looking for soundcard which one ?

[rkwinkel]

Hello,

I recently upgraded to a new system and at the moment I have an Audigy 4. I want to upgrade the soundcard, and I am want to pick one of the following cards:
Asus Xonar
Creative XiFi
Sondigo Inferno
Razer Barracuda
Onkyo Wavio

Well these are expensive cards, but want to make a good investment and therefore choise. the card has to last me a long time.
At the moment I have xp and want to upgrade next year to Vista
I game, listen to music and watch movies on the pc.

What would you advice me, since I do not know what to pick.

Regards,

Rick

[Rob Williams]

Did you happen to look through our ASUS Xonar review?

http://techgage.com/article/asus_xonar_d2_sound_card/

Rory was quite pleased with it overall. We'll also have a review of Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude coming up shortly as well.

[rkwinkel]

But is the Asus just as good for gaming as the other ones ?
I was thinking about the Asus, just want to be sure.

[madmat]

The ASUS won't be as good for gaming as the Audigy four you already have. If I might ask, what's wrong with it?

[rkwinkel]

nothing wrong with my Audigy 4, but just like to get a new soundcard and treat myself cause of the new rig.. Also I believe that also sound will improve, Also thinking about the xifi elite pro... so any advice still ?

[Rory Buszka]

Really, if you want the best in gaming performance (which pretty much means you need onboard DSP acceleration) AND an upgrade in sound quality from your current Audigy4 card, then it's the X-Fi for you. Or else the Auzentech Prelude, which is also X-Fi based, and is pretty much the ultimate PC sound card ever, period, end of story.

If you're not a bleeding-edge gamer, and don't mind sacrificing 1 or maybe 2 frames per second while enjoying great sound, the Xonar or even the Barracuda AC-1 are still good options. Really, the overall impact on your gaming will be so slight that you probably won't notice any deterioration in performance at all.

[madstork91]

I enjoy my creative X-fi.

And i didnt pay an arm and a leg for it either.

[MakubeX]

I enjoy my creative X-fi.

And i didnt pay an arm and a leg for it either.

I can say the same. I've got the X-Fi Fatality (the first one that came out, today they call it Fatality Champion Series) and I payed $150 for it slightly used when it was worth around $300. Still going strong today. It's gotta be one of the best deals I've ever gotten. :)

[rkwinkel]

well I bought the xifi fatality pro today and love it... its fantastic..
thanks you guys...
love the sound

[Rob Williams]

Sounds good man, enjoy!

[madstork91]

Glad to help out.

[Tramapolean]

I am interested to see what happens when sound cards from Creative catch up with Vista. At the moment, it does not look like much has changed with their cards for a while. Then again, I am not sure what they could really change as realistic sounds already seem to have been achieved in most cases :-)

[Rory Buszka]

I'm a bigger and bigger fan of the Xonar sound card every time I get a chance to use the analog outputs. Typically, I run an optical Toslink cable under the carpet, across the room to my HT receiver. However, the extremely high quality output of the Xonar's analog section (burr-brown DACs and opamps) really brings out the best in whatever it's connected to, including my modest Cambridge Soundworks 2.1 speakers.

If I were a smart person, I'd have tested the Xonar card's drivers under Vista. I think I'll do that sometime this week and post my findings in the forum thread for the review. Because I don't use Vista on any of my machines at present, it's altogether too easy to forget it even exists.