Asus Xonar STX, epic soundcard.

[Kanaric]

Was tired of Auzentech and/or Creative NEVER making a proper driver for 64 bit Windows Vista/7 so I got rid of my Forte and got this card and its an immense upgrade.

Sound is epic even on cheap headsets with the headphone amp, and insane amount of software features, and dolby headphone works great in games if you have a decent headset. If you want to use dolby headphone you probably should spend extra on a headset otherwise you wont get much out of it but its bascially something that simulated 5.1 sound in stereo headphones. It works excellent. Usually 5.1 headphones for PC are TERRIBLE, tinny garbage speakers and the like, they suck for music as well. This dolby headphone works just as well in hearing people behind you in games as any 5.1 headset i've tried along with the fact you can get decent quality headphones on top of it.

There is no audio interference at all, have it next to a soundcard and my massive CPU fan on the top most PCI-E port. My XFI Forte would go INSANE there, though it normally always would pop, buzz, whistle, at all times due to Creatives horribad x64 drivers.

As expected music sound great on this card, if you are an audiophile type who likes lossless or high data rate music you would enjoy it.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

HT Omega makes sound cards that have and have had, rock solid drivers for XP, Vista, and 7.

I use the Omega HT Claro Halo which is identically priced yet actually all of the same and even more features. It was also available well before the Xonar STX.

Also where the Xonar STX is merely a headphone amp / virtual surround card the Claro Halo also has 7.1 channel digital output for use with a physical speaker system. So in terms of features and value the Claro Halo is a better buy considering their identical price.

One more thing... HT Omega has a US based support team and provide much better customer support than ASUS. I'm glad you brought this up actually as I was looking for a soundcard for my gaming PC that has Dolby Digital Live for headphones I use the Claro Halo on my dedicated music PC and hadn't ever paid attention to the fact that it had the capability to encode 5.1 sound for headphones as I generally output audio onto my physical 7.1 home theater speakers. Of course for music stereo is always the way to go with audiophile headphones but for gaming.... Dolby Live can be great.


On top of all that if you don't have high-impedance headphones then you can save $40 with this card Still has dolby headphone and everything else just minus the high-impedance headphone amping capabilities and you must admit no mere soundcard is anywhere near as good as an actual headphone amp.

[Jaketh]

creative has working drivers for 7, im using them right now lol

[Bolkonsky]

creative has working drivers for 7, im using them right now lol

Yeah, I've had Creative working with W7 64 Bit as well, but it seems all Kanaric needs is one bad experience.

To be honest though, Creative is one of those few companies that I trust to always deliver the goods. They've been around for years and years and years, and I've owned everything from sound cards, to mp3 players, to CD-ROM drives, and they've never given me any problems.