[coolnicks]

Hi all,

I'm looking for sound card advice, I'm probably looking to get an Asus Xonar D2X soundcard.

I'm going to be using it under Windows 2003 Server.

I've had so many problems with the different sound cards I've tried so far, and am currently using a Creative Audigy 2 (with kX drivers) with their custom 4pole connector for 5.1, however I’ve had to turn all the volumes to 100% and its still quiet, so not too pleased. I also want to move away from the custom creative parts for when I upgrade to a proper AV receiver.

-ATI HDMI pass-though, never got the drivers working
-Onboard SoundMAX where I can only pass-through 5.1, it doesn't pass stereo over optical (Isn't lit), only outputs analog
-Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio outputs everything over optical, but XBMC cant pass-through, and I don't think I got 5.1 working from XBMC at all.

Had driver nightmares with all, and couldn't get them working exactly as I wanted.

I just wanted to check of anybody knew if the Asus Xonar D2X would let me:

-Not have driver nightmares
-Optical connection to receiver that can do AC3
-XBMC 5.1 to pass through AC3 / down DTS to AC3
-XBMC stereo (mp2/mp3) to go over the optical (DDL/DTS encoder part?)
-Something like doly pro logic for stereo to 5.1 would be nice

Thanks