The Xonar 7.1 Thread

Thanks for starting this thread! I currently have an X-Fi Elite Pro and purchased some LM4652 opamps and a Black Gate 2200uF 16v cap, but it sucks for Vista 64. I've been very successfully using my HTPC as a preamp, with the X-Fi directly connected to my Anthem PVA-7 seven-channel amp.

Used mostly for movies, music (mp3, CD) and DVD-Audio, does anyone have an educated guess on whether the stock Xonar will sound better than a modded X-Fi Elite Pro?

Interested in this card, but I just want to confirm that it has LM4562 opamps. If so I'll give it a try, to replace the x-meridian.

Are the S4580 replaceable with lets say more LM4562 with some soldering skills ?

I don't understand why these companies are mixing up opamps on the cards. I guess if the front three channels where the same, it would not matter much.

I ordered one of these cards, and it should arrive next week. I need a replacement for the xmeridian, since its high output levels clipped my preamp and fried my front speakers!

It is also nice to see Asus include so many cables and accesories with the card.

Here's some reviews I have found on the Asus Xonar:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/117...ard/index.html

http://techgage.com/article/asus_xonar_d2_sound_card/

http://www.trustedreviews.com/multim...-Sound-Card/p1

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Revi...rticleId=21355

I love the card. It's receiving high marks and the colour scheme matches my new case colours (black aluminum with gold highlights). I need a PCI-Express soundcard since all of my cards are PCI and that leaves the 2 PCI-Express x1 slots on the motherboard free.

I just modded (added) a headphone and microphone connectors to the front of the case and was originally going to connect those to the front audio connector on the motherboard. That means in order to use them, I needed to enable the onboard sound. When the Asus Xonar was released - it was the first PCI-Express soundcard and I can use it instead of the motherboard sound. However, after reading the reviews, the Asus Xonar only has 3 internal connectors - CD in, Aux in, and the Midi PCI bracket in. It does not have a front panel audio connector out. The Auzentech Prelude and the Razer Barracuda AC-1 soundcards do have the front panel audio connector. (I haven't checked the HT Omega Claro yet).

I'm now leaning towards the Prelude, however because it's PCI, that means I'll be losing one of my other PCI cards. Creative Labs is suppose to be releasinig a PCI-Express Xi-Fi "soon". I'll like to see what features it has. For me, Asus 'sort of' dropped the ball by not having the front panel audio connector. It's basically why I'm not buying the Xonar.

I decided to go with the Prelude instead of the Xonar since I would miss EAX5 support for Battlefield. I was also hoping to use Creative's DVD-Audio player since the X-Fi Elite Pro's playback is far superior to my old Pioneer universal players. I'd still consider the Xonar if I were to assemble a dedicated HTPC.

X-Fi Prelude related info:
I haven't had a chance to fairly judge its sound quality since the Auzentech drivers don't have the THX Console in "Entertainment Mode" and there is no way to properly calibrate anything. There is no way to manage bass, either. I shot off an email to Auzentech reminding them of Creative's crummy driver reputation, saying I needed speaker and bass management (x-over freq., level, distance, large/small speakers settings) and the ability to use Creative apps like the free DVD-Audio player and WaveStudio. The reply I got said they would consider adding these features in the next driver release.

I don't care about front panel connections. I would like to use a card that is PCI-E if possible, but what's really important is which card has the better sound between the Xonar and the Prelude?

I bought a Xonar around 1.5 weeks ago to replace my X-Fi. I'll write a lengthy post at some point with more info and pics, but the reader's digest version is that I moved my gaming rig (which I spent decent money on -- 8800GTS w/ 640MB, 4GB RAM, 500GB, etc.) downstairs to my home theater area because I was not using it much upstairs in my office. I usually just ended up chilling on the couch to play Xbox instead. After getting everything moved, I find my Pioneer Elite VSX81TXV will NOT take multichannel sound input while it is sending HDMI to the screen. So I had to find a card that would do Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive and this card fit the bill.

So far I cannot tell a difference in sound quality between the X-Fi and the Xonar. Basically, I am VERY happy with the Xonar. The only thing I can't figure out and that I am a bit unhappy with is PowerDVD + Xonar. I upgraded to PDVD Ultra (OEM version came with the card) to play backed up HD DVD. Everything plays fine, but if you enable SPDIF out in PDVD you get no sound. The only way I could make it work was to tell PDVD I had a six speaker setup (so PDVD is decoding AC3 to the separate channels) and then have the card re-code to DTS to go to my receiver through optical. I am not sure what kind of loss this is imposing but the mere fact that it is doing something crazy like that just totally irritates something deep inside my personality.

