Wow! Creative's new Audio Processor: X-Fi!!!!

[T9D]

I like m-audio the best but this is exciting. I'll definitly be keeping an ear open when these new chips and cards come out.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: StormRider
I'm pretty sure this chip will power everything from affordable basic soundcards to high-end soundcards.

I like Creative Labs -- they are the only company that is developing sound accelerators. I can't stand the current trend of using the host CPU for sound processing. The only thing I hate about Creative Labs is their driver policy. They are the only company I know of that requires you to have the original driver CD in order to update drivers. It's a pain in the butt! And their drivers are the most confusing of any company I have encountered. It's difficult to know which drivers you need.

I have a Philips sound card based on the Thunderbird Avenger Mk. II hardware accelerator chip. Works with EAX 1 and 2, pretty decent stuff. I refuse to use Creatives stuff

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: ariafrost

Originally posted by: StormRider
I'm pretty sure this chip will power everything from affordable basic soundcards to high-end soundcards.

I like Creative Labs -- they are the only company that is developing sound accelerators. I can't stand the current trend of using the host CPU for sound processing. The only thing I hate about Creative Labs is their driver policy. They are the only company I know of that requires you to have the original driver CD in order to update drivers. It's a pain in the butt! And their drivers are the most confusing of any company I have encountered. It's difficult to know which drivers you need.

I have a Philips sound card based on the Thunderbird Avenger Mk. II hardware accelerator chip. Works with EAX 1 and 2, pretty decent stuff. I refuse to use Creatives stuff

For me, it isn't so much that I "refuse" to use Creative's stuff, as it is that I just don't see any compelling reason to go with them...Although this X-Fi thing may end up being an exception (and we'll see), there doesn't otherwise appear to have been much innovation/progress from them at all since the original SB Live from 5+ years ago...

 

[NokiaDude]

Creative:

Awesome hardware.

SUCK ASS DRIVERS.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

I'm sorry if I'm not willing to spend as much on speakers as I did on my car.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

I'm sorry if I'm not willing to spend as much on speakers as I did on my car.

Ok, but I don't get all the excitement when most people sound systems are already limited by their speakers. It just seems odd to me that nobody points to speakers when finding the bottleneck in peoples systems is so popular here.

I've seen people upgrading from audigies to audigy2s, audigy2s to audigy2 ZSs, from standards to the platinum editions... and then you mention that they might want to spend $75 to $150 towards something better than Z-5500s or Promedias and they think you're crazy.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

I'm sorry if I'm not willing to spend as much on speakers as I did on my car.

Ok, but I don't get all the excitement when most people sound systems are already limited by their speakers. It just seems odd to me that nobody points to speakers when finding the bottleneck in peoples systems is so popular here.

I've seen people upgrading from audigies to audigy2s, audigy2s to audigy2 ZSs, from standards to the platinum editions... and then you mention that they might want to spend $75 to $150 towards something better than Z-5500s or Promedias and they think you're crazy.

I see your point, but I'm not one of those people. Like I said, I never saw the point in all the incremental upgrades between the SB Live and the current Audigy anyways...

In any case, ~$100 for an X-Mystique and maybe $300 for a nice (by my standards ) set of speakers is all I can really see myself spending in the near future (or even the not-so-near future...)

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

I'm sorry if I'm not willing to spend as much on speakers as I did on my car.

Ok, but I don't get all the excitement when most people sound systems are already limited by their speakers. It just seems odd to me that nobody points to speakers when finding the bottleneck in peoples systems is so popular here.

I've seen people upgrading from audigies to audigy2s, audigy2s to audigy2 ZSs, from standards to the platinum editions... and then you mention that they might want to spend $75 to $150 towards something better than Z-5500s or Promedias and they think you're crazy.

Yep I agree.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I'm of the opinion that most of this is irrelavent considering 90% of the people who get this are going to hook it up to something like Klipsch Promedias or worse.

I'm sorry if I'm not willing to spend as much on speakers as I did on my car.

