Sound card replacement

[octopus41092]

I have a Razer Barracuda AC-1 and it's not all that great. Currently using Steelseries 5Hv2 headphones but I'm thinking of picking up something new. Either Sennheiser PC350, Beyerdynamic DT880, Denon D2000.

I'm looking for something good for music, movies, and games. Primarily music and movies but I would like to have a nice soundscape for gaming.

I just want something PCI-E, sounds nice and $100 or less (used from FS/T is fine). It also needs to have line-in which I can listen to at the same time as the microphone. A front panel would be nice but it's not necessary.

Here are some that I've been considering:
ASUS Xonar Essence
ASUS Xonar D2X
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional

Any thoughts or suggestions? If you have any of these I'd like to hear your experience with these.

 

[Googer]

ASUS Xonar D2X or If you can find one on the black market, Onkyo made a killer sound card for sale only in Japan. It allowed you to upgrade the op-amps at free will.

 

[TC91]

If you plan to only use headphones or 2 channel speakers in total I would totally grab the Xonar STX, just can't beat the sound quality. If you plan on using surround speakers later on then the Xonar HDAV or D2/D2X are pretty awesome cards too (I own the Xonar D2 myself).

 

[octopus41092]

Originally posted by: Googer
ASUS Xonar D2X or If you can find one on the black market, Onkyo made a killer sound card for sale only in Japan. It allowed you to upgrade the op-amps at free will.

Really? That sounds really cool. What's the name of that sound card and is there any way to pick it up on eBay or anything?

Originally posted by: TC91
If you plan to only use headphones or 2 channel speakers in total I would totally grab the Xonar STX, just can't beat the sound quality. If you plan on using surround speakers later on then the Xonar HDAV or D2/D2X are pretty awesome cards too (I own the Xonar D2 myself).

So is the only difference between the D2 and the STX the surround sound capabilities or are there audio quality differences too?

 

[TC91]

Originally posted by: octopus41092

Originally posted by: Googer
ASUS Xonar D2X or If you can find one on the black market, Onkyo made a killer sound card for sale only in Japan. It allowed you to upgrade the op-amps at free will.

Really? That sounds really cool. What's the name of that sound card and is there any way to pick it up on eBay or anything?

Originally posted by: TC91
If you plan to only use headphones or 2 channel speakers in total I would totally grab the Xonar STX, just can't beat the sound quality. If you plan on using surround speakers later on then the Xonar HDAV or D2/D2X are pretty awesome cards too (I own the Xonar D2 myself).

So is the only difference between the D2 and the STX the surround sound capabilities or are there audio quality differences too?

The STX is only 2/2.1 channels with its analog output. It also has replaceable opamps and better DACs than the D2/D2X and will have better sound quality. The STX also has a headphone amp, and imo it's basically the ultimate soundcard for 2.0/2.1 audio. The D2/D2X are still very impressive and are capable of 7.1 channels for their analog output.

 

[Ghouler]

Xonar use the same C-Media processing chip as Razer AC-1 does. The one on Xonar D2X is rebranded to AV200 but it is the same chip, so if you are not that happy with the Razer I'd say you might have better luck with a card based on a different chip. X-Fi is one and it is a solid card. Unlike the Xonar it actually uses the real PCI-e chip and not PCI-to-PCI-e bridge like Xonars do. Besides, if you are using Vista X-Fi cards have now much better driver support compared to Xonars that cause issues under Vista, judging by Asus own and many other forums.

 

[octopus41092]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
Xonar use the same C-Media processing chip as Razer AC-1 does. The one on Xonar D2X is rebranded to AV200 but it is the same chip, so if you are not that happy with the Razer I'd say you might have better luck with a card based on a different chip. X-Fi is one and it is a solid card. Unlike the Xonar it actually uses the real PCI-e chip and not PCI-to-PCI-e bridge like Xonars do. Besides, if you are using Vista X-Fi cards have now much better driver support compared to Xonars that cause issues under Vista, judging by Asus own and many other forums.

Oh. Thanks for letting me know that. So, which X-Fi would be the best to get? How much better would they actually be?

 

[TC91]

If you are mainly listening to music, I would really push to grab the Xonar STX or the D2/D2X if you want surround. If gaming is more of a concern (and you like music too) then I would look at the auzentech x-fi prelude or x-fi forte cards. They have much better audio quality than the regular creative x-fi cards and have the same x-fi gaming capabilities.