Forum

Think of a product in it's basic elements. A laptop is meant to be portable and because of that, it will never run as cool, fast or cheaply as a desktop computer. Corners are cut.

A gaming sound card like the X-Fi is typically meant for multi-channel audio output as well as hardware acceleration of audio (totally useless feature for anyone with a dual core or faster computer) and weird equalizer tweaks that 95% of users don't know how to use properly (i.e. don't use them). X-Fi cards are the cheapest way to get multi-channel analog audio out of your computer with gamer features.

The first no-no is the DAC chip the X-Fi uses. DAC chips have one job, to convert the digital audio signal into an analog signal that can be fed to speakers/headphones. DAC chips are semiconductors and how efficient their circuitry is affects how good the conversion is. The DAC chip in the X-Fi is a cheap multi-channel DAC that doesn't typically have a wide dynamic range and may muddle the sound if it's fed too much audio or too dynamic audio. DAC chips evolve almost as fast as CPU chips do. 10-15 years ago a DAC chip that might have cost thousands is worthless today. You can take this and realize that onboard audio isn't as bad as it used to be. A lot of newer boards have better or as good DAC chips as X-Fi cards.

The second no-no is the components. Capacitors, resistors, opamps and more. If Creative used quality components, you likely wouldn't be able to afford it. Quality capacitors cost money. There are some botique old Russian military caps that can fetch hundreds of dollars. Those aren't necessary for quality audio but it just shows that there's quite a bit to improve upon with a 1-cent capacitor. Affordable quality ones can cost $1-$5 depending on the type. Resistors run a little cheaper. Opamps are quite similar to DAC chips. Basically, they are a little chip that amplifies a signal; operational amplifier. They can vastly affect quality of audio. Can you guess if Creative used quality ones or cheap ones? Fact: A lot of the better sounding dedicated DAC units don't use opamps at all.



X-Fi sound cards are popular because of misinformation. Companies will always say their product is great, Creative is no exception. X-Fi cards were pretty decent back in the days of BF2, FEAR and a few other games around 2003-2005. Single core CPU's were all we had and offloading audio processing did improve FPS. The problem is, the technology never went anywhere because CPU's went all multi-core. Differences back in the day were maybe 5-10%, these days you would be lucky if you noticed it at all. So, they're low quality, horrible support and no real benefits of usage. Why are they popular? Gamers use a lot of products that have no real purpose, just look at crazy mouse pads, weird looking computer cases, flashing lights, headsets that make them look like they're in a military control room.

So what do you use? There are decent sound cards but their price is pretty out there. Brands like ASUS Xonar and Auzentech have decent ones but to get anything good, you need to go external. USB is where most audiophiles get their audio. One reason to use something external is to make sure your audio components don't use the dirty power generated by the switching power supply in your computer. Sure there's great quality computer power supplies but they're rated for longevity and amperage and reliability, not for a clean signal. Look up R-Core and Torridal power supplies. There's tons of DAC boxes out there and the market is constantly changing, there's tons of "flavor of the month" units and there's quite a few reliable brands. It takes a lot of research and a bit of saving to pull the trigger on your first setup.






I'm kinda running out of steam... it's hot and I dunno what else to say. If you have any specific questions, I can try to help. Look down in this forum a few posts; check out "What makes an excellent sound card" if you've got the time.

But better sound card in overall sound quality doesn't mean tha u ll hear better in aao.that's why ppl go for xfi.because u hear better ingame.

And ofc its cheaper...

I believe he's looking for best sound quality overall not just in aao. Anyone buying cards specifically for this game still, well i don't even know what to say...

I'm looking for a good card in general. Not for AA. If i want to hear stuff in AA ill just mess the EQ's up and stuff.

This is more of a learning thread for me. I want to know what makes good sound recreation. I noticed a huge difference not just in AA but in everything. i.e. music and videos too. when i installed my x-fi. I just can't imagin how things could sound better then they do now. But that probably just because i have NEVER heard anything better then x-fi sounds.

Well start off with ignoring Creative, Logitech, Altec Lansing, Labtec and any other brand you'd find at Best Buy or any other big box stores. To give credit though, some of those stores will carry Sennheiser, BeyerDynamic, AudioTechnica or some other good brands but they jack the prices up and it's better to buy online.

