XFI vs Xonar : WTF?

Tom|Nbk said:
Is it worth replacing an "Xtreme Gamer" for an Xonar D2X?
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Not really, but it depends what the main use for your X-Fi is, gaming or music? Also depends on what speakers you have, analogue or digital. D2X has features which may be of no use to you. If you have no speakers that have digital connection, DTS is of no use to you. Optical will be of no use either, unless plan to create or record music from a digital source. Music creation software also comes with it, which again may be of no use.
 
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BloodyL said:
Bought a Xonar, tried to pump a 44.1Khz DTS audio CD through it as an SPDIF signal, no go.
No matter what I tried it wouldn't have it (there is an old thread of mine about it here in the Sound section somewhere).
Eventually I tracked down the problem to the fact that the Xonar resamples everything to 192Khz, then downsamples it to whatever sample rate you have selected, even if you have it set to pass through.

Sent the Xonar back, now I can listen to whatever I want on my XFI without having to faff around, material played through the SPDIF just works and all is well.

The Xonar only "sounds better" because it resamples everything it touches...a false positive in my book.
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If you're using SP/DIF out then the onboard card is fine as you;re using an external DAC. Upsampling can sound good when done properly...
 
I use both, SPDIF for surround audio content, and the analogue out for stereo material.
All being fed into a Yamaha RX-V650 and Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 1 speaker package. :)

But that's not the point, the DTS audio signal cannot be altered as it is a purely digital package, the Xonar could not see this and would still upsample to 192Khz then downsample the signal back to 44.1Khz even before it reached the SPDIF port.
 
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BloodyL said:
I use both, SPDIF for surround audio content, and the analogue out for stereo material.
All being fed into a Yamaha RX-V650 and Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 1 speaker package. :)
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Why not use SP/DIF for stereo stuff also, or does the whole 192Khz upsampling throw a spanner in the works?
BloodyL said:
But that's not the point, the DTS audio signal cannot be altered as it is a purely digital package, the Xonar could not see this and would still upsample to 192Khz then downsample the signal back to 44.1Khz even before it reached the SPDIF port.
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Strange, I've never heard of DTS streams being modified like this, but that seems pretty silly if you ask me. I'm surprised there isn't a bypass or passthru option, as going back to 44.1K will not help here. If possible, set the output to 48Khz or 96Khz of your amp is able to decode 96K. :)
 
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MikeHunt79 said:
Hi, what monitors are they? If they are NS-10's, then I can see why you may think the XFI sounds better, NS-10's are mid-fi at best. Also, your amp may or may not be helping here...

I suggest a decent pair of headphones would give you a better comparison of which card sounds best...

Personally I think the XFI sounds like a bag of crap, but one mans gold is another mans poison (or something like that :p)... So if you prefer the XFI then keep it!
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On my Music studio, my AMP is a chevin Research Q6 and my monitors are Yamahas and the same also applies for my Adam P22's however, these are powered monitors and therefore do not require the amp. Both setups show the XFI to be superior to the Xonar.

My headphones are Beyerdynamic DT 990 which are certainly going to show me any minute differences between the two cards.

Oh, and funny you should mention, but I have only recently upgraded from a set of NS-10's... They are currently at my father in-laws as I am kind of trying to sell them to him and he is a bit of an audiophile and Im being a bugger and Im trying to get as much as I can for them ( And why not? - they are mint )
 
Which Xonar did you go for?

I'm using an STX, the headphone out powers a pair of akg k272's which are very hard to drive, for me it's night and day better than other soundcards I've tried. I also use spdif fed to a Yamaha surround amp powering a B&W surround package, it works perfectly and I've not had any issues with surround or stereo audio streams.
 
DanF said:
Which Xonar did you go for?

I'm using an STX, the headphone out powers a pair of akg k272's which are very hard to drive, for me it's night and day better than other soundcards I've tried. I also use spdif fed to a Yamaha surround amp powering a B&W surround package, it works perfectly and I've not had any issues with surround or stereo audio streams.
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The D2X - Admittedly not the best of the Xonars, but I have a couple of XFI Gamers and I was comparing the Xonar against the XFI Gamer as they are about the £70 mark it seemed a fair comparison.



nightmare99 said:
OT: I miss Nvidia Soundstorm :confused:
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I still have 2 Abit NF7S setups...

I too love SoundStorm... They did talk about a stand alone card didnt they? - although who THEY are or were I dont know... I just read somethign somewhere???

Would it have been such a great idea as a card? - I doubt it. It probably want that good looking back as the SBLive was a better option I feel

I dont know, but its certainly got a place in my heart thats for sure!
 
FatRakoon said:
On my Music studio, my AMP is a chevin Research Q6 and my monitors are Yamahas and the same also applies for my Adam P22's however, these are powered monitors and therefore do not require the amp. Both setups show the XFI to be superior to the Xonar.

My headphones are Beyerdynamic DT 990 which are certainly going to show me any minute differences between the two cards.

Oh, and funny you should mention, but I have only recently upgraded from a set of NS-10's... They are currently at my father in-laws as I am kind of trying to sell them to him and he is a bit of an audiophile and Im being a bugger and Im trying to get as much as I can for them ( And why not? - they are mint )
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NS-10's may not be the best choice for an audiophile as they're not hi-fi.

When used for their intended application, studio monitors, they work well, as if a mix sounds good on NS-10's then it should sound good on boomboxes and other less then perfect systems. They're a good lo-fi yardstick really...

If you want rid of them, check out the prices on e-bay's completed items, they hold their value really well, especially if you have the amp to go with them.

