Best Sound Card @5k Budget PCI-E x4 compactible.

[Minion]

Asus Xonar DX is then best bet you can get it for 4.2k

 

[d6bmg]

Then let me know decent card can fire z550 perfectly.

Descent card: Xonar DX.
Good card: X-fi Titanium.

 

[Minion]

Go with Asus Xonar DX it got very good reviews all over internet.I am too going for Asus Xonar DG its a low end card but provides very good sound quality only at 1,300 Creative cards heavily depends on their softwares for your help
see these links
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD review | Expert Reviews

 

[MegaMind]

Descent card: Xonar DX.
Good card: X-fi Titanium.

How did u came to this conclusion?

BTW wrong section for audio query

I want a future proof setup both 5.1 and 7.1 real pass through

Get auzen xfi forte ~9k