Better than Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD

[tech960]

Is sound blaster still considered to be the best sound card? I know there are other makers with the same chipset, but then the issue of drivers come into play.

Can anyone suggest a sound card superior to creatives offerings?

The card is mostly used to game and upscale mp3's to a surround system.

 

[Maximilian]

Ive got the HD with windows 7 x64 and havent had problems so far, i game quite a bit as well. Only thing is you must unplug your headset every time when you want speakers again, theres no option to stop it automatically muting the speakers which is crazy considering every x-fi before it could do this and if it automatically mutes them then all we need is a simple checkbox to stop that behavior. Hardware is excellent, drivers are passable, support is as usual piss poor.

Asus support is better they have regularish driver updates and their xonar STX (their competitor to x-fi HD) has the option to switch between outputs via the control panel.

 

[f4phantom2500]

it depends on what you mean by "better". if you mean better for gaming, afaik there's nothing out there that really competes with the x-fi line in this regard. if you mean in terms of sound quality, there are better options, most of which are on the rather pricey side, and none of which will give you the same gaming performance of the x-fi (in terms of support for EAX and such).

however, there's this:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/226975/hotrodding-the-x-fi-a-layman-s-guide-no-56k


i had this done to my x-fi xtrememusic, but i can't really comment on the difference as it was at least a good couple of months that i wasn't using the card at all, so while it seems to sound better, i can't say definitively since i couldn't A/B the difference and i'd spent that 2 month period with a totally different sound card (turtle beach SRM)

 

[videogames101]

Asus Essence STX is the best pretty much, but it's only worth it if you're driving high-end cans.

For gaming, x-fi is the way to go.

 

[stahlhart]

I've got the Xtreme Gamer Pro, which sounds wonderful (no matter what the source) through Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers... but that's always been 32-bit XP drivers.

I'm probably going to go the same route, only 1X instead of PCI, for the new build -- and have heard about the driver issues for 64-bit 7 and am a little concerned, too. Will probably charge forward with it anyway. It just sounds too good not to.

 

[stahlhart]

I was a big fan of Turtle Beach cards way back when, as I was mainly doing audio stuff starting out; didn't start gaming until a few years after that. The Multisound Fiji (which I still have) did absolute perfect transfers between DAT and HD/CD-R.

When I started gaming more, I tried to find a card that would do both, and never succeeded. The Montego II Plus was great for games (A3D), but the A/D conversion was way inferior to the Fiji. Then Turtle Beach dropped driver support for it when Creative killed Aureal. So I went to the Santa Cruz, thinking that would do it -- then Turtle Beach killed the digital I/O daughtercard for it that they promised would be available. Last time I ever bought anything from them.

I ended up with a Creative card for gaming and an MAudio Audiophile 24/96 for audio.

 

[Minerva]

I picked up the new USB version that's got a phono input. I have not hooked it up to a turntable to see how good it works though. In Win7 it works flawlessly. No driver needed at all and that's fine by me! I don't like any of that Creative BS on my system.

stahlhart:

Yeah I miss the days of "discrete" pc audio. The TB Multisound was THE card everyone wanted but could not afford. I did get a Maui which was an ISA midi only card as I hated the FM synthesis on the SB16. Creative did have their waveblaster upgrade that was an improvement but I did not care much for its default voice banks.

 

[stahlhart]

Yeah I miss the days of "discrete" pc audio. The TB Multisound was THE card everyone wanted but could not afford. I did get a Maui which was an ISA midi only card as I hated the FM synthesis on the SB16. Creative did have their waveblaster upgrade that was an improvement but I did not care much for its default voice banks.

I think I paid $250.00 for it back in 1998. Ouch. And it got even worse if you went for the Echo cards with balanced inputs and such. I think that at the time the Fiji was pretty much "entry level" for that niche.

The A/D input and the SPDIF are a work of art on that card.

I look on eBay occasionally, but never see anything like old Pinnacles or Fijis around. You'd think, old ISA clunkers, they'd be starting the auction at a penny. Darn near impossible to find one now.

/sorry for the threadjack

 

[f4phantom2500]

I've got the Xtreme Gamer Pro, which sounds wonderful (no matter what the source) through Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers... but that's always been 32-bit XP drivers.

I'm probably going to go the same route, only 1X instead of PCI, for the new build -- and have heard about the driver issues for 64-bit 7 and am a little concerned, too. Will probably charge forward with it anyway. It just sounds too good not to.

eh? i've not had any driver issues with my x-fi in win 7 64bit

 

[QuantumPion]

Ive got the HD with windows 7 x64 and havent had problems so far, i game quite a bit as well. Only thing is you must unplug your headset every time when you want speakers again, theres no option to stop it automatically muting the speakers which is crazy considering every x-fi before it could do this and if it automatically mutes them then all we need is a simple checkbox to stop that behavior. Hardware is excellent, drivers are passable, support is as usual piss poor.

Asus support is better they have regularish driver updates and their xonar STX (their competitor to x-fi HD) has the option to switch between outputs via the control panel.

That's weird, I have the opposite problem. Sound plays through my speakers and headphones simultaneously, although the sound through the speakers has a slight delay due to the DTS encoding which creates an echo effect. Not an issue for me since it's easy to simply mute the speakers.

 

[Maximilian]

That's weird, I have the opposite problem. Sound plays through my speakers and headphones simultaneously, although the sound through the speakers has a slight delay due to the DTS encoding which creates an echo effect. Not an issue for me since it's easy to simply mute the speakers.

Are the speakers using optical or coaxial cable digital connection?

 

[fire400]

I don't like 64-bit entirely in this category, it's garbage for some software and drivers, as of now, modern mainstream software market.

