Getting the most out of my X-fi?

[snow patrol]

I finally got myself an x-fi (extreme music version). I'm primarily partnering this with some sennheiser HD 25 headphones, so my sound is pretty nice i have to say.

However, i was wondering what kind of settings i should be using to get the best out of games. Should the eax effects volume be turned up or left at default for example? Are there any decent guides out there?


Also, am i loosing any quality by plugging the headphones into the headphones out socket on the volume control of my logitech speakers? Rather than plugging them directly into the card itself? I'm not QUITE ready to go do the route of getting a headphone amp just yet, but out of interest, how much difference would that make?

Thanks.

 

[krisboats]

I would also love to know, as i got my X-Fi yesterday and while it does sound beasty, there are little things that need to be adjusted... for example in CS:S whenever anyone talks over the microphone theres this MASSIVELY DEEP bass noise that shakes the wardrobe.

I personally find it funny, but mother and the neighbours don't


Guess i'll be back in 3-4 days as thats how long it seems to take to get an answer in "sound city"... sound village more like.

 

[titaniumx3]

If you have a decent pair of headphones it's probably best to leave everything off in the audio console. I find the fancy audio effects to be mostly gimmicks that make you go "oooh ... ahhh" for a while and then quickly become obsolete, only serving to degrade the audio quality on closer inspection.

Most games that are designed to make use of effects such as EAX usually have options within the game to turn these features on, hence it would probably be detrimental if you turned on EAX from within the x-fi audio console at the same time. If the game has no options for EAX/3D sound, then the game audio engine probably wasn't designed for such sound effects.

The only feature that may be of use is the CMSS-3D feature on x-fi cards which supposedly emulates surround sound on headphones. You could try that out, but I found it to be annoying and detrimental to sound quality. For example in BF2 I find that with good gaming headphones (e.g. ATH-A900 which have a large soundstage) the game already has realistic 3D sound effects built in and doesn't require any additional effects.

BTW, I recommend plugging in your headphones directly into the sound card output. The headphones amps on speaker headphone outputs are usually pretty crappy and just degrade sound quality and add extra noise. Just switch back and forth and see what sounds best.

 

[snow patrol]

thanks for that reply. I must admit, it did seem to sound slightly better when i was plugged directly into the sound card, but i'm not sure it's worth the hassle. I have my water cooling rad mounted on the back of my case, and so fiddling with the sound card inputs is pretty tricky any way. I think for prolonged sessions it'll be worth it though.