x-fi: when?

[PSUstoekl]

are we just waiting for them to fabricate enough unites to get rady for sale?

 

[w00t]

I dont see why people want this card its expensive and its a sound card. what is wrong with are current sound cards?

 

[AmberClad]

Some people (*cough* *Frackal* *cough* ) are willing to pay a huge premium, just so they can lay claim to owning the newest thing out there.

 

[mwmorph]

anand himself answered this on the forum a few weeks ago. the release date is set somewhere for late sumer/ early fall 05(which means mid september/early october i think).

as for expansive, men, some people like their visuals, some people love their sound.

Originally posted by: Anand Lal Shimpi
Late summer or early fall I believe.

Take care,
Anand

 

[blurredvision]

Um, I've had my X-Fi Platinum for 2 weeks now. Maybe I'm missing something here?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Um, I've had my X-Fi Platinum for 2 weeks now. Maybe I'm missing something here?

true widespread availibility.

 

[Stangs55]

The Xtrememusic and Platinums can be had at any Best Buy. The Fatal1ty and Elite Pro's are due out in about 2 weeks.

And yes, the Xtrememusic/Platinum is worth every cent.

 

[Bona Fide]

Bleh. I'm gonna stick with my Audigy2 ZS until the next line from Creative comes out.

 

[srygonic]

They were released a few days back here I think at a IT fair. Going for pretty cheap with old sound card trade in... From what I heard, the sound quality was superb.

 

[Pabster]

LOL News Flash ... I've been using X-Fi for almost 3 weeks now...

If you are talking about WIDESPREAD availability, give it a couple weeks yet.

 

[chrisrod01]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Some people (*cough* *Frackal* *cough* ) are willing to pay a huge premium, just so they can lay claim to owning the newest thing out there.

Can I brag now?? I have the X-FI PLAT

 

[T9D]

Have you tried best buy or are you looking for the higher models?

I got mine at Best buy weeks ago and it was more than worth every penny. I still love it a lot

 

[chrisrod01]

You can only get them at bestbuy dude NOwhere else not even creative.com weird aint it ?

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
Some people (*cough* *Frackal* *cough* ) are willing to pay a huge premium, just so they can lay claim to owning the newest thing out there.

Uhhh... I have the extreme music version, the cheapest one while I wait to see if the Fatal1ty is worth it

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: Stangs55
The Xtrememusic and Platinums can be had at any Best Buy. The Fatal1ty and Elite Pro's are due out in about 2 weeks.

And yes, the Xtrememusic/Platinum is worth every cent.

 

[akugami]

BlueGears/HDA Digital X-Mystique
Check the reviews around the web and it's generally positive with the exception of full EAX support. And two words, Dolby Digital, nuff said.

 

[Polish3d]

What benefits do you get from DDL?

Not familiar with it

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Frackal
What benefits do you get from DDL?

Not familiar with it

Doesn't really make sense unless you're running to a receiver, and if you are then it's just a way to get a 5.1 signal to your receiver through digital.

You can also run analog to your receiver if it has 6 channel direct input.

This can have some minor complications, but is a good way to do it too.

You have to run more cables to get analog to your receiver and not all receivers support multichannel analog in.

Before the x-fi, creative was a bit lacking in the music department compared to some other cards, but it seems like they have their act together now.

If your receiver has 6 channel direct input, I think the X-Fi is a good bet now unless you was to keep cables to a minimum or have a reason for keeping things digital.

 

[Polish3d]

I'm running SPDIF digital coax from X-FI to Logitech breakout box which does DD...is that just as good/same thing?

 

[MobiusPizza]

when?
I will buy it when the prices drops below 200USD for the Fatal1ty one

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Bleh. I'm gonna stick with my Audigy2 ZS until the next line from Creative comes out.

Same here, though the XFi is pretty sweet, a performance improvement even WITH the high end audio settings enabled.

 

[PSUstoekl]

I'm gonna check best buy. if they have it, I'll go buy it.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Frackal
I'm running SPDIF digital coax from X-FI to Logitech breakout box which does DD...is that just as good/same thing?

Jebus, don't upgrade to a Fatal1ty then like you're planning.

You can't even get surround sound in games with the connection method you're doing.

The Logitech breakout box can only do DD when it gets an AC3 stream that was already encoded for DD. DVD movies are encoded with AC3 soundtracks which gives each speaker its own track to play. In games, sound is not encoded ahead of time because the sound info is dynamic and changes according to whats going on.

So, if you're outputting digitally, the X-Fi is only taking the FR and FL sound info and giving that to your speakers.

You can get nice 2 channel digital sound from it, but you can get that from a $30 soundcard too.

If all your speakers are playing, then you have something like Pro Logic II enabled. This is a sound processing that your control pod is doing that takes the stereo signal input to it and fakes surround out of it.

If you're gaming with your X-Fi, use analog. If you're doing music, use analog too while you're at it because sending digital out is just having your Logitech Control pod do the sound processing.

It's like buying a 7800gt and then running your monitor off your onboard video.

 

[Stretchman]

I went ahead and picked up an X-Fi xtreme music @ the Best Buy in Lake Forest last week. Still waiting for other parts before I can build my system, but i'm looking forward to giving it a try. Last gasp of add-in audio or not, Iit sounds like the audio engineers at Creative put a tremendous amount of effort into the development of this card.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Frackal
I'm running SPDIF digital coax from X-FI to Logitech breakout box which does DD...is that just as good/same thing?

Jebus, don't upgrade to a Fatal1ty then like you're planning.

You can't even get surround sound in games with the connection method you're doing.

The Logitech breakout box can only do DD when it gets an AC3 stream that was already encoded for DD. DVD movies are encoded with AC3 soundtracks which gives each speaker its own track to play. In games, sound is not encoded ahead of time because the sound info is dynamic and changes according to whats going on.

So, if you're outputting digitally, the X-Fi is only taking the FR and FL sound info and giving that to your speakers.

You can get nice 2 channel digital sound from it, but you can get that from a $30 soundcard too.

If all your speakers are playing, then you have something like Pro Logic II enabled. This is a sound processing that your control pod is doing that takes the stereo signal input to it and fakes surround out of it.

If you're gaming with your X-Fi, use analog. If you're doing music, use analog too while you're at it because sending digital out is just having your Logitech Control pod do the sound processing.

It's like buying a 7800gt and then running your monitor off your onboard video.

No man, I use the 3 wire analog for gaming, of course.

I have an SPDIF also that I use for watching Dolby Digital movies