I am not sure if it's a PDVD issue or a Xonar issue. When I emailed PDVD tech support about it, their first response to me was to tell me how valued a customer I was, and send me a link to a full download of PDVD Ultra. I thought SWEET! They are giving me a free copy of Ultra, so I can return/refund my paid copy. Then I realized the product key they gave me for the download was the key I paid for. Yeah, that makes perfect sense Cyberlink, I am an extremely valued customer, so for my trouble, you are letting me download the same product I already have, again.

I emailed back a little bit sarcastically because I really put a lot of time and effort into filling out all the fields in their tech support form and providing detailed information on how the issue was manifesting itself, and they gave me a canned response that really didn't address my questions. I could go on and on, but to make things a bit shorter, after going back and forth 3 times they finally came back and said "Yeah, we know the issue, we're working on it". It seemed to me this was their way of getting me off their back. But who knows, maybe they really are working on it.

Is anyone else having this issue? Or is it just me. I am on Vista (I should know better....) so it may just be a Vista driver issue. I know a few things changed around between the XP/Vista sound architecture that caused a lot of hassle for games and other audio applications.

Oh, and when I test my speakers through the SPDIF connection in Control Panel it plays fine. But other apps seem to have a hard time using that device as well. So this further leads me to believe it may be a driver issue.

If you are using the SPDIF output you won't notice any difference, because all the decoding is being done at your surround sound receiver.

Have you tried hooking up the analog connections, and seeing which is better.

I just received my card today, which will be replacing the Xmeridian, and hooked up with the analog out. I was happy with the sound quality of the Xmeridian, so it should be a good comparison.

Yeah, sort of (regarding your first statement). I am still currently stuck with PowerDVD decoding AC3 and the Xonar recoding into DTS for my DVDs. But I hear what you are saying.

I have not tried the analog outs as I have my PC sending HDMI to my PJ and my receiver will not allow me to select an analog audio source with a digital video source

I am very interested to hear your comparison of the Auzen product to the Asus product though. At one point I had an X-Meridian, but I had to return it due to poor Vista support at the time of purchase.

Also too, if you are using PowerDVD for HD playback, you must use the analog outs to take advantage of any lossless HD sound formats.

Ack! Good to know but sort of disappointing since my receiver won't let me do that... well, that is until I can get an HDMI switcher (which I *do* need to do soon, 2 HDMI ports just ain't enough!) and bypass the receiver for the HTPC video-only connection.

Using the 7.1 analog outs is the only way to take full advantage of the high-end parts on the Xonar (and the Prelude, which I went with). DVD-Audio playback on PowerDVD Ultra sounds incredible and easily outperforms most, if not all universal players I have heard, so much so, that I use my HTPC as the DVD-Audio player on my main system. I don't believe you can transmit high resolution audio via the toslink/optical or coax digital ports due to digital rights issues and/or bandwidth limitations.

Man, I knew I would learn things here but I had no idea I'd learn so much so fast. I stumbled on avsforum.com several years back for something else (TiVo, I think) but never really got involved until recently.

So many people here have been there and done that on the exact things I want to do with my HT/HTPC setup(s).

So, now I am even more keenly interested in the perceived SQ difference between the X-Fi and Xonar cards. Hopefully it's positive, I would hate to feel like I just blew $200 on a card to take a step back.

On the other hand, it *was* the only way I could even get my HT up and running due to the receiver HDMI issue.

I learned way back that I wasn't using my Pioneer SACD/DVD-Audio player correctly by connecting via the optical link. I was merely sending the 48KHz/16-bit 5.1 DD/DTS encoded stream to my cheesy receiver (at the time) to decode, not realizing that the player was outputting high-res multi-channel 96KHz/24-bit or 192KHz/24-bit 2-channel music via the analog outs.

Then I realized that better players had better digital to analog converters (DACs) to output this sound even better. The Xonar and Prelude use the same DACs that are used in high end multi-thousand dollar preamps/receivers.

