Will this Soundcard be enough for the Mackie CR4

[Zerebratox]

Hi Guys,

 

will the Asus Xonar DGX

(https://www.amazon.de/Xonar-PCI-Express-Sound-Karte-105dB/dp/B007RMMYFI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529848797&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+xonar)

 

be enough for the Mackie CR4 Speakers

(https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00NTVS99Q/ref=pe_3044161_185740101_TE_item)

 

or should i go for an audio interface like the behringer umc204hd?

(https://www.amazon.de/Behringer-UMC204HD-U-Phoria-undMIDI-Interface/dp/B00SAV96JM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1529848976&sr=8-2&keywords=behringer+umc)

[thepanos]

The Asus will actually give you a better sound! Unless you're planning on recording with a mic, I'd go with the Asus. 

[Zerebratox]

1 minute ago, thepanos said:

The Asus will actually give you a better sound! Unless you're planning on recording with a mic, I'd go with the Asus. 

But using the 3.5 mm cable would mean i have to ignore the 6.3mm cable

[thepanos]

Use a high quality 3.5 to 6.3 cable and I promise you'll be happy with the sound. If you want a better audio experience spend a little extra and get the Asus with a lower sound floor and higher quality capacitors. 

 

https://www.amazon.de/interne-Soundkarte-Digital-Technik-Profile/dp/B00198DM2K/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1529850006&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=asus+xonar&dpPl=1&dpID=41nmWc4HyML&ref=plSrch

 

I speak from having worked in audio. 

[EsaT]

Xonar DGX is such old card that it's hard to know how long Asus keeps supporting it, considering they've ditched support of some newer/lot more expensive cards.

Audigy Fx is lot newer.

 

Anyway if you have high end motherboard its integrated sound card can be as good and not lacking any feature for speaker use.

(headphone gaming again can need other features)

 

 

6 minutes ago, Zerebratox said:

But using the 3.5 mm cable would mean i have to ignore the 6.3mm cable

For unbalanced signal just use RCAs.

[thepanos]

I would only risk integrated audio from something like the ROG boards. The audio on most motherboards tend to introduce noise and the quality drop becomes extremely noticeable on reference speakers. 

 

I use Quested speakers that are ex-mastering studio and they went beautifully with a usb x-fi I have, via rca to xlr cable. 

[TotallyLegitimateandSafe]

1 hour ago, thepanos said:

Use a high quality 3.5 to 6.3 cable and I promise you'll be happy with the sound. If you want a better audio experience spend a little extra and get the Asus with a lower sound floor and higher quality capacitors. 

 

https://www.amazon.de/interne-Soundkarte-Digital-Technik-Profile/dp/B00198DM2K/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1529850006&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=asus+xonar&dpPl=1&dpID=41nmWc4HyML&ref=plSrch

 

I speak from having worked in audio. 

no.  stop it.  You are misleading this kind person and need to end this.

[TotallyLegitimateandSafe]

is this for live streaming or for capture recording?

[Zerebratox]

1 hour ago, TotallyLegitimateandSafe said:

is this for live streaming or for capture recording?

I dont quite undestand the question. I would use the Speakers for listening to music / fl studio.

 

I would have put the Asus Xonar into my pc and use the 3,5mm from the speakers to the 3.5mm of the asus xonar. 

 

Optionally i would have taken a behringer usb audio interface and take like a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter and let it work with the audio interface

[Zerebratox]

2 hours ago, EsaT said:

Xonar DGX is such old card that it's hard to know how long Asus keeps supporting it, considering they've ditched support of some newer/lot more expensive cards.

Audigy Fx is lot newer.

 

Anyway if you have high end motherboard its integrated sound card can be as good and not lacking any feature for speaker use.

(headphone gaming again can need other features)

 

 

For unbalanced signal just use RCAs.

Would the Asus Xonar DX 7.1 with 192khz 24 bit be a better option, given what i would like to use the speakers for?

 

And what is the difference between 96khz and 192khz? Do i really hear the difference? (Cause the dgx has 96khz)

 

i saw the audigy too (https://www.amazon.de/Creative-PCIe-Soundkarte-5-1-Surround-Sound-leistungsstarker-Kopfhörerverstärker/dp/B00EO6X4XG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1529858536&sr=8-2&keywords=audigy)

 

is it better than the xonar dgx?

[EsaT]

25 minutes ago, Zerebratox said:

Would the Asus Xonar DX 7.1 with 192khz 24 bit be a better option, given what i would like to use the speakers for?

 

And what is the difference between 96khz and 192khz? Do i really hear the difference? (Cause the dgx has 96khz)

192kHz belongs to audiophoolery, unless being bat or dog 44.1khz sampling rate basically covers whole hearing range and 96kHz certainly goes way over that.

Setting bit depth to 24 bits in Windows is again useful when adjusting volume, because it's like using more decimals in calculations minimizing rounding errors.

 

Though higher end cards of course have better parts like digital to analog converters (that DAC) giving more accurate analog signal.

Along with more connectivity and other features.

 

Differences just aren't always positive.

That Xonar DX belongs to line of Asus sound cards with 100 ohm output impedance, which would make damping factor suck with modern low impedance headphones.

(new Strix Soar and Strix Raid Pro cards have same "feature")

Don't know what designers of Asus are thinking. (that enough marketing hype hides bad designs?)

Maybe they want output to be short circuit protected against someone sticking iron nail into jack...

When connecting to speaker line input that output impedance doesn't make difference.

