Which Sound Card??

right so digital wont be needed at all? ok thats me sorted i want an X-FI, but i would like one for about £80 with front panel, whats diffo between an X-FI extreme music, platinum, elite pro and Fatal1ty?
 
X-Fi Xtreme Music - Base model
X-Fi Platinum - Front Panel
X-Fi Fatal1ty - X-RAM & Front panel (X-RAM doesn't really do a lot tbh)
X-Fi Elite Pro - Better DACs (better analogue quality) with external box + X-RAM

You wouldn't need to use digital at all with any of them for 5.1 in everything if you use the 3x analogue leads.
 
How better is the analoug quality with the Elite pro?, the thing in the end making me choose x-fi is the cool looking control panel and able to use analoug, control panel on HDA X-Plosion looks like my intergrated chips drivers on my other comp.
 
willhub said:
How better is the analoug quality with the Elite pro?, the thing in the end making me choose x-fi is the cool looking control panel and able to use analoug, control panel on HDA X-Plosion looks like my intergrated chips drivers on my other comp.
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Not sure by how much, but I'd imagine it wont be noticable on PC speakers.

Unless you need midi or S/PDIF inputs there's no real reason to get the front panel really...you can use splitters to run headphones at the same time as speakers and other cheap adapters to get phono input/outputs.
 
yea but the front panel would be a nice addition to the case, if i do decided to use digital anytime it will save going around the back of the case, also if i did use digital on the x-fi, it would be stero right? but if i set it to 5.1 on the control center on my speakers would it be in true 5.1?
 
willhub said:
yea but the front panel would be a nice addition to the case, if i do decided to use digital anytime it will save going around the back of the case, also if i did use digital on the x-fi, it would be stero right? but if i set it to 5.1 on the control center on my speakers would it be in true 5.1?
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The thing on the speakers would just upmix it, so for music it would probably be the same as all the card does is upmix it as well.

You wouldn't get true 5.1 in games going through digital though as the speakers would "guess" where the sound was coming from as it would only have a stereo source to work with.

DVDs would be true 5.1 over digital if you enable passthrough on the X-Fi as the control center would be able to decode it properly.
 
so its impossible to get true 5.1 surround sound form games?

Anyway i have orderd the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition + HS600 £29.99 Gaming Headset Bundle - Retail from overclockers for £145 the front panel is somthing i would like and the controls are too, should be getting it on thuesday, looking forward to trying it :D
 
willhub said:
so its impossible to get true 5.1 surround sound form games?
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They'll work fine in 5.1 in analogue, as I posted earlier. I was referring to the digital outputs on the X-Fi in the previous post.
 
games sound fantastic in ddlive on my av system, but again thats going back to how my amp handles digital sources better than analogue. with DD or dts it has so much dynamic range, everything is crisp and bass hits hard. Something an analogue feed, including that from an a2zs, never lived up to.

Phil99 said:
Hmm, Whats DTS Neo PC, DTS Interactive and DTS Digital LIVE?
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They're basically the features that encode/compress the audio.
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hmm not exactly. DTS interactive and DDLive are multi channel digital encoding algorythms yes. dts neo is basically a surround sound decoder similar to, but more advanced than, dolby surround. It creates multi channel surround from a 2 channel stereo source:)
 
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james.miller said:
hmm not exactly. DTS interactive and DDLive are multi channel digital encoding algorythms yes. dts neo is basically a surround sound decoder similar to, but more advanced than, dolby surround. It creates multi channel surround from a 2 channel stereo source:)
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Didn't notice the Neo bit there :o
 
willhub said:
so have i just wasted money getting an X-FI?
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Unless you HAVE to use coax, then no.

I know on paper coax/optical is superior because it's a direct digital link, but the additional features and enhancements added to the X-Fi when connected via analogue make this irrelevent.
 
willhub said:
i will use analoug as long as i get DTS, Dolby digital, and that DTS Neo thing that the X-FI appears to have too.
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You'll get Dolby Digital/DTS from DVDs that have compatible soundtracks (all should be in Dolby Digital, not all are in DTS)

The X-Fi doesn't have DTS Neo but has its own CMSS which does the same thing.
 
ah, at the moment when i change the effect to 6ch direct on the control center on the speakers, i cant what seems like propor surround sound from GTA SA, when you drive past a car, its just like the sounds should be, it will be better tho with the X-FI right? also when i have my X-FI setup, what effect should i have the control center on my speakers to be put on, 6ch direct? On the creative website, there is this picture on the X-FI, says DTS NEO ES.
 
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