Creative X-Fi HD USB / Titanium HD

Hmm, I've only just noticed this bit of kit:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=1925&subcat=

and /or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-072-CL

Anyone have any experience with it? Looks like a potentially perfect solution for a headphone setup. It has "THX TruStudio Pro" instead of Dolby Headphone support, but it could work equally well... Decisions, decisions...

Could anyone from OcUK have a look at this bit of kit, potentially try it out with some good headphones (stereo) with the THX TruStudio turned on, and see what they think compared to say, a Xonar DG with Dolby Headphone? If not, do you know if anyone would be able to provide a review sample!? lol.

THX Trustudio Pro is, AFAIK, just a rebranded version of CMSS-3D (including CMSS-3D Headphone) with no alterations. Nothing much has changed from the original X-Fis. The only difference is the THX licence.

In my expeience, Dolby Headphone is vastly superior to CMSS-3D Headphone in terms of convincingly replicating speaker listening. For me, CMSS-3D does a fairly convincing job of placing sound behind me. In terms of placing sound in front of me it fails. The equivalent of the front centre speaker remains firmly between my ears and front left and right sound too wide. I prefer playing with CMSS-3D headphone to stereo or 'true' surround sound headphones though.

I also find that CMSS-3D Headphone suffers from a distinct lack of clarity. I find Dolby Headphone suitable for music but CMSS-3D Headphone is awful with music.

X-Fi doesn plenty of other aspects of gaming well though. It's macroFX and Elevation filter are both very good in enhancing positioning. In terms of legacy gaming, Creative's Alchemy seems to restore hardware sound in a much higher percentage of DirectSound3D and EAX games than Asus' DS3D-GX.

I would still say that X-Fi is superior for gaming overall - particularly if you play many pre-2007 games. As a result I use an X-Fi, having previously owned a Xonar D2. Having said that - I could not move over to CMSS-3D Headphone. This is why I've gone for an X-Fi with external Dolby Headphone receiver.

If I was shopping for an X-Fi now, the titanium HD would be on my shortlist. It is one of the best X-Fis on the market in terms of analogue quality.

I should probably mention that for music, I don't use the SU-DH1. I use Foobar2000 with a wrapper for the Dolby Headphone .dll from PowerDVD 9 Ultra. That allows me to use Dolby Headphone with the superior analogue quality of my Auzentech X-Fi Prelude.