Almi's X-Fi Mod (Hotrodding Sound Blaster X-Fi models) - Page 2

I found a company that gives out free of oscillators to businesses. They have the right oscillators for a mod like this. Here's what I got in case anyone else would like it too:

http://www.ecliptek.com/stocksearch/Stock.aspx?Partnumber=ES51C1E10N-24.576M&qt=&org=pm&st=SearchOS

For desoldering the OpAmp my father took a sharp, flat soldering tip and cut it so that it is the exact same size as the four legs on the OpAmp. So he desoldered all of the legs in two shots. Then he used a regular small tip and put the solder onto the pads, and then put the OpAmp on and connected it to the pads by simply putting the tip onto the legs/pads.

For removing the capacitors using a small 30w iron just does not work. With an 85w one the solder will melt in 3-4 seconds for desoldering and 6-8 seconds for the legs. It's short, sharp and sweet with 85w, with 30w it takes ages and I wouldn't suggest using it.

I've been repeating my music collection on low volume to burn in the capacitors. The highs sounded harsh and sharp right after doing the mod but now it has gotten better.

I'm wondering if I might get some guidance as to what I can do to my X-Fi XtremeMusic to improve its analog outputs. I've been wanting to do the opamp mod for a long time, just haven't gotten around to it, when I happened upon this thread. Seems kinda straight forward (though I may need to read it a few more times), but my only concern is that the changes mainly focus on the front L & R channel, with the rest not getting the same love and attention. I understand this is Head-Fi.org, and that this forums main focus would be on simply 2 channels and earphones (obviously ;) ). My focus however, is on multi-channel, as I'm always using my PC to watch TV, a movie, or playing games. Even when listening to music, I still prefer the X-Fi to be in Stereo Surround mode (2 channel stereo audio played through all 6 side speakers). I don't even use headphones at home, only when I'm out and have to ride the bus or train, and its mainly IEMs to help block out noise.

I'm basically looking to get the same quality of sound from all the channels, not just the front L & R. Stock, its very apparent the X-Fi XtremeMusic front L & R have a different sound quality then the rest of the channels. I'm aiming for a seamless transition of sound from one speaker to the next (all 7 main speakers are the same for that exact reason). I understand that technically this may not be possible (it does appear to me that the front L & R circuit is different from the rest), but the changes I see in the original post seem to alter the front channel more-so then the rest. Should I stick with just the opamp swap, or go all the way with the caps as well? And can the rest of the channels achieve the same sound quality as the front L & R, maybe with some alterations to what was done in the original post?

Ahh, I mis-understood the post then. It seemed to me that most of the modification affected the fronts. So swapping all the OpAmps for identical ones should yield nearly the same sound quality from all the channels, correct?