X-Fi Support Syndicate & Owner's Clubhouse

[Morgoth]

anny one knows if Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro PCI supports dual channel sound recording?

 

[imperialreign]

Today is a Red-letter day. I bought and installed an Auzen X-Fi Prelude. Wow! what a sound !!! I was listening to a DTS encoded movie and the sound of an aircraft flying above actually made me look up with reflex. Only a second later I realised it came from the speakers.

Okay, so with the entry of this card my old one, an Xtreme Gamer is now my lab-mouse. I'm buying solid-state capacitors to replace all the electrolytic ones on the card. Also to follow, is the heatsink mod. Any suggestions on which brands and makes of capacitors I should be using, would be appreciated.

Oh yeah...my first mod for the Xtreme Gamer: Gold electro-plating of the expansion bracket.

I'm defi interested how the cap mod will turn out - as I plan on doing that as soon as I can afford to. I posted somewhere in this thread a link to a "guide" that lists good parts . . . it might be worthwhile to ask on a circuit forum, people that work on PCBs all the time, y'know?

But, I'd defi like to hear how a modded X-Fi compares to a Prelude. I've heard rumor here and there that they're very comparable, I'd just like some confirmation

anny one knows if Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro PCI supports dual channel sound recording?

I believe so . . . I haven't done any recording with it yet . . . I'm not sure how well dual channel would turn out using just the mic input on the back of the card - you may need to snag the I/O console of Front Panel to have good seperate L/R inputs.

I'm certain the card can do that kind of work, but I don't know about Creative's bundled software. Your best bet would be to look into a copy of SoundForge. It'll give you much better support than Creative's software.

 

[btarunr]

I plan on doing that as soon as I can afford to.

Afford to do so? In a context, a fresh set of caps from say Matsushita Japan wouldn't cost you over $20 if you go to a good components store. In another context, yes you'd need some first-rate soldering equipment.

 

[imperialreign]

Oh, I've got the equipment, that's not an issue - it's just around here, we don't have many places that sell decent circuit components to the public. The few that do only sell sub-par stuff. It'd be better to order online - but I want to get my current bills down some more first.

 

[btarunr]

Oh, I've got the equipment, that's not an issue - it's just around here, we don't have many places that sell decent circuit components to the public. The few that do only sell sub-par stuff. It'd be better to order online - but I want to get my current bills down some more first.

Discount equipment? Nope. I'm talking retail prices here.

Futurelec.com is for you

 

[imperialreign]

I'll take a look around there at capacitor prices and whatnot . . . at least I don't need to buy the soldering equipment and all, my equipment is old but still works great.

 

[btarunr]

Sure, besides equipment what we need is the precision when it comes to the slum of capacitors that's located near the audio ports. The caps there are just so jam-packed. My soldering gun is over 6 years old. And yes, it's not very high-end. Just that is has a wooden handle that has all those Indian carving art on it. I even modded a soldering gun...haha.

 

[imperialreign]

I even modded a soldering gun...haha.

LOL!! That's hardcore, man!

That qoute just might get put into my sig, too!

 

[imperialreign]

<BUMP>


All seems to be quiet on the X-Fi front . . . I haven't run across any news or updates, etc . . . I'm planning on adding some more to post #1 this weekend . . .

 

[btarunr]

<BUMP>


All seems to be quiet on the X-Fi front . . . I haven't run across any news or updates, etc . . . I'm planning on adding some more to post #1 this weekend . . .

Unlike all those non- X-Fi users who piss and moan at Creative, we think differently. Our sound-cards are trouble-free. So this thread not having updates is a good sign

Just installed 7.1 speakers to the Auzen card. Man..this sounds noisy than immersive in comparison to 5.1.

 

[Batou1986]

might wana add on there not to try creatives new beta drivers for ut3 cause they don't work at all killed my sound in windows and there a PITA to remove

 

[imperialreign]

might wana add on there not to try creatives new beta drivers for ut3 cause they don't work at all killed my sound in windows and there a PITA to remove

I'll make a mention about it. Betas are kinda a "use at your own risk" sorta deal. It'd be nice, though, if Creative would specify what the beta is trying to address, y'know?

Unlike all those non- X-Fi users who piss and moan at Creative, we think differently. Our sound-cards are trouble-free. So this thread not having updates is a good sign

Just installed 7.1 speakers to the Auzen card. Man..this sounds noisy than immersive in comparison to 5.1.

