Like so many other posts on here, I'm in the market for a new sound card. However after a few hours of research and reading over reviews, I'm still yet to be 100% sold on any one product. Primarily it will be for games. But I do also use this machine for music. I have a set of Logitech z-5500Ds and I intend on using an optical link (side question, Robscix I saw you mention that analog is the best way to go with these speakers?). Currently I am using an Auzentech Prelude. Unfortunately it's a little too close to my GPU and restricts the airflow, so I need to resort to a PCI-e card (hence why I'm posting here). I've got three cards in mind: Asus Xonar D2X Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater HD 7.1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium FATAL1TY Pro Beyond that, I'm a little lost of which to go with, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
All three are great cards. Compare their features and see what you need and want. The reason I suggest using analog with those speakers is because the internal DAC that would be used when running digital is lower quality then those available on modern soundcards.
Thank you for the input One last thing. Are the satellite speakers on the z-5500Ds classified as Full-Range speakers? I was playing around with the properties in the Win7 Control panel and a google search has yet to reveal a definitive answer.
Well Logtech said they was tho I would set them as non full range since they cant handle the bass if it came out the speakers.
No, they are limited range speakers. They cannot produce bass after a certain point. A full range speaker would be able to produce a freq. range from 20Khz to 20hz... A 2 or 3way speaker with woofers would be considered full range.