# Breathing new life into an "old" soundcard. Creative X-Fi Titanium HD



## GotNoRice (Dec 2, 2020)

Here I have my trusty old X-Fi Titanium HD.  I've owned it for about a decade now.  It has been a great card for me that entire time.  For a long time, I used it in my main computer.  A couple of years ago I swapped from using the X-Fi Titanium HD in my main computer to using a regular X-Fi Titanium (feeding an external DAC via SPDIF).  I then moved the X-Fi Titanium HD into the computer that serves as the main source for my dedicated music stereo system, so that I could continue to make use of the excellent DAC that the X-Fi Titanium HD has.


My Music system consists of:
Refurbished Phenom X4 9750 Computer (used as dedicated music source, playing Foobar2000 and streaming music)
X-Fi Titanium HD
Yamaha C-80 Preamp
Yamaha M-2 amplifier (~240wpc) powering JBL 4412 Studio Monitors
2x Yamaha P2200/P2201 amps (~700wpc bridged) powering JBL L100T Speakers (crossovers upgraded to L100t3 spec)
2x Yamaha P2200/P2201 amps (~700wpc bridged) powering JBL L150 Speakers
Yamaha P3500 Amp (~500wpc) powering 2x 15" Dayton UM15-22 Ultimax Subwoofers in sealed cabinets.
Beyerdynamic DT770-Pro 80 Ohm (for headphone testing, plugged into the Preamp)









The X-Fi Titanium HD has been fantastic in stock form.  The card includes two pairs of socketed opamps.  One pair of single opamps that are used as a buffer, and one pair of dual opamps that are used in the I/V stage.  To get to them, the cover on the card has to be removed.  There are three screws on the bottom that hold the plastic shell on and then 4 screws on the back that hold the metal shield on.















The screws that hold the front of the metal cover on also double as the screws that hold the rear bracket on.  Without the cover, there is nothing for those screws to screw into.  If I continue to use it without the cover, I will need to get some small nuts so that the screws have something to screw into.  For now, I simply used two tiny zip-ties to hold the rear bracket on.  It was snug.


The stock Opamps are two JRC 2114D dual Opamps in the I/V stage and two LME49710 single Opamps in the buffer section.  My attempts at Opamp rolling so far have been limited and/or unsuccessful.  The LME49710 single opamps in the buffer section are basically the single opamp version of the LME49720 / LM4562 dual opamp, which has always been one of my favorites.  For that reason I've had little desire to swap them out.  Also, almost all of the Opamps in my "opamp collection" are dual opamps, not single opamps.  The I/V stage uses dual Opamps, but I had bad results when swapping in my favorite dual Opamps such as the LM4562 or the OP627 (two single OP627 opamps on an adapter board to create a dual opamp).  It always sounded like something was missing from the midrange when using anything besides the stock JRC 2114D Opamps.  I just chalked it up to being something in the design that the JRC 2114D was particularly well suited for and basically gave up on those Opamps.


Given how well this card has served me, I decided to try taking the Opamp upgrade to the next level.  I decided to try some Opamps from Burson Audio.  https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/supreme-sound-opamp-v6/  They make discrete opamps that can sound quite nice compared to more traditional Opamps.  Given my strange experience with the I/V stage Opamps, trying to swap out the buffer opamps first seemed like the safe bet.  I got a set of V6 Vivid single Opamps.  The process of installing them was pretty simple.









They are very tall opamps, and also fairly wide.  The Opamps include an optional small riser which is necessary to be able to plug in the Opamp without it contacting surrounding components.  That makes them even taller.  This makes the card too wide to use the neighboring PCIe slot, and even puts the components very close to the PCIe slot one further over, but it does not touch.  Here is an angle shot for a better perspective:








Putting the Burson V6 Vivid Opamps in the buffer section yielded very good results.  I've always liked Opamps such as the stock LME49710 Opamps because of their texture but they can be a bit on the harsh side.  Other opamps such as the OPA627 tend to be much more smooth, but almost too smooth, lacking texture.  The Burson V6 Vivid Opamps seemed to be able to strike that perfect balance of having great texture but also remaining smooth to the point of not being harsh.  Although it was definitely an improvement, the result was not really night and day.  The stock opamps were already very good.  The improvement from using the Burson V6 Vivid single Opamps in the buffer section was subtle, but ultimately I was happy with the result.


That left me wondering about the JRC 2114D dual opamps.  I had sort of written-off the idea of swapping them out, but then I thought about the fact that I also have two Burson V6 Opamps in my Maverick Audio Tubemagic D2 Dac (which is what I use with my main computer via optical output from a regular X-Fi Titanium).  In this case, they are two Burson V6 Classic dual Opamps.  The differences between the V6 Vivid and V6 Classic Opamps are detailed in the picture below.








In practice, the Classic has a bit more of a midrange focus compared to the Vivids.  When I used the V6 Classics in my Tubemagic D2 Dac, I was very impressed with the midrange.  I was not eager to take them out of my external DAC but I really wanted to see if they could actually work well in the I/V stage of the X-Fi Titanium HD, unlike all of the other dual opamps that I had tried.








That was one very snug fit.  Like with the buffer Opamps, I had to use the riser in order to get it up above the other components on the card.  They are slightly too wide, forcing them to be installed at a very slight angle.  Thankfully, with the riser, it wasn't a functional problem.  If they were even a tiny bit wider however, it would not have worked without a much more involved workaround.








The result really came as a big surprise to me.  The difference was huge.  Like I mentioned before, I thought the improvement when I swapped the buffer opamps was subtle, but swapping these I/V stage Opamps on the other hand _really was_ a night and day difference.  I was so impressed with the result that I now have serious doubts about putting these back into my external DAC.  I think they found a new perminant home on this card.  


The most noticeable chance was in the midrange, from the vocal frequencies down to the midbass.  Vocals were much more energetic while the texture of the midbass was absolutely fantastic.  I listened to quite a few songs with this configuration.  After what I thought was an hour or so, I looked at the clock and 4 hours had gone by.  It's been a while since I really got sucked into the music like that.  At that point, I switched my amp off and plugged my DT770-Pro headphones into my preamp for headphone testing.  The results were equally impressive.


I am very satisfied with this upgrade.  I will not be able to put the metal cover back on, but it doesn't seem to matter, as I am not getting any background interference with it off.  The internal layout of the PC I'm using for this is very sparse, with no major components near the soundcard, and only using integrated video.  That probably helps.  I hope to continue using this card for many more years to come.


