[Joey_V]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodiuh I couldn't tell a difference between the two either.

If no one can tell the difference between bit-perfect and the one that upsamples... then what's the big deal about bit-perfect streams anyway?

There has to be a difference, however small it is. Now I wonder if a source upgrade is worth it. If people cant tell the difference between bit-perfect and upsample... that's not a good sign.

Hmm..

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joey_V If no one can tell the difference between bit-perfect and the one that upsamples... then what's the big deal about bit-perfect streams anyway? There has to be a difference, however small it is. Now I wonder if a source upgrade is worth it. If people cant tell the difference between bit-perfect and upsample... that's not a good sign. Hmm..

What are you using for a source right now?

OT: How do you like the GS-1 as a pre-amp? I'm thinking of replacing my NAD integrated with a GS-1 + poweramp or mono blocks of some sort.

 

[korben_dallas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maarek99 That's pretty funny ragging it for costing 130 dollars when real audiophile s*it costs thousands.

Well said! The Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers, arguably the best pc speakers on the market, cost $350. Most people I know would have a heart attack if you tried to sell them speakers for that price.

Not saying they aren't worth it.. on the contrary. But, cost and value are always based on perspective.

The X-FI has:

* Eliminated the upsampling in Creation mode, which is not hard to activate
* Provides 16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
* Provides ASIO at 16-bit/44.1kHz, 16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring

Weren't these the 3 biggest beefs with audiophiles? And this is the "lowly" XtremeMusic version X-FI.

 

[EasyRaider]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joey_V If no one can tell the difference between bit-perfect and the one that upsamples... then what's the big deal about bit-perfect streams anyway? There has to be a difference, however small it is. Now I wonder if a source upgrade is worth it. If people cant tell the difference between bit-perfect and upsample... that's not a good sign.

The X-Fi apparently has very good resampling. I'm sure there's a difference, but I'm not surprised that it's not audible.

The Audigy had crap resampling which couldn't be bypassed. With the X-Fi, you can bypass the resampling, but it's so good you don't need to. Ironic, isn't it?

 

[thomase]

Can someone with an Audigy 2 ZS repeat an experiment for me? I downloaded the X-Fi driver package and discovered that there are actually Audigy series drivers in the package as well. I manually extracted the package with WinRAR and manually updated my Audigy 2 ZS drivers via Device Manager (using the regular setup routine included in the package will fail unless you have an X-Fi).

I tested the headphone positional audio with Rightmark 3DSound Positioning Accuracy test. Things sound different than from when I was using the beta drivers. It sounds as if it might have been improved. This is relevant because the main reason I was considering the X-Fi is for the improved headphone positional audio. If Creative has ported the new algorithms to the old DSP (even in a limited fashion), the improvement over the old algorithms may be enough for me to justify NOT upgrading to the X-Fi at the moment. I wish I had some more objective info about this...

 

[sanne]

some people do prefer resampling/upsampling. i'm not one of them though.

 

[Jodiuh]

lmao, I knew this was coming. I can just see the posts on 3dss now...

[size=x-large]"HAX your live to x-fi!!!!"[/size]

 

[akwok]

If someone posts a comparision between the highest end X-Fi's DAC ($499) against the VDA-1 + VAC-1 or DAC1, and the X-Fi wins, then I'll be interested.

 

[Reck45]

Seems like a nice card but it's a terrible value.

 

[net_dos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodiuh lmao, I knew this was coming. I can just see the posts on 3dss now... [size=x-large]"HAX your live to x-fi!!!!"[/size]

yea but this time APU is totally on a new level.

 

[halcyon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maarek99 They bought Aureal who had way better headphone positioning than Sensaura or Creative. And that was years ago. I doubt that they will use anything technology wise from Sensaura.

Yes, but when they bought Aureal, they didn't get many of the engineers (who went to nVidia at that time) and they did buy them to buy off the competition...

Also, if you read the reviews you'll notice that Creative acknowledges having used Sensaura 3D headphone algorithms as one of the key sources for they new CMMS headphone 3D algorithm in X-Fi.

 

[Asimov]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orubasarot I don't see a reason to purchase this card at all, it's terribly overpriced. If you want an accurate response, you go with the 0404. If you want gaming environment effects and 5.1 you go for cards that cost a fraction of X-Fi's price. I also can't believe the crystalizer hasn't been laughed out of Head-Fi yet.

and if you want both?
i know alot of people here both play games and listen to music, and since this card seems to have very nice music quality and gaming support i dont see any better option atm.

 

[Jodiuh]

Whatever they used, from a gamer's perspective...and especially one with good headphones and a love of all things fps...bf2 + x-fi must be heard!

 

[akwok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asimov and if you want both? i know alot of people here both play games and listen to music, and since this card seems to have very nice music quality and gaming support i dont see any better option atm.

Who says it has nice music quality? For $499? I could buy an external DAC and a gaming card for that price.

 

[deathBOB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akwok Who says it has nice music quality? For $499? I could buy an external DAC and a gaming card for that price.

Do you have one?