X-Fi Headphone+Speaker solution

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhjazz The front panel for just about any sound card will degrade the sound because Creative decided to connect to it through a flat ribbon cable originally meant for hard drives, etc. (At least that is how they avhe done it in the past.) Best to avoid this.

*cough* Uhm, actually Creative isn't so stupid there, 'cause - unlike the Terratec DMX 6fire or Aureon7.1 Universe, for example - Creative is using the flat ribbon cable for digital, not analogue transfers. Hence the Audigy and X-Fi (not sure about the old SB Live! anymore ...) models with front bays are actually a lot less prone to emi.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[Svperstar]

Just get one of these things, this one is $2 on ebay:

That way you just plug them both in and forget about it

 

[lini]

Svperstar: *cough* Uhm, not such a great idea, actually, as the low impedance headphone in parallel will likely cause a bass rolloff, so one might notice a drop on the Klipsch speaker set... With a headphone amp instead of direct phone connection it would be no problem, however.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[OpTicaL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini *cough* Uhm, actually Creative isn't so stupid there, 'cause - unlike the Terratec DMX 6fire or Aureon7.1 Universe, for example - Creative is using the flat ribbon cable for digital, not analogue transfers. Hence the Audigy and X-Fi (not sure about the old SB Live! anymore ...) models with front bays are actually a lot less prone to emi.

I have a question about the flat ribbon cable. I personally own a Fatal1ty card ($120 after MIR) and it comes with a 5.25 front I/O bay. I would like to know what kind of cable can I use to swap out the ulgy flat grey ribbon. I've heard that floppy cables work and so do hdd cables as long as they have all 40 pins open.

I've tried posting on creative's forum and no one was able to give me a straight concrete answer to this. The flat grey ribbon is ruining the intererior asthetics of my case and I want to replace it with a rounded cable. Floppy cable or hdd cable? Which one works?

About the quality issue, will there be a loss in quality if I plug in my headphones using the I/O bay compared to directly plugging them in the soundcard?

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svperstar Just get one of these things, this one is $2 on ebay: That way you just plug them both in and forget about it

That's a brilliant idea, except for the fact that you'll be cutting the power output of the already underpowered line-out on the X-Fi in half. Combine a weak signal input with the bassy sound tonality of the PA2V2, and you're looking at moderate distortion through those A900s. Since you'll have to be driving that amp at a higher than normal volume level, not only will you possibly hear some distortion on the low end, but you'll also hear some buzzing and hissing since the noise floor on the PA2V2 is not great. Of course like you said, my brain isn't "fully burned in" yet so maybe I'm not hearing things to their full-extent yet.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OpTicaL I have a question about the flat ribbon cable. (...)

I've only got the Elite Pro and the Xtreme Music for reviewing purposes, so I'm not really familiar with the front-bay models. Nevertheless, I'd assume the ribbon cable only to connect to the lower, broader 27 pin connector on the card, right? Then I'd choose a floppy cable - that should fit without problems. An ide cable seems less recommendable - not only because, as you've already mentioned, a lot of ide cables will come with pin 20 blocked, I'd also assume it to be too broad, so the connector might collide with the mainboard...

Quote:

Originally Posted by OpTicaL About the quality issue, will there be a loss in quality if I plug in my headphones using the I/O bay compared to directly plugging them in the soundcard?

On all models except Elite Pro: not really - apart from possibly different jitter due to different emi into the bay module and into the card as well as different emi influences on the analogue output stages here and there. Other than that, there should be practically no difference, as the dac & output stages are using more or less the same parts, iirc.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[Svperstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyline889 That's a brilliant idea, except for the fact that you'll be cutting the power output of the already underpowered line-out on the X-Fi in half. Combine a weak signal input with the bassy sound tonality of the PA2V2, and you're looking at moderate distortion through those A900s. Since you'll have to be driving that amp at a higher than normal volume level, not only will you possibly hear some distortion on the low end, but you'll also hear some buzzing and hissing since the noise floor on the PA2V2 is not great. Of course like you said, my brain isn't "fully burned in" yet so maybe I'm not hearing things to their full-extent yet.

I highly doubt that using headphones vs. the the speaker setup he would hear any distortion and such. With both going at the same time maybe but with one off and the other on, no.

 

[OpTicaL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramsey First of all, I'd like to thank the head-fi forums for being a great source of information for my audio needs. That being said, there's one thing I haven't been able to find a good information on. (If it turns out that I just haven't looked hard enough, I apologize.) I'd like to switch easily between my headphones and speakers on my X-Fi while in gaming mode. I've found a few solutions on these forums and elsewhere, but none that I felt were ideal... - 3.5in drive bay front panel: I have experience with this and felt that it lowered the audio quality significantly. (Could this have been the fault of something going on inside the computer case?) Plus, I'd have to plug and unplug the headphones every time I want to use them, which is something I'm ultimately looking to avoid. I have a crazy concern about wearing down the jacks. - Plugging headphones in to the headphone jack on speakers (Klipsch 2.1): I've tried this and felt that the small loss in audio quality was acceptable. However, doing this also means that I'd have to plug and unplug the headphones every time I want to use them. - Remapping outputs in Audio Creation mode: While Audio Creation mode works out great for music listening, it's horrible for gaming because it causes a noticeable performance decrease. - Simple Splitter: I have no way of stopping the audio from going to my headphones while I'm using the speakers. (The sound from the headphones isn't that audible when the speakers are on, but I'm concerned that doing this on a regular basis would wear down the headphones. Am I being too over-protective of things?) - Simple Switch: I've found a couple briefly mentioned on the forums -- MK5 switch/MK10 switch and Plantronics switch. I haven't seen anything about how these are in terms of quality, though. If you're using both headphones and speakers with your X-Fi, how are you doing it? Are there any other (relatively cheap) solutions that I've left out here? Do my options open up significantly if I'm willing to spend more money?

I think you meant the 5.25 front panel (3.5 are for floppy drives and hdd) As lini explained there should be no quality loss if you connect to your front 5.25 I/O bay. For 2.1 speakers may I recommend Altec Lansing's FX6021