Hey guys, I'm really hoping some of you will be able to help me with some much needed soundcard advice please!
I've owned a Creative PCI XtremeMusic (Model SB0460) soundcard for many, many years now and can't fault it. It's easily by far the best soundcard I've ever owned and I've owned quite a lot over the past 25 years. On Monday my wife purchased me a Soundblaster Z PCI-E card as I needed a new soundcard that used the x1 PCI-E socket as a recent GPU upgrade meant I was no longer able to get access to the PCI slot on my motherboard. "No problem, the X-Fi soundcard is years old now and they must be a lot better these days" so I thought to myself! - How wrong and bitterly disappointed was I to be!!
I've now spent the past four days trying to get my new Soundblaseter Z to sound anywhere near as good as my old X-Fi XtremeMusic. I've been through all the surround sound and crystalization options, tried every known configuration on the Equalizer and individual volume controls and uninstalled and re-installed individual software components etc and yet can't get it to sound anywhere near as good as my old X-Fi card
Even my wife could tell that the sound quality wasn't as good as that of the old card and even though she purchased the soundblaster Z for me as a present she was the one who recommended putting my old X-Fi soundcard back in - that's how bad the sound was.
I'm using a set of 5.1 surround speakers and listen to Music 90% of the time and have always used these settings:
Entertainment Mode
Speakers: 5.1 Mode
CMSS-3D: Stereo Surround 50%
X-Fi Crystalizer: 100%
Windows Tone Settings:
Bass Balance: 0.0 dB
Treble: +12.0 dB
The sound quality on the Soundblaster Z is extremely muddy and lacks any kind of clarity. The sound comes across as over-processed and extremely dull. I also wasn't aware that installing the Soundblaster software would result in losing the Windows based treble and bass functions. This only made matters worse. Even though the EQ software settings are designed to replace them there was no way I could match the clean vibrant sound I get from my X-Fi XtremeMusic.
I can't be convinced by anybody that the Soundblaster Z is a 'better' card than my old X-Fi XtremeMusic. Even if it is 'technically' better if the sound output doesn't match up then there's simply no point in having it installed in my system.
I also wanted to try connecting up my Sony Playstation to the soundcard using the Optical In port on the Soundblaster Z and connecting it to the Optical out on the Playstation. I'm using a HDMI lead on my Playstation but this passes audio to the monitor speakers and we all know monitor speakers are pretty bad. No matter what settings I tried all I got was a loud continuous distorted noise coming out of my PC speakers, even though the Playstation was configured to output audio via Optical and the settings within the Soundblaster software were set to Max and wern't muted. I tried 2 different optical cables and rebooted both my PC and Playstation many times but it made my difference. I also checked to make sure the red light was visible on the end of the optical cable when plugged in etc.
To cut to the chase, can you guys recommend a soundcard that gives equal or better audio quality to the X-Fi XtremeMusic? I listen mostly to music, I need 5.1 surround sound for gaming and in an ideal world an Optical In port would be useful but isn't crucial. I don't mind spending more or buying a different brand of soundcard, I just want the sound to be an improvement or considered an upgrade over the X-Fi XtremeMusic otherwise there's no point.
Is there an X-Fi card out there that uses the x1 PCI-E port that somehow sounds better than the X-Fi XtremeMusic or do all X-Fi's cards generally sound the same????
I'm really hoping that some of you that are reading this may have once owned a Soundblaster X-Fi card and have found something you consider to be better and use it to playback mostly music rather than for movies or in-game surround sound effects etc.
Big thanks to anyone that can offer some advice and thanks for reading through my lengthy post, your views are important and I look forward to hearing form you guys
I've owned a Creative PCI XtremeMusic (Model SB0460) soundcard for many, many years now and can't fault it. It's easily by far the best soundcard I've ever owned and I've owned quite a lot over the past 25 years. On Monday my wife purchased me a Soundblaster Z PCI-E card as I needed a new soundcard that used the x1 PCI-E socket as a recent GPU upgrade meant I was no longer able to get access to the PCI slot on my motherboard. "No problem, the X-Fi soundcard is years old now and they must be a lot better these days" so I thought to myself! - How wrong and bitterly disappointed was I to be!!
I've now spent the past four days trying to get my new Soundblaseter Z to sound anywhere near as good as my old X-Fi XtremeMusic. I've been through all the surround sound and crystalization options, tried every known configuration on the Equalizer and individual volume controls and uninstalled and re-installed individual software components etc and yet can't get it to sound anywhere near as good as my old X-Fi card
Even my wife could tell that the sound quality wasn't as good as that of the old card and even though she purchased the soundblaster Z for me as a present she was the one who recommended putting my old X-Fi soundcard back in - that's how bad the sound was.I'm using a set of 5.1 surround speakers and listen to Music 90% of the time and have always used these settings:
Entertainment Mode
Speakers: 5.1 Mode
CMSS-3D: Stereo Surround 50%
X-Fi Crystalizer: 100%
Windows Tone Settings:
Bass Balance: 0.0 dB
Treble: +12.0 dB
The sound quality on the Soundblaster Z is extremely muddy and lacks any kind of clarity. The sound comes across as over-processed and extremely dull. I also wasn't aware that installing the Soundblaster software would result in losing the Windows based treble and bass functions. This only made matters worse. Even though the EQ software settings are designed to replace them there was no way I could match the clean vibrant sound I get from my X-Fi XtremeMusic.
I can't be convinced by anybody that the Soundblaster Z is a 'better' card than my old X-Fi XtremeMusic. Even if it is 'technically' better if the sound output doesn't match up then there's simply no point in having it installed in my system.
I also wanted to try connecting up my Sony Playstation to the soundcard using the Optical In port on the Soundblaster Z and connecting it to the Optical out on the Playstation. I'm using a HDMI lead on my Playstation but this passes audio to the monitor speakers and we all know monitor speakers are pretty bad. No matter what settings I tried all I got was a loud continuous distorted noise coming out of my PC speakers, even though the Playstation was configured to output audio via Optical and the settings within the Soundblaster software were set to Max and wern't muted. I tried 2 different optical cables and rebooted both my PC and Playstation many times but it made my difference. I also checked to make sure the red light was visible on the end of the optical cable when plugged in etc.
To cut to the chase, can you guys recommend a soundcard that gives equal or better audio quality to the X-Fi XtremeMusic? I listen mostly to music, I need 5.1 surround sound for gaming and in an ideal world an Optical In port would be useful but isn't crucial. I don't mind spending more or buying a different brand of soundcard, I just want the sound to be an improvement or considered an upgrade over the X-Fi XtremeMusic otherwise there's no point.
Is there an X-Fi card out there that uses the x1 PCI-E port that somehow sounds better than the X-Fi XtremeMusic or do all X-Fi's cards generally sound the same????
I'm really hoping that some of you that are reading this may have once owned a Soundblaster X-Fi card and have found something you consider to be better and use it to playback mostly music rather than for movies or in-game surround sound effects etc.
Big thanks to anyone that can offer some advice and thanks for reading through my lengthy post, your views are important and I look forward to hearing form you guys
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