Widescreen Gaming Forum

This is not the "Creative or not Creative" thread, so it'd be more interesting to know why you favor a 'spartan' card over your mobo's sound chip ;)

Just the word "integrated" when applied to 'audio' or 'graphics' leaves a bad taste in the mouths of most enthusiasts. ;) That's probably why. ;)

It made quite a different on my system. I have been running without a soundcard on my current home and office system. The onboard sound was pretty good with my Z680 so I really wasn't looking for a sound card until I got Mass Effect. It just will not do 5.1 properly with the onboard sound despite updating driver and tweaking with the ini files. I went and got a X-Fi Xtreme PCIe and I was surprised that the difference is quite noticeable. It's just a richer and deeper sound from every speaker. Well worth the $46 I spent.

That's just the kind of feedback Soduka was asking for in the first place I think :)

@Paradigm Shifter : as an enthusiast myself I'm very pleased to see PhysX hardware support getting integrated on most GeForce cards ;) ;) ;)

My headset is USB and no card has USB slots, I am to suppose it doesn't matter?

Should not be a problem. I have a set of this:

http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/cyborg5v2.htm

and their driver only load when I plug them in and unload when I unplug.

scavvenjahh

Actually that phrase meant I prefer the callisto over my pci x-fi. Wasn't refering to onboard at all.

If I were to compare the callisto to onboard (say the typical realtek ac'97) I'd say they're roughly on par, save the callisto is a bit more flexible

For example, 1 jack for either analog 3.5mm or mini spdif optical out. It also has true 5.1 optical audio, unlike creative's 2.1 pcm optical out, can't say how onboard's spdif support is, I've never had one with it.

The x-fi has bloated drivers, is unreliable and downright unusable in vista. Right now, it's audio crackling everywhere, and creative won't even acknowledge the issue is theirs either all or at least in part.

bottom line is, any of onboard, inexpensive or ultra expensive sound card will do the job.

The pros and cons:

onboard:
- cheap, aka, free
- so-so sound, mainly has issues with fumbling all sound together, losing positionnal audio aka hear gun from one end of the battlefield to the other just like being there all the time.
- so generalised and generic the drivers tend to be for the most part trouble free

callisto:
- inexpensive, and a rank above most onboard
- usb, no internal slot needed
- sounds great
- supports most useful special 'game gimmicks'
- covers all bases, both analog and optical/digital out

x-fi:
- from reasonable to ultra expensive depending on model, can't really claim a good value since the lower members cheap out on quality and replace hardware with software while the higher ranks cost a bundle and don't add much
- does support all game gimmicks, they started most of em
- bloated, unstable, buggy drivers, especially nasty under vista
- poor support, has users pay to recover previously available features on hardware already paid for. ex: alchemy, now free, used to be pay to get.
- not necessarly worth the extra hassle, more expensive and unreliable than either other choices, and not giving much in return.

I am not making this a creative vs everything argument, but fact is, the sound card segment has already been divided as such. Creative on one side, and everyone else on the other. They won't share much of their tech which tends to maintain such a situation.

In the end pick the one you need/can budget from, any of em will do the work asked from them.

as for usb headsets, just plug it in, don't worry about adapters, just do as it's supposed to be used.

very true. That card hasn't been made for a while. M-Audio makes a good effort if EMU is too rich for your taste...

USB headphones have the DAC and amp inside the headphone itself. its a great (cheap) way to get ride of distortion on the speakers themselves. But is also not as high quality as other headphones.

Take what I say with a grain of salt...not everyone (like me) has owned $300 headphones with DAC's, and headphone Amps.

After some more searching and review browsing, I'm seriously considering something like this...

Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 HiFi

...with this Op Amp upgrade...

Burr-Brown OPA2107

..in my next build.



With caps like that and clean SNR the bass and mids have to be incredible, esp with the Burr-Browns.

It looks like this is one of the remaining best choices in a Envy24 chip card available in the states. The Op Amps are available elsewhere, it's merely an easy way to show what they look like and how inexpensively high grade ones can be had.