But for its higher price DX is actually worser for headphones than "budget/entry" level DGX.

 

Also it's equally old card as DGX so support might end any year.

Sound Blaster Z would be same level card with likely many years longer support.

And lot more reasonable output impedance (in separate headphone output jack) if you ever want to stick headphones into it to avoid bothering others.

 

As for hearing differences, getting to near limit of human hearing accuracy doesn't need much with modern tech... In actually valid testing without psychological biases.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html

Audigy Fx/Xonar DGX are at level of that ALC889.

Sound Blaster Z/Xonar DGX have step higher level DAC. (notch below top)

[Zerebratox]

1 hour ago, EsaT said:

192kHz belongs to audiophoolery, unless being bat or dog 44.1khz sampling rate basically covers whole hearing range and 96kHz certainly goes way over that.

Setting bit depth to 24 bits in Windows is again useful when adjusting volume, because it's like using more decimals in calculations minimizing rounding errors.

 

Though higher end cards of course have better parts like digital to analog converters (that DAC) giving more accurate analog signal.

Along with more connectivity and other features.

 

Differences just aren't always positive.

That Xonar DX belongs to line of Asus sound cards with 100 ohm output impedance, which would make damping factor suck with modern low impedance headphones.

(new Strix Soar and Strix Raid Pro cards have same "feature")

Don't know what designers of Asus are thinking. (that enough marketing hype hides bad designs?)

Maybe they want output to be short circuit protected against someone sticking iron nail into jack...

When connecting to speaker line input that output impedance doesn't make difference.

But for its higher price DX is actually worser for headphones than "budget/entry" level DGX.

 

Also it's equally old card as DGX so support might end any year.

Sound Blaster Z would be same level card with likely many years longer support.

And lot more reasonable output impedance (in separate headphone output jack) if you ever want to stick headphones into it to avoid bothering others.

 

As for hearing differences, getting to near limit of human hearing accuracy doesn't need much with modern tech... In actually valid testing without psychological biases.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733-19.html

Audigy Fx/Xonar DGX are at level of that ALC889.

Sound Blaster Z/Xonar DGX have step higher level DAC. (notch below top)

Hoch much difference will be between my motherboard onboard audio (MSI Z97 Gaming 5) and the xonar dgx or audigy

[thepanos]

looking up your motherboard, it has high quality capacitors and isolated audio. It is higher quality than both the xonar dgx and the audigy.

 

Instead of my original sentence I had here, 'calling out' another forum member I've decided instead to explain my knowledge. I have a two year degree in audio engineering. I have three years experience as assistant mastering engineer at an award-winning mastering and mixing studio. I have experience setting up both 100,000 dollar sound systems for reference work and also in getting reference monitors of varying quality to work with 'gaming' and general consumer audio at home for both my gaming and listening to music. My mentor and teacher was fanatic about double-blind testing anything I asked him about. I personally went through hell getting professional speakers to work with my home computer setup, not once but with three different audio and computer setups. I know what I'm talking about.

 

I do feel bad I haven't quantified each of my answers with all the relevant sources and knowledge as a couple of other posters have. I also made the mistake of looking at the brand and series of card, skimming the specs and assuming that it would be 'enough' when after further investigation it turns out the base-level card first asked about is a bit out of date.

A high quality 3.5mm-RCA cable will do the job for the monitors. I did not see it had a separate input for such a thing and I apologise for that. A high quality 3.5mm-1.25" TS cable would still however sound exactly the same but would not be sourced as easily. A balanced input can handle an unbalanced signal just fine.

[thepanos]

Reading your last answer you do seem a little set on getting the Behringer and you also mention FL Studio so I'm guessing you make music in some capacity.

 

In that case, get the interface but set yourself up with a balanced connection (I can't find definite proof that the output is balanced from the behringer but they do imply it on sweetwater). Buy two TRS cables and use them to power your speakers from the interface. Note: These are not the same as normal 6.3 cables, you need one like this: https://www.swamp.net.au/trs-cable-balanced

 

If the cable you find is advertised as stereo, then that will work the same way.

[GamerDude]

Honestly doubt if OP can hear much (IF at all) difference between onboard audio and soundcard with a Mackie CR4. Something like the Behringer only IF various inputs and outputs connections is a must have, otherwise, stick with onboard audio.

[Zerebratox]

9 hours ago, thepanos said:

Reading your last answer you do seem a little set on getting the Behringer and you also mention FL Studio so I'm guessing you make music in some capacity.

 

In that case, get the interface but set yourself up with a balanced connection (I can't find definite proof that the output is balanced from the behringer but they do imply it on sweetwater). Buy two TRS cables and use them to power your speakers from the interface. Note: These are not the same as normal 6.3 cables, you need one like this: https://www.swamp.net.au/trs-cable-balanced

 

If the cable you find is advertised as stereo, then that will work the same way.

The Thing is, i have a behringer umc204hd for my mic and my beyerdynamic dt 990pro.

 

If my onboard sound is similiar or better than the sound cards, i will stick to it. I tested with my current low cost speakers, the sound blaster cinema 2 software, and it sounded way better, so i will see, how much there will be a difference tomorrow when i get them.

 

I bought the Mackie CR4 and the EDIFIER R1700BT and will test, which of them i like more. I bought separate cables for 3.5 to clinch, which seemed more worth.

 

If you have any tips for the software or other things, i would be happy. Im not really into the sound to usb thing, which audio interfaces have.