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Considering swap from Xonar DSX to external DAC. Which one...?

Anarchic
By Anarchic
in Audio
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I've been building my own gaming machines for over a decade now and was blown away when I first heard Battlefield 2 through a Creative X-Fi soundcard. Those were the Windows XP days and when Windows 7 came along the drivers Creative was putting out for the X-Fi's went to crap and the card was rendered useless.

 

I searched for a new card to replace the much loved X-Fi and decided on the Xonar DSX, PCIe. The sound the card outputs is great. The amp isn't as strong as the X-Fi but the sound is nice and clean. The input however is not clean at all.

 

When playing games interference from my graphics card is picked up by the sound card and pollutes my mic input something rotten. It's a common problem with lots of complaints posted on Asus' forums.

 

I am unable to move the card to another slot because doing so would obstruct the graphics card fans so I'm stuck. The onboard audio input is slightly better in that it doesn't pick up the electrical noise, however it is worse than the DSX at removing ambient noise from my mic so is also crap.

 

I've decided to look into buying a DAC but I want one that has mic input. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile and I don't have good enough speakers/headphones to justify a stupidly good DAC. I just want something that has equivalent audio quality and loudness to the DSX and mic input to get around the electrical noise inside my case.

 

Please recommend some products. Thanks. :D

 

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Inb4 Mayflower Electronics Objective 2.

"M. Aronnax." replied the Canadian, "your arguments are rotten at the foundation. You speak in the future, 'We shall be there! we shall be here!' I speak in the present, 'We are here, and we must profit by it.'"

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Upgrade your headphones first source comes last

+1

Headphones are much more important than an AMP unless you need an AMP to drive the headphones or something.

"If you do not take your failures seriously you will continue to fail"

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I'm not sure if any of you have actually read my post. I'm not concerned about improving audio output quality I'm concerned with input. The DSX is receiving interference from the graphics card and friends on VoIP can't hear what I'm saying, but it is only a problem when the graphics card is doing work. Why are you talking about headphones?

 

When it comes to output I am happy just to maintain the quality I have right now. An improvement in output would be nice but I don't care, I just don't want to lose quality.

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Well, I've got a little Syba Dac that I really like. Haven't ever used the mic input, but I'll see if my zalman works to test tonight if ya want. It might not have as much volume as the max of one of your soundcards, if you like your ears to bleed, but it's got enough for my HD 650's

 

Edit: the above link is to amazon.com, so I found a European seller for you on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Syba-USB-2-0-24bit-96KHz-DAC-with-Stereo-Headphone-Amplifier-Sound-Card-/400483737879?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item5d3eb0e117

PC Build in LTT Gallery - JBL J88 - Fostex T50RP (Modded) - Pioneer SE-A1000 vs audio-technica ATH-AD500X - Skullcandy Aviator  
audio-technica ATH-T400 - CHC Silverado and Laredo - Clip-On Headphone Roundup - Sony LinkBuds

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Thanks ShearMe. That looks like a good option. The Mayflower ones are a tad too expensive for me at the moment. I will keep scouting around and share what I find.

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Thanks ShearMe. That looks like a good option. The Mayflower ones are a tad too expensive for me at the moment. I will keep scouting around and share what I find.

 

Have you tried your onboard mic input and just turn up the sound gate in w/e program you're using? That might be the best option. I would think removing ambiant sound is a software thing so no external device will do that unless it comes with some software. 

My personal rig - 4790k 4.8Ghz, Asus Z97 Pro (wi-fi ac), Corsair Dominator Plat 4x8GB, SLI GTX 1080 TI FE, Samsung 850 Evo 1TB, Crucial MX100 512GB, EVGA G3 1000W, and cooled by a hardline liquid cooling loop. 

 

Safe Practices and Complete Guide to Buying/Selling on the Classifieds and other forums

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Audioengine D1 is a winner as an entry DAC at only 170 usd msrp.

Tux is a lie.

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Yes NannerBeans, I have tried playing with the onboard input settings/filters. The onboard audio is just not very good. My mic sounds highly compressed with the driver noise reduction on unfortunately.

 

I am actually using the mic on a cheapo unbranded webcam at the moment as that's currently the best option. Not ideal.

 

Edit: This one has caught my eye. Has 3.5mm inputs and is reasonably priced, http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-Coaxial-Decoder-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B005JXGQTC/ref=sr_1_62?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1394574041&sr=1-62&keywords=fiio

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