X-Fi HD out tommorrow

Flanno · 13 Jul 2010 at 20:55

Some websites are taking preorders and it's already available to buy on Creative Hong Kong site.

Anyone ?

Marsman · 13 Jul 2010 at 21:58

Interesting. Conversion from HK$ makes it £135. I wonder how much extra we will pay?

Flanno · 13 Jul 2010 at 22:51

Creative HK are listing it on their online shop as out tommorrow. Strange no reviews.

I'm guessing it will be around the same price as the Essence STX.

MaxP779 · 13 Jul 2010 at 23:28

Its been listed on amazon for a while:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creatiive-S...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279060071&sr=8-1

£190, ridiculous, hopefully that price is just a placeholder for the real price otherwise i dont see too many people buying this, especially considering there are zero reviews yet.

Flanno · 13 Jul 2010 at 23:36

Crazy price allright. I'm betting it isn't out for ages yet, otherwise we would have had reviews by now or at least previews. We will know tommorrow anyway. If the date shifts it's probably BS.

Anyone know if it's the same length as the current X-Fi seeing as I can't use a Xonar Essence as it's slightly too long to fit in my top PCI-e slot.

Mr. May · 16 Jul 2010 at 14:52

the thing is it will have terrible/no driver support as most creative products

mrk · 16 Jul 2010 at 15:12

What's an XFI? I've forgotten they even existed

Cosimo · 16 Jul 2010 at 15:51

Khaaan! said:
What's an XFI? I've forgotten they even existed

I bet you did.

Flanno · 16 Jul 2010 at 16:57

Mine left from Hong Kong yesterday but I only realised I will be 1/2 inch short in the top pci-e slot thanks to the chipset cooler. Rats. :mad:

Infam0us · 16 Jul 2010 at 20:56

What makes it HD then?

mrk · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:10

The same thing that makes the Fatality (with loads of 1s instead of is) and Titanium

Marsman · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:17

HD in the title is a nice selling point, the Titanium HD is no more HD than the original Titanium. Creative and their clever marketing, eh.

Infam0us · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:35

I thought HD was to do with picture quality anyway? How can you have HD Audio unless the soundcard automatically makes everything on a PC sound upwards of 320Kbs? I love X-Fi's but they don't have gimmick them sometimes, ala Fatal1ty!

Monkeynut · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:44

Infam0us said:
I thought HD was to do with picture quality anyway? How can you have HD Audio unless the soundcard automatically makes everything on a PC sound upwards of 320Kbs? I love X-Fi's but they don't have gimmick them sometimes, ala Fatal1ty!

HD audio is 24-bit audio.

Marsman · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:50

Ah yes, the Fatal1ty. That and Creative repackaging the Audigy SE as an X-Fi, reasons why I have lost a lot of respect for Creative. Now they go and slap HD on a sound card. :rolleyes:

HD audio is in reference to 192kHz sample rate and 24bit. Can that even be classed as HD? Take Dolby TrueHD, nothing HD about it, it's just lossless.

Infam0us · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:56

Monkeynut said:
HD audio is 24-bit audio.

What is non HD audio then, say from my X-Fi Gamer, 16-bit?

mrk · 16 Jul 2010 at 21:57

All modern soundcards can output 24bit...

Infam0us · 16 Jul 2010 at 22:03

So this HD Soundcard offers nothing new then? Just a gimmick?

Monkeynut · 16 Jul 2010 at 22:21

Infam0us said:
So this HD Soundcard offers nothing new then? Just a gimmick?

It might have better signal-to-noise ratio than older 24-bit cards, or crosstalk, it's not just about the number of bits or sample rate. It's also about how accurate the output is to the original. That's why the Xonar uses different DACs and special capacitors compared to other cards.

Marsman · 16 Jul 2010 at 22:40

Infam0us said:
So this HD Soundcard offers nothing new then? Just a gimmick?

Basically yes. The Titanium HD on paper looks like a very good card. It's not about HD, Creative were foolish to name it HD, it's about audio quality.

But what is HD audio? If it's 24bit, it's been around for years. Why didn't Creative slap HD on previous sound cards?