Note about drivers:  One thing that might seem odd about upgrading a card so old is driver support.  Creative has had some issues with drivers in the distant past but my experience with their drivers over the last decade has been fantastic.  The latest driver for the X-Fi Titanium HD was released in 2019 and works great with Windows 10 20H2.  The last driver was released after changes in Windows 10 version 1903 broke the older drivers.  Despite the fact that many of the X-Fi cards date all the way back to 2005, Creative still released an entire new set of X-Fi drivers and got everything working great again.  The fact that they still release drivers for cards that are ~15 years old when other companies like Nvidia abandon cards after ~8 years is pretty impressive, and quite frankly what I consider an example of _good_ driver support.  Who knows how long into the future they will continue to release new drivers (and/or how quick Microsoft will break the old ones again), but in a worst case scenario I could get away with running an older OS version on my music computer since that computer only has one purpose in life.  In various computers, I'm running an X-Fi Titanium HD card, 2x X-Fi Titanium cards, 2x X-Fi XtremeGamer cards, and an X-Fi XtremeMusic card.  For now they are all still going strong in their respective computers.


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## tml3nr (Dec 30, 2020)

GotNoRice said:


> Here I have my trusty old X-Fi Titanium HD.  I've owned it for about a decade now.  It has been a great card for me that entire time.  For a long time, I used it in my main computer.  A couple of years ago I swapped from using the X-Fi Titanium HD in my main computer to using a regular X-Fi Titanium (feeding an external DAC via SPDIF).  I then moved the X-Fi Titanium HD into the computer that serves as the main source for my dedicated music stereo system, so that I could continue to make use of the excellent DAC that the X-Fi Titanium HD has.
> 
> 
> My Music system consists of:
> ...


Many thanks for your sharing. Very detailed and interesting.


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## tml3nr (Jan 24, 2021)

Follow @GotNoRice . i swapped Muses03 and Muses01 for two stock op-amps.

The results were as different as day and night. Sound is more spacing and static. Every detail is also better.

I am completely happy with this result.

PS: i tested Muses02 but i prefer Muses01 for IV stage.

Thanks to @GotNoRice again for a very interesting article.

My system:

- Asus z390-f / i5-9600kf / PSU Corsair RM550x / Creative Gigaworks T20 Serial II


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## djisas (Feb 14, 2021)

As a fellow Creative user, I.m very interested in this card, what can you connect to the back of the card, you know of anything?
I dont think there's any front panel I could connect to this, for me it's a requirement though and the ability to connect my 7.1 speakers too, I need to upgrade those as well though...


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## tml3nr (Feb 15, 2021)

djisas said:


> As a fellow Creative user, I.m very interested in this card, what can you connect to the back of the card, you know of anything?
> I dont think there's any front panel I could connect to this, for me it's a requirement though and the ability to connect my 7.1 speakers too, I need to upgrade those as well though...


In "Information about X-Fi Titanium HD_ Features and Specifications.pdf". Creative said:



> *Specifications:*
> 
> Model: SB1270
> SNR: 122dB
> ...



_*More info:*_






						Creative Worldwide SupportSound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD
					

Welcome to Creative Worldwide Support. Get technical help for your Creative products through Knowledgebase Solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more.



					support.creative.com


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## freeagent (Feb 15, 2021)

Nice card! I had an Auzentech Prelude based on Creative hardware. Was a great card. I didn't experiment with OpAmps though I would have liked to.


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## qubit (Feb 15, 2021)

I've got several X-Fi cards of various vintages and I love all of them. They really do sound a cut above the rest, with a very punchy, dynamic sound that brings out the best in any recording. The sound processing options with the Creative Console Launcher are fantastic, too. Real shame it doesn't work in Windows 10, something I'm looking into fixing if possible, as I've lost a lot of major functionality.

For balance, I've not compared them to other expensive cards with similar high quality pretentions, so I can't say which would sound better. I first noticed the difference when I upgraded my ancient PCI SoundBlaster Live! 5.1. I can tell the difference without even having to do an A/B comparison, it's that obvious. Amazing.


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## freeagent (Feb 15, 2021)

Yup, I totally agree. I loved my Creative cards too. I kick myself for not upgrading my cards from PCI. Onboard is ok for my desktop for now and I use my GPU to feed my AVR. I have an old Essence ST that is really good with headphones. Although to be honest I have never used a hardcore dedicated headphone setup. Sounds good on my analogue stereo too. I will keep my eyes open for a nice sound card.


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## djisas (Feb 15, 2021)

qubit said:


> I've got several X-Fi cards of various vintages and I love all of them. They really do sound a cut above the rest, with a very punchy, dynamic sound that brings out the best in any recording. The sound processing options with the Creative Console Launcher are fantastic, too. Real shame it doesn't work in Windows 10, something I'm looking into fixing if possible, as I've lost a lot of major functionality.
> 
> For balance, I've not compared them to other expensive cards with similar high quality pretentions, so I can't say which would sound better. I first noticed the difference when I upgraded my ancient PCI SoundBlaster Live! 5.1. I can tell the difference without even having to do an A/B comparison, it's that obvious. Amazing.


Have you tried Daniel_K? He makes some fine driver packages for old hardware, used it for years on my old X-fi...
You can grab the CCL from the package too...


freeagent said:


> Yup, I totally agree. I loved my Creative cards too. I kick myself for not upgrading my cards from PCI. Onboard is ok for my desktop for now and I use my GPU to feed my AVR. I have an old Essence ST that is really good with headphones. Although to be honest I have never used a hardcore dedicated headphone setup. Sounds good on my analogue stereo too. I will keep my eyes open for a nice sound card.



I have a fairly good MB which should come with fairly good onboard audio, after having to part ways with the pci X-fi, I used the onboard audio for a while, it sounded fairly good, but was picking too much noise so I committed to buying a new soundcard, but all the new ones are all geared for gaming and 5.1 setups with a lot of bells and whistles, and so I picked the last best 7.1 soundcard that I could run, the X-fi titanium fatal1ty, it sounds as good as my old one, although the front panel is lacking a lot of features I never really used.


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## qubit (Feb 15, 2021)

djisas said:


> Have you tried Daniel_K? He makes some fine driver packages for old hardware, used it for years on my old X-fi...
> You can grab the CCL from the package too...


Thanks I'll try it. I really miss that CCL.

One feature I especially like is a kind of dynamic bass boost. Set it to 20Hz, the max 12dB lift and play the right track (electronic/dance) through my headphones and I can hear the deepest, most powerful and satisfying bass I've ever heard in my life! In fact, it's too intense to play it for long like that. I've got bassy speakers that it has a similar effect with, which will properly annoy the neighbours when played like that.


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## animal007uk (Feb 15, 2021)

I love my X-Fi Titanium HD and it works good with the basic windows drivers but i would love it even more if the Creative Console Launcher and all it's settings would work for me.

I use S/PDIF into my Yamaha A-S501 amp and i'm not sure if that is why the Creative Console Launcher don't seem to do anything with the effects? Can't test analogue as don't have the cables atm.

I've also tried Dan/k's drivers aswell as the latest main creative ones and even tho i can load up Creative Console Launcher none of the effects work and the EQ does nothing when i change things.
Forgot to say i'm on the latest version of windows 10 pro.


