why buy a Auzentech x-meridian ?

conuk · 11 Apr 2007 at 16:12

anybody convince me that this will work better than the

creative xi-fi fatality pro

i have at the moment ?

Have started getting a pop sound every 5 seconds or so.... reinstalling etc dont achieve anything... am using the onboard sound at the mo.... and guess what all working ok.

Have spent a fortune on my rig... so a `working` sound card will finish it off.

The card above work better ? Or am I better just using the onboard sound.....

Am using windows XP (dont plan on going vista just yet....)
and use digital out to a Sony digital amp and 5.1 sat speakers.

Any thoughts ? have only ever had Creative sound cards to be honest.
TIA

Greenlizard0 · 11 Apr 2007 at 16:37

Sorry I don't actually understand your original post - which sound card do you have?

conuk · 11 Apr 2007 at 16:43

creative xi-fi fatality pro

i have at the moment ?

Greenlizard0 · 11 Apr 2007 at 17:22

Right - I think you have to disable the onboard sound for the X-Fi to work properly. This isn't the case with all systems, but e.g. with mine it only worked once I disabled the realtek sound which is built with the motherboard.

conuk · 11 Apr 2007 at 17:29

apologies I meant took out the Xi-fi and am using the onboard sound alone after the popping problem.... was only using the xifi alone with onboard disabled....

the xi-fi did work - all be it there was a problem with it not `remembering` the digital out - and a guy coded a fix for it. Dont understand why creative couldnt change the driver to do that !
Its been like that for months.... anyways after getting this random trouble all of a sudden - I googled ... and lo and behold loads of people are having problems with the card....

so when I checked the other cards available as alternatives - there is the Razor one and Auzentech..... hence the post.

Change to one of these? .... or sell the Xi-fi and use onboard sound....
decisions decisions :eek:

james_earl · 11 Apr 2007 at 18:41

if its any help i went from a x-fi to an x-meridian because my x-fi was going wrong. im nothing but pleased the with x-meridian and the sound quality with dolby headphones when gaming is awesome

ryansm · 11 Apr 2007 at 18:50

im now using the Bluegears B-Enspirer. Essentially its a more sensibly priced X-Meridian. Same C-Media Oxygen HD chip, slightly different layout and overall specs.

It has been a superb card. Great drivers, great software and great sound. Far better than on board sound! Love just using the optical cable into my Yamaha 5.1 AV Receiver with my 5 speakers. Works a treat!

http://www.bluegears.com/b-Enspirer.html

conuk · 11 Apr 2007 at 18:59

cheers fellas.....

this Bluegears sounds interesting .... anybody else got ++++`s about this card ?

Price is good too.

sharpy · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:13

What flavours of EAX do these alternative cards support? Do the upmix the sound over optical so all 5 speakers work?

ryansm · 12 Apr 2007 at 15:49

Supports up to EAX 2. I have no intrest in EAX.

Did Microsoft not remove DirectSound 3D from Vista anyway which is the feature that EAX used to work?

You can set these cards to work in mulitple ways, and all 5 speakers will work from the optical cable. I normally use 5.1 Channel via DTS Interactive, but there is loads of other choices.

Phil99 · 12 Apr 2007 at 15:52

They support up to EAX2, but poorly. Nothing but problems with hardware acceleration with a similar card so avoid them if you're gaming and want the extra effects. They're essentially like onboard sound for gaming with regards to CPU usage, but obviously with higher quality outputs.

The X-Fi is getting an emulator to run older EAX games via OpenAL on Vista, whereas EAX5 runs over OpenAL natively as far as I'm aware so will be fine on Vista whenever they sort their drivers out.

ryansm · 12 Apr 2007 at 16:17

Phil99 said:
They support up to EAX2, but poorly. Nothing but problems with hardware acceleration with a similar card so avoid them if you're gaming and want the extra effects. They're essentially like onboard sound for gaming with regards to CPU usage, but obviously with higher quality outputs.

The X-Fi is getting an emulator to run older EAX games via OpenAL on Vista, whereas EAX5 runs over OpenAL natively as far as I'm aware so will be fine on Vista whenever they sort their drivers out.

What proof do you have of this?

