[Kameleon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tortie I suggest $90 for the sound card plus $1910 for your new ICs/speaker cable. Now your set for audio bliss!

Don't forget your PC's PSU power cable! That makes all the difference

 

[]|[ GorE]

I am still waiting for a review from experienced head-fiers on the extreme music.I want subjective listening tests done on the headphone out.I dont want the JRC 4556 op-amp sucks thing without actual hearing tests.

 

[Ikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE I am still waiting for a review from experienced head-fiers on the extreme music.I want subjective listening tests done on the headphone out.I dont want the JRC 4556 op-amp sucks thing without actual hearing tests.

I had an Xtreme Music for about 2 weeks and compared it to a Hercules Fortissimo IV. I'm going to post a review of the Fortissimo, soon, and will throw in comments on the X-Fi's performance in comparison. But bottomline is: NJM4556 sucks

Seriously - it is not THAT bad a card, but for its price it should be much, much better

 

[DrDobs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ikon I had an Xtreme Music for about 2 weeks and compared it to a Hercules Fortissimo IV. I'm going to post a review of the Fortissimo, soon, and will throw in comments on the X-Fi's performance in comparison. But bottomline is: NJM4556 sucks Seriously - it is not THAT bad a card, but for its price it should be much, much better

What the heck is a "NJM4556" ???!?

Jon

 

[Ikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrDobs What the heck is a "NJM4556" ???!?

It's a (not too good) operational amplifier ("op-amp") and arguably the main weakness in the X-Fi's analogue output stage.

All X-Fi modells aside from the "Elite Pro" version use an NJM4556 for the front-output and even much worse ST4558s for the surround-outputs. It's a shame that Creative chose (again) to use such inferior chips in the output stage (for saving a few cents in production costs), because the cards look really great otherwise.

 

[Kameleon]

Doesn't the RA-1 use an NJM4556?

 

[Ikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kameleon Doesn't the RA-1 use an NJM4556?

On the plus side, NJM4556 can drive low-impedance loads better (read: more current) than many (all?) other op-amps, it can in fact put an impressive 70mA into them.
And since Grado cans usually are low-Z, using it in the RA-1 definately has its merrits. I should also think that Grado invested a great deal of care and fine tuning in the specific layout/topology/design of the RA-1.

Unfortunately, NJM4556 doesn't look too well in comparison to other popular audio amps when you look at its slew rate, THD and noise (though the latter one isn't alarmingly high, it's about ten times as much as other chips with a bipolar input stage usually have).

-> Take a look here.

And as hi-fi cans other than Grado mostly have a higher impedance, there are much better chips to choose from.
A sad fact: I couldn't find a single card in the price range of the X-Fi Xtreme Music, that doesn't use better amps (mostly NJM4580). But there are cards for half the X-Fi's price with better amps (and also worse DACs, to be honest).

 

[irchel]

thats exactly what I'm wondering about:

I read in another post that the Fatality FPS actually does use another Op AMP than the ominous NJM4556, I wonder now if the Platinum does too or whether the Platinum is just the

EXACTLY same PCB

as the Extreme Music.
or not??????????????????? Does someone know this?


That's what sucks most about Creative (other things not: Hey theive fixed their drivers, you can have a full install under 30 mb now, theire stable and good, many very useful possibilities, AND you can have a little breakout box for all editions to have COAX and Toslink ins and outs no prob man):

THEY *****ing CLAIMED the Audigy 2 ZS has the same PCB as the one in the ZS Platinum, but sheesh, it has actually a worse Crystal on it (= more Jitter) and other things are changed too (A cre. Engineer actually ADMITTED it in their own forum, telling that the "average user" who buys only the BASIC edition doesn't need such "HIGH END" parts (I suppose he was speaking about OPAMPS here) than a "more advanced" (with a fatter wallet of course.

( ). Sometimes they tell plain bullsh"t if you ask me, and they know it very well...

That's what really pisses me off about Creative.

BTW: The DACs on the lower XFI Editions are good enough, I think. Surely not the problem.

 

[Ikon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by irchel you can have a full install under 30 mb now

Are you talking about the Audigys?

With the X-Fis it's more like this: It's not easy to get a BASIC install below 300MB. IIRC, even the drivers without any of the panels need more than 30MB. I wouldn't want to know how much a full install eats up

Quote:

Originally Posted by irchel BTW: The DACs on the lower XFI Editions are good enough, I think. Surely not the problem.

They are even great: 114db dynamic range/-100db THD+N -> better than practically all other consumer cards. But then again, practically all other cards have better op-amps (C-Media cards aside)

 

[Tachikoma]

Hmm, then swapping opamps should be a pretty worthwhile mod. Anyone tried it yet?

 

[irchel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ikon They are even great: 114db dynamic range/-100db THD+N -> better than practically all other consumer cards. But then again, practically all other cards have better op-amps (C-Media cards aside)

Could you post a short comparison between your Extreme Music and your Fortissimo 4 now?
Just a brief description how one can distinguish the sound! What are the differences?

And another quest.: I saw on reviews that the fortissimo has a cutoff at 20 khz, even when playing 96khz/24bit files. is this true?

Thank you very much man!

 

[sonance]

I was thinking the same thing about the opamp swap, I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
This time it actually seems worthwhile modding a Soundblaster, because the internal chain isnt actually screwed up as it has been since the release of the original Live! when the non-bypassable processing / resampling etc began. If the output modules can be brought up to spec, this should be a great little card indeed (sad that this sort of mod should be needed at all, of course.)

 

[Behemot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE I am still waiting for a review from experienced head-fiers on the extreme music.I want subjective listening tests done on the headphone out.I dont want the JRC 4556 op-amp sucks thing without actual hearing tests.

check the review on techreport.com. They went into this sort of things. Very good review, critical if you know what I mean.

 

[speedo]

Question: would this soundcard be good enough to produce with cubase? (I only use 1 midi controller atm)

 

[irchel]

Yeah, and they are comparing X-Fi ExtremeMusic to A2ZS (no competition I'd say

) and to Revo 7.1, which has quite a little bunch of problems with reproduction of highs.
So I think its about this:

EMUxxxx>Revolution5.1>X-Fi extrememusic =>Revolution7.1>>>Audigy2

BUT: Check out this:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...ic=36370&st=50

[last post]

I wonder if the platinum already has the fast opamps, or is it just the Fatality (and Elitepro of course)?

So, one can say for sure, the latter two should sound vanishingly good, satisfying the average "audiophile" for sure, thats true.

But what's about Platinum? (at least it's affordable too, while one has to spend 50 bucks + for the Fatality)