Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB

[AdamK47]

I recently went 3960x/x79 with an Asus P9X79 Deluxe. With three GTX 580s installed that leaves zero room for any internal sound card to be added. My previous x58 motherboard allowed 3-way, plus I could use a 1x slot at the top for an Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card. I figured I might get use to the RealTek onboard sound with the new motherboard. I was wrong. The RealTek sounds just as I remembered it. Awful!

That had me looking for USB solutions. The Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB looks interesting. Anyone have one or used one?

 

[QuantumPion]

Are you outputting to a receiver? Try using the HDMI output from your video card.

 

[AdamK47]

Output to headphones. Shure SRH840. HDMI output from the video card isn't going to work for me.

 

[Throckmorton]

How about powering your headphones with a reciever?

 

[stahlhart]

I recently went 3960x/x79 with an Asus P9X79 Deluxe. With three GTX 580s installed that leaves zero room for any internal sound card to be added. My previous x58 motherboard allowed 3-way, plus I could use a 1x slot at the top for an Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card. I figured I might get use to the RealTek onboard sound with the new motherboard. I was wrong. The RealTek sounds just as I remembered it. Awful!

Unfortunate that Asus doesn't have an XL-ATX option, now that there are some nice cases that will hold one.

 

[AdamK47]

I ended up buying the Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB. It's a great improvement over the Realtek on board sound. The THX TruStudio surround and speaker settings bring things to life when using headphones. Not quite like the 7.1 virtualization in Dolby Headphone mode I was use to with the Asus Xonar Essence. It's still good though.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Please post more impressions and thoughts about this product - it's good to have input from users... When you asked that question in the original post, I was intrigued, but having never played with this external card, I have no idea what it can do. And I'm quite a Creative fan...