Ok, but I don't get all the excitement when most people sound systems are already limited by their speakers. It just seems odd to me that nobody points to speakers when finding the bottleneck in peoples systems is so popular here.

I've seen people upgrading from audigies to audigy2s, audigy2s to audigy2 ZSs, from standards to the platinum editions... and then you mention that they might want to spend $75 to $150 towards something better than Z-5500s or Promedias and they think you're crazy.

I see your point, but I'm not one of those people. Like I said, I never saw the point in all the incremental upgrades between the SB Live and the current Audigy anyways...

In any case, ~$100 for an X-Mystique and maybe $300 for a nice (by my standards ) set of speakers is all I can really see myself spending in the near future (or even the not-so-near future...)

Well, the X-Mysitque is a different animal since it has a nice feature that nothing else on the market has. It just seems like this new creative card is (with the exception of the 44.1kHz/48kHz issue) just a lot more of excessive signal to noise ratio stuff etc.

With most computer speaker systems with SNR significantly worse than the soundcards driving them, poor freqency range, and not very flat response within that range, than who cares if the soundcard is any better?

It's like moving from a 6800gt to a 6800ultra using a 15" monitor with 800x600 resolution.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Well, the X-Mysitque is a different animal since it has a nice feature that nothing else on the market has. It just seems like this new creative card is (with the exception of the 44.1kHz/48kHz issue) just a lot more of excessive signal to noise ratio stuff etc.

With most computer speaker systems with SNR significantly worse than the soundcards driving them, poor freqency range, and not very flat response within that range, than who cares if the soundcard is any better?

It's like moving from a 6800gt to a 6800ultra using a 15" monitor with 800x600 resolution.

Yeah...(and I don't want to drop Dolby Digital encoding, if for no other reason than awesome gaming at LAN parties......I just still don't understand why my motherboard from 2002-2003 can do it, but basically no one is bothering to do it today...)

And yes, I can quite clearly tell that the SNR is not so hot on my Z640's when I have them turned up pretty high....but then again, I paid like $70 for them (retail, at that), and they're very good for the money. I could obviously stand to upgrade, but it's not a priority right now... (And yes, I do kind of have my eye on the Z-5500's in the absence of any other good solutions at the same price point....*shock* *horror*:Q)

Oh, and some of my (n00b) friends do want a 6800GT/Ultra, even though they're on the same 17" CRT's at 800x600 or 1024x768 that they've had since their first computer 5-8 years ago....:roll:

 

[Pariah]

Don't really see why it matters what other people have for speakers. I know what I have, and they aren't budget Logitech's. If Creative can release a pro-grade audio card with king of the hill gaming performance, I'm certainly not going to complain, especially not about what gains others with crappy speakers won't get.

DD-encoding hasn't caught on, because it caters to an extremely small market of people and is one of the more overrated features around.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Well, the X-Mysitque is a different animal since it has a nice feature that nothing else on the market has. It just seems like this new creative card is (with the exception of the 44.1kHz/48kHz issue) just a lot more of excessive signal to noise ratio stuff etc.

With most computer speaker systems with SNR significantly worse than the soundcards driving them, poor freqency range, and not very flat response within that range, than who cares if the soundcard is any better?

It's like moving from a 6800gt to a 6800ultra using a 15" monitor with 800x600 resolution.

Yeah...(and I don't want to drop Dolby Digital encoding, if for no other reason than awesome gaming at LAN parties......I just still don't understand why my motherboard from 2002-2003 can do it, but basically no one is bothering to do it today...)

And yes, I can quite clearly tell that the SNR is not so hot on my Z640's when I have them turned up pretty high....but then again, I paid like $70 for them (retail, at that), and they're very good for the money. I could obviously stand to upgrade, but it's not a priority right now... (And yes, I do kind of have my eye on the Z-5500's in the absence of any other good solutions at the same price point....*shock* *horror*:Q)

Oh, and some of my (n00b) friends do want a 6800GT/Ultra, even though they're on the same 17" CRT's at 800x600 or 1024x768 that they've had since their first computer 5-8 years ago....:roll:

I don't think the logitechs are bad for the money, I just don't think spending $100 on a soundcard to drive them is a great idea.

