Since the lack of knowledge about X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB, I put up some info about it.
I open up this X-Fi to see what kind of component it uses. The decoupling capacitor is not the usual Jamicon but instead it uses ELNA, the opamp also is no longer the usual JRC4556 or ST4558 found on older PCI/PCIe cards but uses TDA1308 class AB stereo opamp. The digital volume control also uses high quality ALPS volume control! The knob itself is weighted so it feels nice when changing volume. It's surprising they finally use a decent component for once. Driver for Windows 7 are stable, both on the CD and the updated one on their site, but the Creative driver do have extra system processes, the stock Windows driver works but.
Its good that both the RCA line out and headphone sounds identical, which means they don't use any extra processing for headphone, so it sounds natural. It plays well on my Technics SUV7 + Monitor Audio systemR252 bookshelf too
EDIT:I can't help it, I changed the opamp to my favorite LME49723 and it sound hell of a lot better, the bass is a lot tighter, vocal nownot as pronounced as before and integrates well with music, and there is the signature airy sound of LME4972X have with better soundstage. I absolutely loved it
I'll post some pics and full impression if you guys requested
Edited by Apocalypsee - 5/7/10 at 10:51am
