So I need some suggestions for a sound card. I bought Astro A30's and would like to use those (this is the big driving force behind it), so it needs Dolby Digital Live. I was looking at the HT Omega Striker 7.1, but that one seems to be either out of stock or discontinued. Also, since my uses are pretty limited, I would like to keep it under $100. As far as I can see, my options are as follows:

Asus Xonar DX

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D

Wait for the Sound Blaster Z series in December

Anybody have any experience with the cards above, or have other suggestions? The one question I have on the Recon3D (other than general sound quality) is if it does auto-mute so when you plug in to the front panel with headphones, it will mute the speakers plugged in to the rear.

Any info would be awesome.

Avoid the Asus Xonar card. I got a cheap Asus Xonar DS (listed at about $50, got it for $25 from Amazon) and it was a piece of sh*t.

The Recon sound card you linked is the sound card that I recently got and it's great for the price. It supports Dolby Digital Live and has some other cool features like a built in voice filter that I annoy people in Mumble with lol. If you want something fancier, the Recon series has two higher, and of course pricer, tiers which most likely support DDL as well.

I just got an email from Creative today.

I'd say go with them since it's $20 off right now.

*edit* Whoops. I thought you meant this one - http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Recon3D/M/B005FKT70O.htm

The Recon is probably the way to go. Anything cheap with Dolby Digital Live. It's digital, and the DDL part is a certified driver. So, since you'll be using it solely for optical out to the Astro's you won't notice any difference. I have the Xfi Fatality and it works great.