[luukas]

I posted one issue already in another thread, but figured it would be best to start a new one when other problems arose...

1) Is it possible to control volume via the X-Fi drivers when using digital output? There's far too little headroom with the PC II right now, going from channel imbalance to somewhat loud, with nothing in-between.

2) Digital out simply doesn't seem to work when using either the game or entertainment modes. I tried other sample rates in creation mode to check there's no sync issue, and everything came out clean - 44.1, 48, 96. Any ideas? This effectively neuters any features the X-Fi has.

My sig shows the current "chain of command".

* Duh, I was meaning to post this on the computer section, of course... please move this mods.

 

[maarek99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas 1) Is it possible to control volume via the X-Fi drivers when using digital output? There's far too little headroom with the PC II right now, going from channel imbalance to somewhat loud, with nothing in-between.

]

Yes.

Quote:

2) Digital out simply doesn't seem to work when using either the game or entertainment modes. I tried other sample rates in creation mode to check there's no sync issue, and everything came out clean - 44.1, 48, 96. Any ideas? This effectively neuters any features the X-Fi has.8

You have to enable digital i/o from the settings individually for all of the three modes.

 

[MikeW]

Not sure what your problem is, but once it's setup right it will work properly. If that's any comfort. I have an X-FI >> Dialogue II dac, and all modes work properly, it just works. Games/movies/music/windows etc. Eax, cmss the whole nine yards.

edit: if your having a hard time finding the Digital I/o function in the other modes, use the windows mixer (double click speaker in system tray) and click under "Advanced" under the main volume control and click the box that says enable digital I/O. I couldent find the option from the creative panels in Game or Creation mode.

 

[luukas]

Thanks guys.

This is interesting... for some reason the master volume works under game mode. Had it set really low so I didn't hear anything last I tried, even after double-checking that digital I/O was on. Maybe I should reinstall the drivers.

* Well, it seems like bit-matched playback disables master volume under audio creation mode. Urgh.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas * Well, it seems like bit-matched playback disables master volume under audio creation mode. Urgh.

Well, actually that isn't "urgh", that's only logical - 'cause there's no separation between waveform and volume, rather the volume information already is in the sample. Hence using volume control on the digital output means that the signal won't be bit-perfect anymore. If you want to avoid that, I'd suggest to build yourself a cable with built-in voltage divider (= two resistors per channel) in order to shift the volume control of the PCII to a usable range.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[luukas]

Hmm, that's a pretty good suggestion Lini. But I'm not too keen on the idea of constantly twisting the amp's potentiometer, as their lifespan isn't eternal. Time to look into those affordable DIY stepped attenuators.

 

[lini]

luukas: True, lifespan of the pot isn't eternal, but availabitly is good - so if you are able to build yourself a stepped attenuator, you're easily able to replace that pot, too. And the pot won't get better from not being used, either. So I don't really see the point in adding yet another volume control...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[luukas]

Well, I could remove the pot from the corda completely. But then again, that would seriously hurt its resale value. Ahh well, maybe it would indeed be whole lot easier to get a new pot when the old one starts acting up. I wonder if it's possible to find a better one that would fit inside the PC II... time to do some searching.

 

[evil-zen]

if you are using foobar to play music, you can actually reduce the volume of the digital output. Under the playback option, there is a part on preamp. just drag them to a lower volume.

 

[luukas]

Haha, I totally forgot about Foobar's internal volume control. It doesn't completely solve this problem (ie. way too loud for DVD watching), but I will just use the entertainment mode for that in the meantime. Thanks for the reminder evil-zen.

 

[evil-zen]

Well, media player classic has volume control which affects the digital output too. mine does.

 

[luukas]

Yup, VideoLAN seems to do that, too. But I'm always using PowerDVD because of its dolby headphone extension.