Hotrodding the X-Fi: A Layman's Guide (No 56k) - Page 9

They charged me $9 to ship 3 of them to CA.

It took a few days after I ordered for them to ship them out but they shipped it with 2nd day air.

THE X-FI CARDS THAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED:
-X-Fi XtremeAudio
-X-Fi XtremeGamer
-Any of the low-profile X-Fis

THE GOOD ONES TO GET:
X-Fi Elite Pro
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
X-Fi Platinum
X-Fi XtremeMusic (best value)

ONES I AM UNSURE ABOUT:
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
This is one of the new ones. The other new ones are the XtremeAudio and XtremeGamer, which are both low profile. The low profile models do not support digital out (not easily, anyway), and they use lower quality components. The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series is also new, but it is not low profile. If it is based on the same model as the good ones, it would be OK, but I don't know if it is. So it would be best to just avoid it.

Anyone found a site that takes Paypal for the Blackgate 2200uF 16V?
The only site I found is OOS.

P.S. Thanks for the headsup AngryGuy, I ordered 3.

cool, I guess I'll givem a call tomorrow and order two. How about the ESR Paper, any place local in NYC or Online that takes paypal that I can grab some at?

cotdt, thanks bud . I would post here more often, it's just I'm rather new to the Audio scene. I got my first pair of AT A700's, due to the recommendations here love the site.

welcome here..if ure good enough u can try and mod the xfi too

if you're handy with a soldering iron, you should be good enough

for the list of cards to avoid, the xtreme gamer is the model that is directly replacing the xtreme music; the xtreme music is no longer in production. it also has the x-fi audio processor (i did some more looking around to make sure of this). i can't really speak for the statement on lower quality components though. actually, from the head-fi point of view, where people want the digital out and such, the xtreme gamer would be one to avoid since i dont think it has it. the difference between the xtreme gamer and xtrememusic is the fewer outputs on the xtreme gamer and the lower profile of the xtreme gamer.

Cool. I have the Xtreme Music. I've also been soldering PSX's and such since 2001, this shouldn't be too hard.

yeah, it doesnt look hard. take out an opamp, solder in an opamp. take out a capacitor, put in a capacitor.

Hi,

I have changed the full set of op-amps from my X-fi (no more mods at the moment).

My impressions:

- Treble is cleary improved. The digital sound is gone and the sound is much more pleasant. I can raise the volume without obtaining harsh highs.

- Bass is tighter and with more detail.

- With multichannel music the singer IS in the room. Soundstage is also more deep and imaging more wide.

- The outputs can reasonabely drive directly my dt990, maintaining the characteristics described. The improvement in this aspect with respect to the unamped output of the stock x-fi is enourmous. However, I suppose that an external amp is always needed for a 250 ohms cans.

I have approximately traced the correspondence between surround op-amps and the two physical tri-pole jack outputs. From up to down (with respect to the first pic in the first post):

- Upper surround op-amp corresponds to one side surround and one back surround (not sure if it is left or right). All go to the second line out.

- Mid surround op-amp correspons to the other side surround (second line-out) and center/or sub (third line-out).

- Lower surround op-amp correspons to the other back surround and the center/or sub (complementarily to the previous one). All go to the third line-out

The conclusion is that, even with a 5.1 setup, you have to change all 4 op-amps due to the ad-hoc configuration.

I'm going to try further mods. I have ordered the blackgate and the ERS paper.

With respect to the op-amp caps, I preffer not to sort them but replace the full set of 16 caps with higher value ones.

Which cap value do you recommend (that can fit in the available room)?

As they seem to provide current and not transport signal, does high quality cap is really needed in this case (I suppose exchanging 16 blackgates will be quite expensive)? Do standard nichicons may be enough?

Thanks again to cotdt for this awesome thread!

Quote"just for those wanting samples... $20 postage to the UK! so im gonna pic up the opamp in the UK, it will be far cheaper!"

Gilly,where did you try and order from?

I ordered 3 samples from nat semi conductor and it was only $9 postage.
They sent them from Germany.
Very well packaged too.

Oddly enough I just bought the X-fi low profile gamer to use the optical out to feed my Stello DA100. It has asio and bit perfect so just the job. I assume all the modding here is for the analogue side. The digital port is a mini one that can be optical, which allowed me to keep my expensive cable too.

Can't hear a difference between it and my airport express and I'm trusting that the bit perfect setting is as it states.

i tried to get them direct from national semiconductor, they wanted about $19.50 postage, i might as well order them from here, there about £4 or summat