 

[SynthDude2001]

You may have a point....although if I stayed with my current motherboard, I wouldn't have to spend anything on a sound card to drive them.....*sigh*

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
You may have a point....although if I stayed with my current motherboard, I wouldn't have to spend anything on a sound card to drive them.....*sigh*

By the way, here's my opinion on hooking up z-5500s digitally if you have a good analog card already

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
You may have a point....although if I stayed with my current motherboard, I wouldn't have to spend anything on a sound card to drive them.....*sigh*

By the way, here's my opinion on hooking up z-5500s digitally if you have a good analog card already

The point is that the DAC's on the Soundstorm generally aren't that great...

Although none of that matters much unless I want to stay with an Athlon XP for the rest of my life.....

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
You may have a point....although if I stayed with my current motherboard, I wouldn't have to spend anything on a sound card to drive them.....*sigh*

By the way, here's my opinion on hooking up z-5500s digitally if you have a good analog card already

The point is that the DAC's on the Soundstorm generally aren't that great...

Although none of that matters much unless I want to stay with an Athlon XP for the rest of my life.....

Gotcha.

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: ariafrost

Originally posted by: StormRider
I'm pretty sure this chip will power everything from affordable basic soundcards to high-end soundcards.

I like Creative Labs -- they are the only company that is developing sound accelerators. I can't stand the current trend of using the host CPU for sound processing. The only thing I hate about Creative Labs is their driver policy. They are the only company I know of that requires you to have the original driver CD in order to update drivers. It's a pain in the butt! And their drivers are the most confusing of any company I have encountered. It's difficult to know which drivers you need.

I have a Philips sound card based on the Thunderbird Avenger Mk. II hardware accelerator chip. Works with EAX 1 and 2, pretty decent stuff. I refuse to use Creatives stuff

I love my Philips Acoustic Edge! I think it has the best stereo to multi-speaker expander technology (i.e. expanding a stereo source to use 4 or speakers).

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Well, the X-Mysitque is a different animal since it has a nice feature that nothing else on the market has. It just seems like this new creative card is (with the exception of the 44.1kHz/48kHz issue) just a lot more of excessive signal to noise ratio stuff etc.

With most computer speaker systems with SNR significantly worse than the soundcards driving them, poor freqency range, and not very flat response within that range, than who cares if the soundcard is any better?

It's like moving from a 6800gt to a 6800ultra using a 15" monitor with 800x600 resolution.

Yeah...(and I don't want to drop Dolby Digital encoding, if for no other reason than awesome gaming at LAN parties......I just still don't understand why my motherboard from 2002-2003 can do it, but basically no one is bothering to do it today...)

And yes, I can quite clearly tell that the SNR is not so hot on my Z640's when I have them turned up pretty high....but then again, I paid like $70 for them (retail, at that), and they're very good for the money. I could obviously stand to upgrade, but it's not a priority right now... (And yes, I do kind of have my eye on the Z-5500's in the absence of any other good solutions at the same price point....*shock* *horror*:Q)

Oh, and some of my (n00b) friends do want a 6800GT/Ultra, even though they're on the same 17" CRT's at 800x600 or 1024x768 that they've had since their first computer 5-8 years ago....:roll:

I've never been to a Lan party but how does Dolby Digital encoding help in this case? Doesn't this mean you have to bring your own receiver to the Lan party? Or does the host already have a dolby digital receiver all set up for his guests?

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Edit:

Originally posted by: Elcs
Im far too attached to my Soundstorm to move on.

Exactly...if they could do this in 2002, why not in 2005?? In any case, it's one of the major reasons I've taken so long to upgrade from my nForce2 platform.

The major thing stopping me moving away from my NForce2 is the price/performance Id get out of a new platform. Until I can afford a totally new system, its not worth it in money terms just yet.

