In a Daze/Dilemma b/w SupremeFX II Soundcard and ASUS Xonar Dx

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abhi_jollyguy

abhi_jollyguy

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Hello Guys, I have Altec Lansing MX-5021 and the "SupremeFX II Soundcard from Creative LAB" which comes bundled with my motherboard ASUS Maximus Formula.

My confusion starts from here that Whether should I go for ASUS Xonar DX?

Will it make huge difference in Sound Quality?

The image of my sound card:

http://i28.tinypic.com/2rwpyyd.jpg

Please help me as I am very confused.

An early reply is requested

Thanku
 
Can u spell "Day n Night"? Well, thats what u will feel when u pop the xonar in and play a movie/song.Just so much louder and clearer.....
 
Just that u will simply love the card and will never touch an onboard card if u can help it, afterwards.....I was referring that the difference between the onboard and Xonar series card would be like day and night.

With my SFXII card in my Rampage, i could crank my Z5500 all the way up and still wasn't thatloud.But with the Xonar D2X, i couldn't even get the volume upto halfway mark, it was way too loud.Also, the clarity is outstanding,details won't be muddy anymore.

If u can, borrow a DX from a friend and see....even if u don't, u won't regret the purchase.It will be a serious upgrade from the SFXII.
 
Imrahn said:
Just that u will simply love the card and will never touch an onboard card if u can help it, afterwards.....I was referring that the difference between the onboard and Xonar series card would be like day and night.

With my SFXII card in my Rampage, i could crank my Z5500 all the way up and still wasn't thatloud.But with the Xonar D2X, i couldn't even get the volume upto halfway mark, it was way too loud.Also, the clarity is outstanding,details won't be muddy anymore.

If u can, borrow a DX from a friend and see....even if u don't, u won't regret the purchase.It will be a serious upgrade from the SFXII.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much. Gonna order ASUS Xonar DX now.

and this statement comes from the Supreme FXII owner and so I am not in a confusion anymore.:clapping:
 
OP's already made his choice, but just leaving this for future readers.

You will not want to use any Creative cards for "Audiophile" needs. Creative's focus since quite some years seem to be on the Gaming market, especially with their X-FI series. They've gone all-out into EAX and CMSS 3-D technology, while basically ignoring the humble 2 channel stereo.

On the Creative platform, you'd be better off with Auzentech soundcards, which use the same chipsets from Creative, but are engineered more towards music reproduction.

Asus had really shaken up the lower end of the PC "Audiophile" market with their Xonar soundcards. The DX/D2X had been compared in reviews to the best of the Auzentech, and found better. The Xonar specs too are impressive, with superb SNR ratios. The Xonar DX is a lot of bang for the buck at its cost.

The only drawback to the Xonar DX are the Asus drivers. There are many minor niggling annoyances that can add up to give you a big irritation. For eg, when you use Front Panel Headphones, the drivers will not automatically route the audio. You have to manually select "FP Headphones" in the Asus Control Panel. Another issue I've seen is that the implementation of the software feature "SVN" (Smart Volume Normalization) creates popping sounds when turned on. Its best to turn it off (SVN in itself is a corruptor of audio, by reducing Dynamic Range).

Do note that Creative haven't fared much better than Asus in the drivers dept. When Vista came out, they basically refused to put out updated drivers for older hardware in order to force ppl to go for newer hardware with proper driver support.

Reviews of Xonar DX (Including one by our own Cranky, on TE) :
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/05/26/asus-xonar-dx-pci-express-soundcard/1
http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-and-previews/asus-xonar-dx-review-125339.html
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2282513,00.asp

Disclaimer:
I have a Xonar DX in my system, and I've never actually heard an X-FI card.
 
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My NF 680i came with a Supreme FX card as well. Have never bothered to even install it after testing it once and it sounded horrible. It was much worse than my old XFi Platinum. Now the machine runs on an Essence STX which is on a different planet compared to the XFi.
 
So Guys, Finally I have bought ASUS Xonar DX and the difference is totally noticeable out of the box. Huge difference over SupremeFX II Soundcard. The main thing increased is clarity in vocals which I wasn't able to find in SupremeFX II Soundcard. Asus Xonar DX has put the New Life in my Altec Lansing MX-5021. The second thing is Sound output which is increased hell lot over SupremeFX II Soundcard. Well overall an excellent upgrade. Thank you all of u for ur input.
 
It is amazing, I get all answers from people here with their experience!
abhi_jollyguy said:
So Guys, Finally I have bought ASUS Xonar DX and the difference is totally noticeable out of the box. Huge difference over SupremeFX II Soundcard. The main thing increased is clarity in vocals which I wasn't able to find in SupremeFX II Soundcard. Asus Xonar DX has put the New Life in my Altec Lansing MX-5021. The second thing is Sound output which is increased hell lot over SupremeFX II Soundcard. Well overall an excellent upgrade. Thank you all of u for ur input.
Click to expand...
 
Rockfella, If you are thinking of buying Edifier then dont go for DA Pro. Go for S550. That is a better match for Xonar DX.
I have DX with DA Pro. I also tested my DA with Xonar DG, quality drop was hard to make out.
DX is over -spec for DA Pro.
 
I already had the DX, S550 was out of my budget so got the DA Pro and happy with it. I know DX is over specked for DA Pro. :ohyeah:
humblebee said:
Rockfella, If you are thinking of buying Edifier then dont go for DA Pro. Go for S550. That is a better match for Xonar DX.
I have DX with DA Pro. I also tested my DA with Xonar DG, quality drop was hard to make out.
DX is over -spec for DA Pro.
Click to expand...
 
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