Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD

easyrider · 19 Sep 2016 at 10:41

What are peoples opinions of this for gaming?

I have checked my case and the pci-e connector will be right next to my 1070 obscuring the fan...

So I'm looking for a decent quality external gaming card. Iv'e been using my oppo 2 but fancy playing with virtual surround as I'm bored.

SBX studio I think its called...

My mate has one of these he is selling...Is it any good?

Will it drive my HD 650?

Or should I be looking at the creative Omni?

I was going to get a xonar DGX and use the optical out to a SMSL SD793

But I now want to go external.

I'll be using my oppo Ha-2 for music...But tbh I use my iphone and the oppo as I rarely sit in front of the computer at home and listen to music.

So its just for gaming and using headphones...

Marsman · 19 Sep 2016 at 11:06

Despite claims of X-Fi HD and Omni being able to drive 300 and 600 Ohm headphones respectively, I'd take those claims with quite a lot of salt. Creative claimed the SB Z could drive either 300 or 600 Ohm headphone (I forget which is was), but it did struggle with certain higher Ohm and insensitive headphones. That has now been removed from the product blurb on the site. They give no info other than the claimed Ohm rating, which means nothing really. Other specs are far more important when determining what headphones can be driven by a particular audio product; specs that Creative do not list.

Both have line out, so technically if the amps inside each are not up to the job, you could connect an external one. That is almost certainly going to bypass the headphone effects, which are likely only going to be sent to the headphone output.

If you can get the X-Fi HD for a good price, then it will make a good sound card to which you could connect a cheap DAC, then your Dot II, if the internal headphone amp is not up to the job of driving the headphones well enough.

It's been a long time since I used a Creative product, but I assume they output DSP effects via the SPDIF output, as a Xonar does.

Edit: It would be worth looking at the driver situation first, especially if you are on Windows 10.

easyrider · 19 Sep 2016 at 14:27

Cheers mate great post

Just bagged a Creative Z in MM for £25....Just bought a 1080 FE so the fan issue is now a non issue.

I'm going to take the optical out from the Z going into a Roland Cakewalk U25EX

Then Take the line out into my line in either on My Oppo H-A2 or Little dot when it arrives.

The U25EX wont drive the HD 650 well enough.

This should get me DSP into my phones right?

Marsman · 19 Sep 2016 at 15:41

Surely you didn't buy a 1080FE just so you could fit an internal sound card?

Should work. I see no reason why the DSP won't be passed through SPDIF output. I've done that with Xonar cards, and it does work. When I had a Creative X-Fi, I never tried it as I never had an external DAC at that time.

U25EX should work fine for the intended purpose. Any DAC should with optical input and either line out or built in headphone amp.

easyrider · 19 Sep 2016 at 16:52

Marsman said:
Surely you didn't buy a 1080FE just so you could fit an internal sound card?

Should work. I see no reason why the DSP won't be passed through SPDIF output. I've done that with Xonar cards, and it does work. When I had a Creative X-Fi, I never tried it as I never had an external DAC at that time.

U25EX should work fine for the intended purpose. Any DAC should with optical input and either line out or built in headphone amp.

1080 FE...No, The 1070 wasn't cutting it on the x34 so got a 1080 at good price.

TwsT · 19 Sep 2016 at 16:53

You know i don't think DSP is passed through by spdif on computers, I can't remember though it's been a while since i've done SPDIF to AV reciever

I don't think the soundcard does any processing at all when putting it out through spdif.

easyrider · 19 Sep 2016 at 16:55

TwsT said:
You know i don't think DSP is passed through by spdif on computers, I can't remember though it's been a while since i've done SPDIF to AV reciever

I don't think the soundcard does any processing at all when putting it out through spdif.

Oh

That's scuppered my plans then

TwsT · 19 Sep 2016 at 16:56

I'm just not sure it may have just been my soundcard that didn't do it.

TwsT · 19 Sep 2016 at 16:57

http://www.head-fi.org/t/583299/can-sound-card-dsp-be-carried-over-s-pdif

would suggest it can so ignore me

easyrider · 19 Sep 2016 at 17:15

TwsT said:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/583299/can-sound-card-dsp-be-carried-over-s-pdif

would suggest it can so ignore me

Phew

easyrider · 20 Sep 2016 at 19:21

Well all I can say is wow...

Got the SB Z installed...Optical out going into my Optical in on my UA25EX and its sound brilliant in games..

My HD 650 rumble

Marsman · 20 Sep 2016 at 19:41

Sounds like a good outcome.

rids57 · 20 Sep 2016 at 21:01

I'm tempted to put my SBZ back in my PC in place of my STX. I only use the headphone out for gaming, all music goes through my Schiit stack and I think my K702s should be ok - I think it started coming up short with my HD650s.

easyrider · 20 Sep 2016 at 22:33

I prefer SBX studio over Xonar offerings

TwsT · 21 Sep 2016 at 11:31

good glad it works

Rifte · 24 Sep 2016 at 07:35

I had to go external recently.

I had a Soundblaster Xi-Fi which had suited my needs for a few years, but I was conscious that the moment I went SLI that the Xi FI would be sandwiched between my GPUs and potentially bake (aside from also increasing temps on my 980s as well).

My SB finally gave up, and was unable to be detected by windows at all. Despite fresh OS Win 10 install etc. Did it bake? God knows.

Got rid, and went for a Asus U7. So far very very happy, on top of that its also knocked a couple of degress of my idle temps on my SLI Setup by going external.