To give credit to rxcaptain, that is a reason why gamers like X-Fi because they can mess with the audio and hear more. In every case though that just degrades quality. A lot of people like quality audio but they will mess with equalizers and stuff like that. I tend to take a purist approach and IMO it's the right way. Messing with the audio signal from a quality mastered CD, do you really know better than the technician with thousands of dollars into his setup and years of experience? No. If you get accurate reproducing headphones/speakers and neutral sounding gear, you're hearing it exactly as the artist/technician intended. Loudness wars is an issue you can't avoid and unfortunately those idiots don't know what they're doing to music but at least you can enjoy music the way it was produced if your system is decent.

Typically to get a good setup, you need beefy headphones that require a good amplifier. X-Fi cards and onboard audio typically don't amplify the signal in a quality way or with enough power to drive the headphones properly. I've always thought of it as a light bulb with low power. It's not going to output the proper amount of light but you can still see, it's just difficult. Give it the proper power and it performs great. This is the same for speakers, they need proper amplification to work properly. Remember both speakers and headphones are moving parts and in their most basic form, they need electricity to move properly.

eKC0mm, your first step IMO is to get a pair of headphones that suit you. The 3 brands above are ones I  would recommend. I would shoot for anything Sennheiser 5xx or higher, BeyerDynamic DT770 or higher and AudioTechnicia, I'm not too knowledgeable on their confusing model numbers but their good ones start at about $90-$100. If you spend $100-$150 roughly on a pair of headphones (that aren't BOSE or Beats) you're doing good. It's a good introductory rage and will get you a real good taste of audio.

Use the following guides to help you narrow down a few choices of styles and prices you would like:
http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide
http://www.head-fi.org/a/buying-guide-headphones-by-price-range
http://www.head-fi.org/a/a-hopefully-helpful-headphone-buying-guide-for-newbies-by-boomana

*EDIT*
lol Kicker, way to go off the handle. You can spend $300 and have a real great setup, you don't have to spend $600 on a DAC and any audio enthusiast wouldn't buy one at Newegg anyway. You're putting down quality audio without having tried it. Yea it looks ridiculous at first but once you hear it, you'll understand. Audio is the cheapest way to get immersed into another environment. Video is vastly more expensive to get quality and I'm not talking about junky piece of shit 40" LCD TV's at the big box store. I'm talking about IPS panels. Anyway, you CAN hear the difference, that is if you decide to pull your head out of your ass and stop thinking like a typical gamer.

You said you "could probably not tell a difference" so that's saying you haven't heard quality before. See, you're bypassing a fair bit of the analog bullshit in your X-Fi which is good but I would wager your 7.1 system is likely 7 1" tweeters and a 10" or so subwoofer which will have very bloated bass and treble and highly recessed mids. I'd guess it's a boxed setup made by Creative or Logitech, not a real 7.1 system with a receiver and 2-way or 3-way speakers for each channel.

Good deal then 1m50ry. The sound emitters in game determine how far you should hear but people mess with values that boost volume level and alter the distances. I think it's a combination of drivers, frequency boosting and ini tweaking that people use to manipulate sound in AA. The difference between onboard and X-Fi would be that AA is one of the few games that supports the X-Fi hardware and you may be getting EAX effects that echo sounds further than normal, there's also a difference between how the sounds are rendered on the X-Fi chip versus in Unreal via software.

Oh, and for ASUS vs Auzentech, I would go ASUS. Auzentech uses the X-Fi chips while ASUS doesn't. There's a LOT of audiophiles using ASUS Xonar series to get good audio out of their computers and while it won't be as good as a dedicated unit, it should be a good start over onboard or X-Fi.

Personally though, I would stick with something USB based that doesn't use proprietary drivers. This means you can literally plug it into any computer and get audio out. PCI sound cards will be useless in a few years when you can't find a motherboard with a PCI slot. PCI-e is future-proof but again like I said earlier in the thread, it uses the dirty power from the computer and has to deal with EMI/RFI from all the high frequency parts in the computer.

I said "I would wager". That's not assuming, it's betting. Am I wrong? I'm not really sure why you're getting bent out of shape.

I have decided to finally get some good audio stuff and I remember you linking a relatively cheap (around $130) USB DAC in one of your posts but I dont feel like searching the forum for the post. Do you by any chance remember what it was? I was thinking about pairing it with a pair of Sennheiser HD-280 PRO Headphones

Those look like good headphones to start. The USB DAC I probably recommneded was one of the NuForce units, uDAC I think. You might also check out the FIIO products, specifically the E10. There's a review thread here:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/575084/impression-fiio-e10
In that thread there's comparisons to similar products.

Keep in mind they're meant to be cheap & small units, they're not going to be as good as a $300 desktop box. It's a good way to taste the quality of something dedicated without spending too much. If you like it, you can upgrade further.