I'll do a dual boot with 32-bit and 64-bit options. I can't stand switching physical computers, it's tiring enough.

The X-fi has hardware that's very slick, but the software can suck. Gaming on Windows XP with older games is pretty sweet. Move to Vista and Win7, it's taking some time to refine the drivers, and working it out with Microsoft has been a treacherous battle, it's either "Microsoft's way, or the highway", even after so many years...

X-fi offers very premium output. But the output in itself needs a good connection and you need good speakers. Some have gone so far as to connect external digital sound mixers rather than rely on the Creative X-fi (buggy) software mixers, all while using the X-fi hardware solution - this way, they don't have to rely on the speaker mute problems or system stalls upon changing certain things around.

 

[stahlhart]

eh? i've not had any driver issues with my x-fi in win 7 64bit

That's good news to hear -- thanks much!

I just recall about a year or so back that some individual not affiliated with Creative was coming up with his own "fixed" versions of the drivers for 7 (or was it Vista?), as there were support issues that Creative was not effectively dealing with.

I haven't installed 7 yet, so I have no personal experience -- but they work fine for 32-bit XP Pro. Everything except MediaSource 5, which I never got working due to some sort of database error on launch (but it's something I don't think I would ever have had any real user for, anyway).

 

[ramj70]

That's good news to hear -- thanks much!

I just recall about a year or so back that some individual not affiliated with Creative was coming up with his own "fixed" versions of the drivers for 7 (or was it Vista?), as there were support issues that Creative was not effectively dealing with.

I haven't installed 7 yet, so I have no personal experience -- but they work fine for 32-bit XP Pro. Everything except MediaSource 5, which I never got working due to some sort of database error on launch (but it's something I don't think I would ever have had any real user for, anyway).

I've also had no problems with my x-fi in 7 64

 

[stahlhart]

I've also had no problems with my x-fi in 7 64

This is reassuring. I've got those Klipsch Promedia speakers also -- aren't they awesome?

 

[Modelworks]

Hi end audio would be any recent motherboard with a spdif out port. The realtek chips do not do anything with the audio when you set them to spdif/optical out. They send the stream straight out the port unmodified. Connect to external amp with a DAC and your set.

I am someone who used to use dedicated cards from M-audio, cirrus logic, Envy pro cards but with the way the current chips handled digital out there is no need. Just make sure you do not enable the eq, or any of the processing features as that will cause the audio to take a path through the chip and be altered vs going straight out the port like the source.

Here is how the realtek chips map digital, notice the difference in analog and how it goes through lots of filters, etc. The bus between the chip and the host cpu is natively 48Khz so if the source uses that then it is bit perfect. If the source is 44,1Khz or 192Khz then there is some slight, very slight bit altering to make up for the difference because it has to sample the bus at different intervals to keep the clock correct . That isn't a realtek thing , it is the HD audio spec that sets that rate. It is about a .01% difference, but knowing how picky some people are they will claim they can hear that

 

[stahlhart]

Could you recommend a good DAC for this?

 

[Minerva]

Hi end audio would be any recent motherboard with a spdif out port. The realtek chips do not do anything with the audio when you set them to spdif/optical out. They send the stream straight out the port unmodified. Connect to external amp with a DAC and your set.

I am someone who used to use dedicated cards from M-audio, cirrus logic, Envy pro cards but with the way the current chips handled digital out there is no need. Just make sure you do not enable the eq, or any of the processing features as that will cause the audio to take a path through the chip and be altered vs going straight out the port like the source.

Here is how the realtek chips map digital, notice the difference in analog and how it goes through lots of filters, etc. The bus between the chip and the host cpu is natively 48Khz so if the source uses that then it is bit perfect. If the source is 44,1Khz or 192Khz then there is some slight, very slight bit altering to make up for the difference because it has to sample the bus at different intervals to keep the clock correct . That isn't a realtek thing , it is the HD audio spec that sets that rate. It is about a .01% difference, but knowing how picky some people are they will claim they can hear that

The problem is their shitty drivers/software and how they process bit rate and sample rate conversion screw everything up. So even if you have a perfect spdif link and a good DAC you still get crap out of your speakers.

 

[Minerva]

Could you recommend a good DAC for this?

Tag McLaren AV32R

 

[stahlhart]

Tag McLaren AV32R

Thank you! :thumbsup:

edit: erm, no thank you...

 

[dac7nco]

HT Omega makes the best sound cards, and they are finally PCIe. I have to use a discrete cards because EVGA is too damned lazy to include optical out (which makes their boards a non-sell for me except for with the SR-2). If the HT Omega was still PCI only, I would've had to go with a Xonar.

 

[Modelworks]

The problem is their shitty drivers/software and how they process bit rate and sample rate conversion screw everything up. So even if you have a perfect spdif link and a good DAC you still get crap out of your speakers.

The fix for that is simple. Don't use their software. Just use the default windows drivers with no processing enabled and it will output the sound bit perfect.

 

[Modelworks]

HT Omega makes the best sound cards, and they are finally PCIe. I have to use a discrete cards because EVGA is too damned lazy to include optical out (which makes their boards a non-sell for me except for with the SR-2). If the HT Omega was still PCI only, I would've had to go with a Xonar.

HT omega does make some good cards. I wish someone would just make a card that was optical out, no DACs, nothing just connect to the HDA stream and output it to the jack. hrm, maybe I will make one.

 

[billyb0b]

i'm very happy with my auzentech forte

 

[dac7nco]

I wish someone would just make a card that was optical out, no DACs, nothing just connect to the HDA stream and output it to the jack. hrm, maybe I will make one.

Sign me up.