mara- Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 Hi,I'm thinking of getting some quality sound card for my PC. Unfortunately, the best what I could find where I live is Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE. Does anyone have experience with this card, and will I notice some nice difference? I have this speakers.Cheers ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizarre™ Posted January 16, 2010 Share Posted January 16, 2010 @mara-:Take a look at LeetPirate's post: Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeetPirate Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 hmm. His speakers seem to be using 6 RCA input jacks according to his link but the soundcard in his link uses normal headphone style jacks. I am a bit confused about that.mara- what are the types of inputs supported by your speakers?In any case if you want a card with 3.5mm mini jacks (headphone style) then you could go for the ASUS Xonar DX which also happens to be a Pci-express card and if you check the specs it uses better capacitors and the SNR is 116dB compared with the 100dB SNR on the Creative card. IMHO I do not believe Creative produces any sound card that truly rivals the Xonar series by ASUS. You may need some converter cables to connect your speakers. I suggest you use the analogue outputs from the sound card instead of the coaxial digital output, the reason is that you don't want to bypass the soundcard's superior DAC unless your speakers hardware contains an even better DAC (which most don't).I recommend the Xonar DX or D1 gaming soundcards to you over the Xonar Essence STX because the STX is full on audiophile with a higher price because it contains a built-in headphone amp, makes no sense buying that if you don't plan to use audiophile headphones. You could save yourself that money.Take this advice with a grain of salt, as I am not a pro audiophile or anything, I just know a few basics. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mara- Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 Yeah, I also heard Asus Xonar is great, but I can't find a place to buy it. I'll check in the store where I usually buy to see if I can order.For the speakers, I can connect in different ways. I can use RCA jack and something other, I don't know how this jack is called (that's what I'm using now). On one side it's 3x 3.5mm mini jacks and on other it's this jack, which I don't know how it's called. Check the picture I took. I use this where you can see INPUT 2, those 2 RCA connectors in 2CH are just plugged in on speaker, they are not in use. So, what do you suggest now? And why to use analog outputs? Shouldn't digital give more quality?Cheers ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeetPirate Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Yeah, I also heard Asus Xonar is great, but I can't find a place to buy it. I'll check in the store where I usually buy to see if I can order.For the speakers, I can connect in different ways. I can use RCA jack and something other, I don't know how this jack is called (that's what I'm using now). On one side it's 3x 3.5mm mini jacks and on other it's this jack, which I don't know how it's called. Check the picture I took. I use this where you can see INPUT 2, those 2 RCA connectors in 2CH are just plugged in on speaker, they are not in use. So, what do you suggest now? And why to use analog outputs? Shouldn't digital give more quality?Cheers ;)Ah, the input 2 is the 3.5mm breakout cable. :D This is good news, it means you don't need to use the RCA jacks because that connector is bridged internally so that's all you will need to connect it to the Xonar.About the digital output, there is alot of misconceptions about that. In the traditional sense digital outputs transfer best quality data streams but in the case of audio it means you are transmitting the raw audio stream to the speaker system and bypassing the DAC on the soundcard. In other words you will be bypassing the whole reason you bought the soundcard for, that reason being superior analogue sound reproduction. Remember sound must be analogue for you to hear it, that little digital connection is not boosting any quality in the setup as it is just a small cable from the pc to the speakers, then what happens? Copper wires from the main amp to the rest of speakers aka analogue signals.Only use the digital output of the soundcard if you actually have another DAC that is superior. Most often these are only used when sending raw bitstream audio to a DTS decoder in your home theatre setup. Even in those uses the DTS decoder of the home theatre setup is sometimes inferior to high end cards that use Burr Brown DAC or even some of the regular Xonar cards. Take the Logitech z-5500 for example, the onboard DAC on that claims > 93.5dB SNR and typically 100dB SNR whereas the Xonar DX is capable of 116dB SNR with alot less distortion. Though it seems like a small difference between 100 and 116, that is quite a leap in the audio world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mara- Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 OK, thanks for the explanation. I'll definitely try to find Xonar card.Cheers ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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