[Saulot]

Recently, I purchased the Sound Blaster X-fi Go! Pro, a small USB sound device for about $40.  This is one of Creative's recent products; I had hoped that it would allow for a cheap improvement in sound quality.  However, I have noticed that I seem to get pops and crackles while listening to CD playback more often than when using my Realtek onboard sound.  Also, just now, while listening to the song "Silver****" on the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album, I noticed a sort of buzzing noise during the quieter parts of the song.  It is also clearly present during "Luna".  That buzzing is not present if I use the onboard sound. 
 
Is it safe to assume that this is an issue with the Creative device?  I have the latest drivers installed.

 

[Saulot]

Hmm... the buzzing seems to be present in other songs, whenever they get quiet enough.  So I guess it may always be there during CD playback, except that it is often outweighed by the music itself.  I guess in the long run, I will have to save up money for a decent quality DAC, but until then, is there nothing I can do about this other than switch back to onboard sound?  I'm using Windows Media Player still; would another program reduce the buzzing sound?

 

[MadCow]

Have you tested if the problem exists with different USB ports? Tried unplugging other USB devices to see if there is a conflict?
 
Also avoid USB hubs (both powered and unpowered) and plug the device directly into the computer.

 

[Saulot]

I'll try that.  I have three USB ports on my laptop itself, so I'll switch devices around and see what kind of results I get.  Thanks! 

 

[Saulot]

Good news!  While removing devices or switching ports did not solve the problem, I found another solution.  I bought the inexpensive FiiO E5 amp and ran the signal through that before going to my headphones, and all the issues that I reported above seem to be cleared up.

 

[Saulot]

After some more testing with my newer laptop (I had to replace the other one), the buzzing noise is still there, and I can't seem to get rid of it.  The X-Fi Go! Pro is noisier than my onboard sound, and based on that, I would not recommend it to anyone unless there is a solution.

 

[windcar]

what do you expect from a soundcard the size of a thumbdrive? If you break open the cover and see what components they use in these mini size cards, you will notice they use a very small chip (size of a piece of rice) for the DAC and a very simple amplifier circuit made of 1 cap and a few res.
Do yourself a favour and upgrade to a X-Fi HD instead.

 

[MadCow]

Hmm, I wonder if it was a grounding issue? i.e. see if the buzzing is still present on battery instead of a/c power.

 

[Roller]

I don't know about that new X-Fi Go! Pro, but the regular Go! doesn't have any buzzing whatsoever. Also, the Go! Pro only supports 16-bit 44.1KHz, while the regular Go! supports 24-bit 48KHz. The only thing Go! Pro has is EAX 5 (the regular only has EAX 4), and that THX software embedded on the drivers.

 

[Guess?]

I agree with Roller, there is no buzzing sounds with my X-Fi Go! too, look for the right software, reinstall drivers.

 

[windcar]

I have the X-Fi Go! Pro and I can confirm that there is a soft buzzing sound (very soft, you can only hear it  if you pay extra attention to it when playing a mp3 with a silent background). The buzzing will be softer if you switch to the speaker mode (there is a switch on the side of the card). There will be no buzz sound if you are using earbud instead of headphone. Another problem with this card is that it cannot reproduce sound above 15Khz, anything above 15Khz will result in only producing sound in the lower harmonic frequency range. Overall I find the SQ in the onboard soundcard superior to this Go! Pro (at least there is no such problems as mentioned above).

 

[Roller]

The branding of the new X-Fi Go! is deceitful, as sound quality wise the Pro version is worse, hence the lower price compared to the regular Go!. Creative should stop deceiving customers like that, one must be cautious when buying anything from them.

 

[windcar]

The pro! version is priced the same as the older version in my city. And I think Creative has stopped producing the non-Pro version. Any non pro Go! card you see will most likely be leftover old stocks. Creative has already dropped the CMSS-3D in favour of the newer THX TruStudio sound (I know they are similar but they do sound different, as least IMO).
The non Pro version is likely more expensive to manufacture than the Pro version not because they use better sound components, but rather because it comes with an additional 1GB flash drive which the Pro version does not include.

 

[Guess?]

It sounds like a bad deal to me.

 

[Roller]

 
Quote:

The pro! version is priced the same as the older version in my city. And I think Creative has stopped producing the non-Pro version. Any non pro Go! card you see will most likely be leftover old stocks. Creative has already dropped the CMSS-3D in favour of the newer THX TruStudio sound (I know they are similar but they do sound different, as least IMO).
The non Pro version is likely more expensive to manufacture than the Pro version not because they use better sound components, but rather because it comes with an additional 1GB flash drive which the Pro version does not include.

Lucky you found the Pro version at the same price. Everywhere on the planet they are different priced. And dropping support of 24-bit 48KHz of the regular Go! to 16-bit 44.1KHz sounds like a terrible deal to me. Forget about CMSS or any THX bs. We're talking about the base SQ, which is different. X-Fi Go! is still being manufactured, I don't know where you came up with that old stock thing.
 
Bottomline is that the regular X-Fi Go! has 24-bit 48KHz, no buzzing as found in the X-Fi Go! Pro, reported by a few users already, and has that 1GB flash drive, which is a gimmick. For a 5$ difference, the regular Go! is a much better deal.