Looking for good multipurpose sound card with no dynamic range compression

[Enhanced Interrogator]

So the Realtek HD sound that is on my motherboard is terrible. I need a 10 band EQ to tweak my vintage Pioneer CS-63DX speakers on the low-end, but the Realtek drivers implement dynamic range compression and kill the full sound I used to get out of my Audigy 2 with Kx Project drivers.

So, I added my Audigy 2 with the Kx drivers, and it sounds just as good as it did in my XP rig, but it has buffer problems with the Windows 7/8 kernel and can't be used for surround sound gaming. So I go back and forth between the two sound devices for the time being.

Now I'm looking for any old sound card, like a Xonar or X-Fi, that I can get for cheap on ebay and meet all my needs. So I need a 10 band or more EQ, ASIO support for DJing, and surround sound support with ZERO dynamic range compression. Compression is great if you're using laptop speakers, but if you have an audiophile setup it's totally counterproductive.

Any suggestions?

 

[NoxTek]

The Realtek sound shouldn't be colored at all, DRC or otherwise.

Are you sure you don't have something else running altering your audio - for instance on my Gigabyte GA-Z68XP the Realtek drivers also come with a Dolby EQ app that runs in the background and has three different listening modes each with their own profile (none of which I care for).

I always just grab the generic driver from Realtek and use it since it doesn't integrate the Dolby app.

Not that the Realtek sound is fantastic but it really shouldn't be doing any sort of DRC.

 

[spaceman]

Ah vintage receiver. So analogue only. Yeah, might try either a sound card like the creative z or a cheap idea is a usb dac like the behringer aca202.

 

[guitarslingerchris]

The Realtek sound shouldn't be colored at all, DRC or otherwise. ... Not that the Realtek sound is fantastic but it really shouldn't be doing any sort of DRC.

This. You have software or *something* doing that but it's not the onboard sound.