SoundCard advice please

[stevenrw]

Its me again, with more requests! (Sorry)

Having updated to Windows 7 professional (32bit) I find the drivers for my (admittedly old) Creative Audigy2 soundblaster card are rubbish. Its been a solid, good performing workhorse for me for many years but its time to bite the bullet and replace it, especially as I've got to have the bonnet up to replace the system drive. (Thanks again to all who contributed to that post)
The trouble is that it seems that none of the current cards seem to ship with W7 drivers, so thats a possible issue.
More of a quandry is what to go for. The two main players seem to be Creative and Asus. I am not a gamer, but I do use the pc extensively for music, invariably listening through Sennheiser (High Impedance) headphones, but occasionally using my Creative Inspire 2:1 Digital speakers.
I thought of Creative X-Fi initially, but am now looking seriously at the Asus Xonar cards, probably the D2X, but I might be tempted by the Essence, since it seems to have an integral headphone amp.

So, does anybody have first hand experience of any of the above, and lastly, the spare PCI-e slot I have is a x16. I'm assuming any PCI-e configuration will fit, but will it compromise the performance of the card if it is a short one?

As always, any input will be gratefully (and hungrily) recieved.

[Steve]

There's review of the Xonar cards here http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/ASUS-Xonar-HDAV13-Slim-and-ASUS-Xonar-Essence-STX-Review

[esh]

Yeah, I have a cheap X-Fi on this Win7-64 machine.. mostly to avoid the onboard audio, but also that two cards are useful. It works. The drivers are a stack better than they were for WinXP-64 -- which were truly dire. I only use headphones, also Sennheiser ones, and it is miles better than the onboard, but then, so it should be. I haven't had one of those Asus cards but I was sorely tempted by them. The issue for me was, there is a pile of mid-2000s games that seem to get obnoxiously picky as soon as you move away from Creative cards. If you don't care about games, I'd probably go for the Asus card -- the X-Fi works alright, but it's nothing super-special and I've had bad experiences with Creative several times in the past.


Edit: you can plug a PCIE-x1 into any PCIE slot. The larger slots deliver more power, if required, that's all.

[stevenrw]

Thanks for taking the time guys, much appreciated. I'm tending towards the Xonar DX, mainly because it has a front panel connection. The sticking point for me is that it seems to have one multi-purpose connection for digital out and line in. Now I (occasionally) use Creative Inspire 2.1 2800 digital speakers and also use an analog line in from my old HiFi amp to rip vinyl. These seem to require the same connection. I don't suppose a splitter cable (like a double headphone adapter) would work with both simultaneously.
It probably means crawling about under the desk when I want to rip some albums. But that isn't ofter these days so the audio quality benefits probably outweigh the logistical disadvantages if the reviews are anything to go by.
It is a bit of a howler from Asus nonetheless.
I'll report back once I've got one installed and have had time to play.