Soundcards Options

[HYPOBOXER]

Can anyone recommend me a good, not to expensive soundcard that will work with Vista. I only use on board audio and recently realised how balls it actually is. I currently have 7.1 with the onboard but never actually use the speakers to stem off wife rage at bass boom.

Hypo

[Quanta]

So, here a short review of my new ASUS Xonar DX soundcard:

I'm using the caard since last friday.

First, some links to other reviews and the official product page...
Official Product Page
The Tech Report
bit-tech.net

Hardware installation
It's a low-profile card, so you don't need much space. It relies on the external power supply unit via a floppy drive to 4-pin power cable (Asus says that it's because the electricity of the PSU is much "cleaner" than that of the mainboard). I'm using a seperate power cable with no other peripherals connected to it, to avoid any interference. That's it.

Software installation:
I'm using Windows 7 x64. I've installed the newest available driver/software on the Asus download page (PCI_DX_090923_8_17_75_W73264_RC_01) and the 345.62 KBytes big patch file (only available if Vista OS selected). No trouble occured during installation.

Xonar DX Audio Center:
You find the configuration utility in the task-bar on the right after completing installation. For details: you can find the manual on the download page.

Its design is ugly and lacks clarity. But it's working fine (I've not encountered any bugs (yet)). You can choose different configuration profiles "Hi-Fi, Music, Game, Movie), but a downside is, that it's not possible to change the profiles or even create new ones (or I don't know how to do it).

Aural impressions:
My setup: Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX certified external speaker system, Sennheiser PC 151 stereo headset.
I will compare to my former Audigy 2 ZS here: the sound quality is better by far!

-Music:
This is purely subjective, but I've got the impression that instruments are more differentiated.

-Games:
The card supports EAX 2.0 hardware-wise and EAX 5.0 software-wise (calculations done on the CPU). I've tested Left 4 Dead 2, Racedriver GRID and Resident Evil 5 so far. Performance-wise I haven't noticed any differences (I'm playing with 60 Hz VSYNC'ed, triple-buffered), though I've not done measurements. Therefore this statement is purely subjective.

3D sound works on all three. You can clearly locate sounds from different directions on the 5.1 system. Left 4 Dead 2 and GRID sounds like with the Audigy, despite the better sound quality of the Xonar, which is easily audible once more.

-3D sound via stereo headset:
Here it's where Dolby Headphone comes into play. The Dolby method fakes a 5.1 sound with only stereo phones - and it's working really good! My Audigy had a comparable homemade function from Creative. I've not compared it side-by-side, but both methods seem to work rather at par. But as the overall sound quality is better on the Xonar, it's hard to tell.

-About noise/distortion:
Here the new Xonar absolutely destroys the Audigy. The Xonar is dead-silent! I can crank the volume on both the card and the speakers/headset all up to the max and I still can't hear any crackle.

Partly due to faulty 64-bit drivers, the Audigy made ugly fizzling and crackle - easily audible on the headphones, even on common volumes.

-Bugs/anomalies:
The "FlexBass" function let's you choose a crossover frequency for your satellites/subwoofer system, but its effect is ominous. With the Audigy I had to choose a freq. of 130 Hz, otherwise the subwoofer would roar and sound way too dominant.

With the Xonar this function seems to just kill my bass. It's still there (I can feel the vibrations), but I can't hear it any longer. But this doesn't seem to be a problem! If I just leave this function turned off the subwoofer blends excellently with the satellites nonetheless. And it once again sounds like the lower frequencies are more differentiated, but this impression is purely subjective once again.

About the random channel swapping, Raile mentioned: It doesn't happen on my machine. It's either fixed or it may depend on what OS you use.

Conclusion:
I've tested the card for a mere weekend yet, therefore take my words with a grain of salt. I'll report when I've received a new impression, but so far I'm really pleased with my new piece of hardware.