Lack of onboard sound systems like Soundstorm puts me off as well. I heard that theres some major difference between the US and European versions of the Audigy2. Yet another reason Id avoid Creative. How much would a soundcard cost to roughly match the all round sound quality of Soundstorm?

If the NForce5 doesnt have Soundstorm, God knows what sins we'll have to commit for half decent sound.

 

[joanknn]

Are the Europeans and the US one different really?

I am quite happy with my Audigy2 ZS right now. Was originally saving up to Aud 4, but am now going to wait and see how soon this X-FI will hit the market.

Here's a link to Creative Official Press Release of the X-Fi technology
http://www.creative.com/corporate/pressrelease/welcome.asp?section=13-1thmay05

 

[biggestmuff]

Creative is on the edge of becoming another Bose. There about 65% marketing and hype. This product will fall on it's face, but will sell to the uninformed masses and JSPs. If you want quality audio, then steer clear of CL!

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: StormRider

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Well, the X-Mysitque is a different animal since it has a nice feature that nothing else on the market has. It just seems like this new creative card is (with the exception of the 44.1kHz/48kHz issue) just a lot more of excessive signal to noise ratio stuff etc.

With most computer speaker systems with SNR significantly worse than the soundcards driving them, poor freqency range, and not very flat response within that range, than who cares if the soundcard is any better?

It's like moving from a 6800gt to a 6800ultra using a 15" monitor with 800x600 resolution.

Yeah...(and I don't want to drop Dolby Digital encoding, if for no other reason than awesome gaming at LAN parties......I just still don't understand why my motherboard from 2002-2003 can do it, but basically no one is bothering to do it today...)

And yes, I can quite clearly tell that the SNR is not so hot on my Z640's when I have them turned up pretty high....but then again, I paid like $70 for them (retail, at that), and they're very good for the money. I could obviously stand to upgrade, but it's not a priority right now... (And yes, I do kind of have my eye on the Z-5500's in the absence of any other good solutions at the same price point....*shock* *horror*:Q)

Oh, and some of my (n00b) friends do want a 6800GT/Ultra, even though they're on the same 17" CRT's at 800x600 or 1024x768 that they've had since their first computer 5-8 years ago....:roll:

I've never been to a Lan party but how does Dolby Digital encoding help in this case? Doesn't this mean you have to bring your own receiver to the Lan party? Or does the host already have a dolby digital receiver all set up for his guests?

I'm referring to a receiver already being there, yes (And not having to run six separate cables to it)

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Edit:

Originally posted by: Elcs
Im far too attached to my Soundstorm to move on.

Exactly...if they could do this in 2002, why not in 2005?? In any case, it's one of the major reasons I've taken so long to upgrade from my nForce2 platform.

The major thing stopping me moving away from my NForce2 is the price/performance Id get out of a new platform. Until I can afford a totally new system, its not worth it in money terms just yet.

Lack of onboard sound systems like Soundstorm puts me off as well. I heard that theres some major difference between the US and European versions of the Audigy2. Yet another reason Id avoid Creative. How much would a soundcard cost to roughly match the all round sound quality of Soundstorm?

If the NForce5 doesnt have Soundstorm, God knows what sins we'll have to commit for half decent sound.

Yeah, the value thing is a big thing too...In 2003, I paid $115 for a brand new high-end motherboard that included awesome onboard sound (Soundstorm) so I didn't have to buy a sound card...now, a "high-end" motherboard can cost quite a bit more than that, and they're only throwing on crappy audio solutions as an afterthought. :thumbsdown:

 

[jeffrey]

biggestmuff wrote:
"Creative is on the edge of becoming another Bose. There about 65% marketing and hype. This product will fall on it's face, but will sell to the uninformed masses and JSPs. If you want quality audio, then steer clear of CL! "


If you want quality audio balanced with computer gaming, where else should you steer? Creative is the only game in town and they have improved their product, no need to knock that.