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Modded x-fi xtrememusic to x-fi prelude. Worth it?

May 18, 2008 at 3:53 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 35
Brando

Brando

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My xtrememusic has an lm4562 opamp and a blackgate 1000uf power filter capacitor. Will a prelude be much better? I searched around a bit and opinions are random. Prelude has a better dac and overall build I believe but I haven't come across anyone that's heard and compared both.
 
May 18, 2008 at 4:12 PM Post #2 of 35
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brando /img/forum/go_quote.gif
My xtrememusic has an lm4562 opamp and a blackgate 1000uf power filter capacitor. Will a prelude be much better? I searched around a bit and opinions are random. Prelude has a better dac and overall build I believe but I haven't come across anyone that's heard and compared both.


I would say yes.

I own the prelude and its a great sounding card.

I dont think the upgrade would Be massive but it would be more of a slight upgrade.
 
May 19, 2008 at 12:55 AM Post #5 of 35
Quote:

Originally Posted by maarek99 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I have an auzen with opa627 and I'm not completely convinced. It seems to lack texture in its sounds, eventhough everything is otherwise very good.


It's not perfect, but being a gamer I've always gone for 'gaming' sound cards and it is by far the best sounding 'gaming' soundcard I've found. I've had XtremeMusic, modded XtremeMusic, Elite Pro and modded Elite Pro cards before getting my Auzen. Since then I've swapped op-amps to 627 and added ERS to the back of the card.

I've considered going with an external DAC for even better SQ, but that's quite a bit more expensive (at least what I would have in mind) and I'm just not sure that the added expense is worth it to me at this point in time.
 
May 19, 2008 at 6:49 PM Post #6 of 35
Isn't the X-fi 2 coming out soon?

If you're looking for an upgrade right now, I would look at the ASUS Xonar series.
 
May 20, 2008 at 9:24 PM Post #7 of 35
Quote:

Originally Posted by skeptic /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Isn't the X-fi 2 coming out soon?

If you're looking for an upgrade right now, I would look at the ASUS Xonar series.


Would you look at Asus Xonar over HT Omega Claro PLUS?
 
May 20, 2008 at 10:15 PM Post #8 of 35
Do these other cards do any audio processing on their own? The reason I got an x-fi in the first place was because certain sound effects would cause weird pauses in my favorite online game (F.E.A.R. multiplayer) with onboard sound, making it hard to compete. The x-fi fixed the problem and also sounds much better but if theres something that sounds way better than x-fi and also does the sound work for the cpu I'm not opposed to trying something new.
 
May 20, 2008 at 10:46 PM Post #9 of 35
Well, according to the asus site the xonar has hardware acceleration but only does eax2.0. If it's newer than my x-fi you'd think it would have modern features. Weird. Looks nice otherwise.
 
May 20, 2008 at 11:30 PM Post #10 of 35
i read some reviews of the xonar and it doesn't seem to be all that special. All the reviews boil down to "it comes with the best bundle" or "package" but it's not really better than the other top cards in any way. Good, but not great. I'm wondering if I should stop beating around the bush and get an external dac. The only thing I'm worried about is losing hardware acceleration of sound. I know going digital out from the x-fi bypasses the dac and capacitors etc but does the x-fi chip itself still process the sound before it goes out to the dac?
 
May 20, 2008 at 11:47 PM Post #11 of 35
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brando /img/forum/go_quote.gif
i read some reviews of the xonar and it doesn't seem to be all that special. All the reviews boil down to "it comes with the best bundle" or "package" but it's not really better than the other top cards in any way. Good, but not great. I'm wondering if I should stop beating around the bush and get an external dac. The only thing I'm worried about is losing hardware acceleration of sound. I know going digital out from the x-fi bypasses the dac and capacitors etc but does the x-fi chip itself still process the sound before it goes out to the dac?




You can setup the X-Fi to output bit-perfect audio to your external dac. You can also switch it to game mode to fully take advantage of the X-Fi's hardware processing while still using the digital output (2 channel only though).
 
May 21, 2008 at 12:23 AM Post #12 of 35
X-Fi has SPDIF via coax cable from the flexijack right?
 
May 21, 2008 at 5:06 AM Post #14 of 35
Quote:

Originally Posted by Redo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
You can setup the X-Fi to output bit-perfect audio to your external dac. You can also switch it to game mode to fully take advantage of the X-Fi's hardware processing while still using the digital output (2 channel only though).


do XFi SPDIF transfer 2channel EAX also?
if it is then i've just found my solution
smily_headphones1.gif
 
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