Higgins

Hey everyone, my birthday is in two weeks and im pondering what to spend my money on.

I have $100 cash, and a computer job is going to bring in another $100.. so im virtually sitting on $200

But anyway, i want a new sound card and im leaning toward the Xonar D2 since i've read its a better choice in Vista despite not having the EAX the Prelude/X-fi have.

Rep+ for input

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Namrac

The Prelude is a better card, I'm fairly sure.

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PC: JRiver Jukebox ASIO > MHDT Constantine+ > Singlepower MPX3 SLAM > Sennheiser HD580
OCN Headphone Club. Because computers don't suck up enough of my money.

DuckieHo

Prelude for sure.

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Higgins

Well i understand the X-fi is like "whoah" but according to this article
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13874/1
The Xonar has slightly better sound quality and drivers.

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biftek

And the Xonar now supports EAX 5.0 if that tickles your fancy.
I'd get the Asus personally.

Namrac

EAX doesn't matter with Vista.


I still say Prelude. One positive review doesn't counteract all the negative I've seen.

__________________

Audio Setup: (Soon to be in Transition)
PC: JRiver Jukebox ASIO > MHDT Constantine+ > Singlepower MPX3 SLAM > Sennheiser HD580
OCN Headphone Club. Because computers don't suck up enough of my money.

Higgins

That makes me lean toward the Xonar even more

Can you give an example of negative reviews? On newegg i saw a few that had 5.1 problems.. is there anything besides that?

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Clinic

Go with the Prelude. The only thing holding the Auzie back is its crappy drivers (it doesn't play nicely with some other components, but that could just be the other components).

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txtmstrjoe

A dissenting opinion.

I would favor the Xonar D2 as the overall better card.

I've got both an X-Fi (equivalent to the Prelude in most respects) and a couple of sound cards with the C-Media CMI8788 (the APU on which the Xonar D2's AV200 was based), so I've got experience with both. I prefer the CMI8788's refinement; the sound output for music and movies seems more sophisticated and possessed of more finesse than the X-Fi, which I find to be powerful and meaty, but brutal.

If your primary needs are for gaming, the Prelude is better; I found X-Fi cards to have a bit better positional sound effects than any C-Media card I've got. C-Media cards still have fair-to-good positional sound abilities (it varies by card, interestingly), but the X-Fi beats it in gaming.

Overall, though, I like how C-Media CMI8788 APU outputs sound over all uses.

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Namrac

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Asus...s/5135-11.html

Just a quick google.


I've just heard very little good about the card.

__________________

Audio Setup: (Soon to be in Transition)
PC: JRiver Jukebox ASIO > MHDT Constantine+ > Singlepower MPX3 SLAM > Sennheiser HD580
OCN Headphone Club. Because computers don't suck up enough of my money.