Question Sound Card suggestion to get rid of Realtek ALC4080

orodruin

Honorable
Jan 23, 2019
51
4
10,535
Hello everyone. I need your help regarding a sound card.
I am using the Asus ROG B650E-E model and I am not happy with the sound at all. It causes cracking in the sound especially in high basses. I tried different speakers but the result did not change at all. I have heard that there are many people who are using Realtek alc4080 and are not happy with this audio codec.
My previous motherboard was the ROG Crosshair X570. And it was much better in terms of sound.
Now, coming to my question, I want to buy a sound card.

Frankly, I do not have a very high-end sound system. But I want to buy a sound card that I can get quality sound with 2+1 or 5+1 systems for many years to come. I can choose the models I have shared below in the stocks of the country I am in.
Which one do you think I should buy?

Asus XONAR AE 7.1
Asus XONAR SE
Creative Audigy FX V2
Creative Sound Blaster RX


Note: I do not want to buy a DAC because I do not want it to take up extra space.
 

orodruin

Honorable
Jan 23, 2019
51
4
10,535
Have you installed all 3 of the patches to the ALC 4080 chip that ASUS released just in case one of them helps improve the situation?
There was only 1 fix patch on my motherboard's driver page. I installed it. But that fix was for digital audio output. There is a similar problem with the analog output. They made the audio interface a USB interface. My previous motherboard had a PCIE interface. For example, when playing AOE4, the sound cracks during battle scenes. Some games cause this problem. When watching music or movies, there are cracks in the BASS or interstitial sounds during some intense sound scenes.