"Running the b-Enspirer through RightMark’s 3DSound CPU Utilisation test garnered results of 0.0526 percent, 0.3186 percent, 0.4124 percent and 0.4488 percent (standard deviation) CPU utilisation using DirectSound 2D, DirectSound 3D hardware and DirectSound 3D hardware + EAX respectively when tested using 127 buffers. The X-Fi XtremeMusic’s results were 0.4516 percent, 0.5049 percent, 1.9526 percent and 2.2705 percent (standard deviation), meaning the b-Enspirer uses less CPU cycles to get the job done. This is valuable when gaming, as a lesser load on the CPU can mean higher FPS."

Ok this is just a quote from a review, so may not be entirely true for all games etc, but just goes to show.

I game a fair bit, and have absolutely no problems. Sound is fantastic. My mate replaced his X-Fi with a Razer Barracuda AC-1 and is more than happy with the result. This uses the same chip.

Where these cards lack in EAX they make up for it in sound quality and have all the Dolby and DTS format support one would need in a consumer level sound card, including Dolby Pro-Logic IIx and DTS Interactive, which cannot be found on the competing X-Fi XtremeMusic. Plus they support 5.1 ch speakers via one optical out.

To say that "They're essentially like onboard sound for gaming with regards to CPU usage, but obviously with higher quality outputs" is a bit untrue in my opinion.

Phil99 · 12 Apr 2007 at 17:29

Real experience of using a similar card in various pcs and friends using the same card.

Rightmark doesn't really show the full picture as it's not using real games to test (as you say). I think the main problem with the C-Media based cards with EAX is that they have to emulate EAX as Creative own the spec, so the results are never going to be as good as a card running it natively.

I'm not a Creative fanboy or anything and I have no real problem with the Auzentech cards (except the price), just saying what I've found from my own experience with them.

http://techgage.com/article/auzentech_x-meridian_71/

There's no hardware acceleration for games, so the DSP duties are offloaded to the CPU. If you're not concerned with having bleeding edge gaming performance though, and instead having top notch sound quality, read on.

No doubting they're good cards, just not gaming cards.

ryansm · 12 Apr 2007 at 17:56

fair point.

Yeah, maybe they dont give you the fastest framerates, but they will certainly give you the sound, which is I suppose what I want. I have a pretty fast PC Anyway so I dont notice any loss of FPS in games.

from the review you posted I think he explains the cards pretty perfectly

This card offers very good gaming performance from a sound standpoint. Shotgun blasts, rocket launcher explosions and sniper rifles sound as real as if you're in the middle of an honest to god battle. It's saved my butt a few times when someone would think they were being cute trying to sneak up behind me and I'd hear them creeping up on me just in time to spin around and blast them. From a raw FPS standpoint you're going to lose out to cards with dedicated hardware rendering but that's the way it goes when your DSP is software based.

If wringing every last frame per second out of your gaming is your motivating choice for choosing a card then you need to look elsewhere because this card does come with a penalty but if you want a lush experience that's rendered cleanly with no noise during high sonic impacts then this card will suit you down to the ground.

Can you tell that I am not too keen on Creative Cards?

Phil99 · 12 Apr 2007 at 18:19

ryansm said:
Can you tell that I am not too keen on Creative Cards?

lol, from a driver point of view I can see your point, it's a shame there's not more decent (well priced!) competition to keep them on their toes. I'm a bit of a fan of the EAX effects in games like BF2 though so I'm sticking with X-Fi in my main gaming pc and use a DDL card in my media pc, best of both worlds

It's a bit disappointing with the prices of the cards really, IMO the X-Meridian should be about the £70 price point for what it is, £120 seems a bit over the top. Shame the X-Mystique cards didn't stay at £35 for very long

sharpy · 12 Apr 2007 at 18:51

I did a fair bit of reading on the Bluegear and i liked what i saw.
Sound quality wise it seems to be right up there, i'm not sure if the lack of EAX will bother me as maybe the dts direct feature would be a good trade off.
The thing that bugs me about the Creative cards is the poor driver support and the fact that if i want to have optical output i would need an additional i/o module which is not compatible with the my ideal card the Extreme Gamer.

conuk · 12 Apr 2007 at 18:53

sharpy said:
.....if i want to have optical output i would need an additional i/o module which is not compatible with the my ideal card the Extreme Gamer.

that really did bug me after buying the card having to buy the IO module !
suppose all the companies are like that these days... Apple... Sony etc :rolleyes: