are all the Creative X-FI cards basicially the same

[Anubis]

like the gameing one and the audio one.... and its just the budle that is different?
or is there something im missing?
because if they are the same getting a OEM one and Dling the drivers wouldent make any diff

 

[potato28]

The only difference is the Audio elite or what ever it's called( the one with the front panel that isn't the fatality) has a slightly better OAMP. The audio doesn't have the X-FI DSP chip on board (IDK).

 

[Ika]

ALIKE POTATO SAID, THE VERY TOP-END AUDIGY (ELITE PRO) HAS A BETTER OPAMP THAN THE OTHERS, AND THUS SOUNDS BETTER.

ALSO, THE VERY LOW-END AUDIGY (THE X-FI XTREME AUDIO) IS BASICALLY NOT AN XFI AT ALL, AS I RECALL. IT'S MORE LIKE A BEEFED UP AUDIGY2 OR AUDIGY4 (CAN SOMEONE BACK ME UP ON THIS?)

OTHERWISE, THE DIFFERENT MODELS OF THE AUDIGIES COME WITH DIFFERENT ACCESSORIES, LIKE THE FRONT-PANEL BOXES AND EXTERNAL CONNECTION BOXES AND ALL THAT SUCH. OH, AND X-RAM.

REALLY SORRY FOR THE CAPS, I CAN'T SEEM TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURN OFF THE STUPID XP LANGUAGE SUPPORT.

 

[Shmalls]

Originally posted by: Aflac
ALSO, THE VERY LOW-END AUDIGY (THE X-FI XTREME AUDIO) IS BASICALLY NOT AN XFI AT ALL, AS I RECALL. IT'S MORE LIKE A BEEFED UP AUDIGY2 OR AUDIGY4 (CAN SOMEONE BACK ME UP ON THIS?)

I am pretty sure I too have heard this along the way. I think the difference is that the gaming one has its own little... I'll call it an APU (Audio Processing Unit), so it dont use any CPU while your gaming, and the normal audio one usese some shared resources.

 

[themisfit610]

Yeah the base model X-Fi doesn't have the X-Fi DSP. It's not much better than glorified onboard to be perfectly honest

But don't get an X-Fi if you care about sound quality.. It's only worth the cash if you're a gamer. Spend your money on a decent card.

~MiSfit

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Yeah the base model X-Fi doesn't have the X-Fi DSP. It's not much better than glorified onboard to be perfectly honest

But don't get an X-Fi if you care about sound quality.. It's only worth the cash if you're a gamer. Spend your money on a decent card.

~MiSfit

like what

 

[themisfit610]

Like an Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1, or if you're really into good 2 channel sound an E-Mu 0404..

The HT Omega Clara is a nice card too, and has socketed op-amps, so you can easily swap them out to match your speakers / headphones.

Ideally you would get a really nice DAC, connected with either USB, or S/PDIF. Hopefully with a good headphone amplifier

To say more than that really depends on what kind of speakers / headphones you have.


~MiSfit

 

[Ghouler]

there are differences between X-Fi cards, and sound cards in general, in terms of:

- chip used (this impacts sound card processing power incl. EAX)
- components quality (digital to analog converters and the analog to digital ones - that's for recording only)
- software bundle ( I think top range comes with sequencer for multichannel recording and midi)
- connectivity - check what you need: digital out or analog only, mic in, how many outputs and inputs are going to be used at the same time etc

I might be wrong but I'd rank X-Fis like that:

Xtreme Audio < Xtreme Gamer < X-Fi Fatal1ty < Elite Pro

 

[yuppiejr]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
there are differences between X-Fi cards, and sound cards in general, in terms of:

- chip used (this impacts sound card processing power incl. EAX)
- components quality (digital to analog converters and the analog to digital ones - that's for recording only)
- software bundle ( I think top range comes with sequencer for multichannel recording and midi)
- connectivity - check what you need: digital out or analog only, mic in, how many outputs and inputs are going to be used at the same time etc

I might be wrong but I'd rank X-Fis like that:

Xtreme Audio < Xtreme Gamer < X-Fi Fatal1ty < Elite Pro

I wouldn't even classify the Xtreme Audio as an X-Fi, it's basically an Audigy card to fill the low-end of their lineup...

The XtremeAudio, XtremeMusic and XtremeGamer are all the same card with different hardware/software mixes. The Pro model includes the higher-end Opamps and DAC that greatly improve the quality of the line level analog outputs.

There seem to be a lot of XtremeMusic cards popping up used in the $40-50 range, if I were looking for a good bang for the buck I'd go with one of these. With some moderate soldering skills you can replace the stock Opamps and get the cheaper X-Fis near the analog output quality of the Pro card.

 

[themisfit610]

heh.. I wouldn't say they GREATLY improve the quality of the analog outs.. Not compared to any pro / audiophile stuff anyway. The X-Fi DSP is pretty powerful though, and if you're man enough to solder some 3rd party opamps / capacitors on the card, you can make a really nice setup

~MiSfit

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
heh.. I wouldn't say they GREATLY improve the quality of the analog outs.. Not compared to any pro / audiophile stuff anyway. The X-Fi DSP is pretty powerful though, and if you're man enough to solder some 3rd party opamps / capacitors on the card, you can make a really nice setup

~MiSfit

If you look on Head-Fi, they have a thread dedicated to modding the X-FI. Some of these guys strip the board and replace everything...