[Xhristmas]

Hello,
I'm planning to buy a Creative X-fi Xtrememusic sound card to replace my Soundblaster Live! 24 bit.
My preferred headphones currently are Sennheiser HD437's, but I might be getting a pair of HD580's as a hand me down in a few months (hopefully!)
I'll be using it for mostly movies and music, I don't game at all.
So, will this be worth it? Or should I just stick to my current sound card?

 

[ex0du5]

If you don't plan on gaming or 5.1 stick with the Live 24-bit. If you want to watch movies in 5.1, I'd recommend the Audigy 2 ZS, which can be had cheaper than the Xi-Fi. The reason I recommend the Audigy 2 ZS for 5.1 movies is I believe that it has 5.1 discrete audio outputs, while the Xi-Fi does not.

The Xi-Fi is mainly useful when it comes to gaming.

 

[Xhristmas]

Oh, ok, thanks very much.

Thank god I decided to post first before buying, I would've wasted a ton of money.

Are there any other sound cards that I should consider other than the Audigy?

 

[Redo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ex0du5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you don't plan on gaming or 5.1 stick with the Live 24-bit. If you want to watch movies in 5.1, I'd recommend the Audigy 2 ZS, which can be had cheaper than the Xi-Fi. The reason I recommend the Audigy 2 ZS for 5.1 movies is I believe that it has 5.1 discrete audio outputs, while the Xi-Fi does not. The Xi-Fi is mainly useful when it comes to gaming.

huh???


If you're going to go with creative, don't even consider buying anything BUT the X-Fi. The 580 still needs an amp to be driven correctly though.

 

[skudmunky]

I have the Xtreme Music and it does have 5.1 output, I don't know why the poster above thinks it doesn't. It's also heads and shoulders above the Live 24 bit, which is what I had previously. Great for gaming, movies, and good enough for music. Also has optical out if you ever get an external DAC. Good value for the money.

 

[theBigD]

i replaced live 24bit with x-fi xtreme music. this is a much better card. and plan to do the x-fi mod soon just to crank everybit of detail out of this card.

 

[Xhristmas]

Oh, okay, thanks for clarifying all that, guys.

I guess I'll definitely be buying the Xtrememusic then.

 

[Xhristmas]

Ooookay, it seems that while I was planning to get it, the Xtrememusic seems to have sold out EVERYWHERE (at least over where I live)

.

I think I can get a hold of an M-Audio Revolution, though, so is that an ok replacement for the X-Fi? I've read around here that's it's a really good card, but I'd like to get other opinions.

 

[Evisu]

i got mine for over a year. i wouldnt recommend it to someone anymore. since there are quite a few better cards out there.

 

[Xhristmas]

Ah, that sucks. I guess I'll just have to wait for the stores to restock their supplies. I guess it's fine if this means that I won't have to skimp and save in the the next few months for the other things in life, like maybe food.

 

[Ahriman4891]

Xtreme Music is an older version which I believe is being phased out. So they may never restock. As for the newer versions, don't get XtremeAudio (it's not actually an X-fi, it's an Audigy4 value or something). I'm not sure about the other models' price/performance.

If you don't play games, I think M-audio Revo 5.1 is a decent choice, but if you can find e.g. Sondigo Inferno (should be around the same price), I would go for that--it's a much newer card with good surround capabilities (Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding, so you can output multichannel sound to your receiver via digital out).

 

[]|[ GorE]

The Live! 24bit is damn good sounding card when modded.

 

[Xhristmas]

Thanks for the tips, Ahriman. Exactly how good are the X-fis / M-Audio Rev compared to my current card? I'm asking because I might expect too much and that when I do buy a better card I'd be disappointed. So what exactly should I expect?

To Evisu, what exactly didn't you like about the M-Audio? Anything particular I should know?

 

[Ahriman4891]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xhristmas /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the tips, Ahriman. Exactly how good are the X-fis / M-Audio Rev compared to my current card? I'm asking because I might expect too much and that when I do buy a better card I'd be disappointed. So what exactly should I expect?

I never heard the Live!, so I honestly don't know. The perceived increase in quality really depends on your speakers/headphones. For what it's worth, I felt a significant improvement when I switched from onboard sound to Chaintech AV-710 a couple of years ago -- and that was on $20 no-name multimedia speakers. Switching to X-fi Fatality on my current system (see sig and profile) brought out a bit more detail and "colder" tonal balance (emphasized highs). From what I read, Live! is somewhat worse than AV-710 (again, I never heard it), so I guess you will notice improvement, especially with Shures.

 

[Xhristmas]

Thanks very much.

I've got a pair of e3g's. I'll use those to test once I upgrade