Looking for a new sound card for around $150

[GuitarFreak]

As the title says, I'm looking for a new card for around $150. PCI-E 1x probably. Not sure what's good nowadays as it's been quite a while since I've looked around.

[Sephiroth]

I've spent a few days trolling around for the exact same issue, and the answers are a bit confusing

from what I can see the 'big' players these days are Asus and good-ole Creative labs.

the 'top dog' is probably Asus however. The new Recon 3d cars are simply a letdown for anything except maybe headphone surround emulation(or headphones in general, as they all have built-in 600ohm amps), but the snr and acutal quality of the card is simply sub-par even compared to the out-going xi-fi series. Also, in an age of 8core and 12 threaded processors, the 'advantage' of a fully hardware run Sound card are almost zero anymore.

The Xonar DX from Asus is probably your best choice for low-imp headphones or acutal multi-channel speakers. You get better quality sound, and Asus has managed to reverse engineer EAX 5.0 so you have all the advantages of the Creative card for gaming as well.

The recon 3d might be slightly better for high imp headphones(it has a built-in amp), and it's THX support suite is impressive, but the XD is simply 'more impressive' in all other areas.

we live in an age of 'no wrong choice' when it comes to sound cards. The recon 3d is certinally leaps ahead of onboard, but when the DX is superior, has all the features of the 3d and is the same price or cheaper, it should be your first choice, and if you're going 'all out' the gap the STX brings is even larger, the disadvantage at that point being that the STX will not support multi-channel speakers without a rare adapter plate, so best to bring you headphones or stick to a spdif ouput

the best part? The recon 3d and DX are $80 on newegg. The STX would streach your budget another $25 as its ~ $175, however it's a much better quality product.

It's a tough call, the recon 3d would be a decent choice for high-imp headphones if your budget were half as much, and the xonar would be my choice in any other situation (and maybe the same situation considering cerative's poor driver support and disadvantages elsewhere) However, since you have a budget of $150, that's right at STX territory, and if you're driving headphones or have a digital out for your speakers, I'd make that my pick.


Infact, I did pick it.