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ROGBot
I've been following this card for a long time, I know all about the driver woes and everything about it. I'm about to bite the bullet and pull the trigger on this card despite all the driver issues, I feel like it won't affect me too much and I'm sure the drivers will get better over time.
However there's a few questions I want answered about this card before I jump the gun or I'll settle for the Essence STX or maybe the Creative ZX when it comes out or find something else.
I know the Phoebus is running a C-Media CMI8888DHT High-Definition Sound Processor, can I assume that it's a modified CMI8788? and if so, does that means it'll support Dolby Digital Live, Prologic II, DTS Connect and Dolby Headphone? The site only lists as it supports only Dolby Home Theater 4 and to me that just seems like a cheap way of making things sound better through emulation through software and not hardware driven. Or is Dolby Home Theater V4 really all the Dolby Techonologies put through under one brand name without having to list all of them such as Dolby Live, Prologic II, Dolby Headphone and DTS Connect, etc...
I went to C-Media's site and they don't even list the CMI8888. Googled the specs for it and nothing but the Phoebus comes up. Which I'll assume the CMI8888 is an Asus Exclusive without the rebranding of ASUS AV300 since it's a next gen Xonar processor which the AV200 and AV100s are rebranded CMI8788s.
Now is the only thing that the CMI8888 chip has over the CMI8788 is that it's Native PCI-E or does it take out the Dolby Live, Prologic II, DTS Connect and Dolby Headphone?
However there's a few questions I want answered about this card before I jump the gun or I'll settle for the Essence STX or maybe the Creative ZX when it comes out or find something else.
I know the Phoebus is running a C-Media CMI8888DHT High-Definition Sound Processor, can I assume that it's a modified CMI8788? and if so, does that means it'll support Dolby Digital Live, Prologic II, DTS Connect and Dolby Headphone? The site only lists as it supports only Dolby Home Theater 4 and to me that just seems like a cheap way of making things sound better through emulation through software and not hardware driven. Or is Dolby Home Theater V4 really all the Dolby Techonologies put through under one brand name without having to list all of them such as Dolby Live, Prologic II, Dolby Headphone and DTS Connect, etc...
I went to C-Media's site and they don't even list the CMI8888. Googled the specs for it and nothing but the Phoebus comes up. Which I'll assume the CMI8888 is an Asus Exclusive without the rebranding of ASUS AV300 since it's a next gen Xonar processor which the AV200 and AV100s are rebranded CMI8788s.
Now is the only thing that the CMI8888 chip has over the CMI8788 is that it's Native PCI-E or does it take out the Dolby Live, Prologic II, DTS Connect and Dolby Headphone?
My speaker setup is a Logitech Z-680 5.1 THX certified with DTS.
I intend on getting some high end headphones so, I'll need to be able to do multi-channel and I want high fidelity with it comes to headphone use as I'm looking at a pair of Beyerdyanmics DT990s.
Now I know the Essence STX will take better use of the Beyerdynamics headphones, but it doesn't support really multi-channel output for my 5.1 speakers unless I do optical out using the spdif connector. Actually, I read the Essence is primarly a 2 channel card, so I'm not even sure how it handles multi-channel through spdif.
Which only leaves the Pheobus and the Creative ZX soundcards fitting my needs. Now the creative ZX soundcard isn't out but the Z is and it's more or less the same card, only difference is the out breakout box much like the Pheobus'. Only thing is the Phoebus from a hardware perspective looks far superior than the creative Z/ZX cards. I know the ZxR looks like it's on the same contending field of the STX, not sure if that will fit my needs, or if it'll be indeed better than the STX, I'll wait for the reviews.
I intend on getting some high end headphones so, I'll need to be able to do multi-channel and I want high fidelity with it comes to headphone use as I'm looking at a pair of Beyerdyanmics DT990s.
Now I know the Essence STX will take better use of the Beyerdynamics headphones, but it doesn't support really multi-channel output for my 5.1 speakers unless I do optical out using the spdif connector. Actually, I read the Essence is primarly a 2 channel card, so I'm not even sure how it handles multi-channel through spdif.
Which only leaves the Pheobus and the Creative ZX soundcards fitting my needs. Now the creative ZX soundcard isn't out but the Z is and it's more or less the same card, only difference is the out breakout box much like the Pheobus'. Only thing is the Phoebus from a hardware perspective looks far superior than the creative Z/ZX cards. I know the ZxR looks like it's on the same contending field of the STX, not sure if that will fit my needs, or if it'll be indeed better than the STX, I'll wait for the reviews.
Yea, I think I'm going to wait out for the Creative Soundblaster ZxR which seems to be the card that will rival if not surpass the Xonar Essence STX.
