pontifex
Lifer
- Dec 5, 2000
- 43,806
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Originally posted by: NanoStuff
Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself
The X-Fi sucked? It was the only leap since the original Audigy
Leap in terms of what? Sure it had some vague HRTF processing, and a 'crystalizer' that did the complete opposite of what it was intended to do while managing to be effectively deceptive.
No new sound propagation models (once again), in fact no propagation model whatsoever. No attempts at procedural sound, no VST support in the mixer, completely redundant and slow as shit memory chips that had no purpose other than looking 'hip'. The whole thing was a gimmick from top to bottom. At least the Audigy 2 wasn't a poser.
Originally posted by: JohnCU
How much better can they make a sound card, though?
That's part of the problem, sound DSPs are obsolete. Everything the X-Fi did could have been done in software at no cost. From a business standpoint, that was not an option, so the X-Fi had to be necessarily shipped with a truckload of marketing bullshit. The honest and productive alternative would have been to release a sound card with a high quality DAC and preamp at a ground breaking low cost, and use the other funding to instead develop a development API for, perhaps beam traced environmental processing and maybe even personalized HRTF algorithm generator that could have come with surface modeling hardware, on which they would have made a generous profit. It would be a highly non-standard venture, but that's what a leader does, innovate where it's needed. Creative just sat on their EAX turd all this time until it dried. I knew such a crash was inevitable since all the broken promises of the X-FI have been realized. It was supposed to be an innovator, it was a turd. That's just speaking for the X-Fi, the Zen is another disaster worth a paragraph.
so why does some random dude on a forum knows all about this yet no company out there is doing anything you say?