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## djisas (Feb 16, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> I love my X-Fi Titanium HD and it works good with the basic windows drivers but i would love it even more if the Creative Console Launcher and all it's settings would work for me.
> 
> I use S/PDIF into my Yamaha A-S501 amp and i'm not sure if that is why the Creative Console Launcher don't seem to do anything with the effects? Can't test analogue as don't have the cables atm.
> 
> ...



S/PDIF passes digital sign so any effects are lost to pure clean digital audio...


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## TheLostSwede (Feb 16, 2021)

Maybe get some screws with nuts, instead if using cable ties?


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## zenlaserman (Feb 16, 2021)

Nice to see some people still using the old Creative stuff.  My music PC runs a 2005 X-FI ExtremeMusic (std PCI version) on Win 7, although I'm considering going back to XP with it.  You guys got me thinking about tinkering with the op-amps again, although I honestly love the way it sounds as-is.  I output from soundcard to RCA input on an old Yamaha amp connected to a mix of old Bose and new Harmon Kardon speakers in a 5.3 surround setup.  Yes I likes my bass


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## animal007uk (Feb 16, 2021)

I have a simple setup now as lost interest in all this surround and multi channel sound stuff since my denon amp went pop lol.
Love me yamaha amp as it has a sub out even tho it's only a stereo amp.

Since taking this picture i have moved my amp over to the right and put the sub in the middle and the right speaker is now back on it's stand on the floor 

Will keep using me X-fi card untill the day drivers will no longer support it 

Also excuse some of the wires i'm waiting for some stuff to hide them.


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## djisas (Feb 16, 2021)

Wires look "clean" to me, function before form as they say...
I would love to invest proper on some gear too, but my creative speakers sound good enough, for enjoying music, I use my headphones anyway and i love the way my setup sounds as well...
While I'm not a basshead, can't live without some good bass...


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## animal007uk (Feb 16, 2021)

djisas said:


> Wires look "clean" to me, function before form as they say...
> I would love to invest proper on some gear too, but my creative speakers sound good enough, for enjoying music, I use my headphones anyway and i love the way my setup sounds as well...
> While I'm not a basshead, can't live without some good bass...


Thank you and when it comes to music there are so many things that make a lot of difference and how we hear or perceive music, When i was growing up i used to do a bit of Dj'ng in a few of the local pubs and i had some big speakers and amps that could throw out some volume and i used to blast them out in this same room in my pic and yup was loud and made this house rattle but how the times have changed over the years.

I now have my Yamaha A-S501 amp and speaker wise i have the wharfedale diamond 9.1's and the sub i have is a wharfedale SW150 and now i can play music loud without rattling the house but still get the bass i need to make me happy and the best thing is the quality, back in the day it was all boom boom but now i can hear every bass note that i never used to hear back in the day.

The main thing i have learned and realised over the years to is the clairty and volume is not all about how many watts the amp or speakers can handle or chuck out but how it uses it.
Even when i had speakers with 15inch bass cones and disco amps rated at 500watt RMS i always felt like i was pushing them on the limit.

When i turn up the setup i have now i get enough bass out of the 5.5 or 6.5-inch cones the speakers have but if i want extra room filling bass thats when the sub gets turned on and it just fills in the low end when needed.

The volume perception bit i was on about is like now for me as i type this last line, i have my amp on atm but no sub on yet the song i am playing seems loud but if i open my door and go out my room no one can hear it lol

Sorry also very drunk when i typed this and will be many mistakes in what i fully wanted to say so will correct it all when i wake up tomoz and after a few coffe's and stuff.

@qubit and @zenlaserman @tml3nr and the op and anyone else following this thread please post your setups to would love to see it all hehe


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## djisas (Feb 18, 2021)

My setup is simple, pc with creative X-fi Titanium and a Sony MDR-1A, bought this puppy used like new from Amazon uk, it arrived in pristine condition literally unused, it msrp was 200ish £, for me it was 80£ - 20% on prime day, an absolute bargain, bought with a 200cm cable because it was supplied with shorter ones, I believe it can do balanced but the cable is hard to come by.
Speakers are the old creative 7.1, dual drive on front and center, pretty decent sound for a small room, never really went full volume on them.

Now talking about the passion, I'm a guy who dismantled everything you can imagine, tv's, car radios, vcr's, you name it, I made a set of speakers with parts from tv's, used the tv's wood from the box, drilled as many holes I could and installed a bunch of tv speakers and others with leds and all, ofc it sucked but it was a fun project.
I have been listening to music since the 8 track days, I did vinyl, tapes, cds, recently got into minidisc and bought a few and I'm missing that DAT player on the collection, they are rare and expensive.
I also plan to build a new vinyl setup one of these days.
Btw, before the MDR-1A, I had a pair of MDR-CD900ST, these where ebay knockoffs I got for 30€, but let me tell you, they would give any Beats a run for their money as they sounded absolutely great and where pretty sturdy, enduring several years of abuse untill the cable developed a poor contact near the plug from hanging all the time, it was a sad day when I put them away...

I could go on for a while longer but it's still early in the day and we are getting off topic...


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## Fumble (Mar 10, 2021)

Hi, I hope this is the right place to ask but how can I enable 5.1 over S/PDIF from a Creative PCI-E X-fi SB0880 titanium 7.1 on Windows 10?
I believe I need a custom driver - if someone could please point me in the right direction I would very much appreciate it, I'm a PC Luddite (especially with audio) and I'm really out of my depth here and don't really know where to begin. Many, many thanks.


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## animal007uk (Mar 10, 2021)

You can try the drivers from here http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/

Then in the creative console launcher you should be able to set 5.1 from the speaker setup menu.


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## Fumble (Mar 10, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> You can try the drivers from here http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/
> 
> Then in the creative console launcher you should be able to set 5.1 from the speaker setup menu.


Thanks very much! There appears to be more than one 'support packs' that match my SB0880 card.. this is where I start to feel out of my depth again, making sure I don't do something that'll cause issues. Are you able to advide which is the exact one I need please?
Also, where do I get the Creative Console Launcher shown in your image?
Like I said, I'm a total luddite I'm afraid. I really appreciate the help.


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## animal007uk (Mar 10, 2021)

SB X-Fi Series Support Pack 5.0 is the one i think you need​




						SB X-Fi Series Support Pack 5.0
					

This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs.   Use it at your own risk.    Supports the following Sound Blaster...




					danielkawakami.blogspot.com
				


*scroll down untill you see*​*Download:*

Filename: *XFI_SupportPack_5_0.exe*
File size: *121 MB 

Once installed you should be able to find the console launcher in the windows start menu

I'm using this driver for my  - Creative SB X-Fi Titanium HD PCI-E and it seems to be working fine so far 

When installing the drivers i believe it asks you what you want to install and the console launcher should be in the list.*


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## Fumble (Mar 10, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> SB X-Fi Series Support Pack 5.0 is the one i think you need​
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks very much indeed!
Very silly question, but when you say "*When installing the drivers i believe it asks you what you want to install and the console launcher should be in the list." *... what exactly is the process for installing the drivers?
I really don't want to get this wrong and end up with a BSOD.


