Good price for a well regarded gaming DAC AMP. Not sure if I've seen it cheaper. Reviews say it can power high impedance headphones - perfect for those who mostly game but also have an ear for music. Given the small price difference with the X3, I would personally take this over it.
$5 credit for the referrer.
explain to me why people still buy soundcard these days? last time i check they are all built into motherboard
Because unless you have something properly built with quality components and properly shielded (like an Essence STX), it’s noisy trash that probably can’t power most decent headphones.
People that care about their PC audio output - because it’s connected to a decent stereo/headphones setup - are probably going to want to shuttle the audio into something purpose built to process it, then something to amplify it. These may be the same unit.
If you are just playing your YouTube kpop though your Edifier desktops, this might not matter to you. Same as $1200 GPUs don’t matter to other people.
this is like saying why buy a gpu if apus/igpus exist…..
Because the "sound" problem as not been solved.
You need low latency, but bluetooth barely does that. Some people like me want 5.1 surround sound. Others want a system that plays music throughout the house. Some people want headphones. Some people want 2.1 with a remote subwoofer. Some people want a soundbar. Some people have a $20 budget and others $20,000.
There are solutions that solve some of these issues but not all.
I wouldn't technically call this a "Sound card" - it is a DAC (Digital to Analogue converter) with amp where it will take an already existing digital output and convert it into whatever format it supports (Dolby 7.1/5.1). The Sound card actually is more around turning code into some modulated form (digital in most cases) and this basically converts the digital form into analogue form of sound waves. Of course, the old school sound cards also supported other related capabilities such as hardware based MIDI synthesizing and recording capabilities which this doesn't do.
Sound cards are mainly software based these days and runs through a cheap DAC for some arguable outputs by purists as much as people deliberately buying high end vacuum tubes (Valves) enabled DACs with the lowest Signal to Noise ratios blah blah.
Technically all sound cards are DAC because it will convert whatever you have coming from the game into analogue output for speakers etc.
This is also considered a soundcard because it connects to USB and will come up as separate hardware in Windows and you need to select it as the default audio device for sound to be coming from it.
I got an old SB X-Fi 5.1 USB v1 that i bought ages ago and it still sounds waaay better than my built-in soundcards.
I also have the USB connected to a USB-Hub along with my keyboard and mouse and my headset is connected to the USB soundcard hence when I switch from my work to gaming laptop, I take all the headset connections and peripherals with me only in one cable.
better of with a topping
which topping has a similar feature set?
I would say xduoo xd05 basic, the toppings in this price range can't quite power 600ohm headphones. I highly doubt this does either but it's advertised lol
Cheers op!
Jumped on this immediately. My E5 has had super swollen battery for a while.
Might swap a small battery into it to get it going again, but been waiting on the G6 to drop enough to justify it.
Would this work between an Xbox series X controller to drive an audio technica ATH-AG1X headset with working mic?
Or is there a cheapie on eBay/Amazon?
Edit- nevermind, optical in means ps5 and Xbox series aren't supported.
If using audio out from controller, the optical in on the G6 is both line and and opitcal in, so line in from controller should work fine (you would still have to power the G6 though).
Anyway, hopefully Xbox Series X will end up getting USB audio support, as I'm sure manufactuers like Astro are a little annoyed at the missing optical out on the new generation consoles.
Could get a HDMI audio extractor, I doubt any support HDMI 2.1 passthrough yet though.
Could also use optical out from tv or sound reciever - there would be a slight audio delay though.
PS5 has USB-Audio support though as its been confirmed some SB USB cards are working on the PS5…
Seems to have a mic jack on it, does this also work with condensors mics that need a bit extra power to sound good?
I have one of these for gaming on my PS4. Bought it cause I got sick of the reverby surround from the Astro mixamp tr’s. It took a while to get used to cause it has a different type of surround/sound in general to the mixamps but overall I’d say it’s much better. Around $160 from amazon.
Not sure how it’ll work with the ps5 once I get one. I heard Astro is creating something to make the optical work with ps5, will have to wait and see..
Wow. Sound Blaster. That’s a blast from the past.