It Brings A Tear To My Eye

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 18:37

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.

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 18:53

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.

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.)

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 19:02

Tom|Nbk said:
wth 32 years ago

Yup, a decade before I was born.

Worse though, that was a typo, I meant SB16. :eek:

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 19:14

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.

Aye I've been messing around with it obsessively.

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.

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 19:31

Firegod said:
It won't end there believe me! Next you'll be going Hi-Fi and it sounds better yet again! That's what happened to me! 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.

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.

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 20:29

Codmate said:
Wow - just wait until you get some real speakers

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.

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 20:54

Firegod said:
Pah don't listen to this non-believer! We know how brill it is!

Brill indeed!

Darkwave · 21 Nov 2006 at 22:13

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.

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.

Darkwave · 22 Nov 2006 at 05:22

sunlitsix said:
do any games crash for you when using game mode + the crystalizer?

Nope, seems fine to me. I have only tried BF2 with it so far though, I'll let you know if any other games crash.

fish99 said:
But you did buy the X-Fi for better sound quality though

With low expectations, yes. I was actually going to buy an older Audigy or something very basic, but as I keep saying I just had extra money laying around and decided to treat myself.

I had lots of buyer's remorse until the very moment I first heard audio on this card, I was wishing that I'd spent the money on a 250GB HDD instead. Obviously that remorse faded as my low expectations were greatly surpassed.

I'm also probably going to buy a Speedlink Medusa 5.1 headset for gaming at night and for voice comms, will probably be better sound quality than my speakers TBH but I am not really fussed about that as you know.

Darkwave · 24 Nov 2006 at 07:57

That's put me off buying the headset a bit then.

I'm not in a rush to get any so I'll wait and see if anything new comes out.