[jesb]

I went ahead and placed my order for the Titanium HD.  Now the excruciating wait to get it.  It seems the bad reviews I'm reading are a little outdated, or current but some still have issues for whatever reason.  I asked about this on another forum and have seen people there also have nothing but praise and no issues with the drivers.  Seems like it was an issue for Vista that has been taken care of since.  
 
Really looking forward to getting this, and will bump this topic with some of my impressions.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I went ahead and placed my order for the Titanium HD.  Now the excruciating wait to get it.  It seems the bad reviews I'm reading are a little outdated, or current but some still have issues for whatever reason.  I asked about this on another forum and have seen people there also have nothing but praise and no issues with the drivers.  Seems like it was an issue for Vista that has been taken care of since.  
 
Really looking forward to getting this, and will bump this topic with some of my impressions.

 
Vista's wave of issues was indeed due to drivers, namely because manufacturers were still doing XPDM drivers made for XP, rather than drivers made for the new WDDM driver architecture.
 
It took some time, but eventually Vista became a reasonably functional system, contrary to plenty of the naysayers that limited their perception to launch Vista, which is significantly different than Vista with either SP1 or SP2.
 
Contrary to other products, you will do well to first install the drivers that come with the Titanium HD, and only then optionally update to newer drivers. I mean optionally because you might not need to update, as improved performance won't be gained with updated audio drivers, only potential bug fixes and/or new features.
 
Looking forward to read your feedback on the card.

 

[jesb]

I  cannot believe my luck.  I picked up the card today, set it all up, and tested a few games, was really liking the improvement over the onboard sound.  But than the right speaker on my cans seemed to of got blown.  Now only the left works.  

 
I don't know how this could happen, it must be related to the card because I've used this for like 2 or 3 years without no problems, now my right speaker is blown.  So pissed right now, not even sure when I can buy new one's.  

 
I tried them on another source just to make sure something is not up with the card, and it's the same thing on my amp in the living room.   God damn it, how the hell does this happen, are there certain settings I need to set to not go too high?  ****, ****, ****.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I  cannot believe my luck.  I picked up the card today, set it all up, and tested a few games, was really liking the improvement over the onboard sound.  But than the right speaker on my cans seemed to of got blown.  Now only the left works.  

 
I don't know how this could happen, it must be related to the card because I've used this for like 2 or 3 years without no problems, now my right speaker is blown.  So pissed right now, not even sure when I can buy new one's.  

 
I tried them on another source just to make sure something is not up with the card, and it's the same thing on my amp in the living room.   God damn it, how the hell does this happen, are there certain settings I need to set to not go too high?  ****, ****, ****.

 
 
A soundcard can't really produce such results out of anything other than excessively high volume that would strain the headphones more than they could handle, which I honestly don't believe to be the case. There isn't a single case of blown drivers by regular DAC usage. Does the onboard audio chip have the same result?
 
Such situation would really only happen if the drivers were already worn and you pushed them too far. How old are the headphones?

 

[jesb]

A soundcard can't really produce such results out of anything other than excessively high volume that would strain the headphones more than they could handle, which I honestly don't believe to be the case. There isn't a single case of blown drivers by regular DAC usage. Does the onboard audio chip have the same result?

Such situation would really only happen if the drivers were already worn and you pushed them too far. How old are the headphones?

The onboard audio does have the same result, so that confirms the speaker is done. In any speaker test I do it's just the left speaker that goes on, when it tests the right, there's nothing. I've had the headphones for around 3 years, but honestly haven't even been used much until I built my pc 4 months ago. This is so depressing. I was excited too after seeing the improvement.

I've also plugged in some earbuds and both speakers work on those on the onboard sound and the sound card. Sucks.

 

[jesb]

I'm on my way to pick up a new pair of 558"s for $160, are there any recommended settings I should be using?  If I mess up these too I'll lose it.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Recommended settings? Windows speaker setting on 5.1, X-Fi control panel setting on Headphones. Then CMSS-3D Headphone will work as intended in games with software-mixed audio and have the rear channels to work with instead of only applying the effect to a stereo stream. There's no hit to stereo sound quality when set up this way and CMSS-3D is off, either, so you can set to taste.
 
Also, if you want a pure audio signal for music listening, switch to Audio Creation Mode, enable bit-matched playback under the relevant Options tab, and use a media player like foobar2000 or Winamp with an ASIO plugin.
 
