Hotrodding the X-Fi: A Layman's Guide (No 56k) - Page 5

Amps increase the voltage, but for headphones this is almost never needed. Portable sources already have enough voltage swing for almost any headphone, and sound cards usually have double that. What is needed is not amplification (more volume), but more current delivery(more oomph and dynamics). While many sound cards already have a built-in buffer, they are weak compared to the buffers in amps. A dedicated current buffer is what is needed. I don't know any companies that sell them, though. If they did, I would definately buy one.

I'm adhering the mousepad onto the back of the X-Fi using 3M spray glue, but used tape while I was still testing the mods. Basically you want the shielding to be between any potential sources of EMI/RFI and your sound card. The brute force way to do this is to shield both the front and the backside of the card. It's strange because I used to be able to hear this radio station from my amplifier, but I applied a bunch of ERS paper and it was gone. This made me a beleiver, even though a lot of the ERS paper stuff sounded like voodoo before I started using it.

As far as the Zapfiltered Zhaolu, nothing I've heard has beaten it. It's hard to compare it to the hotrodded X-Fi, because the sound is completely different. The main difference is that the Zapfilter has more weight to the tones, and it is more dynamic than any opamp-based DAC. It also has a wider soundstage than any other DAC by quite a margin, and very detailed lows, mids, highs. It has no weaknesses at all, but this is also what people said about the Benchmark when it first came out. Maybe one day an even better DAC would come along and show weaknesses, but it's hard for me to imagine right now. One DAC that people rave about is the EMM Labs, and I've never heard it but it's a candidate for the ultimate DAC since it has propietary processing. I would love to hear that one and compare it against my modded Zhaolu.

I like the modded X-Fi because it sounds really good already, making external DACs unneccesary. Even getting a high-end DAC would merely be something different tonally but not better. And besides, the X-Fi has 7.1 surround sound and can do recording.

I think there is a preamp/headphone amp in there. Personally I wouldn't use it because a dedicated preamp would be better. I looked at the volume pots and they are so tiny. There looks to be just too many components that need modding, and even then a dedicated component would still be better. The Elite Pro is an amazing sound card and I wish they would sell it as a standalone without the breakout box, for a cheaper price.

But if you still want to mod it, replace all the opamps in there with LM4562.

really? so i guess the breakout box is much different from the 5.25" I/O bay version. Can you take pictures of the internals?

I didn't use any insulation because the DAC chip is not conductive. Ditto for the DSP, although on the newer version the DSP has a heatsink on it. You can do it whatever way you like, I don't really think it matters.