ASUS Xonar D2X vs Creative Soundblaster Z

[Matty]

Asus D2X card is old and apparently drivers are terrible. 

Sound blaster is cheaper than the D2X.

Card will be used mainly for music, movies and occasional gaming.

I need the dolby and dts support via optical.

Which is better?

[Shd0w2]

What headphones will you be driving? you may not even need a sound card, also, what motherboard are you using? onboard sound may be good enough already.

[Matty]

Not running headphones.

 

I have an Asus P9-x79pro, onboard is okay but in dts mode it pops and crackles and does all kind of silly things.

 

Want the sound card for better customisation too.

[EmoRarity]

If you don't have headphones, then you really don't need a soundcard. 

[TechSilver13]

I have a maximus Hero VII and I thought the onboard sound was okay but there are driver issues. I bought a ZxR for 199 on amazon and the difference is HUGE! Don't listen to the people that say sound cards don't make a difference. Tek Syndicate said sound cards are worthless so now its cool to say it. I agree with a lot of things on The Tek but not their sound card opinion. I also had a Zx model on an ASrock Z77 board and it also made a massive difference.

[Matty]

I have a maximus Hero VII and I thought the onboard sound was okay but there are driver issues. I bought a ZxR for 199 on amazon and the difference is HUGE! Don't listen to the people that say sound cards don't make a difference. Tek Syndicate said sound cards are worthless so now its cool to say it. I agree with a lot of things on The Tek but not their sound card opinion. I also had a Zx model on an ASrock Z77 board and it also made a massive difference.

 

I'm not satisfied with my on-board solution and I have heard nothing but great things about sound cards, even for digital outputs.

Thats the route that seems worth taking. Just not sure which one out of those two.

[EmoRarity]

I'm not satisfied with my on-board solution and I have heard nothing but great things about sound cards, even for digital outputs.

Thats the route that seems worth taking. Just not sure which one out of those two.

Well soundcards dont do anything that onboard doesn't do already, and buying one digital output is just more the wasteful.

[SSL]

I'm not satisfied with my on-board solution and I have heard nothing but great things about sound cards, even for digital outputs.

Thats the route that seems worth taking. Just not sure which one out of those two.

 

Well now you have heard some non-great things about soundcards. So there goes that logic.

[FatalityDiablo]

soundcards are so terrible man, i just sold my soundblaster recon 3D champion for 15€. God so happy now. I hated how the software makes sound issues and all the inconvenient switch from speakers to headphones, sometimes needed to restart my system cuz of total sound-bugs, like other people on in various forums have stated aswell. Believe me, a soundcard is bs man, get a good soundchip on your mobo instead.

[FatalityDiablo]

I forgot to mention that the soundquality is no worse if not better than before.

[TechSilver13]

The difference between the Recon and what is out now is huge. Not everyone can hear the difference between the two and its okay if your ears can't. My ears and the OP's ears can hear the difference and a QUALITY sound card like the Zx or ZxR make a BIG difference.

[EmoRarity]

The difference between the Recon and what is out now is huge. Not everyone can hear the difference between the two and its okay if your ears can't. My ears and the OP's ears can hear the difference and a QUALITY sound card like the Zx or ZxR make a BIG difference.

Damn you're right! I just had forgotten to take my placybows, and forgot the difference. (There is a reference to an ancient show)

[FatalityDiablo]

The difference between the Recon and what is out now is huge. Not everyone can hear the difference between the two and its okay if your ears can't. My ears and the OP's ears can hear the difference and a QUALITY sound card like the Zx or ZxR make a BIG difference.

I think what you mean by "huge difference and my ears be like ooh-aah" is the fx that such cards bring with them that is like: 100Hz +999db, 1khz +-0db, 10khz +999db. Now I also can hear the difference, but unfortunately it is not making the soundquality or reproduction any better but worse. The only thing that soundcards use to be nice for is the shielding of the hissing and crackling that old onboard soundcards use to have, or rather by interference with other components.

