[Alamar]

Hello

I am looking for a successor to my Sound Blaster Titanium HD card in which I replaced one pair of opamps for lme49720.

I want to still have the same sound on the new card as I have in current config below.

I use a PC connected via analog way Rca cables through this card to the Technics sc-eh780 tower.

After various tests, I have in windows sound settings set to 5.1 (all normal-range speakers), in the creative console settings: headphones, and the hifi technics speakers (on the tower only the super sound eq function is on, but without it, it's also fine) in real I have stereo columns of course, this config/settings gives me the best sound, also the best sense of space.

As I understand, after switching to the headphones option in drivers, the card probably uses only the pair of opamps that I put in: lme49720, without the second pair of opamps (there are 2 pairs in the card), can someone confirm if it is so? Important that it suits me best but why I am writing about this opamp. It is known they influence what kind of sound we get from audio.

The Audiotrak Prodigy Cube 2 card (and probably also the Prodigy Cube 1 Black?) are sold with lme49720 opamps inside, so I assume it is very well prepered for playing such sound, so should i expect music could have the same or very similiar kind of sound as with Titanium HD? But it is said Audiotrak Prodigy Cube 2 don't need drivers installed (how this works?) and in Titanium HD i had specific settings, also modes entertainment/games*/audio creation (*used "games" with headphones in settings usually, never "entertainment") and "heaphones" (instead "stereo", as i wrote before, 5.1 in windows)

It also has analog RCA outputs.

Looking at it as a whole, would it be the best option and successor of Titanium HD for the sound of my music, if I want it not to be worse and preferably the same because better / worse is something else for everyone? And what about games, this is external card, what about drivers/compatibility? Can it also be used to connect usb to linux tuners or any other devices? (because it is said to be without a driver needed, which makes me wonder how it works?)

Many people who had used Titanium HD says that these new Creative cards are clearly inferior to Titanium HD.

Thanks in advance for help.

 

[GotNoRice]

First of all, I have to ask, why exactly do you want to replace the card? You seem happy with the way it sounds, to where you are putting in so much effort to find something that sounds the same - why not just keep the Titanium HD instead?

I still use a Titanium HD (using Burson Discrete OpAmps in my case) in my music system (Speakers). There are no driver issues in Windows 10 or Windows 11 and the latest drivers from 2019 still work great. I also run a regular X-Fi Titanium (not HD) in my main gaming computer and my backup gaming computer, both feeding out into an external DAC via Toslink. My Gaming PC is also my main headphone setup. In my HTPC, which is the main source for my home theater, I run an ever older X-Fi XtremeMusic feeding analog 7.1 into my receiver (since my receiver doesn't support newer codecs) and it works great also. There may come a time when the X-Fi cards need to be replaced but we are not there yet.

After various tests, I have in windows sound settings set to 5.1 (all normal-range speakers), in the creative console settings: headphones, and the hifi technics speakers (on the tower only the super sound eq function is on, but without it, it's also fine) in real I have stereo columns of course, this config/settings gives me the best sound, also the best sense of space.

As I understand, after switching to the headphones option in drivers, the card probably uses only the pair of opamps that I put in: lme49720, without the second pair of opamps (there are 2 pairs in the card), can someone confirm if it is so? Important that it suits me best but why I am writing about this opamp. It is known they influence what kind of sound we get from audio.

Switching to "Headphones" in the Creative Console Launcher has nothing to do with which OpAmps the card uses. The card is always using all of it's OpAmps.

With the setup you described, it is taking the 5.1 input (since you set it as 5.1 in Windows Settings) and downmixing that to 2.0 for headphone usage while attempting to preserve spacial audio queues that create a sense of surround sound. If you have CMSS-3D enabled in the Creative Console Launcher, then it will use CMSS-3D to do this, otherwise I believe it will use the default windows algorithm. Setting "Headphones" in the Creative Console Launcher is handled differently when downmixing compared to regular 2.0/2.1. Since the goal is to preserve the sense of surround sound from 5.1+ content, this has to be done differently for headphones right next to your ears compared to real speakers where they are in-front of you and there are room reflections, etc.

