Can anybody Recommend A Good Sound Card?

moonbeep

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Hi Folks

Currently have an Asus Xonar DS 7.1 sound card and listen to a lot of music,could anybody recommend me a worthy upgrade to this card?


Have about £100 too spend!

Many Thanks
 

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Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1Q9550 2.83GHZ8GB Crucial DDR3-PC12800Sapphire HD6870 1GB
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Motherboard
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8GB Crucial DDR3-PC12800
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Asus Xonar DS
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What is it you're looking for? Better sound quality? What are you connecting it to and are you using digital or analogue? If you're using analogue you may well not notice any difference with a better card. Also assuming you want to avoid creative... Anyway:

I did a lot of research for my card and came up with the Asus Xonar D2/PM which has a better SNR than your current card (118 db vs 107db for the DS). THD may be better too. It can also do Dolby in addition to DTS. Comes with a MIDI port daughter card and bundled basic music production software if that's your bag. I've linked to the PCI version: there's a pci-e version, but be aware that the pci-e one needs power from a floppy connector, unlike the PCI which needs no additional power.

If you can stretch to £140 there's the Asus Xonar Essence ST which is the next step in sound quality (124db SNR) Can only do stereo, unless you buy the expansion card. I've linked to the PCI version; again there's a pci-e version with the same caveat as above.

Hope this helps.
 

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Core2Quad Q8400
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Asus P5Q
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GTX460
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Asus D2/PM
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Benq MP721c Projector 1024x768 native
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Tevii S480 Satellite card
What is it you're looking for? Better sound quality? What are you connecting it to and are you using digital or analogue? If you're using analogue you may well not notice any difference with a better card. Also assuming you want to avoid creative... Anyway:

I did a lot of research for my card and came up with the Asus Xonar D2/PM which has a better SNR than your current card (118 db vs 107db for the DS). THD may be better too. It can also do Dolby in addition to DTS. Comes with a MIDI port daughter card and bundled basic music production software if that's your bag. I've linked to the PCI version: there's a pci-e version, but be aware that the pci-e one needs power from a floppy connector, unlike the PCI which needs no additional power.

If you can stretch to £140 there's the Asus Xonar Essence ST which is the next step in sound quality (124db SNR) Can only do stereo, unless you buy the expansion card. I've linked to the PCI version; again there's a pci-e version with the same caveat as above.

Hope this helps.


Many thanks for that,yeah was looking at the Xonar Essence,seems a really good card,might be worth stretching and aquireing one!!
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1Q9550 2.83GHZ8GB Crucial DDR3-PC12800Sapphire HD6870 1GB
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Custom Build
OS
Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1
CPU
Q9550 2.83GHZ
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-G41MT-S2P
Memory
8GB Crucial DDR3-PC12800
Graphics Card(s)
Sapphire HD6870 1GB
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DS
Monitor(s) Displays
28" Hanns-G HZ281
Screen Resolution
1920x1200
Hard Drives
Samsung 320GB
WD 320GB
Seagate External 2.5 500GB
PSU
Corsair TX 650
Case
Coolermaster CM690
Cooling
Corsair H50
Keyboard
Logitech K120
Mouse
Logitech Wireless M305
Internet Speed
20MB Sky,getting 15mb
Other Info
Logitech z523 2.1 speakers
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