[TechSilver13]

I think what you mean by "huge difference and my ears be like ooh-aah" is the fx that such cards bring with them that is like: 100Hz +999db, 1khz +-0db, 10khz +999db. Now I also can hear the difference, but unfortunately it is not making the soundquality or reproduction any better but worse. The only thing that soundcards use to be nice for is the shielding of the hissing and crackling that old onboard soundcards use to have, or rather by interference with other components.

If what you say is true the Recon3d wouldn't have gotten destroyed in most reviews and the ZxR wouldn't have gotten rave reviews. If people don't like to try products I wouldn't expect them to understand the difference or if they buy 50 dollar speakers to go with their 200 dollar sound card. Just putting the ZxR in my system and installing drivers made the sound way better and I could hear things in videos that I didn't hear before, that was before I tweak the fx settings to my liking. For better or worse fx makes a big difference to, its up to the user to decide if its worth the money, and I think it is worth it. 

[StormEye]

I recently purchased a proper external DAC/amp to replace my Sound Blaster ZxR. And I can say from my experience, you really should look into going away from sound cards.

[TechSilver13]

I recently purchased a proper external DAC/amp to replace my Sound Blaster ZxR. And I can say from my experience, you really should look into going away from sound cards.

To help the community can you show us which external DAC you bought? What is so much better? Share your story...I am open to getting an DAC.

[EmoRarity]

I recently purchased a proper external DAC/amp to replace my Sound Blaster ZxR. And I can say from my experience, you really should look into going away from sound cards.

To help the community can you show us which external DAC you bought? What is so much better? Share your story...I am open to getting an DAC.

Really it doesn't matter since he isn't running headphones. 

[TechSilver13]

I am interested in a DAC to try it out. So it does matter.

[mr moose]

If what you say is true the Recon3d wouldn't have gotten destroyed in most reviews and the ZxR wouldn't have gotten rave reviews. If people don't like to try products I wouldn't expect them to understand the difference or if they buy 50 dollar speakers to go with their 200 dollar sound card. Just putting the ZxR in my system and installing drivers made the sound way better and I could hear things in videos that I didn't hear before, that was before I tweak the fx settings to my liking. For better or worse fx makes a big difference to, its up to the user to decide if its worth the money, and I think it is worth it. 

 

Audio is not like cpu or gpu performance, it is a law unto itself, it is as subjective as it is an art that requires intense training.  Most reviews of sound cards are not done by people with knowledge of audio, they are done by tech review sites or pc enthusiasts.  That is why nearly every review of a sound card is flawed or is carried out in a manner that detracts from a few realities.

 

At the end of the day implementation is everything in audio,  Did you know that all sound cards, onboard audio and usb DACs use similar dacs?  in fact a $700 shitt uses the same cmedia chip as many $50 usb dacs. A close look at the spec sheet for anything from the creative and asus line up to the realtek chips will show you that they are all spec'd beyond what the human ear can perceive, thus the difference is not perceivable. What is perceivable though is the implementation,  does the amp have a high output impedance? does the card have a feature that onboard audio doesn't? is the device as a whole suitable shielded for internal use?

 

For line out/optical then impedance doesn't matter,  in fact for optical out the only consideration is dolby encoding on the fly, so if you don't need dolby on the fly encoding then there is no point in getting a sound card.

for shielding if their is no interference in your on board audio then you will be lucky to get better audio from a sound card. also if you do get interference in your audio there is still a chance that a sound card will suffer from the same interference.

 

So in order to chose the best solution you need to know whether there is a feature you need that onboard can't do, and if so first port of call would be to look at external units that fulfill that requirement.

 

I used to be a big creative fan (been in this game for a while) but of late even though I have a soft spot for them, they are really a dieing product, and IMO not worth the price tag.

