Xonar D2X or Essence

[marsilians]

This is advice for a friend and sound cards are not my forte.

He has a desktop and plays lossy and lossless tracks off of it. Does not use the headphone very much ~10% of his listening off of the PC. The PC is used 80% for music and 20% for movies. Before I give him my biased opinion to with an Essence (which I have in my own PC), I wanted to get some opinions on the D2X as well to see which might be a better fit for him

Budget is a small constraint for him though he doesn't mind going with the Essence if it is distinctly better for his applications.

He also plans to pick up a pair of Audio Engine AE2s.

Thx

 

[moserw]

As long as he is not a gamer and does not watch too many movies on his PC then for music the Essence is the best especially with its analog output.

 

[suprateep]

As long as he is not a gamer and does not watch too many movies on his PC then for music the Essence is the best especially with its analog output.

+1 to that. As long as its 2 channel - its essence.

If he wants an all round solution D2X is an great buy.

 

[spirovious]

D2X is also good card as S/N ratio is 123db,it has dedicated 7.1 ch out for mov.
newer Essence too comes with 7.1 ana out board.