Edit: I dropped the .exe into VirusTotal and it found:
TrojanSpy.Keylogger!ItyKXsB5VxE
and
Trojan.Win32.Generic.4!c


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## djisas (Mar 10, 2021)

Hey, for what it's worth, I just installed the 5.0 pack, runs perfectly, console launcher and all....


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## Fumble (Mar 10, 2021)

djisas said:


> Hey, for what it's worth, I just installed the 5.0 pack, runs perfectly, console launcher and all....


Thanks! You have 5.1 over optical with it?
Just a bit worried about those two virus flags from VirusTotal....


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## djisas (Mar 10, 2021)

Fumble said:


> Thanks! You have 5.1 over optical with it?
> Just a bit worried about those two virus flags from VirusTotal....



Most likely false positive, windows security doesn't say anything...
No optical out, just straight 7.1 analog output...
Thought it should be fine...


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## Fumble (Mar 10, 2021)

djisas said:


> Most likely false positive, windows security doesn't say anything...
> No optical out, just straight 7.1 analog output...
> Thought it should be fine...


Ah, I definitely need 5.1 over optical. It's my only option.


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## djisas (Mar 10, 2021)

Fumble said:


> Ah, I definitely need 5.1 over optical. It's my only option.



I think you missunderstood me, I was just saying I'm nor using optical out, but every creative feature should be there...


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

Sorry for the late reply
When you download and click the driver it will ask to extract the main files then once done you will see a setup file just click that and follow what it says then you should see a box like in this pic.




Please note that i already have drivers installed so ignor the part on the pic where it says remove previously installed components.
So as you can see in that list there are many things you can install and that is what i currently have installed.
Hope it makes sense not had me coffee yet lol

I use optical out but only have a stereo amp now but when i had a 7.1 pioneer surround amp i am sure optical was working fine in 5.1


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Sorry for the late reply
> When you download and click the driver it will ask to extract the main files then once done you will see a setup file just click that and follow what it says then you should see a box like in this pic.
> View attachment 191940
> Please note that i already have drivers installed so ignor the part on the pic where it says remove previously installed components.
> ...


Thanks very much (again)!
I'm not sure what some of those items do or if they're needed or not, so should I just install the console launcher and drivers or should I install other items too?
Also, once the audio drivers are installed using this install wizard, is that it? I don't need to update drivers in device manager or anything?
Sorry for the daft questions, I'm new to this so it's all quite overwhelming still. You're being a huge help.


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

No need to do anything in device manager 
Just install the drivers from the setup file, install the componants you need and that should be it (might have to restart pc)

Out of all the things in my pic the only one you don't realy need to install is the soundfont bank manager.

If just wanting to keep things simple then this is what i would install
creative audio control panel
creative console launcher
creative speaker setup console
creative soundblaster propertise 64bit
audio driver.

Forgot to say but depending on what your connecting the optical to you might also need to install the Dolby Digital live pack and DTS connect pack.


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## micropage7 (Mar 11, 2021)

actually i wanna try burson for my zishan


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> No need to do anything in device manager
> Just install the drivers from the setup file, install the componants you need and that should be it (might have to restart pc)
> 
> Out of all the things in my pic the only one you don't realy need to install is the soundfont bank manager.
> ...


Thanks very much for the tips.
You knew this question was coming... where can I get this Dolby Digital live pack and DTS connect pack that you mention?


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

Fumble said:


> Thanks very much for the tips.
> You knew this question was coming... where can I get this Dolby Digital live pack and DTS connect pack that you mention


It should be in the main list of things to install when you run the setup.
I didn't install it as i don't need it but should be in the list like in this pic


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> It should be in the main list of things to install when you run the setup.
> I didn't install it as i don't need it but should be in the list like in this pic
> View attachment 191944


I went for the full default installation in the end to keep things simple.
Everything is installed but I'm only getting the option for 2-channel audio in the sound control panel.
5.1 is selected in the Creative console launcher.
Any idea what i need to do to activate 5.1?


Further to the above, in the console launcher settings, clicking the Dolby Digital Live button does nothing. It stays off.
Ditto for the DTS option.


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

Im not sure about the windows sound options i never use them lol

I just installed the dolby stuff and i can select dolby digital live and it seems to work but i have no way to test it fully as no 5.1 setup in the house.
I'm not sure if you have the same options as me but do you see a mode button in the console launcher (bottom left)?
If so click that and if you get the same options as me can you try setting it to entertainment mode then see if you can turn on dolby digital.
should look like this


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Im not sure about the windows sound options i never use them lol
> 
> I just installed the dolby stuff and i can select dolby digital live and it seems to work but i have no way to test it fully as no 5.1 setup in the house.
> I'm not sure if you have the same options as me but do you see a mode button in the console launcher (bottom left)?
> ...


The same thing happens as in Game Mode, the button seems active for a second or so and then reverts back to Off.
Very weird.

Seems like 5.1 over optical might not be supported by default?
I was hoping these drivers would enable it but it seems not.
There's a workaround for the Realtek drivers as explained in this video. Maybe I need something similar for the Creative drivers?








(I think that video was created after info was found here at TechPowerUp?)

If this was done for Realtek drivers then surely it's been done somewhere for Creative drivers too if the same problem needs solving?


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

I have no idea sorry but maybe someone else can help on that side of things


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> I have no idea sorry but maybe someone else can help on that side of things


Thanks very much for your help, it's very much appreciated.

The quest continues!


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

I'm thinking the reason dolby seems to work for me is because my titanium HD is only a stereo card and only way to get 5.1 is to use the dolby pack and optical out.
I'm going to see if i can get my old pioneer amp back and do some testing.

I can turn dolby digital on and as expected i get no sound on my yamaha amp as it cannot decode any type of dolby so this tells me its at least trying to work as intended if ya get what i mean


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## Fumble (Mar 11, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> I'm thinking the reason dolby seems to work for me is because my titanium HD is only a stereo card and only way to get 5.1 is to use the dolby pack and optical out.
> I'm going to see if i can get my old pioneer amp back and do some testing.
> 
> I can turn dolby digital on and as expected i get no sound on my yamaha amp as it cannot decode any type of dolby so this tells me its at least trying to work as intended if ya get what i mean


Thanks - I look forward to the results!


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## animal007uk (Mar 11, 2021)

Fumble said:


> Thanks - I look forward to the results!


My friend has the old pioneer amp and technically it's still my amp lol will see if i can get it back for a few days and do some testing.

