Which Sound Card - Vista 64?

I'm debating between the Asus Xonar D2X, HT Omega Claro Plus and the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. The Asus does not accommodate front panel connections and requires a wired power source but reads to be a great choice for Vista. If anybody has one of these three cards or can make a recommendation based on personal experience, please do. Thanks..............

On that Harley has nailed it Widdlecat knows alot... she also is one of those people that plays with thousand dollar plus audio gear and can likely hear the difference between the digital to analog converter used on two different sound cards...

Me, I just like to play and hear the music/sound without weird clicks or squeals or sound hiccups...

I am not a sound nazi really... I mean I like the sound of the creative card when it works...

I am going to try the Razor card... we will see how I feel about that one once it arrives.

Dave

Originally posted by Kliebor2 On that Harley has nailed it Widdlecat knows alot... she also is one of those people that plays with thousand dollar plus audio gear and can likely hear the difference between the digital to analog converter used on two different sound cards... Dave

Point of fact, my reference system is worth approx. $30,000 and my livingroom system $20,000 with certain strengths over my more balanced reference system. I've spent considerable time with other systems costing approx. $250,000 as well as just listening to live unamplified perfomances of all types.

Originally posted by harleyman I say after that advice Omega is the one.. It has FS ports and works...LOL but if not a hard core gamer why not get the Barracuda that DS offers installed...Its prob not much different than the others...(but it has its problems setting it up at times)....nevermind......

Yeah - I tend to agree with your logic.  Less money, front port connectivity and no power lead required.  The only thing I don't understand are the pros and cons of PCI vs. PCIe.  widdlecat - any thoughts?

I got Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer for my rig.

Well, I ended-up ordering an HT Omega Striker 7.1.  I figured I'd give it a try and see how it works.  It's considerably less money than the other cards I was considering ($69 - still pretty good specs though) and I think it will be fine.  I don't plan to connect an amp and I don't have high-end speakers (yet).  Wish me luck!

I received the card from Newegg in good order and the install was pretty simple.  When I tried to load the latest drivers (from Omega's website) more than once I had problems (wouldn't load - Windows message was a possible corrupted file).  Luckily I had written to Omega a couple days before getting the card asking if the drivers posted on their website were the most recent.  I was told they were and the person that answered included a link to a (newer) "test" version driver that supports EAX under Vista.  Apparently it is "unofficial".  In any case, I loaded the "test" driver and all is good.  My initial impression of the sound (and I don't have real high-end speakers - Logitech X-540 5.1) was no big improvement over the on-board sound.  BUT........... after some tweaking with the software (which seems okay, nothing spectacular) the sound improved substantially.  So the bottom line is I think it was well worth the $70.  And I wonder how much better the sound would be with better speakers and 7.1.  IMO, If you're in the market for a sound card that offers good quality and very reasonably priced with good features, the HT Omega Striker 7.1 is among the best.  And I almost forgot, I couldn't find a phone number on Omega's website for support, but their e-mail response time is great. 

Originally posted by widdlecat Sounds good!

widdlecat - Thanks again for your input!