There are lots of pro soundcards for the PC which I would think offer better sound than the consumer X-Fis, but they won't be very cheap, and they won't offer good gaming support. Also, peoples' taste of what sounds better likely varies rather than being some form of universal constant, and to most, I guess there's an easily identifiable point when something sounds 'more than good enough', which IMO, the X-Fi easily exceeds. Especially with PC-centric sound systems that won't offer extreme S/N ratios etc.
I'd venture to say that E-mu 0404 sounds BETTER than a X-Fi Xtreme Music by a decent margin, and its CHEAPER. Funny enough, E-mu is actually owned by Creative. The boards have a different purpose and with the X-Fi you are largely paying for the "accerlation" features.
I would argue that a cheap Chaintech AV - 710 sounds nearly as good as a X-Fi. The X-Fi is simply not that great of a sounding sound card. You're not paying for audio quality you're paying for the effects like 3DCMSS Headphone and "crystalizer." Processing effects, the DAC on the other hand on a card actually does improve the quality of the sound.
Really? Coz I heard reports saying the X-Fi has very good headphone sound... I'd possibly scratch that one up to personal taste as well.
No really? I thought everyone heard the same and therefore what I thought was a waste was a waste for everyone. You're comment was completly pointless. Its understood that my was my opinion and through much use I can firmly say I think it was totally pointless and actually made headphones worse for gaming. It muddied the sound and made channel seperation terrible on the X-Fi, I kept it off.
Funny, I actually never changed that setting at all.
I just nailed it at gaming and kept it there...
Great for you. You ran your card through a number of processing effects then. I like to listen to my music straight up. No effects at all so the closest way you can do that with the X-Fi is in audio creation mode with ASIO.
Would be a waste of cash for me. Besides, I would never trust any claims of 'much better sound quality' without a double-blind study backing any such claims up...
Even Creative themselves use a higher quality DAC as you go up the line, the Pro Edge Xtreme $400 X-Fi or whatever its called uses a higher quality DAC and is the best sounding X-Fi, of course Creative charges far more than its worth.
There are a number of consumer priced cards that sound just as good or better than the X-Fi at prices that are some time even cheaper. Creative's own E-mu line of cards use a better sounding DAC than the X-Fi and several models of the E-mu line are cheaper than the base model X-Fi. A card like the ESI Juli@ sounds better than the X-Fi and its priced around the X-Fi Platinum level. Both of the cards have better recording features too.
Take a visit to Head-Fi.org and look in the Computer as Source forum, you'll quickly see that's its nearly always recommended for the best audio you get a external DAC for the best quality audio and best bang for your buck. Many of these people have done double blind testing.
The X-Fi outstanding gaming card and I strongly believe in many games it helps with the performance baseline, but as far as sounding good it does not. There other sound cards and external/deciated DACs that sound much better for the same price, you're just going to miss out on the game acceleration and "features" of the X-Fi. Its a trade off, I care more about audio quality.