I've recently bought a quite expensive stereo amplifier and speakers, and now I need to change the sound card that came with my motherboard (SupremeFX II). I'm not an Audiophile but I enjoy good sound. I'm also not from the US, but I have a friend on a trip there, so if I send the card to him, he'll bring it to me.

My first choices were:
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
- Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 hifi

but I haven't been able to find them in amazon nor in newegg, so I've moved on from that. I'm currently thinking about the ASUS Xonar Essence STX, which according to what I've read is great, but I wouldn't like to spend that much (u$s 200) unless I really hace no choice.

So I'm looking for suggestions on fully compatible good sounding soundcards, any help would be much appreciated.

PD: I apologize for my bad English in advance, if I haven't made myself clear in any way, please ask.

PD2: I'm also looking at the M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496 that costs half of what the ASUS one costs, any input on this one would be appreciated as well.

IMNSHO the Essence ST(X) is overkill and overpriced.

The Audiophile 2496 sounds good. I'd also suggest the Xonar D1 or DX (the DS is not yet supported).

I am in the same position and am looking for a soundcard for exactly the same purpose.

Is the Xonar DX fully supported? on the alsa page it seems so.

But here it looks as if there still are problems on amd64:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...gentoo-662285/

Can anyone confirm that the Xonar DX is working on amd64?

Thanx alot

The ASUS Xonar should work in Linux. Just make sure you are using the latest ALSA modules or the latest kernel version depending what route you are going to support your desire sound card. The DX uses a PCI to PCIe bridge chip, so it should work in most setups. You can send a private message to drjoms to know more if it works. Though the card does require to be hooked up directly to the power supply through a floppy power connector.

That bug was not related to AMD64 and was fixed in the latest driver.