The best soundcard/sound solution for carpc

**Roadwarrior** · 06-24-2011, 07:43 PM

I have been looking for the best solution for my car pc in the area of sound. I have tried SoundBlaster cards (USB and PCI), and ASUS Xonar DS. Both cards gave me problems that I was unable to "fix" so now I am using my onboard soundcard on my Intel D945GCLF2 board but I am not fully happy with that ( I am unable to "balance/fade" between front and back for example)

So does anyone have recommendations in this area?
My system is Intel D945GCLF2 running WIN7 Ultimate, RideRunner/DFX5.1 and DAB Venice 7 radio
and all of this have to work well together

**Strgazr** · 06-24-2011, 09:43 PM

I have the ASUS Xonar DS also and love it. Did you try the ASUS Audio Center to adjust the speakers? If you click the Menu button on the bottom towards the right, it slides open and then you can click the Mixer button and adjust each speaker individually. Also, I am using the Unified Xonar driver found at http://brainbit.wordpress.com/ or just search for Xonar Unified driver. It

**soundman98** · 06-24-2011, 10:35 PM

as far as i know, there are zero sound cards on the market that handle balance/fade like a normal car radio.

**DarquePervert** · 06-25-2011, 06:10 AM

Simple answer: Get an equalizer. It not the cheap option, but it works nicely.

**WuNgUn** · 06-25-2011, 07:44 AM

I had issues with my two Xonars as well (running them together, thru Audiomulch/ASIO using 16 channels) but worked it out with older/beta Vista drivers...
I'd suggest playing with it more...well worth it!

**Roadwarrior** · 06-25-2011, 11:43 AM

Well the only problem i had with the Xonar and it was actually strange was that in Win7 I was unable to get "line in" option in RideRunner/Radio section. The only option that I got was "Speakers" and this was really strange because when in december I installed the system and then the "line in" option worked. Other than that problem the card gave me no other problems and I got fantastic sound from it.

I had USB Soundblaster 5.1 live but i had to stop using that when I upgraded from WinXP to Win7 due to lack of drivers.
I also tried SB Audgy card and that gave me problems in the driver area, I had "dirty" shuttdowns in Win7/RideRunner which ment my PC just "hanged" in "Force programs to shutdown" window.

I had no idea that there where other drivers than from ASUS for the Xonar. I tried to install my system both with old drivers from ASUS and other variations with no luck

**dscustoms** · 06-25-2011, 09:37 PM

I tried and tried as well, finally decided that the best audio I can get is to install a real head unit / processor and let that control everything, with the computer feeding audio into it. I had an extremely high end setup sitting on my shelf of course, but I really wanted to avoid using it. I'm now switching the audio source and processing out of the computer and into my new Apple TV box, with optical out to my processor.

**WuNgUn** · 06-26-2011, 06:48 AM

Yeah, USB audio is the last choice I'd use....poor sound quality and a lot of issues with sleep/hibernate, etc...
SB is a trustworthy name, but I find their hardware/drivers severely lacking.

Admittedly, the Xonar control panel isn't the most straight forward app to use/setup.
Win Win7, go thru the system audio properties as well, for setting everything up...it sometimes has a tendency to over-ride the 3rd party apps control.
And if you go to the Asus site for drivers, you should see a complete list of drivers, old and beta...newest isn't always best!

Now that I think about it, for my HD radio input, I'm using the line-in on my onboard sound hardware...I think I had input issues as well! Of course to do this, I'm using Audiomulch to mix my inputs and outputs accordingly.

G'luck