so who mants the HDA x-plosion then? :D

cokecan · 24 Feb 2006 at 18:39

think i may have to stick with the mystique for a bit. 90 squiddies is a tad too much for me at the min

besides im in the process of upgradin my amp and speakers so need every penny i can get lol

but on the good side......their finally here (well in a week)

BoomAM · 24 Feb 2006 at 18:43

On topic:
£90 for what we'd be getting isnt too bad of a price.
Im swaying towards it, but the X-Fi's still in the back of my mind.

Off topic:

james.miller said:
no comment BoomAM. no please, on topic.

Sound Man · 25 Feb 2006 at 20:23

i have to say £90 is quite steep for the X-Plosion.
but the X-Mystique has gone up about £15 from a week ago.
supply and demand i know, but now that there is only £30 between the 2 great cards, its difficult not justify the extra bit!

Informative Review
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=28

David G · 26 Feb 2006 at 15:37

I have a creative soundworks DTT2500 5.1 which does not have DTS, but full Dolby digital, will I be missing anything, loss of quality etc by not having DTS with the X-Plosion or would the X-Mystique be the better bet in my case.

Any advice greatly appreciated to put my mind at rest before I place my order.

Phil99 · 26 Feb 2006 at 16:20

I don't think you'd be gaining anything at all going X-Plosion over X-Mystique if you only have Dolby Digital decoding. I'm not sure if they're actually getting any more X-Mystiques in though...?

David G · 26 Feb 2006 at 16:46

Thanks Phil99, Perhaps it time for a new set of speakers then, is DTS a world apart from Dolby digital, is it worth the investment?

BoomAM · 26 Feb 2006 at 18:13

Unless you have a very good speaker system to back it up, DTS over DD isnt that much different.

David G · 26 Feb 2006 at 19:07

So I may as well go for the x-plosion and upgrade my speakers at a later date.

BoomAM · 26 Feb 2006 at 19:50

David G said:
So I may as well go for the x-plosion and upgrade my speakers at a later date.

Unless PC speakers have improved a lot lately, you looking at a lot of money to get speakers that'd do DTS justice.

David G · 27 Feb 2006 at 10:36

So upgrading to Logitech Z 680s or a second hand Creative 5700 Digit Inspire, would not give me any significant improvement with regards to DTS quality.

tom_nieto · 27 Feb 2006 at 11:08

I'd like to get one of these cards, but in actual fact, I'm not sure how much better my Denon 3802 is at DTS than DD. I would imagine that it is slightly better, but I'm not sure if it's worth the £90 investment over soundstorm just yet. I don't play too many games, which is where I think the major improvement would be seen with this new card. I listen to music in stereo (or on CD

) rather than surround because my rears are poo, and my fronts are very good. For a media centre PC however this might be just the thing, as the neo:6 type encoding would be pretty good for TV shows which are in stereo.

In my opinion, as they are the same price, if your PC is solely used for gaming using PC type speakers, the X-fi would probably be a better option, as it supports all the latest standards. The marketing on the crystalliser makes me want to be sick though. You can't improve the sound quality, all it is in a cleverly programmed equaliser, and slight volume booster. To the unwary ear louder = better. After playing with the DD live encoding for the last 5 minutes just listening to music, all I can see it achieving is a slight volume boost. When you turn it off the sound seems much flatter and more lifeless, until you turn the normal volume up again. Another free trick is to turn your system volume right down and turn your speaker volume right up. Doesn't make a difference to my setup, I'm using digital. If you're using a proper speaker setup, the X-mystique would be the thing to go for, especially in a media centre type PC.

David G · 27 Feb 2006 at 11:42

Tom_nieto thanks for that. I moved from sandstorm to onboard, which is why I am desparete to get back to DD.

james.miller · 27 Feb 2006 at 12:03

David G said:
So upgrading to Logitech Z 680s or a second hand Creative 5700 Digit Inspire, would not give me any significant improvement with regards to DTS quality.

you need an av amp and speaker set to start thinking about DTS over DD. Im in the same position as Tom really - i'm not even sure if i'll see a real difference. Id love to play with the card, but not for the £90 asking price, especially since i already have an x-mystique.

BoomAM · 27 Feb 2006 at 16:01

David G said:
So upgrading to Logitech Z 680s or a second hand Creative 5700 Digit Inspire, would not give me any significant improvement with regards to DTS quality.

I wouldnt have thought there would be much difference, if any.
PC speakers are notoriously bad. And imo, anything less than a proper AV Amp & some good hifi speakers, wouldnt be worth upgrading to a sound card that does DTS, as anything less than a proper speaker setup wouldnt do it any justice.
But thats just my opinion.

David G · 27 Feb 2006 at 16:20

Once again guys, thank you for your advice, I may as well save £30 and stick with the X-mystique then.

Did they get the drivers sorted out in the end for the X-mystique, and the problems with the speaker settings do you know.

David G · 27 Feb 2006 at 16:26

Once again guys, thank you for your advice, I may as well save £30 and stick with the X-mystique then.

Did they get the drivers sorted out in the end for the X-mystique, and the problems with the speaker settings do you know.

Tzim · 1 Mar 2006 at 13:09

Someone stops me if I'm wrong, but I thinks there may be an advantage of DTS over DD : lower latency. AFAIK, DTS can encode audio by smaller pieces than DD, so DTS encoding could mean lower latency for realtime applications such as games.

If I remember correctly, good old soundstorm had 120ms delay, delay which was a little disturbing when you were playing (shots sound 120ms late... weird). DTS could reduce theses delays to far less nocticeable values. Unfortunately Elite ********' preview does'nt talk about encoding delays.

BoomAM · 1 Mar 2006 at 14:54

I doubt that the sound will be affected all that much to be honest by latences that small. Especially for games.

james.miller · 1 Mar 2006 at 15:48

Tzim said:
Someone stops me if I'm wrong, but I thinks there may be an advantage of DTS over DD : lower latency. AFAIK, DTS can encode audio by smaller pieces than DD, so DTS encoding could mean lower latency for realtime applications such as games.

If I remember correctly, good old soundstorm had 120ms delay, delay which was a little disturbing when you were playing (shots sound 120ms late... weird). DTS could reduce theses delays to far less nocticeable values. Unfortunately Elite ********' preview does'nt talk about encoding delays.

that's a good point actually. The x-mystiques delay is far improved over the soundstorm, but there IS still a delay when running PCM and more so when running DDLive. I only really notice it when my amp and my headphones are both on (headphones plugged into the soundcard). The amp is just a fraction behind with PCM.

Fatboy · 1 Mar 2006 at 15:51

Just a quick update guys my HDA delivey shipped as planned on Monday by Air so shouold be here no later than monday.