Creative Rolls Out Sound Blaster SoundCore 3D 'Quad-Core' PCIe Sound Cards

[Major_A]

It doesn't matter how good the hardware is Creative will still screw it up with their drivers and software. Against my better judgement I bought a X-Fi after all the issues I had with my Audigy previously. If they ever hire good software engineers then they can have great products. As of now their software is clunky and full of bugs.

For example, look at Realtek. They supply a very large percentage of HD audio logic/solutions to motherboard manufacturers. The software is pretty straight forward and to put the icing on the cake they update their drivers usually every month. Creative releases a new "beta" driver for my X-Fi maybe once or twice a year.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I doubt it's for drives.

Only devices I have ever known to come with a port for it.

 

[Maban]

Only devices I have ever known to come with a port for it.

Drives connect to a sound card with what, two wires? Don't you think twelve would be a bit overkill if it was for that?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

MAYBE

its to hook it up to a break-out-box of some sort that creative have in the works??

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

MAYBE

its to hook it up to a break-out-box of some sort that creative have in the works??

perhaps, I just hope they have made their drivers and software has been desuckified.

 

[Jstn7477]

I gave up on sound cards long ago and just use the onboard codecs on my motherboards. I don't have the fancy speakers or headphones to justify them, and nothing really uses EAX these days anyway. Sound cards in my situation are about as useful as the first generation Ageia PhysX PCI cards.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Excuse me, but this card looks like shit and cheap nonsense from creative again...

As Electronics engineer, why in hell these guys made such card like in there... Getting all crazy with power supply part, shielding, PCB layout, good DAC, CLC filters, chokes and the end analogue buffer stage with op amps. Don't you think there is crap going out the PC supply and EMI noises from various devices are making PC as worst sound source ever. Let us be reasonable and not talk about silver cables and golden caps, it is also nonsense and religion, but proper low ESR caps, copper shields and decent opamp circuit is a must have.

It is OK if you use SPDIF it is digital, then on the other side, why do you need a dedicated card at all?

I can not see the use of this card at all... the whole description stinks... I am using Win 8 betas, and have already problems with my Titanium MS changed something in the sound layer, it will be again - few years till they make a working driver... pardon they didn't, PAX driver was the one who cleaned up after them... My other Auzentech X-Meridian works like champ with it plain beta form even longhorn times, but it never caused my problems.

Concerning about resolution... yes openAL doesn't support multichannel 24bit and bitperfect playback... but who cares, we have kernel streaming and ASIO still... But with sound, it cannot not get screwed up as its worst chain in the whole route... Sound material i.e. source still hasn't stepped in 24bits properly outside studio, and people who use them wont be buying such card... And gamers? Personally I don't care if my explosion or rifle sounds with more crap ahem ~harmonics...

Just searched a bit... I didn't now onkyo made a new card with X-Fi, like Auzentech... Another Creative done properly:
http://www.jp.onkyo.com/pcaudio/pciedigitalaudioboard/se300pcie/gallery.htm

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

After having so much fun with creative's driver's....and moving to the absolute euphoria of another brand, no amount of 'cores' will make my wallet open for creative again.

 

[otaku_ex]

I'll open my wallet only if I see an Auzentech or onkyo card with the new creative chip. Creative should stop assembling their cards, it will be much better if they only focus on new chips, drivers and X-Fi mb.

Edit: Return of gigaworks speaker systems seems imposible at this time.

 

[Maban]

For anyone wondering, the Onkyo in the link is an Asia-only model. Don't get your hopes up.

 

[otaku_ex]

For anyone wondering, the Onkyo in the link is an Asia-only model. Don't get your hopes up.

unless drivers are only in japanese or chinese, then it won't be a problem.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

For anyone wondering, the Onkyo in the link is an Asia-only model. Don't get your hopes up.

Thats strange. because I swear i ordered parts to fix my friends laptop from a dude in China on a site called ebay.

Asia only??? There are ways of getting things OUT of Asia and by that i dont mean being wrapped in a condom and shoved down your stomach.

 

[erocker]

Lack of capacitors is disturbing.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Thats strange. because I swear i ordered parts to fix my friends laptop from a dude in China on a site called ebay.

Asia only??? There are ways of getting things OUT of Asia and by that i dont mean being wrapped in a condom and shoved down your stomach.

As it seems you're right... one listed in ebay, directly from Japan. Price may be steep, but if you compare these prices with professional audio equipment... it is very cheap

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Onkyo-SE-30...975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e8d3b477

 

[TheMailMan78]

Lack of capacitors is disturbing.

 

[Maban]

As it seems you're right... one listed in ebay, directly from Japan. Price may be steep, but if you compare these prices with professional audio equipment... it is very cheap

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Onkyo-SE-30...975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e8d3b477

Honestly, I hadn't thought of ebay. I never shop there. I can't find the Titanium Professional Audio on there though which I would have gotten if it were available here.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Honestly, I hadn't thought of ebay. I never shop there. I can't find the Titanium Professional Audio on there though which I would have gotten if it were available here.

You mean Titanium HD??

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...d+audio&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Or Creative EMU division?

 

[Maban]

Nope, I mean exactly what I said. SB0888 http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=54548

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Nope, I mean exactly what I said. SB0888 http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=54548

If its the card i think youre talking about.

their usually abreviated as "X-Fi Titanium Pro"

 

[Maban]

Those are Fatal1ty cards. The one I'm referring to is not.

 

[swaaye]

I don't understand how people are having problems with Creative's drivers. My X-Fi has been fine for as long as I've owned it (2008?), and I even have the Audigy cards working great in Vista+ these days. Hell all you need to do is go to their site and download their driver pack if that's all you want. No "bloatware" whatsoever. Every app is available separately.

But really there isn't much point to hardware acceleration anymore. Part of that is caused by the majority only having Realtek (et al) dumb codecs. Part of it is probably the consoles (no audio DSPs anymore). Part of it is the fact that no other sound card company has bothered to produce a 3D audio accelerator for nearly a decade now. Still, you do get some nice stuff with Creative like nice up/downmixing (headphone downmix is superb), soundfont support, EAX/DS3D for old games thru Alchemy, cleaner audio than onboard, etc...

I think the shown card is the new X-Fi Xtreme Audio. That's to say that it's a software solution that relies on their X-Fi MB-style software. Maybe there's a more beefy product coming down the road.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Nope, I mean exactly what I said. SB0888 http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=54548

As wiki says, and I also thought it like that it is... the only difference from Fatal1ty Champion is the silver colored mark and no I/O box... the hardware part is the same... so search for X-Fi Titanium Fatality on ebay.

Or get yourself a proper Auzentech or Xonar , you won't regret it. I own exactly the same card as you seek of... nothing stellar. Although I've hardmodded it overall, replaced opamps and caps. There were problems with systems with lot of RAM, of course openAL didn't work on x64 system etc , but with latest PAX drivers works OK at last.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Those are Fatal1ty cards. The one I'm referring to is not.

THIS is the SB0888

the card is distributed in Japan only. digging deeper. People say its just the same as the Fata1ity card except no fata1ity logo etc etc.

Its like the XFi Titanium with the I/O shield on. -- their the exact same cards anyway

 

[Maban]

The fact that it's not Fatal1ty branded is why I want it. But let's not get into that.

 

[FreedomEclipse]