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Struggling to find a sound card I am happy with

rezonsor
By rezonsor
in Audio
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My audio setup is a 5.1 amplifier connected to my sound card with three 3.5mm cables.

 

I currently have a Creative X-Fi Titanium which I am mostly happy with - except for driver support for Windows 10.  It seems that with update to Windows the drivers become increasingly buggy.

 

Sound cards i have tried in the past are Sound Blaster Z, Sound BlasterX AE-5 and Xonar D2X.  The new generation of sound cards from Creative don't seem to support CMSS 3D - which is what I currently use and happy with me.  I have spent many hours trying combinations of settings with buggy software, but nothing seems to match or even come close to my CMSS 3D.  The Xonar D2X simply didn't work under Windows 10 for me.

 

I'd really appreciate some advice in what I should buy.  I'd rather not spend more than £200 in total, unless it's my only option that will give me what I want.

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4 minutes ago, AndrewMKlasen said:

Why not just buy some speakers? Better Sound quality than a sound card.

My speakers are connected to the amplifier, which in turn is connected to my sound card.

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I'd just going to buy external dac and amp since they are outside your pc, So no noise,it has lower impedance and no driver required just plug and play.

As for surround i use razer surround.

Behold the power of Chuck Norris the forbidden one.

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49 minutes ago, Ya_Mi said:

I'd just going to buy external dac and amp since they are outside your pc, So no noise,it has lower impedance and no driver required just plug and play.

As for surround i use razer surround.

Yeah my friend has used both an expensive sound card and an expensive dac and he says the dac is much better as far as wound quality goes. 

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Can I buy just any DAC from Amazon? Where do I connect it to?

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  • 2 months later...
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I have been considering the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx as it will likely have better support for Windows 10 and likely to have CMSS 3D.  I am hoping that with some third party drivers, such as PAX, this will be an acceptable substitute for my Creative X-Fi Titanium.

 

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

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Sound Blaster Z has SBX Pro Studio and if you crank that surround up it is the same thing I believe. I use it to get my music playing out of the SB and SR speakers instead of just the fronts. Works quite well.

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18 hours ago, rezonsor said:

I have been considering the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx as it will likely have better support for Windows 10 and likely to have CMSS 3D.  I am hoping that with some third party drivers, such as PAX, this will be an acceptable substitute for my Creative X-Fi Titanium.

 

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Used to have a creative sound card, dont use it anymore cause it doesnt support auro 3d. sounds quite clean and nice though.

LTT's Resident Porsche fanboy and nutjob Audiophile.

 

Main speaker setup is now;

 

Mini DSP SHD Studio -> 2x Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC's (fed by AES/EBU, one feeds the left sub and main, the other feeds the right side) -> 2x Neumann KH420 + 2x Neumann KH870

 

(Having a totally seperate DAC for each channel is game changing for sound quality)

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I tried and returned the Creative Audigy Rx this week.  The sound quality simply wasn't not as good as my X-Fi Titanium, but the CMSS 3D worked exactly how I wanted it to.  I am becoming increasingly desperate for an alternative to X-Fi Titanium sound card, as Windows 1709 is the latest version of Windows to properly support it.

 

It is annoying that my amplifier only seems to output sound properly in the rear speakers when CMSS 3D is being used.  Perhaps it is the age of it, being nearly 20 years old.  But for me it is nice, ruined only by Creative and/or Microsoft's inability to support "legacy" hardware.

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CMSS 3D is called "Surround" on AE-5... It's the same thing, expanding the audio through virtual or real channels to expand the "surround". Unless you're looking for something specific. I had Xonar STX and it had great sound, but absolute garbage drivers and software. AE-5 is the best soundcard that works great with everything.

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