Just so long as the first thing you do with your new soundcard after you set it up is play Ghost Love Score by Nightwish. :lol:

Yeah Nightwish is a great band and has an original sound. I was first told about them by a German guy whom gave me video editing advice back when I was first learning the ropes on the old DreamCatcher Painkiller forum. It's been a while since I've checked for new stuff from them but their popularity seems to be growing still.

Nah, what you need is the 5.1 version of Opeth's Ghost Reveries :P

Mesh, one thing you may have overlooked is that the so-called 'X-Fi' Xtreme Audio PCI-E card is actually no more than a revamped Audigy in disguise. It was Creative's first effort at PCI-E, mainly aimed at OEM, it has crappy drivers and none of the features of the real X-Fi DSP. Damn Creative for their deceiptive model names :evil:

The new X-Fi Titanium is true X-Fi stuff on PCI-E, and well, "it just works" :)

Yeah Nightwish is a great band and has an original sound. I was first told about them by a German guy whom gave me video editing advice back when I was first learning the ropes on the old DreamCatcher Painkiller forum. It's been a while since I've checked for new stuff from them but their popularity seems to be growing still.

Last I heard they'd kind of imploded, which is a real shame. :( They were good - orchestral rock, sort of thing.

One of the things I use to test out a new soundcard/speakers is Metallica's S&M concert (5.1 on DVD). Metallica, backed by an orchestra. 8) That and the ending theme from the FF8 OST. The orchestration there is really good. :D Barbers' Adagio for strings is also useful, as is 'The Montagues and the Capulets" from Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet'.

Yeah I just listened to most of the songs off their new '08 album called Angels Fall First and it's not nearly as good as their older stuff, too bad.

However I did find that you can get those Burr-Brown Op Amps from most any Texas Instruments distributor because TI bought BB years ago. Replacing all 5 JRCs, which is the same brand my M-Audio came with, would cost a little over $60.

I agree with the reviewer on this site (AS1) that the JRCs are a bit too bright, clean, but a tad too shrill.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/audiotrak-prodigy-7-1-hifi-review-204850/

Sorry for the OT... I have a feeling that if Angels Fall First was released in '08, that it was a remaster/edit. I thought it came out in '97?

scavvenjahh

I haven't tried more then one x-fi.

I have the x-fi elite pro version, purely because I needed optical out at the time that didn't stick out the front of my pc.

What I know of the other version is what I've read like the xtreme gamers edition being software patched to replace the hardware they ain't got to save costs.

Right now I wouldn't buy another x-fi or any other creative product. They charge you a bundle then barely support it. My x-fi can't be used right now thanks to audio crackling under vista. That's an issue that's been know for months and creative still hasn't done anything about it. As far as I know they say it ain't even their fault.

It's great if it works, but for me, that hasn't been the case. It's the first and last creative product I'll buy unless they seriously change their support for their products.

Sorry I read it all wrong :oops: I thought you had a PCI-Express X-Fi, now I don't know what made me think that...

No idea, the only pci-e x-fi I know of is that one bundled with msi's P7N diamond motherboard.

...I have a feeling that if Angels Fall First was released in '08, that it was a remaster/edit. I thought it came out in '97?

Yeah for the most part it is, but it's well over an hour long and I think it has some new stuff on it too.

Dark Passion Play is the new one. Angels Fall First was their first CD.

LOL, I thought I'd heard that name before. The 2008 one must be just a remaster of it then as mentioned. I'll have to give a listen to Dark Passion Play.

I just found out the Yahoo Music service I have (formerly Musicmatch), is becoming Rhapsody soon and eventually the price will go up. Rhapsody claims a bigger database but some have said otherwise do to counting different versions of the same song and obscure titles that aren't very popular.

I may drop my service altogether. I really don't listen to music that much anymore anyway.

I have EVERYTHING (literally...EP's lives...etc...) If you want I can transfer it to you...its a few GB's though...The new CD is not half as good as the old stuff, but its more rockish than the slightly newer CD's...they kinda had more of a techno sound towards the end.

its worth listening to...buying? eh....nah...

Hmmz, Dark Passion Play wasn't that bad, it is only a new sound without Tarja. Yeah good thing is that she was going solo, but this is great offtopic :roll: .

Ontopic: What do you think people, does an sound card give you noticeble better sound?