Asus Xonar DG, DGX, DSX, DX

[Mini0510]

I'm looking for slightly better audio than my onboard audio Asus Z68/GEN3. And I do have like $200 above average headphones/IEMs. I recently got a listen to X-Fi platinum, which I thought it was slightly better than the onboard audio, but not by much. I didn't expect too much out of an old sound card.

 

This is just purely for gaming. Not really for music. At local deals, there are people selling DG $20 and DX $60. 

Price is not really an issue, but I'm wondering how big of a difference is there between these two sound cards (DG and DX).

 

I just don't want to buy the DG and end up feeling that it's almost the same as onboard audio. Or I don't want to buy the DX and end up finding out that DX is really close in terms of sound quality.

Features are not important. I don't even use amp often, very rarely actually. I just want a better sound.

 

Any inputs, comments, etc. would be appreciated. And please don't say that stick with onboard because I heard the difference between an old sound card and onboard audio, even though the difference is not too significant.

[Andrew Storlie]

What headphones do you have?

[Mini0510]

What headphones do you have?

Audio Technica CKR10, M50, Sennheiser IE80

[Andrew Storlie]

Dont get a sound card, get a DAC.

[Andrew Storlie]

When it really comes down to it, an internal sound card is never going to be much better then onboard, cause its still inside the case. Only a DAC wiill give you the quality i assume your looking for

[Mini0510]

When it really comes down to it, an internal sound card is never going to be much better then onboard, cause its still inside the case. Only a DAC wiill give you the quality i assume your looking for

But isn't that more expensive?

 

and no surround sound? I play fps games

[Andrew Storlie]

First ill point out that you can spend $10000000 on audio and its not gonna be better, unless your doing audio editing or for movies, anything above 2 ch left and right isnt that great. If your going for better sound then get a dedicated mic, and a real 5.1 surround to play the game. Otherwise just stick with onboard

Fps games dont have the level of audio to need that kind of set up, and you can have surround all you want but a pair of headphones is still only left and right audio.

listen to this with your headphones using the onboard audio.

[SSL]

@Stagea recently had some insight into the different soundcard options. I would read what he has to say before discounting them.

 

Dont get a sound card, get a DAC.

 

Unfortunately, a DAC on it's own won't really help much.

[Stagea]

@Stagea recently had some insight into the different soundcard options. I would read what he has to say before discounting them.

 

 

Thanks @SSL!

 

@Mini0510 Here's a link:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/447592-replacing-my-creative-x-fi-titanium/

 

It is no assurance that you'd notice the difference, but the DX measures significantly better than the others you mentioned. If you look at the graphs, the harmonic peaks are actually below the noise floor of the competing devices (which makes it impressively clean for the price).