Is the Asus Strix Soar a good sound card?

[radiantai2001]

My Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee headphones are arriving today, I want to get a sound card with good virtual surround to pair with them, how does the Strix Soar compare with other options under $100?

[FloRolf]

It's probably shit. 

Try the headphones without sound card first and then get the Schiit Fulla 2 if they are not what they should be. 

[Max_Settings]

Sound cards are all terrible and virtual surround you never use. Virtual surround is terrible and destroys positional audio.

[radiantai2001]

13 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

Sound cards are all terrible and virtual surround you never use. Virtual surround is terrible and destroys positional audio.

yeah i would never use it for a game like csgo, but for games that don't have good positional audio built-in it can be nice

[Max_Settings]

12 minutes ago, mdthompson2001 said:

yeah i would never use it for a game like csgo, but for games that don't have good positional audio built-in it can be nice

No, it’s just bad. Virtual surround is complete BS. Just get a good DAC/Amp.

[EsaT]

7 hours ago, Max_Settings said:

Sound cards are all terrible and virtual surround you never use. Virtual surround is terrible and destroys positional audio.

Any kind stereo mix for speakers doesn't have any proper positioning with headphones, because of lack of interaural cues.

 

We hear in 3D because head and ears cause direction dependant changes to signal received by both ears from sound course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

http://berkeleybside.com/sound-dimensions-of-binaural-recording/

Without those cues in signals of ears brain can't position sounds, no matter how good headphones are.

Again inaccurate headphones can completely break immersion of binaural sound by not reproducing signal accurately.

 

Having source audio with spatial information those cues can be simulated mathematically.

Though just like recording using dummy modeled after average head shape, also used algorithms are based on average head shape.

Which can lower/break immersion for people with different head shape and interaural cues.

 

Though Asus advertising that Sonic Radar graphical overlay to show sound directions doesn't promise good from their algorithm.

[an actual squirrel]

Maybe check out the sennheiser gsx 1000. Though it is over your budget, the touch screen makes the set up more intuitive than other sound cards. 

 

Another option, although it is more involved, is to just buy a headphone amp (like a magni 3 or massdrop o2), and use hesuvi (free software) for cpu based virtual surround sound, in conjunction with your motherboard's realtek audio.