X-FI Modding

gurusan

gurusan

gurusan

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Joined
2 Sep 2006
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Forest Grove, OR, 'Merica
So I used to have a XFI and miss the good sound....so I bought another one and it should be here soon.

I've been doing some reading about swapping the opamp(s) with the LM4562 and changing one of the caps for a higher quality Black Gate cap.

Has anyone here performed these mods? Are they worth the trouble? I've been reading some pretty impressive claims as to the effect of these mods so that's what has got me inspired.
 
Read all about it inc, the Mineral treated paper they cover PCB in.

All bit tech and lot of work esp as the Software sucks, IMO thats what ruins the sound over older cards in the range (too many gimmicks).

The X-FI 2 is not far away now MS certed it. :)
 
helmutcheese said:
The X-FI 2 is not far away now MS certed it. :)
Click to expand...

Hmm looks like ill not be placing the order for the Xonar then...

Been saying X-fi 2 is long overdue, it has been 2.5years since its original release afterall, lets hope they have improved sound quality and performance even more and designed it for the pciexpress system from ground up !
 
I'm looking to change out the power cap, but the Black Gates are no longer in production.

Are there any good alternatives?
 
HighlandeR said:
Hmm looks like ill not be placing the order for the Xonar then...

Been saying X-fi 2 is long overdue, it has been 2.5years since its original release afterall, lets hope they have improved sound quality and performance even more and designed it for the pciexpress system from ground up !
Click to expand...

Creative... you don't know their tactics?
 
Don't hold your breath for "X-fi 2". no one know when it'll arrive and no one knows if it will actually work with people's PC's, with my problems with my X-fi, and their recent PR catastrophe, I'll never buy one again.

Back on topic, www.head-fi.org should have all you need to know about modding the X-fi
 
Monkeynut said:
Yeah, that's why the current X-Fi drivers suck! To make us all buy new cards!
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that.
I was reading a thread on the creative forums where someone was having a dig at Daniel_k (the guy who mods the creative drivers)
He says..

Let's take an example from NVIDIA: TNT2 was launched in 1999, and I've seen drivers from 2005 still supporting the card, so 6 years of driver support, ranging from Windows 95 to Windows XP x64. No features were crippled or intentionally removed.


He has a point.
 
Thanks for the pointer to head-fi.org

Tons of info there once you find the actual forum lol!

It's making me want to build my own headphone amp now.
 
gurusan said:
Thanks for the pointer to head-fi.org

Tons of info there once you find the actual forum lol!

It's making me want to build my own headphone amp now.
Click to expand...

Leave and never go back 'Sorry about your wallet'.

You can get the LM4562s free from the maufacturer as engineering samples (awesome things, got x2 in my cd-player), and there are plenty of places that do black gates. Check out 'michael percy audio' in the USA, used them before with no hassle.

But BGs arn't always the best for every part of the circuitry, just search for the mods done on head-fi, very helpful bunch :)
 
Yeah I've done a bit of research and have a few LME4960s on their way to me now....and I decided against the black gates as they are best in analogue signals and I hear they are terrible in digital circuitry.

I was tempted to buy from Michael Percy anyway though just because the Grass Valley, Nevada City area is where I from. Graduated from Nevada Union Highschool! Lol I miss it :(

Anyway, so I bought a pack of Sanyo WG 16v 1500uf caps off the bay, these caps were recommended by a few people at head-fi.....changed the power cap out this morning and actually notice a difference, didn't think I would. The mids and highs seem a bit clearer and the bass seems to have become more tight. I've been told the cap will need to be burned in for approx 24-48 hours straight so it will be interesting to see if the sound improves over that time.
 
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Just to update....swapped out the opamp. I had a brief period of panic where only the left channel worked. Just cleaned up the soldering a bit and now it works...and omg the difference is night and day. This sound card really is amazing now.

Also, despite that one hiccup, the mod was much easier than I expected. I'm a noob at soldering and it only took me a few minutes.

here she is in action (LME4960MA)
next I'm going to short the decoupling caps and put on some EMI shielding

img3240eg3.jpg
 
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