XFI vs Xonar : WTF?

I guess that's probably your issue then, the Z5500's are really not that good for music, almost no sat/sub setup is really. I had a quick look at the speakers you listed, the adam p22's do sound like they are really good as studio monitors with a good detailed flat response, the Z5500's on the other hand will have a cavenous hole in the lower mid range with much worse crossovers, woolly bass and harsh trebles :p they're most likely your weakest link, not the soundcard.
 
Oh I know a good 2 speaker setup is much much better than a 5.1

The 5.1 setups are there for the gaming aspect of it and, the Altec Lansing setup I much prefer for music than the Logitech.

Yes, I accept that both the Altec lansing and the Logitech setups are not going to be anywhere near as good as the Q6 / Adam options, and thats why they are upstairs on teh studio kit and the 5.1 jobs are on gaming PCs

Its a compromise though isnt it?

For my main PC, which does as much gaming as music, the best option I feel is the XFI + Altec 995 setup... Since doing some tests the last couple of days I have found plenty of flaws, or shall I say "Features" that I never noticed before in all my setups and even though I think that both the 995 and the Z5500 setups are absolutely unbeatable, I have realised just how poor they really do perform again proper kit. I knew they would, but I just never knew how much.

And yes, the Z5500's are bloody awful and there is simply too much of a gap between what the satellites can do, and what the Bass does, this is not present in the 995's and these give a good full range from all the satellites, and the bass sounds are smoother.
 
FatRakoon said:
Its a compromise though isnt it?
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It definitely is, I went for sub/sat as I'm in a shared house where personal space is a bit limited for full rangers on all corners. I ended up also getting the stx and k702's to get back a decent music listening experience.

Funnily enough I've started to use them for about 80% of gaming as well now, setting them up with dolby virtual headphone gives almost the same surround positioning as the full system but gives a more immersive experience and also causes less sound pollution for the others :)

Different music also really wants slightly different equipment, the k702's sound amazing with well recorded and balanced music but really sounds painful with most 'pop' you'd find on the top 100 in spotify. I've also bought some Sennheiser hd25-II headphones which makes most music sound good being a bit coloured with fun bass (well they are DJ headphones) and are good for the bus and office being closed back.
 
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I was thinking of getting a sound card, but I only listen to music on my Z5500's through Optical, which I presume is SPDIF? Does this mean having a sound card compared to a dedicated sound card would be no different for me?

Thanks
Will.
 
Yep a dedicated sound card is only of real use if you use analogue. With digital connection the analogue convertion is handled by the Z-5500.
 
willhub said:
And if I moved over to analogue, with say an X-Fi, would the SQ be better than when I'm using optical and the Z5500 is handling it>
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It certainly is better with the xonar d2x doing the decoding with my z5500's. I'm guessing it would be with the x-fi as well.

However, whether the small improvement is worth the money is debatable.
 
Forte is overkill for any PC speakers to be honest. Same with PC headsets. It's a Hi-Fi level card (and has a feature designed to give surround sound with stereo headphones). Pairing that card with the X540s and Medusas is a total mismatch - a bit like putting a jet engine in a Morris Marina...
 
not much ££ just spent money i havent got on other hardware

but possibly could get speakers one month then headphones the next

i want surround sound too

maybe £100 on each :s

please say what you suggest if money no object too though
 
Well headphones will give better bang for buck in the price range. I would get headphones first.

I'll suggest Goldring NS1000s or DR150s depending on whether you prefer open or closed headphones. They're stereo headphones but you would use CMSS-3D headphone (try it with your Medusas in stereo mode). I've compared both against much more expensive headphones (£150-£250 range) and I don't really think it's worth the extra.

Edit: Would also consider Sennheiser HD555. Also try your Medusas in stereo mode to see if CMSS-3D headphone is any good for you. You'll need to set the X-Fi to headphones and with either 'optimise for headphones' or 'desynchronise from windows' ticked.

Money no object? Sennheiser HD800s. If you don't like CMSS-3d headphone - SRS Realiser - it comes with some STAX :)

You could spend an awful lot on speakers. The sky's the limit. For £100 I wouldn't bother with a different 5.1 set.
 
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Seems to be a lot of mixed opinions in here. Im having issues with my XFI Champion series, I think its down to Creative that is the cause considering since I have taken the card out of my system to use on-board, my system has not crashed.

Would the Xonar D2/D2X be a good substitute? Main use is gaming but with occasional music.
 
I was in a position to compare a xonar dx directly with an x-fi xtreme music, i still had a spare x-fi when i got the dx.
And for me all my game sounds were sharper and very much clearer than the x-fi where they sounded muffled like on company of heroes for example, where on the x-fi I could barely hear the thunder on the main menu it was louder clearer sharper on the xonar with more details coming through.The xonar is very forward sounding whereas the x-fi muddy and muffled when it comes to the finer details.

To get any sort of decent sound with the x-fi crystallizer had to be enabled imo.
I also have no snap crackle pop randomly rearing it's ugly head on win7 +2x2gb ram unlike the x-fi.
I could never honestly recommend an x-fi xtreme gamer /music over a xonar dx or d2 to anyone.

You wont notice a huge difference though unless you use some good headphones imo but the biggest thing is how buggy x-fi still is on 64 bit and certain combinations of ram and boards.
 
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