Asus Xonar DX sound card, alternative to Creative’s piece of crap

The Xonar DX differs from its D2X cousin in many ways, but some of those differences are more important than others. Take the audio chips used in each card, for example. The DX employs what’s marked as an Asus AV100 audio processor while the D2X uses an AV200. Don’t pay too much attention to the names silk-screened onto the chips, though; they’re the very same C-Media Oxygen HD audio processor under the hood. Asus says the chips go through a “quality sorting” process to separate the AV100s from the AV200s.

The Xonar DX’s AV100 audio processor may differ from the AV200 in name only, but that’s not the case with the card’s other onboard components. The DX uses a combination of Cirrus Logic CS4398 and CS4362A digital-to-analog converters to feed its analog output ports. The CS4398 is in charge of the card’s front output channels, and with a signal-to-noise rating of 120 dB, it’s the higher-quality of the two. Center, side, and rear channels are handled by a CS4362A chip that carries an SNR rating of only 114 dB. For reference, the TI Burr Brown DACs used for all of the Xonar D2X’s output channels carry a 123 dB SNR rating. (link)