new sound card, sounds cut out, sputter and etc. (Xonar DGX)

ratchet256

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Just bought a new sound card (my first), the asus xonar DGX. So I've installed it, and installed latest drivers from the website.

I'm having some serious audio issues. It seems no matter what I do, no matter what settings I enable or disable in what combination, headphones or speakers. The sound sputters and is very irritating.

Examples: In windows desktop, when clicking around and the default *click* noise plays, it will go, *cli*cli*click*cli*click*, very rarely playing the full sound effect.

Same thing in games, like halo PC, whether hardware acceleration and eax are enabled or not. For example the pistol, instead a steady stream of audio like before, *bang*bang*bang*bang*bang*. In the same fashion as the desktop sound effects it will constantly slightly cut out *bang*pfft*pfft*bang*bang*pfft*.

Any ideas at all what could be causing this? Almost makes me want to go back to onboard audio....

 
Solution
First off, don't bother with GX mode for newer games; its just a Directsound to XAudio wrapper, with some EAX5 effects thrown in at the driver level (Modes 3-4 not supported). Causes more problems then its worth.

Secondly, the way ASUS keeps power consumption low is by shutting down the audio outputs when no audio is being streamed. As a result, short-duration audio [clicks, for instance] tend to get cut a little. Not a huge thing in my mind, but I could see how that would get a little annoying.

Thirdly, soundcards offer nothing without a comparable headset. Using a generic PC headset, or a "gaming" headset really doesn't show off what a soundcard can do, quality wise. Going between onboard and my Xonar Xense using my Audio...

ratchet256

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Didn't do a thing, same as before.

tried something else though, in Call of Duty (1st one) using eax 2 (won't let me do 3 for whatever reason), firing the Thompson machine gun, it will have the same issue, it will go*pfft*pfft*pfft*pfft*pfft*. But, with miles 2d on, all sound effects sound fine.
 

ratchet256

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***UPDATE***

Alright first off in the driver here's the settings I have enable by default: 2 channels, PCM 96KHz, Headphone, pro gaming gain mode, and both hi fi and GX modes disabled.

So with this all games I play sound fine. Halo, call of duty, everything sounds fine no sound effects get cut out or anything. Though obviously they're only using software.

But when I enable GX to get hardware accelerated sound, in halo everything goes to shit, with same sound effects getting cut out as mentioned previously. Whether hardware acceleration and EAX are enabled or not. In call of duty, it's actually kind of interesting with miles 2d, no sound effect get cut out, though with eax 2 enabled, the sound effects, namely the gun shots, almost every one, get cut out. And again won't let me enable 3 for whatever reason, this worries me as according to the products info this card can support up to latest version of EAX.

Other games with little sound options sound alright, half life 2, far cry 2, call of duty 4. Though I'm noticing this weird popping noise every once in a while.

Also in GTA 3, just like call of duty, it won't let me select EAX 3, says "hardware not avalible", but will let me select EAX (1 I assume). In this game I don't notice any sounds getting cut out, but then again the audio in that game is a mess. Again there's weird popping noises, particularly when hovering over selections in the main menu.

So no matter what I do, what options I enable or disable. I can't get this thing to work right. This is really depressing, this isn't what I bought a sound card for, not good first impressions for my first sound card. Pretty sure I'm going to return this for a refund unless I can get it working. Maybe save up for a better card from Creative or something.

Oh and by the way the windows desktop noises, particuarly the noise that plays in explorer when you to a new folder or click forwards and back form folders, just seems to be random, sometimes I'll try it and they will get cut off like *cli*cli*, but then other times I'll go back and they will play fully no matter how fast I play them.
 

Matiaz

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I have exactly the same problem!! In windows when moving folder to folder I also hear millisecond of the "click" sound and it's driving me nuts...

Please tell me if you have a solution :(
 

ratchet256

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Oh, yeah, forgot about this thread. I wound up returning the card for a refund, was overall very unimpressed and it didn't do the things I expected it to do. Yeah I did some more research after my last post and found out that xonar's "GX mode" that they advertize so much is a completely broken mess, just google "xonar gx mode" or something similar and you'll see what I'm talking about.

So minus the possibility of hardware acceleration in games there was really no reason for me too keep the card. Because even with the GX mode disabled I didn't notice any dramatic difference in sound quality over my on board audio. The only thing the praised headphone amp did for me was make everything annoyingly loud, and the "dolby surround mode" is just a joke, just made everything sound like complete and utter shit, like I was listening through a tin can, they should call it "dolby tin can sound".

So yeah with pretty much the only thing working properly on the whole card being just basic stuff that I can do with on board audio, and as I stated there being no noticeable difference in quality between the 2 there was no point in keeping it. Afraid if your a pc gamer, especially one that plays alot of old games like myself, creative sound blaster is pretty much the one and only option. So I'm going to save up a bit and maybe get a sound blaster Z.

As for the windows system sounds, I don't know, I seem to remember it fixing itself every once in a while, all I can say is leave the GX mode off and just screw with the driver settings and such, and good luck.
 

Matiaz

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Aug 9, 2013
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Yeah, going to return it as well. Don't really see any difference in sound quality between onboard audio and the sound card...
I don't really see how this sound card is so hyped considering how many bugs and problems it has. Might considering getting the sound blaster Z as well because it seems so much better in overall quality.

 
First off, don't bother with GX mode for newer games; its just a Directsound to XAudio wrapper, with some EAX5 effects thrown in at the driver level (Modes 3-4 not supported). Causes more problems then its worth.

Secondly, the way ASUS keeps power consumption low is by shutting down the audio outputs when no audio is being streamed. As a result, short-duration audio [clicks, for instance] tend to get cut a little. Not a huge thing in my mind, but I could see how that would get a little annoying.

Thirdly, soundcards offer nothing without a comparable headset. Using a generic PC headset, or a "gaming" headset really doesn't show off what a soundcard can do, quality wise. Going between onboard and my Xonar Xense using my Audio Technical M50's is a no comparison in favor of the Xense. Using my old generic PC headset? Not so much of a difference.

Finally, I highly recommend using the Xonar Unified Drivers.
 
Solution

bullet937

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I have Astro A40s and the paired Astro Mixamp, right now running on Realtek. I'm looking to get the Sound Blaster Z card but am curious as to whether or not it would be worth it. I would really like to use EAX features like the environmental sound offered in Halo but these are disabled with Realtek cards. Do you think the A40s and the Mixamp are a worthy pair for a Sound Blaster Z or maybe skip the mixamp and plug the A40s directly into the Sound Blaster Z?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I'm relatively novice when it comes to sound cards and sound quality.