The last stage (correct me if I'm wrong anyone) is to the opamps, of which my old X-Fi Elite Pro, while using a high end Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC, had cheap, awful opamps. The Xonar and Prelude use audiophile grade opamps such as the excellent LM4562s (see this thread as I ruined my X-Fi EP trying this). You can even go whole hog and order Kimber Cables for the analog outs to your preamp/receiver.

I don't think I've ever seen a $2000 RCA cable until now Hanging out here is going to get expensive, I can just tell...

How 'bout some news on that Xonar vs. X-fi review?

I do like the sound of the xonar, it is very close to where my X-meridian was, with LM4562 opamps. The main reason for me changing was the X-meridian had extremely high output voltages, where the Xonar is around 3 VRMS.

The driver package for the Xonar is the same as the X-meridian, just spruced up a little. I was hoping to take advantage of Vistas advance audio enhancements, like room correction, so hopefully in a new driver release.

Lossless music, and surround formats on HD material sound fantastic!

I am feeding an Outlaw 990 with the analog outputs, with a set of custom Blue Jeans cables, that they made up for me. One thing to keep in mind is any of the better 1/8 to RCA cables, is that the 1/8" plug is usually larger than the spacing on the sound cards.

The Xonar comes with 1/8" to RCA breakout cables, so if you check Blue Jeans website, you will find some very nice RCA multichannel analog cables. Blue Jeans are the best bang for the buck IMHO.

Sweeeeet. Good stuff. Thanks for the info!

Now if only I could get my receiver to accept multi channel input for either of my HDMI sources

What receiver are you using??

It's a Pio Elite VSX-81TXV. I put a few queries out there in the amp section of this forum -- one as an independent thread (e.g., am I doing something wrong with my receiver?) and one as a reply to the new 94TXH Pio Elite receiver asking if it supported multichannel input when HDMI video is in use.

I can't believe an "Elite" receiver can't do this. There's no clear explanation in the manual either. Now I am left with hacking up a way to run only audio through the receiver and somehow pass the HDMI direct to my projector or getting a new receiver (or just ditching the idea of TrueHD through my HTPC... )

The Prelude sounds cool, especially with the upcoming HDMI connector. It doesn't hurt that it supports later revisions of EAX, but to be honest I never had a lot of fondness for EAX personally. More often than not it seemed like games abused EAX rather than using it, if you know what I mean.

I think the Xonar supports EAX 2, yes? Right now it's doing phenomenally in Bioshock. I love coming up on the Big Daddys and hearing that earth shaking low bass tone. Stuff in the room literally starts shaking. Lol.

I don't want to drag this thread off topic but this quesion IS pertinent to the Xonar. Do you have any ideas how I can get analog audio to my HT speakers from my Xonar and preserve the HDMI video connection? My 8800GTS *will* do component (I think?) but I do not want to sacrifice video quality for audio quality. My hearing is not all that great anyway. Lol.

Setup is this:

HTPC w/ Xonar connected via Toslink to Pio Elite VSX81TXV
GeForce 8800GTS connected via DVI->HDMI to Pio Elite VSX81TXV
HDMI out of Pio Elite VSX81TXV connected to HDMI in on Panasonic PTAX100U

Receiver only has two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, projector only has one HDMI input

I don't want to add an amp just for gaming or movies, even though it would cost less than buying a new receiver. I saw Zektor has a HDMI/analog audio switcher but as far as I can tell it does not combine the audio into the HDMI signal which would leave me where I am now.

I do have other HDMI devices that should pass audio through HDMI (e.g., satellite receiver) so I'm not sure that I just need to add a switch and connect that switch directly to my PJ.

Man oh man, I would kill or die to figure out why Pio disabled analog inputs in HDMI mode on this receiver.

If the HTPC is your only source, why not connect it direct to the Display, instead of routing through the reciever. If not you can buy a cheap HDMI switch.

Yah, unfortunately the HTPC is just one of the audio sources. I have my sat receiver and coming soon, Xbox 360 Elite.

The thing about a switch is that with only one output I'm not sure how I'd get video from the switch to the PJ and audio from the switch to the receiver.

Are hdmi splitters reliable?

If you get a 2 in 1 out HDMI switch you can route all your HDMI sources to the reciever, and then out to the switch, and then connect the HTPC direct to the switch, and then out to your display.

You could find a decent HDMI-HDCP enabled switch for under $100.