I never asked before but what are you trying to connect the sound card to? If it's an amp does the amp support dolby digital 5.1 or 7.1?
Any extra info you can give me will be usefull 

Is this also your exact card?
Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro SB0880​


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## bobbybluz (Mar 11, 2021)

Has anybody tried the PAX drivers for the X-Fi series? I've been using them for years and like them. I'm going to try the ones linked here: http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/ later on my test X-Fi Titanium (PCIe) and Platinum (PCI) rigs and see if they're any better.


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## Fumble (Mar 12, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> My friend has the old pioneer amp and technically it's still my amp lol will see if i can get it back for a few days and do some testing.
> 
> I never asked before but what are you trying to connect the sound card to? If it's an amp does the amp support dolby digital 5.1 or 7.1?
> Any extra info you can give me will be usefull
> ...


Yes, trying to connect the card to an amp that supports 5.1 Dolby Digital. My only option is by optical, as the amp doesn't have 5.1 anaologue inputs and HDMI gets treated like a second screen which confuses the PC.
If there's a way to tell the PC that a certain HDMI output is for audio only and to keep it locked to that then that might solve the problem.
I have HDMI going from PC to 4k TV (as the amp won't do 4k/60 bypass) and used to have another HDMI going from PC to the receiver, but it would occasionally bug out at random and switch audio to the PC-TV HDMI, and also treat the HDMI audio out as a second screen. Really annoying. If anyone knows a fix for this it would solve my problem and I could forget about trying to get 5.1 over optical.
My card is the *Creative PCI-E X-fi Sound Card SB0880 titanium 7.1*, no mention of Fatality pro or anything.


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## tml3nr (May 8, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Thank you and when it comes to music there are so many things that make a lot of difference and how we hear or perceive music, When i was growing up i used to do a bit of Dj'ng in a few of the local pubs and i had some big speakers and amps that could throw out some volume and i used to blast them out in this same room in my pic and yup was loud and made this house rattle but how the times have changed over the years.
> 
> I now have my Yamaha A-S501 amp and speaker wise i have the wharfedale diamond 9.1's and the sub i have is a wharfedale SW150 and now i can play music loud without rattling the house but still get the bass i need to make me happy and the best thing is the quality, back in the day it was all boom boom but now i can hear every bass note that i never used to hear back in the day.
> 
> ...


Hi @animal007uk , sorry for late reply.

My PC with some stuffs:

i5-9600KF, Asus Z390-F, Corsair RM550x and Creative Gigaworks T20.

i removed the aluminum cover out of X-Fi HD. Sound is more airy and more extend.






My main gear:

Primare NP5 Prisma streamer, Atoll Dac100SE, NAD C320BEE amp and B&W 602 S3. Cables: Kimber 8TC, VDH D-102 MKIII, Canare L5.5CUHD.


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## qubit (May 8, 2021)

@tml3nr Nice pics there buddy. I like the classic Dell monitor especially and in black, too. Those square monitors can be surprisingly comfortable to work with. What resolution is it?


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## tml3nr (May 8, 2021)

qubit said:


> @tml3nr Nice pics there buddy. I like the classic Dell monitor especially and in black, too. Those square monitors can be surprisingly comfortable to work with. What resolution is it?


My monitor is Dell P1917S. Resolution 1280x1024. i also like square monitor. It's comfortable with many apps i use and doesn't take up a lot of space on my desk.

i love Creative Gigaworks T20. This is the second pair of T20. The first failed after 2 years. i like its treble. It reminds me the sound of old Yamaha monitor speakers like the NS series.

i switched to this Creative X-Fi HD because my old PC was faulty. Farewell Creative Audigy2 ZS is a big regret. This card and T20 sound great. Strong but very sweet.

Many years ago, i had a nostalgic farewell when i had to say goodbye to Steinberg Cubasis VST Project Card to switch from Windows XP to Windows 7 x64. So sad 

For me, only old cards same as Project Steinberg Cubasis VST Card can play 16/44.1 as it should be.


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

@tml3nr that is a nice setup love it 

I have a question for all of you to, So i have wanted to put my speakers on the wall for a long time and have now finally got some wall brackets for them.

So i want to put the speakers on the wall at the side of the tv but not sure how high up i want them so if anyone has any thoughts please let me know.
Once they go on the wall i plan on getting a second Wharfedale diamond SW150 sub to lol.

My sub is under the tv with the remote and pack of crisps on it hehe

My room is small and speakers seem to work best closer to the outside walls and then i plan on moving the sub to the right for now and when get the second one it will go on the left side of room (So under the speakers on the wall if that makes sense 
Thanks upfront for any and all suggestions


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> @tml3nr that is a nice setup love it
> 
> I have a question for all of you to, So i have wanted to put my speakers on the wall for a long time and have now finally got some wall brackets for them.
> 
> ...


Ideally you want them at “ear level” to your listening position
Edit if you feel you need “more bass” if you can you could try “corner loading” your current sub before “doubling up”









						Subwoofer Corner Placement: Why You Might Want To Try This
					

You may have wondered why you see subwoofer corner placement in some rooms, and placement along the front wall or side wall in others. You might be wondering, what is it, why would I want to do that, and what's it gonna benefit me? What's the result?




					www.axiomaudio.com


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Ideally you want them at “ear level” to your listening position


Cheers @INSTG8R that is what i was thinking and what i have read and heard about for many many years and due to where i sit i would say my tweaters need to be lvl with the top of the TV.
My new brackets also offer some movement to https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clamping-Bookshelf-Mounting-Surrounding-SPM201-Black/dp/B08116Q1PS/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Speaker Wall brackets&qid=1621010401&sr=8-3&fbclid=IwAR0i-Nw_qorJGpjcNhrG8hQMOoGW1SY9Ks2zEDIrfUfsld9JzM3CLIMklV0

Also the extra sub is not to get more bass it's to even the sound out on the deep bass, i have a funny shaped room and not many corners to put a single sub and get it to fill the room how i want.


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Cheers @INSTG8R that is what i was thinking and what i have read and heard about for many many years and due to where i sit i would say my tweaters need to be lvl with the top of the TV.


Also checked my edit regarding your sub. Yeah my current speakers are on top of my AV unit as I cannibalized my stands for my rear speakers for my PC. So basically “over my head” at my listening position. Granted any decent speaker will have a pretty wide “image” that should make placement unnoticeable within reason but I really need to get another pair of stands and get all my speakers on the same plain  again…


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Also checked my edit regarding your sub. Yeah my current speakers are on top of my AV unit as I cannibalized my stands for my rear speakers for my PC. So basically “over my head” at my listening position. Granted any decent speaker will have a pretty wide “image” that should make placement unnoticeable within reason but I really need to get another pair of stands and get all my speakers on the same plain  again…


Hehe no probs  i also updated my last post to as it was lacking needed infomation 

Also i am not doing any surround sound stuff here pure stereo only and just lucky my yamaha A-S501 has a sub out hehe


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Hehe no probs  i also updated my last post to as it was lacking needed infomation
> 
> Also i am not doing any surround sound stuff here pure stereo only and just lucky my yamaha A-S501 has a sub out hehe


Running a kinda disappointing Yamaha RX-V479. My previous Yamaha had a much better overall sound and frequency response on the same speakers but I wanted the HD audio formats for films  and I like the Spotify Connect and Airplay options. The HDCP pass through port and my cable box don’t get along either trying to run 4K but not a big deal.


