Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Captain Ned
setaG_lliB wrote:I've turned off the extra X-Fi features and it does sound quite good, but it still doesn't have the punch and range it did with the DVD and BR players. Entertainment mode and music creation mode sound about the same.
MadManOriginal wrote:Iirc X-Fi's and many other Creative-based cards internally resample to 48kHz internally even if the input and output is set to 44.1 kHz. (It may save them from having to add an additional clock crystal or do other stuff 'properly' rather than via DSP manipulation.) Aside from analog output circuit differences this internal resampling could make an audible difference.
For pure stereo listening an external DAC is the way to go imo, or if you want surround too for movies a HT receiver with the newest lossless Dolby-whatever hooked up via digital connection that can output the lossless surround.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:If you're using the original X-fi, then yes it doesn't use that great of components. An auzentech model sounds twice as good.
However, this doesn't mean you can't get decent sound out of an x-fi. Just don't use any of the software that mutilates sound.
No EQ, no Crystalizer, no CMSS-3D, don't use any of that crap, and switch to entertainment mode.
Also, don't use Creative's deliberately outdated drivers. Download and install Daniel_K's modified version instead.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:Download and install Daniel_K's modified version instead.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:A bigger problem is software.
If you are using terrible software to play back your audio files, then you are going to get terrible sound.
Meadows wrote:l33t-g4m3r wrote:Download and install Daniel_K's modified version instead.
Dan K's drivers are what's "outdated" now. He hasn't worked on anything in a long time, while in the meantime, Creative did release newer drivers (we just don't see this in the shortbreads).
I still think that my idea is the most reliable one for music listening.
Meadows wrote:l33t-g4m3r wrote:Download and install Daniel_K's modified version instead.
Dan K's drivers are what's "outdated" now. He hasn't worked on anything in a long time, while in the meantime, Creative did release newer drivers (we just don't see this in the shortbreads).
I still think that my idea is the most reliable one for music listening.
morphine wrote:l33t-g4m3r wrote:A bigger problem is software.
If you are using terrible software to play back your audio files, then you are going to get terrible sound.
He's using FLACs, which are uncompressed. Unless there's some software EQ or something like that going on in his player, there's no difference between the originals and the FLACs.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:That's a possibility, since we don't know what he's using to play back his files.
Sometimes you can get better sound directly playing the CD, if the player is using bad settings with FLAC.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:Also if you have an auzentech prelude you wouldn't want to use an external DAC, considering the onboard DAC is much higher quality.
l33t-g4m3r wrote:Sometimes you can get better sound directly playing the CD, if the player is using bad settings with FLAC.
MrJP wrote:True, but if you use something like EAC to accurately rip the CD to FLAC, you'll get theoretically better playback from FLAC than directly from the CD with anything less than pristene discs. Mind you, you're probably well into placebo effects if you can reliably hear those sorts of differences.
setaG_lliB wrote:To enable ASIO, all I have to do is install Foobar's ASIO plugin and run in Content Creation mode?
setaG_lliB wrote:All right...tried Daniel_K's drivers. No big difference over the official drivers. I did make an interesting discovery: the onboard audio actually sounds as good as the dvd/br players. I'm gonna have to fiddle around with the X-Fi some more.
setaG_lliB wrote:All right...tried Daniel_K's drivers. No big difference over the official drivers. I did make an interesting discovery: the onboard audio actually sounds as good as the dvd/br players. I'm gonna have to fiddle around with the X-Fi some more.
Shining Arcanine wrote:Could it be that the X-Fi is producing higher quality sound while you consider lower quality sound to be correct?
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/11/153205
Shining Arcanine wrote:Could it be that the X-Fi is producing higher quality sound while you consider lower quality sound to be correct?
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/11/153205