Honestly, I really don't get what the big deal is with people's gripes against Creative. Sure, Creative's Tech Support is pure crap at this point, but everyone seems to forget just how many different motherboards, processors, VGA adapters, network adapters, DRAM modules, etc are on the market nowadays as compared to 10 years ago - it's almost impossible to not have issues with some hardware sooner or later down the line.

Also funny how many people that bitch about Creative have never used their products, or, bought the cheapest thing they could find, or some hand-me-down part off of ebay and whine when it doesn't work right with other legacy components.

 

[btarunr]

What pisses me off about these Creative haters is that they don't want to spend on good sound. but spend heavily on video cards saying:

"My Realtek 'sounds' just as good as your XFi when not gaming, and just listening to music"

My reply:
"Yeah? then an Intel Extreme graphics 'looks' just as good as your 8800 GTX when not gaming and in 2D".

The point is you need both, performance and quality. An 8800 GTX can give you both (Even a 2900 XT can ), just as an XFi does.

Their biggest complaint about Creative is of the drivers being too "complicated". Pray how? On the other hand they're smart enough to do CPU modding, overclocking, video-card flashing and shit (how ironic).

I'd much rather spend $500 on a 8800 GTS and a X-Fi XG Pro than on a single 8800 GTX. These people lack buying sense. They don't realize that they're not only missing better sound quality but also genuinely high overall system performance.




Tidbit: The X-Fi processor, CA-20K1 was originally designed by the VLSI team of E-MU. E-MU designed all the audio-processors for Creative even after the takeover. Even when the X-Fi released the processor was originally called EMU-20K (successor of the EMU10K that drove the Audigy ZS). Creative renamed it to CA-20K1. The "1" for an added 8-bit ring-bus to the 64bit ringbus that connects the processor's logic. The "CA" meaning Creative was a clear indication that Creative would be licensing the processor to 3rd parties like Auzen, and it would be inappropriate carrying "EMU", a subsidy.

 

[imperialreign]

I completely understand - but, I think a lot of people have gotten wrapped up in all the hardware that review sites are pushing; and the lack of follow up reviews to the same product . . . like, with the first gen X-Fi cards, how the caps went thermo nuclear and people were complaining left and right - but no one corrected their arguments when Creative corrected the problem and, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't been a problem since.

Or - the issues with the X-Fi's and nVidia chipsets and GPU's . . . everyone blames Creative for designing a product that isn't 100% hardware compatible, even though with the nVidia hardware, the chipset doesn't want to give up the GPU's reign of the BUS . . . and needless to say, Creative's products weren't the only hardware experiencing problems with those pieces of equipment.



TBH, my absolute biggest gripe with people complaining about their audio playback - is when they start ranting that they spent $100+ amount on a supposed "leading audio card (X-Fi)" and the audio playback still sounds like butt . . . then you realize they're running on some $10 2.1 setup or, my absolute favorite, a $300 set of flat panel speakers with no sub woofer :shadedshu

 

[btarunr]

X-Fi cards run just fine with NForce. I had a NF 570 Ultra and there were no issues. Issues are something people cook up as lame excuses because they don't want to buy a $100 sound card for playing their YouTube streams (low-quality encoded audio) and porn (that's all loud screams of enacted orgasm, for which they lower the volume anyway), their Realtek chips the size of a 10yr old's finger-nail can do the job. When gaming, the el-fatto Crossfire or SLI setup compensates the choppy audio with better visual experience.

The best equipment to test the output quality of a sound card is a good pair of noise-canceling headphone, any brand would do. Infact, I'd strongly recommend you to buy the Creative HN-605 for $40. This is a giant-killer. Use this with your XFi to listen to http://somafm.com/groovesalad48.pls using Winamp with the Crystalizer turned on to medium. Listen for 30 minutes. It's a 64 kbps AAC stream that'll easily sound better than lossless WMA. You'd want to pull your card out at once and kiss it.


Explanation: The AAC+ is so encoded that every MPEG frame of audio data has different kbps size to suit the fidelity of the the stream. And the CA20K1 is capable to hardware-decode AAC in realtime with Winamp 5.5 's in_mp3 plugin. Being a Windows XP user, make sure you use DirectSound and not Wave_out as your Winamp output plugin, else no hardware decoding. Vista users are unlucky, no DSound. Nullsoft is working on a OpenAL plugin.

 

[yzfboy]

i solved my problem while trying to run 2 x 2900xt and xfi together ,the answer was to sell the 2 2900;s and buy a 8800gtx and put that in with the xfi and works a treat .their wasnt room for the creative card running crossfire so they had to go as on board sound isnt up to much even when it says it 7.1 and anyway the 8800gtx is better than the 2 2900;s was anyway so its win win ,but its true people buy expensive vid cards and forget about sound it makes the game's come alive just as much as the graphics does

 

[btarunr]

Performance-wise, 1x 8800 GTX <<< 2x HD 2900 XT.

