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X-Fi Titanium HD

post #1 of 14
9/20/11 at 8:35pm
Thread Starter 

Hey guys, I have a few questions.

 

I recently bought the Xonar Xense Bundle with the PC 350s, and I hated it. I didn't think the closed headset would bother me as much as it did, the sound card itself was incredible though, I wish they would have sold it separately. Unfortunately, I can't afford to throw away the $150 dollar headset just to keep the card so I had to return it.

 

According the few topics I read here at Head-Fi, the Creative Titanium HD would be the best sound card available for gamers, so that's what I bought. I also ordered Sennheiser PC-360 along with it, and I love it.

 

The only issue I have now is the horrible drivers, but that's Creative for ya... Switching between Game Mode and Audio Creation Mode can sometimes cause my sound to cut off till I restart, are there any fixes for this?

 

Another question I had is about Audio Creation. I read a guide here, a really old one that mentioned using that with Winamp in combination with the ASIO plugin will provide the best results when listening to music. The only problem is that when I install the plugin, Winamp goes haywire, songs won't produce sound and when I hit play it's like a little kid got a hold of the slider and keeps moving it back and forth. Going back to the default plugin fixed this, but I assume I'm not getting the most out of the sound card anymore. The other 2 plugin links wouldn't work for me to even try them... Has anyone else come across this problem with ASIO and is there a fix for Windows 7 64-Bit?

 

Last Question is what mode do you guys use when not listening to music? Such as Ventrilo and Firefox (youtube) or watching movies with VLC? I've always heard Entertainment Mode is a mistake on any occasion.

 

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

 

P.S. A new problem I've come across is that when I play something like Winamp, and I minimize, it automatically switches to Entertainment Mode, opening Winamp up again switches it back, eventually this causes my sound to just stop working, and I have to restart.


Edited by Atiesh - 9/20/11 at 9:05pm
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post #2 of 14
9/20/11 at 9:45pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atiesh View Post

I recently bought the Xonar Xense Bundle with the PC 350s, and I hated it. I didn't think the closed headset would bother me as much as it did, the sound card itself was incredible though, I wish they would have sold it separately. Unfortunately, I can't afford to throw away the $150 dollar headset just to keep the card so I had to return it.

 

According the few topics I read here at Head-Fi, the Creative Titanium HD would be the best sound card available for gamers, so that's what I bought. I also ordered Sennheiser PC-360 along with it, and I love it.

 

I'd have suggested getting a Xonar Essense off here for second hand at that price. I've always found the dolby gamer crap to be annoying and grating compared to unmolested stereo, albeit a little more accurate. 

 

The only issue I have now is the horrible drivers, but that's Creative for ya... Switching between Game Mode and Audio Creation Mode can sometimes cause my sound to cut off till I restart, are there any fixes for this?

 

All sound cards have horrible drivers, but what you're experiencing can't be normal. I can't help you first hand, but you should google around for answers, or revert to old versions of the driver to see if it helps. Problems I had with my Xonar were caused by not using drive sweeper and doing a completely clean install.

 

Another question I had is about Audio Creation. I read a guide here, a really old one that mentioned using that with Winamp in combination with the ASIO plugin will provide the best results when listening to music. The only problem is that when I install the plugin, Winamp goes haywire, songs won't produce sound and when I hit play it's like a little kid got a hold of the slider and keeps moving it back and forth. Going back to the default plugin fixed this, but I assume I'm not getting the most out of the sound card anymore. The other 2 plugin links wouldn't work for me to even try them... Has anyone else come across this problem with ASIO and is there a fix for Windows 7 64-Bit?

 

ASIO/Kernal Streaming/WASAPI

Its all 'bit perfect' output. The player is irrelevant, and I think you'll find most people here use Foobar2k or Jriver media though. I've had problems with ASIO on different setups, the previously mentioned alternatives have worked fine.

 

Last Question is what mode do you guys use when not listening to music? Such as Ventrilo and Firefox (youtube) or watching movies with VLC? I've always heard Entertainment Mode is a mistake on any occasion.

 

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

 

P.S. A new problem I've come across is that when I play something like Winamp, and I minimize, it automatically switches to Entertainment Mode, opening Winamp up again switches it back, eventually this causes my sound to just stop working, and I have to restart.



 

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post #3 of 14
9/20/11 at 11:08pm

Have you updated to the latest drivers from Creative's site?

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post #4 of 14
9/21/11 at 12:36am
Thread Starter 

Yes, I've updated them as soon as I installed them with their auto-update program.

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post #5 of 14
9/21/11 at 1:14am

For winamp try http://www.stevenmonks.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ks_plugin/plugin.html

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post #6 of 14
9/21/11 at 2:22am
Thread Starter 

Apparently Kernel doesn't work on Windows 7. Also, as far as wiping the drivers from my computer, what program would completely remove ASUS Audio Drivers?

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post #7 of 14
9/21/11 at 2:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atiesh View Post

Apparently Kernel doesn't work on Windows 7.



Where'd you hear that? I'm using KS right now with W7SP1.

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post #8 of 14
9/21/11 at 2:45am
Thread Starter 

I assumed it doesn't because as soon as I installed it I got a strange error CKsEnumFilters::EnumFilters failed

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post #9 of 14
9/21/11 at 3:53am

There's also an output plugin with features catered towards Creative's cards: http://www.winamp.com/plugin/openal-eax-2-0-efx-output-plugin/222490

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post #10 of 14
9/21/11 at 2:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by anetode View Post

There's also an output plugin with features catered towards Creative's cards: http://www.winamp.com/plugin/openal-eax-2-0-efx-output-plugin/222490



Does this achieve the same sound as Kernel and ASIO?

 

Also any other Titanium HD users able to give me their thoughts on what modes to use for programs like VLC, Ventrilo, and Firefox (youtube)?

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post #11 of 14
9/21/11 at 6:34pm

It bypasses Windows' mixer, which is the whole point behind people using Kernel and ASIO during playback.

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post #12 of 14
9/22/11 at 12:01pm

I use audio creation mode 100% of the time, sounds great and i never have to worry about sound cutting out until i restart, although ive never had that problem to begin with.

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post #13 of 14
9/22/11 at 3:47pm

It is specified on several places that if there is a change in Audio Mode, all playback apps should be closed (stopping playback isn't really enough in many cases) in order to avoid that audio lock issue. You should also define how the auto switcher works on which apps.

 

Media players, browsers and general purpose apps do perform glitch-free on Entertainment Mode, along with allowing for user audio customization. Game Mode and Audio Creation Mode should be considered as more specialized modes for more specific purposes, while Entertainment Mode is like a jack-of-all-trades, along with all the DD and DTS techs that are only available on Entertainment Mode by default.

 

About Kernel Streaming, it is still available on both Vista and 7, but has limited hardware compatibility as well as being rather buggy on certain hardware configs, and considering WASAPI does the exact same job in a more efficient way, there is no reason whatsoever to be using KS instead of WASAPI.

 

Would it be possible for you to try a different player, such as foobar2000, to try and reproduce the same system behavior? Because from what I've been able to understand these past few years, is that Winamp doesn't really have the most streamlined and stable plugin base for bit-matched playback and such.

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post #14 of 14
10/30/11 at 7:55pm

Have you enabled bit-matched playback in audio creation mode?  Entertainment mode is supposed to be excellent on the Titanium HD.  The Dolby THX surround codec is supposed to give a pretty astounding improvement to soundstage and sound imaging.

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