[TechSilver13]

I have used a sound card three times in my life an audigy 2 zs the zx and now zxr in my newest build. Regardless what the human ear can and can not hear I hear a difference. Its like putting a higher end amp in my car or going from a klipsch sub 12 to a hsu vtf15, it makes a difference and if someone can't hear the difference then I'm sorry for them. I don't mind spending to get better sound, better picture (this is why I have a zt60 in my living room and a PN8500 in my bedroom because the Samsung isn't good enough to be my main TV I can see the difference and its HUGE) I am not an enthusiast when it comes to audio or video but I spend money to get the best I can get when I have money to get it.

[mr moose]

I have used a sound card three times in my life an audigy 2 zs the zx and now zxr in my newest build. Regardless what the human ear can and can not hear I hear a difference. Its like putting a higher end amp in my car or going from a klipsch sub 12 to a hsu vtf15, it makes a difference and if someone can't hear the difference then I'm sorry for them. I don't mind spending to get better sound, better picture (this is why I have a zt60 in my living room and a PN8500 in my bedroom because the Samsung isn't good enough to be my main TV I can see the difference and its HUGE) I am not an enthusiast when it comes to audio or video but I spend money to get the best I can get when I have money to get it.

 

Spend your money on what ever you want. They're your ears and your cash, but the OP has asked for advice and after having done this shit for 30 years and having seen how the industry and technology has changed, I can't recommend to the op something that isn't justified.  I could sit hear and list all the sound cards I've owned but that is moot as most of them from a time when you either had to have one because no onboard or onboard was shit.  We are talking about the latest generation motherboards and latest generation production technology.  

[TechSilver13]

Spend your money on what ever you want. They're your ears and your cash, but the OP has asked for advice and after having done this shit for 30 years and having seen how the industry and technology has changed, I can't recommend to the op something that isn't justified.  I could sit hear and list all the sound cards I've owned but that is moot as most of them from a time when you either had to have one because no onboard or onboard was shit.  We are talking about the latest generation motherboards and latest generation production technology.  

I have a Maximus Hero VII (latest gen) and I thought the audio was crappy, so I bought a ZxR (latest gen) because it was 50 dollars off and it improved the audio in a HUGE way. So to get improved audio what exactly do you recommend to the OP since a sound card is garbage? Whats a good DAC? I want to buy a DAC as I am sure it's not 200 bucks. I want to test and see what I think about the audio.

[mr moose]

I have a Maximus Hero VII (latest gen) and I thought the audio was crappy, so I bought a ZxR (latest gen) because it was 50 dollars off and it improved the audio in a HUGE way. So to get improved audio what exactly do you recommend to the OP since a sound card is garbage? Whats a good DAC? I want to buy a DAC as I am sure it's not 200 bucks. I want to test and see what I think about the audio.

 

If he  wants optical out then he shouldn't be spending any money on a dac,  That would be buying redundant hardware.  Any optical device/card that can pass through dolby digital will suffice.  But before I recommend him anything I need the questions I asked earlier to be answered.

 

As for you  if you are happy with the sound why do you want another sound device?

[ShearMe]

I have a Maximus Hero VII (latest gen) and I thought the audio was crappy, so I bought a ZxR (latest gen) because it was 50 dollars off and it improved the audio in a HUGE way. So to get improved audio what exactly do you recommend to the OP since a sound card is garbage? Whats a good DAC? I want to buy a DAC as I am sure it's not 200 bucks. I want to test and see what I think about the audio.

 

There's always exceptions, and Asus's ROG boards are kinda somewhat notorious for that. 

[TechSilver13]

If he  wants optical out then he shouldn't be spending any money on a dac,  That would be buying redundant hardware.  Any optical device/card that can pass through dolby digital will suffice.  But before I recommend him anything I need the questions I asked earlier to be answered.

 

As for you  if you are happy with the sound why do you want another sound device?

Because I have money to piss away and try NEW things, I am not being a smartass. I am being direct, what is a good DAC? An answer would be nice, a DIRECT answer not beating around this HUGE bush.