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Running a kinda disappointing Yamaha RX-V479. My previous Yamaha had a much better overall sound and frequency response on the same speakers but I wanted the HD audio formats for films  and I like the Spotify Connect and Airplay options. The HDCP pass through port and my cable box don’t get along either trying to run 4K but not a big deal.


I used to have a pioneer 7.1 surround amp with all this modern HDMI and 4k upscaling but one day i turned it on very quiet as was getting up for work at 6am and after about 5 mins there was a loud pop from my speakers and the amp turned off, Not knowing what it was i unpluged the amp then pluged it back in turned it on and it went pop and the blue smoke of death came out lol (think the hdmi board died)

Was a nice amp to and sounded great with both films and music but one thing that always pissed me off with it was the heat it gave out. You only had to turn it on and leave it 30 mins without it doing anything and it would get very hot to the point could fry and egg on it.

After it died and £550 down i decided i am going back to a stereo amp but one with a sub out and so after looking at many reveiws i went for this yamaha A-S501 and have loved it since and works well with my small wharfedale 9.1's and also worked well with my old wharfedale pacific evo 20 floor standers and this yammy never gets warm realy i have to push it hard for hours before i heats up lol


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Also the extra sub is not to get more bass it's to even the sound out on the deep bass, i have a funny shaped room and not many corners to put a single sub and get it to fill the room how i want.


Yeah I moved a while ago and my sub couldn’t be in a worse position. At the edge of a wall where my kitchen startes leading to the open space of it … the opposite side would be the doorway out of my living room so pretty much the same…




Poor thing all out in the open…


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Yeah I moved a while ago and my sub couldn’t be in a worse position. At the edge of a wall where my kitchen startes leading to the open space of it … the opposite side would be the doorway out of my living room so pretty much the same…
> View attachment 200440
> Poor thing all out in the open…


Awww damn poor thing hehe defo looks out of place and not doing it's job like it could if in better position hehe


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> Awww damn poor thing hehe defo looks out of place and not doing it's job like it could if in better position hehe


Yeah when I moved in the landlord figured I was gonna use the opposite wall and where the existing Ethernet connection was. I asked him to wire up the other side because they layout seemed weird too have my couch  by the doorway and in the way of “traffic”  as opposed to my “flat” AV unit so I got no corners at all on that wall…


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## animal007uk (May 15, 2021)

My amp also has the A/B speaker option and my speakers are also Bi-Wire capable.
I run my speakers with a single cable atm and i believe my amp pumps 90 watts RMS into them.

If i am not mistaken if i do run my speakers in Bi-Wire mode then my amp will splitt the wattage so tweeter gets 45 Watt and mid/bass gets 45 Watt?
What would you do? go Bi-Wire or stick with the single cable?
I have tried it both ways but i dont think i can notice any difference
@INSTG8R what are you thoughts?

Also not trying to promote myself or anything with this but i do mess and like trying to make my own music.
I try my best at coming up with my own things and also tried remixing some tune to.
This is all my own stuff using programs i have had nad still have over the years and have never tried to make money from it as i do it for fun but if it's ok to post this here , Then here are a few things i have done and uploaded to soundcloud.


__
		https://soundcloud.com/stebennett


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## INSTG8R (May 15, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> If i am not mistaken if i do run my speakers in Bi-Wire mode then my amp will splitt the wattage so tweeter gets 45 Watt and mid/bass gets 45 Watt?
> What would you do? go Bi-Wire or stick with the single cable?
> I have tried it both ways but i dont think i can notice any difference


If your speakers and amp can do it and there’s no impedance issues I don’t see why not. I mean like you said you couldn’t hear the difference so they already run well enough without resorting to “exotic” connections.


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## bobbybluz (May 16, 2021)

animal007uk said:


> My amp also has the A/B speaker option and my speakers are also Bi-Wire capable.
> I run my speakers with a single cable atm and i believe my amp pumps 90 watts RMS into them.
> 
> If i am not mistaken if i do run my speakers in Bi-Wire mode then my amp will splitt the wattage so tweeter gets 45 Watt and mid/bass gets 45 Watt?
> ...


Bi-wiring is a total waste of time and energy. Bi-amping however is completely different thing (separate power amps for high & low frequencies using a passive or active crossover network).


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## animal007uk (May 16, 2021)

bobbybluz said:


> Bi-wiring is a total waste of time and energy. Bi-amping however is completely different thing (separate power amps for high & low frequencies using a passive or active crossover network).


Thank you  I did think that to when it comes to bi-wiring and have tested it many times with many different setups and i could never tell any diff with the music quality.

When it comes to Bi-Amping i can see where that can make a difference and if i could run dual optical out then would get another yamaha A-S501 amp haha


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## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

I am also using Titanium HD from many years now.. Replaced back in the day the JRC amps with some cheap Texas Instruments chips in oder to make the sound better.. Now did find cheap OPA 2134PA, and replaced the old ones.. But not sure what to use to replace the buffer single channel ones... MUSES seems good amps, but the prices is too much, to buy 4 of these will cost like couple of TitaniumHD cards lol... 

So any ideas for something good like these OPA2134PA for the buffers, as these wont work there, they are 2 channel, the buffers are single..


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## GotNoRice (Dec 17, 2021)

Radical Vision said:


> I am also using Titanium HD from many years now.. Replaced back in the day the JRC amps with some cheap Texas Instruments chips in oder to make the sound better.. Now did find cheap OPA 2134PA, and replaced the old ones.. But not sure what to use to replace the buffer single channel ones... MUSES seems good amps, but the prices is too much, to buy 4 of these will cost like couple of TitaniumHD cards lol...
> 
> So any ideas for something good like these OPA2134PA for the buffers, as these wont work there, they are 2 channel, the buffers are single..



Well, if you are looking to try something different for the "single" opamps, I'd suggest the OPA627.  It probably won't be too far off from the OPA2134 you were looking at.  But really, the two LME49710 single opamps that it comes with stock are already pretty amazing.  They are basically the "single" version of the LM4562 "dual" opamp, which is one of my favorite non-discrete opamps and I use it in many applications.  

I feel that the majority of the benefit from upgrading the OpAmps on this card came from upgrading the JRC dual opamps, which it seems like you've already done.


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## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

Yes i heard these LME49710 are fine, but did read some forums and reviews, and there they stated there are better ones, to replaces these, so is why i asked, as i am not very familiar with the whole opAMP thing on these audio cards... Saw MUSES 01,02 and 03 to be prob one of the very best, but the price is way too much.. So i wonder will some OPA be upgrade over these LME49710 to match better the OPA2134. There are also these big a$$ buson upgrade opAMPs, but damn the card becomes too big, and cant even mount back the damn cover lol.. 

