realm of expertise or the having the viewership to test professional grade sound cards... errmm "audio interfaces" aren't really applicable. Ironically so this card is very bad for gaming, it doesn't support eax, dolby digital or any of those other "consumer grade features" I can run surround sound if I route the input outputs myself. likewise I've managed to get it to use stereo sound for games but it's far from the convenience of say a soundblaster or onboard solution.
does it sound better then a soundblaster or Ac'97?
Absolutely, I can also simultaneously run 8 inputs and 8 outs and sidechain 16 channels through ADAT. I don't think a soundblaster will be doing that any time soon. but the uses are totally different and the need for extremely high quality AD converters are needed in studio settings. Driver quality, input output and software features are what's needed on a consumer grade soundcard. No one worth their salt will be mastering audio on a soundblaster. for reference here's the relevant specs from a 1820M. the biggest difference in terms of computer noise will be using balanced connectors I dont' know of a consumer soundcard that does, save for using optical.
Frequency Response: +/- .05dB, 20Hz â 20 kHz
THD+N (1 kHz at -1dBFS): -110dB (.0003%)
SNR (A-weighted): 120dB
Dynamic Range (1 kHz, A-weighted): 120dB
Stereo Crosstalk (1kHz at -1dBFS): < -115dB
Common-Mode Rejection (60Hz): > 40dB
Analogue line outputs-8
Type: balanced, low-noise, 3-pole low-pass differential filter
Level (software selectable):
Professional: +4dBu nominal, 20dBu maximum (balanced)
Consumer: -10dBV nominal, 6dBV maximum (unbalanced)
Frequency Response: 0.0/-.35dB, 20Hz â 20 kHz
THD+N (1 kHz at -1dBFS): -105dB (.0006%)
SNR (A-weighted): 120dB
Dynamic Range (1 kHz, A-weighted): 120dB
Stereo Crosstalk (1 kHz at -1dBFS) < -115dB
Mic pre and line inputs-2
Type: TFPro⢠combination microphone preamp and line input
Frequency Response: +0.8/-0.1dB, 20Hz â 20 kHz
Stereo Crosstalk (1 kHz min gain, -1dBFS): < -120dB
Line Input:
Gain Range: -12 to +28dB
Max Level: +17dBV (19.2dBu)
THD+N (1 kHz at -1dBFS, min gain): -94dB (.002%)
Dynamic Range (A-weighted, 1kHz min gain): 100dB
SNR (A-weighted, min gain): 100dB
http://www.samplecraze.com/reviews.php?xReviewID=3 review of same card
I'll take it as a sign that people still not satisfied with onboard audio, and still want a decent sound card somehow....
I'm quite tempted to replace my audigy 2 with one of these, though I'm not in a particular hurry to do so yet. I have my suspicions that the small number of occasional stability problems I have experienced are all down to the creative card and its drivers (pull a headphone/speaker lead out while the pc is running = hard crash, run certain multiple audio programs at once = hard crash with looping audio etc, sometimes after a reboot the error reporting will lead back to an known error with creative drivers too, which they seem to have no intent to fix)
Creative have washed their hands of it a long time ago because 'it is an OEM card'. This was the final straw, and I vowed to adopt the first reasonably-priced alternative.
And here we have it! I'm going to hold of for a few weeks for financial reasons, but this DX sounds like the card for me.
Creative, it's hopefully the beginning of the end, and quite frankly it's long overdue.
It is PCI-Express. :)
Its ****ing awesome!!!!!!!! ive not really heard the distortion in a average mp3 but the vocal separation is superb as is the bass response.
For £55 its a ****ing bargain and quite an attractive bit of kit, also the drivers work flawlessly for Vista 64bit which i run.
Repeat after me... [/edit]
I replied to Woodstock, with a link to the card on Scan... and only then noticed he's from NZ
So you're happy with it then, yeah?
:)
*edited: my poor ping problem has re-occurred I've justnoticed so perhaps that was entirely unrelated after all.
"When asked, they explained that this is purely because the power from a PSU is far cleaner than it is from the motherboard, meaning you again get far less interference and therefore better quality sound. At least, thats how the theory works."
I noticed that they have now come out with a standard PCI version of this card (sold on Newegg). It has no extra power connector like the PCI-E version does. I would think this changes the truth of what they told you? Otherwise why wouldn't they have added it to the PCI version also?
The PCI version was out in the first place, the PCI-E one came later.
I originally thought it was due to the PCI-PCIe converter chip on the board, but Asus Taiwan told me directly it was because of "better quality". Whether PCI is simply grounded better or there's some issue with PCI-E I couldn't say for sure.