Absolutely nothing can prove that wrong.

 

[yzfboy]

Performance-wise, 1x 8800 GTX <<< 2x HD 2900 XT.

Absolutely nothing can prove that wrong.

i can cos run it on my system and telling u 1 8800gtx o/c edition is better than 2 2900xt's on crysis the xt s on high settings run choppy but playable on the 8800gtx smooth as silk and noticed hlf2 episode 2 runs better on the gtx and thats a ati game but to be honest i was a big ati fan but not anymore

 

[btarunr]

benchmarks, son. show me one popular reviewer chart or review showing 1 8800 GTX > 2 2900 XT, regardless of the 8800 being OC'ed.

 

[yzfboy]

benchmarks, son. show me one popular reviewer chart or review showing 1 8800 GTX > 2 2900 XT, regardless of the 8800 being OC'ed.

lol oh no i found the person who plays benchmarks and not real games dont care what benchmarks say it when u play the game you notice the difference ,
i can remember a few years ago 1 of the so called big 2 wrote a program into the bios of their card so when u run say 3dmark 05 it turned loads of stuff off or down and then it had really good benchmarks anyway dont wont to get into a argument about it just said wot i found using both set ups

 

[imperialreign]

i solved my problem while trying to run 2 x 2900xt and xfi together ,the answer was to sell the 2 2900;s and buy a 8800gtx and put that in with the xfi and works a treat .their wasnt room for the creative card running crossfire so they had to go as on board sound isnt up to much even when it says it 7.1 and anyway the 8800gtx is better than the 2 2900;s was anyway so its win win ,but its true people buy expensive vid cards and forget about sound it makes the game's come alive just as much as the graphics does

yeah, I had to re-arrange my PCI layout when I got my 2nd 1950. I don't like having my X-Fi being neighbor to a power hungry GPU. Thankfully, my mobo has enough slots that I was able to keep everything seperate enough for my taste.

The best equipment to test the output quality of a sound card is a good pair of noise-canceling headphone, any brand would do. Infact, I'd strongly recommend you to buy the Creative HN-605 for $40. This is a giant-killer. Use this with your XFi to listen to http://somafm.com/groovesalad48.pls using Winamp with the Crystalizer turned on to medium. Listen for 30 minutes. It's a 64 kbps AAC stream that'll easily sound better than lossless WMA. You'd want to pull your card out at once and kiss it.

I've actually been looking into another, better headset than what I currently have. Granted, my headset isn't some cheap, junk model . . . I just think it could be better. I only use a headset when gaming or working late at night, otherwise I've got a decent speaker setup for whatever.

I'll check that dl out a bit later for sure, it's got my curiosity. TBH, I've got a few specific tracks on my system that I use for "fine-tuning" the software mixers and all, mostly because the audio range in the tracks is phenomenal, and being digitally recorded music, there is so many different layers to each track that it's easy to tune to my tastes . . . but, I still find it amazing tracks like that, though - because ever time you listen to it, you notice something else that you never heard before, and it breathes life back into the recording. If you ever want to check any of it out, you can PM me.

Plus, having an audio processor that can handle and reproduce that kind of a range is key - I've listened to those tracks in my car's beefed setup, or on other peoples computers, even on some high-end shelf units . . . and I still feel that the best sounding playback is with my X-Fi . . .


. . . except for that super high $1500 Pioneer audio system . . . unbelievable

 

[imperialreign]

<bump>


all quiet on the Creative front . . . it's been quiet, too quiet, to say the least. There have been a couple of new product releases, but no PC hardware.

I just realized this thread has had over 3,000 views in the 2 and a half months it's been up, but not too many problems have surfaced (which is good, IMO). I can only assume, then, that people have found a use for it, which is great.

 

[grunt_408]

Hi I did have a problem with my old drivers... They were always switching to 2 channel mode and I was forever having to go back and change to 5.1. I updated the driver and voila problem solved.

 

[imperialreign]

That's kinda odd, but defi was a driver issue. Only thing I can think of on that was your initial drivers might not have installed correctly.

At least it's working for you now, man.

 

[grunt_408]

I was using the same driver with my last rig and had the same issue... I put it down to the fact I was using a VIA chipset at the time maybe a conflict, but when it done the same thing with my P35 I started to wonder and in the end found it was the driver!