Ordered today ASUS Xonar Essence STX II, it have the MUSES upgrade kit with it, so it will be good test for me, sadlt the way ASUS did engineer the card the buffer there is dual channel, not single, so i cant replace the single channels of the TitaniumHD in order to try the muses on that card...

I wonder if the MUSES 01 and 02 worth so much money, prob they dont, as i dont believe at all if installing these on my TitaniumHD i will find so much difference to make me spend so much money...
If you have experience with opAMPs for audio cards share, i wnt some perspective, expensive and best price/ performance ratio or better to say best price/ quality ratio.


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## qubit (Dec 17, 2021)

X-Fi cards sound awesome. Haven’t looked back since I bought my first one over a decade ago.

The Fatal1ty on I’ve currently got in my PC (see specs) is no longer supported by Creative and the 2019 dated driver has a few issues with W10, but I won’t change it for as long as possible.


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## djisas (Dec 17, 2021)

I love my X-Fi cards too, but since chaning from the Fatal1ty champion pci to the Fatal1ty pro pci-e, i get a ton of noise trough the headphones, I dont know if it's picking noise from psu, probably due to the cable connecting to the front panel.


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## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

djisas said:


> I love my X-Fi cards too, but since chaning from the Fatal1ty champion pci to the Fatal1ty pro pci-e, i get a ton of noise trough the headphones, I dont know if it's picking noise from psu, probably due to the cable connecting to the front panel.


You should get then TitaniumHD is very good, and i never did hear any noise, or the Xonar Essence ST i did have before the Titanium same never heard anything.. Not sure if i did have any noise from the X-Fi Xtreme music on one of my old systems, or from the Audigy 1... 



qubit said:


> X-Fi cards sound awesome. Haven’t looked back since I bought my first one over a decade ago.
> 
> The Fatal1ty on I’ve currently got in my PC (see specs) is no longer supported by Creative and the 2019 dated driver has a few issues with W10, but I won’t change it for as long as possible.



Well i am not 100% sure, but when i moved from Xonar Essence ST to TitaniumHD, it did appear to me, that in HI-FI mode the Essence ST did sound a bit more clear and better. Will test this now when i get the Essence STX II....


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## qubit (Dec 17, 2021)

Radical Vision said:


> Well i am not 100% sure, but when i moved from Xonar Essence ST to TitaniumHD, it did appear to me, that in HI-FI mode the Essence ST did sound a bit more clear and better. Will test this now when i get the Essence STX II....


It's quite possible that the Essence sounds better. All I can do is compare to my previous cards which were budget ones, including a Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1 and Realtek mobo sound and that the X-Fi sound is very punchy and detailed. Of course, I'm so used to that X-Fi sound now that it just sounds normal to me. It's only when I compare again that the difference becomes apparent again.


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## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

qubit said:


> It's quite possible that the Essence sounds better. All I can do is compare to my previous cards which were budget ones, including a Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1 and Realtek mobo sound and that the X-Fi sound is very punchy and detailed. Of course, I'm so used to that X-Fi sound now that it just sounds normal to me. It's only when I compare again that the difference becomes apparent again.


Well i will check that these days, it is quite interesting to me, what i will find.. But the STX II is very good card it have Wima german caps, nichicon fine gold electrolytic caps that suppose to sound way better over the normal polymer metal capacitors, also it have MUSES opAMPs as upgrade, while i did upgrade with OPA2134PA the TitaniumHD i bet they wont sound as good as these MUSES, not to mention i did reasearch even before after i moved from the Essence ST to the TitaniumHD, and some guy did made review of the X-Fi gen 2 (used in TitaniumHD) and the chip used on the Xonar Essence series (C-Media Oxygen HD) and he did found that the Oxygen HD perform better for HI-FI audio.. So the way i see it STX II vs TitaniumHD the STX II have BIG upper hand based only on the components used, the chipset and even the opAMPs... Sure i can replace the AMPs on the TitaniumHD too, but i have the feeling even with MUSES 02/01 and 03 and use the same amps on the STX II that card will possible sound way better... 

But there are other cards out there too...  Such as EVGA NU Audio, Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater HD (some ppl claim this to be superior to the TitaniumHD die to the higher quality of the caps used), Onkyo SE 300PCIE Wavio, there are of course the newerCreative cards SB ZXR and Sound Blaster AE-9.. But the way i see it the last great card from Creative was exactly the TitaniumHD, as ZXR have crap processor,and prob the new AE series is the same did not even look at them...

From all these cards the ones i think are the best are STX II, TitaniumHD. Now X-Fi Auzentech Home Theater HD vs X-Fi Onkyo vs TitaniumHD i think the battle there is between TitaniumHD and Onkyo. But the Onkyo does not have sockets to change the AMPs, that may be problem, unless they did use some quality AMPs for their card.. EVGA NU Audio is prob crap the fanboys of EVGA claim that card to be very good, others non fanboys say the card is nothing special prob they are right...


----------



## INSTG8R (Dec 17, 2021)

Radical Vision said:


> EVGA NU Audio is prob crap the fanboys of EVGA claim that card to be very good, others non fanboys say the card is nothing special prob they are right.


The real issue with them are they are treated as a “USB device” and are basically using some kind of PCI “Bridge” that’s when it went right off my radar…I’m still happy enough with my ZX I miss my Fatality but it was PCI and well that slot is long gone…


----------



## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> The real issue with them are they are treated as a “USB device” and are basically using some kind of PCI “Bridge” that’s when it went right off my radar…I’m still happy enough with my ZX I miss my Fatality but it was PCI and well that slot is long gone…


I see i know stuff about the Essence series and the X-Fi PCI series and the TitaniumHD, dont know much about the EVGA, Onkyo or the Auzentech..
Essence cards are the same, i mean the C-Media Oxygen HD chip does not support PCIex, so the STX was made with some PCI>PCIex bridge chip too, but they did fuck up something with the clock gen there or something, and they fixed it later with the STX II.. So is not only the EVGA with bridge chip, but people like the Essence series very much, unless they want to game or something more then just listen to music and movies (BTW the Dolby the Essence have is really good for movies, and the other effects), for me the Esscence series is very very good for HI-FI audio and home cinema with the effcets, but for games is ok, is far cry from the X-Fi`s abilities on supported games (not that this matters after windows XP anyway) . Is interesting to me, that u find the ZX (i look only the high end cards that would be ZXR for me) good sounding card as sure the components used on the high end ZXR are very good same quality as the Xonar Essence series, i was fan of the ZXR and wanted to find one for cheap, but then did talk with another retro collecto enhusiast, and he told me that the damn ZXR does not have audio processor such as the X-Fi, but rather process the audio via software, and that made me not to want to have anything with the Z series of Sound Blaster... Another guy that did have both X-Fi TitaniumHD and later he did buy Sound Blaster ZXR, he did put to sale the ZXR very fast, he said the ZXR sound way worse for HI-FI audio...