As far as blowing headphones goes, I have no idea. Sounds like your old headphones were about to fail anyway. Since plugging in sensitive headphones directly to the sound card can be pretty loud, I'd keep the volume down around 5-6% to start with. It'll be easier on the headphone drivers and MUCH easier on your ears.

 

[jesb]

Thanks for that.
 
Any particular reason I cant select X-Fi CMSS-3D in Entertainment mode?  I see it in Game mode, but on the 4th tab on Entertainment mode on the link you provided it shows an icon for X-Fi CMSS-3D.  But the 4th tab for me is a different option.  It's an icon that says thx and doesn't have that option to select X-Fi CMSS-3D.
 
So I should be breaking in these headphones first before I raise the volume higher?  How long does it take to break them in so I can start to raise the volume higher?

 

[Roller]

THX TruStudio Pro is used in place of CMSS-3D. But why would you want to use it in Entertainment Mode? Sound becomes unrealistic, truly unnatural, which IMO isn't pleasant at all. I can understand its use for Game Mode, as games do benefit in terms of positional cue accuracy, but other than that, it just skews the original audio.
 
The HD558 aren't known for having a long burn in period, so something like 40-50 hours should be enough. But, as long as you don't spike the volume much, you should be able to have average listening levels while using them already, rather than leaving the headphones on purely for burn in.

 

[jesb]

Quote:

THX TruStudio Pro is used in place of CMSS-3D. But why would you want to use it in Entertainment Mode? Sound becomes unrealistic, truly unnatural, which IMO isn't pleasant at all. I can understand its use for Game Mode, as games do benefit in terms of positional cue accuracy, but other than that, it just skews the original audio.
 
The HD558 aren't known for having a long burn in period, so something like 40-50 hours should be enough. But, as long as you don't spike the volume much, you should be able to have average listening levels while using them already, rather than leaving the headphones on purely for burn in.

 
I was mostly asking why the link he showed has that option in entertainment mode, but when I use the program I don't see it there and only in game mode.  Maybe they had removed that since it only really should be applicable in game mode like you say.
 
So the first 50 hours at 50% volume would be fine than?  

 

[Roller]

Quote:

 
I was mostly asking why the link he showed has that option in entertainment mode, but when I use the program I don't see it there and only in game mode.  Maybe they had removed that since it only really should be applicable in game mode like you say.
 
So the first 50 hours at 50% volume would be fine than?  

 
Hum, that's odd. It's funny because I recall that working on regular Titanium models but not so much on the Titanium HD.
 
The best way to do regular burn in is to set the volume to a slightly louder level than what you usually listen to and leave it running, this if you are leaving the headphones burning in by themselves. If you want to burn them in while using them, just listen to your regular volume levels.

 

[jesb]

So I've been playing with the options under thx.  There options in there such as Surround, Crystalizer, Speaker, Smart Volume, and Dialog plus.  These by default are at around 50%, but I didn't find the high's high enough in testing some games, so I have adjusted these to 75% instead and noticing it much better.  Do you think this would be o.k, and would I be pushing it if I set these past 75% or should that be the max?

 

[Roller]

Quote:

So I've been playing with the options under thx.  There options in there such as Surround, Crystalizer, Speaker, Smart Volume, and Dialog plus.  These by default are at around 50%, but I didn't find the high's high enough in testing some games, so I have adjusted these to 75% instead and noticing it much better.  Do you think this would be o.k, and would I be pushing it if I set these past 75% or should that be the max?

 
At that point, my only advice is for you to disable Smart Volume Management, as the rest is purely personal preference, and you should set it the way it sounds best to you. I might disable Surround outside of games as well.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

I was mostly asking why the link he showed has that option in entertainment mode, but when I use the program I don't see it there and only in game mode.  Maybe they had removed that since it only really should be applicable in game mode like you say.
 
So the first 50 hours at 50% volume would be fine than?  

 
It's because, as Roller said, THX TruStudio Pro displaced it on the Titanium HD.
 
Also, you do NOT want Entertainment Mode. Game Mode is the only mode where hardware-accelerated DirectSound3D and OpenAL are supported, and you'll notice that it still has a CMSS-3D Headphone option in a very prominent tab. If you scroll all the way down, you'll notice the obvious Game Mode panel. The reason most of the images are done in Entertainment Mode is because it's made with software-based USB headsets and X-Fi audio devices, not the true hardware that also has Game Mode and Audio Creation Mode.
 
Honestly, I don't see the point in Entertainment Mode when it has neither hardware sound acceleration for games nor ASIO for bit-matched playback. I never use it.