I know this mainly because this is almost the exact setup that I use in both of my gaming computers (where I use headphones). In my case I set it to 7.1 in Windows Settings, "Headphones" in the Console Launcher, with CMSS-3D enabled. This provides headphone surround sound effects that are simply amazing while gaming or watching movies, and I have not found anything better yet. But for my music system I simply have it set to 2.0, both in Windows and the Creative Console Launcher, with CMSS-3D disabled. There is no need to downmix anything or use any algorithms to process the audio when you are playing 2.0 content using stereo speakers.

In your case, playing 2.0 content with Windows set to 5.1 and Creative Console Launcher set to Headphones, it is processing and downmixing the audio for headphone usage. When using headphones this would result in the audio sounding like it is coming from the position of two virtual front speakers, and it will sound like it's coming from in-front of you. What this would sound like with these same settings when using real speakers instead of headphones, I'm not sure, but you appear to like it. It's an odd way to get the sound that you like, but if you like it, no reason to fight it I guess.

These changes to the audio that occur during the forced downmixing and processing via virtual surround-sound algorithms is going to be noticeably more pronounced than any changes you get from swapping OpAmps. If this is what you are trying to re-create, you're not going to get it simply by getting something else that uses the same OpAmps.

If you have the upgrade bug or just want to try a new DAC, you can always run optical output from the Titanium HD into an external DAC. You won't be using the DAC in the Titanium HD anymore obviously, but it will still be using the same downmixing algorithms that it's using right now and sending that out to the external DAC,

 

[Alamar]

Thanks for your reply

I don't plan to resign from titanium hd, contrary, just looking at my options as i kinda fear i could lose what i like especially after
reading some comments about new (creative) cards, i hope current card will work fine like now still for a very long time. I listen to music
daily.

OK, so one question in this case, can i set in usb music cards (lets say this: "audiotrak prodigy cube 2") like in my titanium hd
console/control panel: "headphones" and in windows sound settings 5.1? Or there would be only windows setting?

So 2pair of opamps play, so it may be even harder to find the same sound, oh well.

Is it practically possible to play games with such external card without problems?
I agree CMSS is really fantastic for fps games/shooters (great positioning) but for music i like it better without CMSS.

As for windows 10 i saw someone were selling locally on auctions used titanium hd saying he sell only because it was dissapearing in win10 after every
few restarts (btw prices of used were the same or bigger price then a new one previously..) and were continuously needed driver reinstalls, so
you say it work fine in windows 10/11? (similiar history i heard about AIM SC808 and win10 but that one instead driver reinstall, needed power
off reboot of whole computer if you had restarted windows once normal way, some said all from this family of cards had such issues but not everyone
had this problem so maybe it is niuance possible to fix).

So anyone know which sound cards possible to buy today would be most similiar with its sound to my titanium hd on my current setup(in first
post). Or at least which would be the best option? I would prefer not to get into some despair blind cards shuffle story later ;]

 

[GotNoRice]

As for windows 10 i saw someone were selling locally on auctions used titanium hd saying he sell only because it was dissapearing in win10 after every
few restarts (btw prices of used were the same or bigger price then a new one previously..) and were continuously needed driver reinstalls, so
you say it work fine in windows 10/11? (similiar history i heard about AIM SC808 and win10 but that one instead driver reinstall, needed power
off reboot of whole computer if you had restarted windows once normal way, some said all from this family of cards had such issues but not everyone
had this problem so maybe it is niuance possible to fix).

There was a Windows 10 update in Spring of 2019 that broke the creative drivers. Creative released new drivers within a week and fixed the issue. I'm still using those same drivers now on Windows 11 22H2, and have not encountered any recurring issues. Windows is pretty forgiving overall when it comes to drivers. On some Windows 10 and 11 computers I've even been able to use Windows Vista (64-bit) drivers from 15+ years ago to get the older hardware to work. I'm optimistic that the X-Fi cards will keep working with Windows for a good while longer.