But everyone is different i guess.


----------



## GotNoRice (Dec 17, 2021)

djisas said:


> I love my X-Fi cards too, but since chaning from the Fatal1ty champion pci to the Fatal1ty pro pci-e, i get a ton of noise trough the headphones, I dont know if it's picking noise from psu, probably due to the cable connecting to the front panel.



Yeah soundcards can be very hit or miss depending on the system they are in, and are obviously susceptible to RFI (radio-frequency interference) as well as ground-loop issues.  I stopped using my X-Fi Titanium HD in my gaming system because I couldn't fully get rid of the background noise.  It was obvious that it was coming from my computer as the noise would change pitch when I moved my mouse, etc.  But with an overclocked high-powered CPU and GPU, among other components, it's hard to blame the sound card too much.

I moved my Titanium HD into the computer that I use as a source for my dedicated music stereo.  That computer has a very sparse internal layout with only integrated video and no major components next to the soundcard.  Even using headphones into my preamp I cannot hear any background noise when the card is used in that system.  So it's not a guarentee that there will always be background noise.  It's absolutely system dependent.

In my gaming system I use an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty now, feeding an external DAC via optical.  My computer is so electrically noisy that even using the external DAC directly via USB still caused background noise / ground loop issues, so being able to use optical to break any possibility of electrical interference was super helpful.  And even though I'm not using the DAC that is built-in to the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty, I still use CMSS-3D every day when I game and would have a hard time living without it.  I have still yet to hear any other algorithm that does a better job than CMSS-3D when it comes to downmixing 7.1 for headphone surround, despite the card's age.

I run 5 different X-Fi cards at the moment.  An X-Fi Titanium HD, an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty, an X-Fi Titanium, an X-Fi XtremeMusic, and an X-Fi XtremeGamer.  All the systems (even the ones not officially supported) have been upgraded to Windows 11 and the cards all work great using the latest Windows 10 driver from 2019.


----------



## INSTG8R (Dec 17, 2021)

Radical Vision said:


> I see i know stuff about the Essence series and the X-Fi PCI series and the TitaniumHD, dont know much about the EVGA, Onkyo or the Auzentech..
> Essence cards are the same, i mean the C-Media Oxygen HD chip does not support PCIex, so the STX was made with some PCI>PCIex bridge chip too, but they did fuck up something with the clock gen there or something, and they fixed it later with the STX II.. So is not only the EVGA with bridge chip, but people like the Essence series very much, unless they want to game or something more then just listen to music and movies (BTW the Dolby the Essence have is really good for movies, and the other effects), for me the Esscence series is very very good for HI-FI audio and home cinema with the effcets, but for games is ok, is far cry from the X-Fi`s abilities on supported games (not that this matters after windows XP anyway) . Is interesting to me, that u find the ZX (i look only the high end cards that would be ZXR for me) good sounding card as sure the components used on the high end ZXR are very good same quality as the Xonar Essence series, i was fan of the ZXR and wanted to find one for cheap, but then did talk with another retro collecto enhusiast, and he told me that the damn ZXR does not have audio processor such as the X-Fi, but rather process the audio via software, and that made me not to want to have anything with the Z series of Sound Blaster... Another guy that did have both X-Fi TitaniumHD and later he did buy Sound Blaster ZXR, he did put to sale the ZXR very fast, he said the ZXR sound way worse for HI-FI audio...
> 
> But everyone is different i guess.


I’d bet dollars to donuts the ZX and ZXR are using the same core chip just the ZXR has a little more “bling” I mean I use my PC purely for gaming and I game exclusively in 5.1 via Logi Z906s connected analogue. We lost all real “hardware sound” when Direct Sound pretty much killed it. Yes despite that some cards definitely do still do a better job than others sound cards have been “hobbled” for a long time now. Does my ZX sound better than the latest and greatest onboard solution? Absolutely it does. I can say this because when I switched from Intel to AMD o nearly smashed my sound card because on AMD it went absolutely to crap, static, lost channels, switching channels etc etc. WELL turns out there was a very simple solution staring me right in the face that dawned on me in the middle of the night….

Spread Spectrum! This absolutely ANCIENT feature is enabled by default on AMD boards….basically it lets your clocks “float” which apparently sound cards absolutely HATE! Now I’m an AMD beta tester and went through MANY lengthy arguments with staff as to why is this on and explaining how and why this was breaking my sound card with no real conclusions or reasoning other than “it doesn’t hurt anything being on” blah blah…Heck even Daniel K hopped into the fray putting out drivers trying to solve the issue…Bottom line, Spread Spectrum disabled, Sound Card performs exactly as it should and always had….


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## Radical Vision (Dec 17, 2021)

Huh is so strange to me to hear someone to have so much parasite noise and buzzings... I have heard this crap only on very old Sound Blaster cards (or other ones) such as Sound Blaster 16, Creative AWE64 Gold/ Value, some ISA audio cards such as Crystal or Yamaha. Also some integrated audio cards in old motherboards such as socket 462 based ones, 478 socket 939 too.. But newer ones nothing, i think even my Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Platinum does not make noise or much of it, similar with Audigy 1 and X-Fi Xtreme Music i think does not do noise at all. For the Essence ST and now TitaniumHD i neve did hear anything no noise no matter what i do... I changed 2 systems while i did use Essence ST (with AM3+ socket first the mobo was 990FX Saibertooth R2, after that was Crosshair Formula V), and the TitaniumHD now with AM4. Did not have any buzzing or crap liek moving the mouse and hearing how the mouse moves, that i see only in ISA audio cards or integrated audio on motherboards that are old.. Even my LGA 1366 system does not have buzzings... But i have always use high end power supplies such as Seasonic 850W SS Gold, at some point EVGA SuperNova 850W Platinum (this PSU was shit did have coil whine on the second year..) and now Corsair HX1000w, even with the EVGA i did not have buzzing..

So the problem is prob in your PSU, or way more likely in ur house power delivery or something else that make electric distortion near your system, that is my bet...


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## Radical Vision (Dec 19, 2021)

Got the card is very good as expected.. Now i think this card have a bit more stage to it compared to the TitaniumHD with OPA2134PA, that is die to the MUSES opAMPs the card have on, the music have some times more stuff i can hear compared to the Titanium, but both sound extremely good, so is a very close call, i expected to hear a far bit more with the STX II. 

What i use to listen music is 
SONY TA-F670ES AMP
JBL LX800 MKII Speakers
player is AIMP set with ASIO, and some FLAC music.. 

Will try to put the MUSES AMPs to the TitaniumHD and see how that will go.. Sadly the SB card uses 2 single channel sockets, meaning i cant use any of the AMPs i have to replace the stock buffers...


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