It Brings A Tear To My Eye

Darkwave

Darkwave

Darkwave

Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2005
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Hey guys,

I just upgraded from onboard audio (Realtek Azalia HD) to an X-Fi Extreme Music and I am absolutely floored. Best £50 I ever spent on anything to do with audio, ever. I can tell already that my Logitech X-530 5.1 setup has been put to absolute waste until today.

Battlefield 2 sounds absolutely incredible now with the X-Fi setting, EAX and ultra-high quality. A big improvement after running my audio in stereo software mode for so long.

The 24-bit crystaliser setting really does make a world of difference with music too, utterly impressed.

10/10. Cheers OcUK!

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Hey guys,

I just upgraded from onboard audio (Realtek Azalia HD) to an X-Fi Extreme Music and I am absolutely floored. Best £50 I ever spent on anything to do with audio, ever. I can tell already that my Logitech X-530 5.1 setup has been put to absolute waste until today.

Battlefield 2 sounds absolutely incredible now with the X-Fi setting, EAX and ultra-high quality. A big improvement after running my audio in stereo software mode for so long.

The 24-bit crystaliser setting really does make a world of difference with music too, utterly impressed.

10/10. Cheers OcUK!

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.
Click to expand...

Wow dident think sound cards made much of a difference.

I have the same speakers as your X-230 2.1's though.

I may think about getting one of these, so what does it actualy make the sound qualaty clearer and richer.
 
rkb442 said:
Wow dident think sound cards made much of a difference.

I have the same speakers as your X-230 2.1's though.

I may think about getting one of these, so what does it actualy make the sound qualaty clearer and richer.
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I didn't think they made that much of a difference either until today, decided to randomly treat myself. The last sound card I used was a Sound Blaster 32 years ago. :eek:

For Battlefield 2 especially, this card in particular makes a gigantic difference. The sound quality is not only clearer but there is a massive increase in the number of sounds that actually play at once in the game, can hear single shots of gunfire and birds half way across the map at the same time as squad mates and vehicles nearby all in true 5.1 (I think I was only getting stereo on Azalia.)
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
I didn't think they made that much of a difference either until today, decided to randomly treat myself. The last sound card I used was a Sound Blaster 32 years ago. :eek:

For Battlefield 2 especially, this card in particular makes a gigantic difference. The sound quality is not only clearer but there is a massive increase in the number of sounds that actually play at once in the game, can hear single shots of gunfire and birds half way across the map at the same time as squad mates and vehicles nearby all in true 5.1 (I think I was only getting stereo on Azalia.)
Click to expand...

wth 32 years ago :p
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Hey guys,

I just upgraded from onboard audio (Realtek Azalia HD) to an X-Fi Extreme Music and I am absolutely floored. Best £50 I ever spent on anything to do with audio, ever. I can tell already that my Logitech X-530 5.1 setup has been put to absolute waste until today.

Battlefield 2 sounds absolutely incredible now with the X-Fi setting, EAX and ultra-high quality. A big improvement after running my audio in stereo software mode for so long.

The 24-bit crystaliser setting really does make a world of difference with music too, utterly impressed.

10/10. Cheers OcUK!

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.
Click to expand...

Glad you're enjoying it. I really have enjoyed my card. Don't forget to alter all the settings, there are loads. Some under the THX part where you set the speaker setup. You can set speaker size, distance, angles and bass cross-over and bass boost. :cool:
 
Firegod said:
Glad you're enjoying it. I really have enjoyed my card. Don't forget to alter all the settings, there are loads. Some under the THX part where you set the speaker setup. You can set speaker size, distance, angles and bass cross-over and bass boost. :cool:
Click to expand...
Aye I've been messing around with it obsessively. :D The main thing I missed going from nForce4 to 965P was the audio options, unfortunately Realtek Azalia is severely lacking even for onboard. Now I have more than I can shake a stick at, with change!

It's blowing my mind. I actually had low expectations, this was a pure impulse buy with some spare money. I kept thinking to myself "dude, what a waste of £50, you could've gotten a new 250GB SATA-II disk drive for that" but now I am so glad that I decided to be random. :)
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Aye I've been messing around with it obsessively. :D The main thing I missed going from nForce4 to 965P was the audio options, unfortunately Realtek Azalia is severely lacking even for onboard. Now I have more than I can shake a stick at, with change!

It's blowing my mind. I actually had low expectations, this was a pure impulse buy with some spare money. I kept thinking to myself "dude, what a waste of £50, you could've gotten a new 250GB SATA-II disk drive for that" but now I am so glad that I decided to be random. :)
Click to expand...

It won't end there believe me! Next you'll be going Hi-Fi and it sounds better yet again! :p That's what happened to me! :D Although the purists will tell you to turn off all that EQ and Crystalliser malarky, but I haven't. Sounds brill. Crystal clear, if you will. ;)
 
Firegod said:
It won't end there believe me! Next you'll be going Hi-Fi and it sounds better yet again! :p That's what happened to me! :D Although the purists will tell you to turn off all that EQ and Crystalliser malarky, but I haven't. Sounds brill. Crystal clear, if you will. ;)
Click to expand...
I love the 24-bit crystaliser, lol. Part of the reason I chose this card in the first place, as I listen to a lot of lossy format music on this PC. :)
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Hey guys,

I just upgraded from onboard audio (Realtek Azalia HD) to an X-Fi Extreme Music and I am absolutely floored. Best £50 I ever spent on anything to do with audio, ever. I can tell already that my Logitech X-530 5.1 setup has been put to absolute waste until today.

Battlefield 2 sounds absolutely incredible now with the X-Fi setting, EAX and ultra-high quality. A big improvement after running my audio in stereo software mode for so long.

The 24-bit crystaliser setting really does make a world of difference with music too, utterly impressed.

10/10. Cheers OcUK!

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.
Click to expand...

Wow - just wait until you get some real speakers ;)
 
Codmate said:
Wow - just wait until you get some real speakers ;)
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Nothing wrong with these ones, this room is pretty small and as I've been using onboard sound for yonks you can tell I am not after perfect audophile quality. :p
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Nothing wrong with these ones, this room is pretty small and as I've been using onboard sound for yonks you can tell I am not after perfect audophile quality. :p
Click to expand...

Obviously not - especially since you're impressed with the Hypealiser ;)
 
Hey - I'm not trying to rain on any parades here - but your sound set-up is only as good as the weakest link in the chain, which is now the Logitech X-530 speakers.

Plug your X-Fi into a good Hi-Fi and you'll see what I mean.

The X-Fi cards can sound good - it's just a shame they come with software and circuitry you don't need.
 
Codmate said:
Hey - I'm not trying to rain on any parades here - but your sound set-up is only as good as the weakest link in the chain, which is now the Logitech X-530 speakers.
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I thought the weakest link in the chain would be me, as I am not interested in perfect audiophile quality and only felt like treating myself to my first dedicated sound card since the Sound Blaster 16. ;)

No amount of money spent on sound cards, speakers and hi-fis is going to really be justified for someone who has made a habit out of putting less emphasis on audio hardware and more on graphics hardware. :p
 
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