Looking for some sound card help

[hoppingpulse]

I'm looking for a sound card with Dolby Live support that costs no more than sixty bucks. I just want to be able to do surround sound through my headset, but they say for surround you have to have Dolby Live. The best I can find is a Asus Xonar U3 usb sound card. https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2C37232 Two questions, does anyone know if usb sound cards work alright for what i'm looking to use it for? And is there anything better? I looked for a while and that was the best I could find in that price range.

 

[atljsf]

i wouldn't use a usb soundcard, those can get into multiple types of problems, noise, latency, problems wit usb ports itself

if possible is always better to get a internal soundcard

what headphones do you have, what mainboard/pc do you have?

 

[Pinhedd]

i wouldn't use a usb soundcard, those can get into multiple types of problems, noise, latency, problems wit usb ports itself

if possible is always better to get a internal soundcard

what headphones do you have, what mainboard/pc do you have?

+1

USB sound cards are notoriously problematic because USB lacks mechanisms to meet the real time constraints that computer audio requires.

Most Creative Labs Soundblaster sound cards support Dolby Digital Live

 

[hoppingpulse]

i wouldn't use a usb soundcard, those can get into multiple types of problems, noise, latency, problems wit usb ports itself

if possible is always better to get a internal soundcard

what headphones do you have, what mainboard/pc do you have?

I have LucidSound LS40's, my mobo is an MSI X99s Gaming 7

 

[ssddx]

wrong.

if you want virtual surround sound to a headset you do not want dolby digital live. you would want dolby headphone (found on asus soundcards) or cmss3d which is now called sbx (found on creative cards). technically you can get virtual surround for free with razer's software option but its not as good.

dolby digital live is more for connecting up home theater systems via an optical connection as it is a compressed dolby digital surround format. without such support on both ends (source and destination devices) optical is only stereo, uncompressed which with support you can get surround, compressed.

likely the best deal is the xonar dx if you could spring for the extra money. it has the same dac as the $200+ stx but lacks the strong amp. the creative z is another good soundcard which is the opposite, it has a strong amp but only a mid ranged dac.

any soundcard with dolby headphone you find in your budget will work. likewise most which list sbx will work but do double check in the specs/manual about headphone surround as sbx describes a whole bunch of options.

 

[hoppingpulse]

wrong.

if you want virtual surround sound to a headset you do not want dolby digital live. you would want dolby headphone (found on asus soundcards) or cmss3d which is now called sbx (found on creative cards). technically you can get virtual surround for free with razer's software option but its not as good.

dolby digital live is more for connecting up home theater systems via an optical connection as it is a compressed dolby digital surround format. without such support on both ends (source and destination devices) optical is only stereo, uncompressed which with support you can get surround, compressed.

likely the best deal is the xonar dx if you could spring for the extra money. it has the same dac as the $200+ stx but lacks the strong amp. the creative z is another good soundcard which is the opposite, it has a strong amp but only a mid ranged dac.

any soundcard with dolby headphone you find in your budget will work. likewise most which list sbx will work but do double check in the specs/manual about headphone surround as sbx describes a whole bunch of options.

Thanks for the info. The wireless usb adapter uses an optical connection to do surround sound, and the headphone manual itself said to use Dolby Live, that's why I was looking for that specifically. I snagged the Creative Z off of ebay cheap so that should cover my bases no matter what the circumstances. Appreciate the help everyone.