OCN's Most Recommended Audio Products - Page 90

Thanks for bringing the card up. I had JUST gotten the chance to try out the Phoebus on Sunday (yesterday) at a friends house. The reason I had waited so long to try it out is because none of my friends bought it until now and I definitely wasn't trying to buy it.

Here are our thoughts on the card. It's not at all an upgrade from an STX. It's an alternative to the STX. We agree that it's in no way superior to the STX sound quality wise. In fact it's most likely inferior to the STX in sound quality. The amp section on the Phoebus and the STX are seemingly EXACTLY the same. Almost no difference there. As far as gaming goes, it's better than an STX.....when it works..The Phoebus has a lot of issues with games at the moment. I'm pretty sure that's a driver issue and I haven't tried it with any other drivers like Unified drivers or anything. After some light research, we were able to find that A LOT of people are having issues with the Pheobus in games.

Assuming this problem is fixed eventually, the Phoebus will be a more gamer geared card than the STX...

But I will never recommend this card as an alternative to the STX.

First off, this card is 200 dollars. 2nd, it's inferior to the STX in sound quality. Third, the amp section is exactly the same as the current STX. Fourth, the card has issues with some games. Fifth, if you really wanted a sound card for gaming, you wouldn't bother with this card because you would buy the Titanium HD for much cheaper.

I was so disappointed that I wanted to come on OCN and type about it, but by the time I got home, I had forgotten about it because of how uninterested I was in it.

I also had the chance to review the creative Recon 3D (80 dollar one, not the 200 dollar one).

From what I hear there is no difference between the 80 dollar version and the 200 dollar version other than the shield.

That said, as far as SQ goes the Recon 3D is.....not good. I'd say there was almost no difference between on board and the Recon 3D. You could just barely pick apart the slight bump in clarity over on board. Don't get this card for music. Don't even think about it.

The mids and highs were WAY too high and harsh for a sound card. In that respect I prefer on board over this card. The card comes with a built in amp which I didn't even use so I won't comment on it, but I'm thinking it's crap.

The quad core crap that's supposed to be all ooo and wow was ...well, useless. I have no idea what it did.

Now, I'll be fair and say that as far as positioning goes...it did well. I think that the bumped up mids and highs attributed to it's "goodness" in gaming, but the overall card's performance in multiple games was enough to warrant a nod in the gaming department. As far as "Scout" mode goes..I'm not really a fan. It's good in some games and useless in others. Scout mode is supposed to make certain sounds pop out more than others like footsteps. Yeah..I noticed it working in some games, but others I heard no difference. It's completely game dependent. Comparing the Recon 3D to the Titanium HD as far as gaming goes...the Recon3D.......is....better....than the TiHD.. What I mean to say is that the surround sound feeling was more natural and overall better than the TiHD, but the TiHD makes up for it by having crisper, clearer sounds and...awkwardly because the freakin' card has a quad-core chip...I feel the TiHD handled more complex sounds better than the Recon3D.

What the flip is the purpose of a quad core sound card if it's not even helping process sounds?

Again, I have no idea what the quad core chip thing did, but it wasn't at all noticeable. I figured it would at least take complex sounds and make them sound marvelous. It didn't even do that. IMO, the Recon 3D is worth..no more than 50 dollars. I would only ever think about using it for gaming. I would never listen to this sound card for music.

OH, another thing I forgot to mention about this card is it has NO DYNAMIC RANGE WHATSOEVER. Drops in music are unheard of. This card offers no dynamic range. Everything is loud all the time.

Anyway..I can't recommend either of these cards and for that reason they're not going to be added to the list. I'll link this post on the first page for all those that want to know what the Phoebus and Recon3D sound like.

Needless to say, both of these cards were returned. The Phoebus has too many issues in games, the Recon3D sucks too much to warrant keeping SQ wise.

On the plus side, the software and drivers on the Recon3D are fabulous.

See, I said something nice about it?

I would use the speakers solely for music. The headphones solely for gaming and use this guide to find out what would be best for you from there on out.
The ability to hear footsteps, hearing sound effects such as bushes rustling or bullets flying by around you. The ability to tell the direction from which a sound is coming and have a good distance to hear those sounds. That's why I take as being useful for gaming. I felt the Pheobus made it easier to hear those important sounds in games. I felt the environment felt more natural than the STX. The STX's soundstage often times sounded faux/created and wasn't actual. I also thought the STX's ability to produce sounds behind you wasn't that great. There was a 20-30 degree area behind you that sound was sort of void. It would skip from the left to the right side pretty fast. I felt the TiHD did this better than the STX. The Pheobus did that better than the STX.

But the Phoebus is barely better than the STX and is inferior to the TiHD.

So I can't even recommend it over the STX.

Can't say, I never used GX mode. I found it horrid on the DX and didn't bother trying on the Pheobus.