The sound quality of the card is excellent. Even when using the FiiO player, which I had been using earlier as a DAC, I was able to notice the difference between wireless and wired listening with the Sony XM4 headphones. The low frequencies were elastic and well-researched thanks to the application of acoustics, and the sound also got more detailed and thunderous. On this side of the ledger, the money is put to good use. BUT. This is Artistic, which implies there must be pitfalls and some crookedness - I've known this ever when I got E-Mu 0204; it's just part of the creative process. They are present as well. 1. An uneven volume wheel, which is not something you would expect for this price. With inexpensive Chinese cards, for some reason, they are able to do it directly, but in this country, it is not as common. 2. I didn't find out that the card only outputs sound in stereo via optics until I contacted the customer service department, and it took them about a week to respond to my email (in which I explained everything in great detail; however, their response was brief and terse). No 5.1 and 7.1 channels, which were even available on the budget X-Fi system made by the same company! Just Dolby and virtual 5.1 surround sound while using headphones. During this period, Dolby is activated on the acoustics ONLY if you already have a signal in the SPDIF-IN input, but 5.1 does not show up. Why one would choose to have such a high number of challenges and problems on a card that costs so much is beyond my comprehension. Why not just make a regular sound using optics instead? It is completely incomprehensible and illogical why, according to Creative, gamers should only play with headphones, and the product is not designed for 5.1 connection for playing games and watching movies on acoustics. Both of these points are confusing. As a consequence of this, you are required to watch movies on the sound system that is built into the mother. This sound system outputs 5.1 to the speakers in both DTS and Dolby, but on this particular model, you can only enjoy the sound through headphones or listen to music on acoustics in stereo. If there is a more general solution available, I might consider selling this one and purchasing the other. If you exclusively listen to music or movies through headphones, and if you don't need 5.1 for playing games or watching movies through a receiver or speakers, then you should get this. This is not the solution for you if you want to watch a movie while also listening to music on the speakers.
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