Fine tuning the Asus XONAR DX?

[christophercolumbusdog]

Hey everyone.

I have a question about what you should go about doing when you first buy a sound card.

Now, recently, I got a XONAR DX to go along with my Logitech Z623's. Until then, I've been using the on-board audio on my Asus P7-P55 DE PRO.

The thing is, I was expecting a much greater difference between the on-board sound and the sound card than I actually experienced.

So, is there anything special that you have to fine tune to get the most out of your sound card? I tried some of the Dolby virtualization features and for music its pretty sweet. But when I just use the card without the Dolby effects, it doesn't sound THAT much better than the on-board.

Any Suggestions?

Sound cards are the one area I'm a bit of a beginner in...

Thanks

-- Christophercolumbusdog

[h=1][/h]

[dav1257]

I got the Xonar D2X recently i also expected a bigger difference but i think u have to appreciate that with quality audio the differences are ther, they r just small.

Think of it as many small improvements as opposed to 1 large one.

Examples would be gunshots have a better snappy sound. The directionality is usually very good. Footsteps are clearer which is a great advantage if u know how to use it to ur advantage.

As for settings i experimented and found that when i got the perfect setup for games it was exactly the same as the softwares default setup for games.

I would say the more time u have with it the more u will hear the differences shine thru. Try using it for a while then change back to onboard to see if u notice anythin.

[HewinFM]

You have to understand that there will be very little difference on lower end headphones or speakers in your case. You'll notice a difference when you compare onboard with the Xonar while using higher end headphones and better quality music files.

Edit: Also set the sample & bit rate to the same rate as the majority of your library. This will eliminate the need to up/down sample.

[Metallurgico]

To compare different soudcards you need high-end outputs and good ears. If your ears are not trained to perceive small and medium differences in sound your on-board audio will be the same of a dedicated soundcard

[Money]

One way you could improve the quality is by messing with the EQ settings. That's practically the best way to quickly improve the audio.

[Cheesebaron]

The difference between an on-board sound card and an aftermarket dedicated sound card is not night and day. However if you A/B test the two cards, you might notice some differences. These differences become more apparent when you have high-fidelity equipment connected as a part of your sound chain and especially if you have trained ears to notice these differences.

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One way you could improve the quality is by messing with the EQ settings. That's practically the best way to quickly improve the audio.

This is not true, this will not alter the sound quality, however it will alter the sound signature and IMO it is not an improvement of the audio as such, but more an alteration of the sound to your preferences. The quality of the audio solely relies on the source of the audio and how the equipment in the audio chain reproduces it.

[christophercolumbusdog]

You have to understand that there will be very little difference on lower end headphones or speakers in your case. You'll notice a difference when you compare onboard with the Xonar while using higher end headphones and better quality music files. Edit: Also set the sample & bit rate to the same rate as the majority of your library. This will eliminate the need to up/down sample.

So, you're saying that my Logitech Z623's won't really benefit that much from the sound card? Also, on a separate note just because I was looking to upgrade my speakers at some point, any opinions on the Corsair SP2500?

[MrWatch]

I originally couldn't get the Asus Xonar DX to sound incredibly well the first time around. The drivers that Asus provides currently are not the greatest. On Ubuntu, I found the drivers superb and could get much better sound quality. You might want to try the Uni Xonar Drivers from Brainbit. http://brainbit.wordpress.com/category/uni-xonar/ I found these drivers to be a huge improvement. The sound quality can also be due to your outputs. You might need something of higher quality, like the others have said.

[Aphexx]

how many channels do you have the xonar set to? for default I usually set it to 2 channel because youtube and streaming tv work best on it. for example last night I had it set to 6 channel because I was watching movies. then afterwards watching youtube sounded horrible and it took me a while to remember I didnt reset it to 2 channels. youtube on 6 channel only pipes the sound to the front speakers for my xonar. and on headphones it really blows.

myself I still haven't properly figured out what programs work best with how many channels in my xonar.