Need Help on Selecting a decent 5.1 Sound Card & system.

Hey Guys,

I have a Z2300 2.1 Paired with Gigabyte GA EX58A UD7 Motherboard's onboard.

Now i want to upgrade the speaker system to Some decent 5.1 like Onkyo HT3400 or HT3300 if available.

Previously i had a X540, which sucks with the same onboard & i really never enjoyed the 5.1 surround very much without experimental settings.

Now i want to buy a 5.1 Sound card & a 5.1 Speaker System too.

But before that, i just want to know whether any performance difference will be observed, if i hook up my Z2300 with a decent 5.1 sound card instead of onboard ???

My Usage will be like, watching HD Movies, Gaming, High Volume Music & should be able to connect other peripherals like DAP, PSP & sometime to my future purchase Samsung HDTV.

Any suggestion are highly appreciable. Expected to buy within two weeks

BTW i have selected Samsung UA40D5500RR 40 inch LED TV as my next purchase. Any comments on the same is also appreciable.

Budget for HD TV: 70k
Budget for 5.1 : 30k-50k

Now my budget for 5.1 Sound card varies between 4k-10k based on the suggestion.

Logitech Z906 5.1 speakers at 399USD
Creative sound blaster X-fi titanium at 6-7k

d3p5kor said:
Hey Guys,

I have a Z2300 2.1 Paired with Gigabyte GA EX58A UD7 Motherboard's onboard.

Now i want to upgrade the speaker system to Some decent 5.1 like Onkyo HT3400 or HT3300 if available.

Previously i had a X540, which sucks with the same onboard & i really never enjoyed the 5.1 surround very much without experimental settings.

Now i want to buy a 5.1 Sound card & a 5.1 Speaker System too.

But before that, i just want to know whether any performance difference will be observed, if i hook up my Z2300 with a decent 5.1 sound card instead of onboard ???

My Usage will be like, watching HD Movies, Gaming, High Volume Music & should be able to connect other peripherals like DAP, PSP & sometime to my future purchase Samsung HDTV.

Any suggestion are highly appreciable. Expected to buy within two weeks

BTW i have selected Samsung UA40D5500RR 40 inch LED TV as my next purchase. Any comments on the same is also appreciable.

Budget for HD TV: 70k
Budget for 5.1 : 30k-50k

Now my budget for 5.1 Sound card varies between 4k-10k based on the suggestion.

If you are going to get HTiB, I don't see a reason to purchase a high end soundcard. HTiB can do all the processing and hence all your soundcard need to do is to passthrough audio without any processing. This is something that even your onboard soundcard should do.

For speakers, given your budget, check out models from Onkyo, Sonodyne, JBL, Bose etc. Go to the showrooms and take demo of units. You may not be able to find much by searching on the internet.

@d3p5kor, high end 5.1 for PC or TV?

I want to use 5.1 with both PC & TV.

Sorry bro for hacking into your thread. Just had a small query. Even I'm a music lover. Can someone please tell me what would be the benefit of having a 5.1 Sound Card as opposed to the normal 3.5 mm Jack that comes with the cabinet. Will this give me more ports to connect my 5.1 System or will the music be better?

ajayritik said:
Sorry bro for hacking into your thread. Just had a small query. Even I'm a music lover. Can someone please tell me what would be the benefit of having a 5.1 Sound Card as opposed to the normal 3.5 mm Jack that comes with the cabinet. Will this give me more ports to connect my 5.1 System or will the music be better?

To make is simple for you, let me put it in layman's terms.

A good midrange dedicated soundcard like ASUS Xonar DX or STX comes with components that have much much higher quality. Xonar ST is to onboard soundcard what ipod Touch is to a cheap cassette player. But to enjoy such soundcard, you also need to have a speaker system that can make use of the high quality output that the soundcard provides.

Also, using a 1k-2k speaker set will nullify all the advantage that a good dedicated soundcard gives. Similarly an onboard soundcard nullifies the use that a high end speaker system gives. hence, there need to be a balance between soundcard and speaker.

^^ Bro I have Altec Lansing - VS4121 which I purchased some time back.I hook it to both my laptop and Desktop is there something else I can add as well to make it better. Do you think I should go for Sound Card?

ajayritik said:
^^ Bro I have Altec Lansing - VS4121 which I purchased some time back.I hook it to both my laptop and Desktop is there something else I can add as well to make it better. Do you think I should go for Sound Card?

nope. the onboard should be enough. You may find a bit of difference if you use a decent sound card. Even a Xonar DX will do.

now this becomes an issue with me.

As told earlier i have a Gigabyte GA EX58 UD7 rev 1.0.

My mobo includes the following features.

1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2) (Note 2)
2. 2 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
4. 1 x PCI slot

Frankly both of the PCI Express x1 slots are blocked because of the Silent Heat Pipe.

Refer the attached image.

I have selected Xonar DX to AuzenTech X-Fi Bravura, now my doubt is

IS IT POSSIBLE TO connect a Sound card of PCI x1 in PCI x8 ?
Is it compatible ??

Note: For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots.
The PCIEX8_1 and PCIEX8_2 slots share bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots espectively. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX16_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode; when PCIEX8_2 is populated with an expansion card, the PC IEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

Why not get a PCI soundcard. like this one:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Multimedia- ASUS Xonar D2/PM

Now i'm in a big clashhhh..

Which one to go for.

Asus Xonar D1 [PCI x8]

Asus Xonar D2 [PCI x8]

Asus Xonar DS. [PCI x8]

Asus Xonar DG [PCI x8]

D2 FTW! 118dB SNR! DS and DG doesn't have Dolby if I am right.

Asus Xonar D1 (trimmed down version of DX w/o power connec. but same audio processor n features of DX)
in short, Xonar DX = Xonar D1 w/o pow. conn.

Asus Xonar D2 - i hope its no longer avail, not sure though(good audio proccy, more features)
Cost, D2 ~ Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
performance, D2 < Auzentech X-Fi Prelude

~~Asus Xonar DS~~

~~Asus Xonar DG~~

I can find a lot of Xonar D1, but no Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1.

The following are available, let me which to go for now.

Auzentech Store US

d3p5kor said:
I can find a lot of Xonar D1, but no Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1.

The following are available, let me which to go for now.

Auzentech Store US

Are u gettin t from US??

Yes, i'm travelling to US on Aug or Sept month.

Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1

i cant find it in any stores either...

Auzentech X-fi Prelude 7.1 is not available at newegg, tigerdirect, compusa, directron, amazon, buy.com & some more sites in germany too.

But i got a lot of Xonar D1 at 70$. Seriously thinking of ordering it the day i arrive over there.

X-fi Forte is similar to prelude.. but again its PCI-e...

$70 for D1 is vfm..

M

ajayritik said:
Sorry bro for hacking into your thread. Just had a small query. Even I'm a music lover. Can someone please tell me what would be the benefit of having a 5.1 Sound Card as opposed to the normal 3.5 mm Jack that comes with the cabinet. Will this give me more ports to connect my 5.1 System or will the music be better?

Hi the 3.5 is just a stereo jack and can port 2 channel audio. while 5.1 channel card can give you 5 different sound which you can experience once you connect a 5.1 channel speaker system.