Adam P22's are supposed to be nice sounding, even tho I'm not really sure if a ribbon tweeter is a good idea if you want a neutral sound. I'm surprised that you thought the X-fi sounded better, but with sound a lot of it can come down to personal preference. The E-mu 1212m with balanced outputs is supposed to work very well with Adam monitors, if you can I'd give the EMu a go also. Consider the 0404 USB too, this gives a very clean sound.
 
Would it have been such a great idea as a card? - I doubt it. It probably want that good looking back as the SBLive was a better option I feel
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The SBLive drivers were buggy, Soundstorm just worked. I can't help feeling that a chap from Creative stopped by Nvidia and dropped in a big brown envelope ;)
 
The NS10's are very high quality... Better than the XFI and Xonars can provide them I feel, but yes... They have been with me a fair while now and I want better and so, thats why I am upgrading from them.

My main studio ( Although I feel studio is kind of making my kit sound more than it actually is ) is based on an Atari Falcon as the sequencer using CuBase Audio 2.6.

Ridiculous as it sounds, I still have not even got a Mixer that mixes both Digital and Analog and so, Im using a PC with an Audigy2 & Live Drive and its selected "WOT U HEAR" and thats the mixing of the digital line into Analog... Sad or what?

So, the NS10's are more, much more than I truly need in that respect, however, when it comes to playing some of my digital only music, Im only using the Atari & the FDI and thats when the Audigy2 shows its simply not up to it.

Its not that I actualyl want rid as such, but I have a buyer and he seems to want them, purely based on how much I have pimped them over the years really.

EMU - Again, this is somethign that I had considered some time ago.

We are going a little off my own personal plans here though... The XFI v the Xonar are obviously PC based setups. My speaker setups with those are Altec Lansing 995 ( XFI ) and Logitech Z5500 ( Xonar ).

The Chevin & Yamahas and thje Adams are for my Atari "Studio" ( ahem ).

I am more than happy with teh Atari setup... More than happy.

I am more than happy with my PC setups too... Even my lowest spec PC is better than most peoples.

Although in saying this, I have been looking more and more into external soundcards purely on the basis that a friend has one ( God knows what model ) and its astounding on his setup... Thats a firewire jobbie.

Seriously though... Can USB provide high quality hi definition Audio?
 
Well my experience is that both Xonars I have had were and are better than the Xfi Gamer/Extreme Gamer I had previously, I have a fairly medium end (audiophile wise...) setup consisting of a NAD C325BEE, Mordaunt Short 914i speakers and a pair of HD555 cans and the STX sounds great, a tad juicier than the Xonar D2X it replaced but both are miles nicer musically than the XFi. never had Creative driver problems either but I did want the best audio for my budget and since I am also a PC gamer I had to make sure my gaming sound was also to my liking which I'm happy to say was just fine, in fact in every game (except BF2142 which sounded better in EAXHD) I played it sounded similar to the Xfi, perhaps the sound has more punch on the Xonar cards too due to the higher quality opamps and circuitry used.

Before the Xfi I had the famous Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and heck I'd still have it today if I wasn't forced to upgrade it when Vista came out because TB didn't release any drivers for that card so it was home to XP machines only.

I was a bit sad because the Xfi cards didn't sound as good musically as my Santa Cruz did and the Xfis did suffer from the snap crackle pop bug early on which were fixed down the line when I installed the modified drivers.
 
Ah come on... I got 2 TBSC cards... Well, one of them is the VLSF but they are the same card and they are a nice warm sound but to say they are better than the XFI is not only fooling yourself but its a downright blatant lie.

I know where yo uare coming from with it... I personally like the sound that they produce. Its a warm sound thats true, and warmer than the creatives seem to give, but there is next to zero high end ability with them, all sound being in the MID-LOW ( not low, just lower end of MID really )and there not being that much real scope in them, while creatives give a sharp sound.

Ah I dont know... but to compare the XFI and the TBSC / VLSF cards itys really beyond anything I can even comprehend!!!! - its like comparing a skateboard to a car when your only real true logic is that they both have 4 wheels.

Its times like this when I really can say that everyone's ears and tastes are different.

I think clearly ours are nothing like each others ???!?!?!?!?!???

LOL
 
You use too many question and exclamations marks!

The Santa Cruz DID sound better than the Xfi, the Cruz matched my then setup perfectly, it didn't need Sound Crystaliser or anything to open up the high end, it sounded best completely neutral and un-aided by any software triggered effects like the Xfi did. Put the Xfi into media/music mode and disable all the features in the driver to make it just as neutral and it doesn't sound as clear or warm as the SC let alone the Xonar.

The fact that you find the Xonar lacking compared to the Xfi tells me that something else is wrong here in your setup perhaps rather than the Xonar being at fault because quite clearly the Xonar is every bit as good as it's advertised and it only takes a quick glimpse in magazines and online reviews to see this.

Or maybe it's a case of you being too used to the sound given by Creative cards in general, they have a signature sound colour that can be quite harsh on laid back setups, they're more suited to up front and lively setup I find. The SC/Xonars etc are laid back cards which deliver a warm sound with a wide soundstage and I like that, it's less fatiguing and more rewarding for relaxed listening.
 
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Ive had both and do generally think that Asus cards are better.
Music/films definitely sound better than my previous creative cards.
Also had no Driver problems with Asus unlike the countless problems i had with creative and there drivers.
If it wasnt for that Daniel chap who mods creative drivers they would be even worse than what they are now.
Saying that there are countless ppl who would properly disagree with me just my experience between the two brands.
 
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