I need to replace Creative and I need to do it now!

[Quitch]

I HATE Creative. I hate them. I hate them so much! For years I've put up with their sub-standard drivers, lousy support, irritating hiss.. simply because no one else could compete on price, and the only time I did buy a non-Creative card (Turtle Beach) the experience was actually worse!

But I can't take it anymore. I'm running Windows Vista with an Audigy 2 and I just cannot take the shitty support any more. Okay, sure, it's an older card so maybe it's time to move on. Lets check the Xi-Fi release notes... hmmm, last release was in May... doesn't support 6.1 sound yet.

Oh. My. God. Creative could you suck any harder? Your cutting edge card and now, eight months into Vista, and God only knows how long after it was available for public beta, and you still can't even bloody manage 6.1 sound! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!!!

It simply has to go, it has to die a horrible, horrible death and be replaced with something. Something that will minimise the FPS impact; something that supports OpenAL; something with drivers that don't sell my soul to satan AND format my hard drive; something which has realised that Windows Vista (32bit) exists in the marketplace.

Surely that's not too much to ask?

 

[Malo]

Well Auzentech are making a card based on the X-Fi with all the 5.1, 6.1 7.1 enhancements etc, but the only problem is it uses the Creative X-Fi driver, thus I assume it will have exactly the same problems.

Unfortunately for hardware OpenAL support, there aren't really any options.

 

[Quitch]

It seems from responses I've received here and elsewhere, that I will have to go Xi-Fi. Thing is, the most irritating feature of the Audigy2 is the hissing, which according to the kx project is due to the codec used out front.

Now, does the Xi-Fi resolve this, or should I be looking at the Xi-Fi audio with its higher signal to noise ratio, taking into account that I'm using a Cambridge MegaWorks 5.1 speaker set.

 

[Skrying]

My X-Fi did not have any hiss at all and at the time (Windows XP) I thought the X-Fi drivers were damn good. Much better than any other audio driver I've used, and much better than my experience with past Creative drivers.

 

[Davros]

i think the prob is vista + drivers
creative cards seem ok under xp

what are you looking for in a card performance, quality, api support ?

if you want api support under vista (ds3d,a3d,eax) the xfi is your only choice

have you looked at emu ? yes creative own them but they are a sepearte division
these are the real creative genius's at creative (the emu 0404 is £61 in the uk)
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=10447

edit : argh bugger seems to be no vista drivers ready for this card

edit 2: there are beta drivers available they predict wdm drivers to be done 3rd quater 2007

ps: 6.1 ??? ive heard of 5.1 + 7.1 even 4.1

edit 3: could you not get round the 6.1 prob by using an ecternal dolby digital decoder ??? (not cheap i know)

edit 4: ive heard a few good things about m-audio revolution they have vista drivers (beta) no idea about openal support

pps: you do realsise that even if you have openal support that doesnt means you will get ds3d, eax or a3d other cards drivers support native openal games but its only creative alchemy that converts those api's into openal

 

[Quitch]

I don't have a 6.1 setup, but obviously 10 months into Vista and their flagship "Vista Ready" product still not supporting a speaker setup... just concerns me a little.

I know, OpenAL != EAX, you can't do EAX under Vista, but OpenAL is the future so it's important to me.

Frankly, audio quality is not an issue to me and hasn't been since the Audigy 2. Sounds perfect to me, except the irritating hiss it emits. I believe the X-Fi uses different codecs, so that should be gone. I just wanted to see if there were alternatives to Creative.

Doesn't seem there are. I didn't see much of a difference between the EMU and the XFi.

 

[Davros]

I know, OpenAL != EAX, you can't do EAX under Vista, .

you can thats the whole point of creatives alchemy eax will be converted to openal - just like a glide wrapper converts glide to opengl or d3d, creative are the only company so far to provide this ability

iirc alchemy is available free for x-fi's but will later be ported to audigy's but it wont be free for tham unless creative change their minds

ps: i beleive the emu uses a different processor to the x-fi + different drivers

pps: looks like microsofts grand vision is to move all audio processing onto the cpu

 

[Quitch]

What the heck is the difference between the XtremeMusic, Gamer and Audio?

 

[Tim Murray]

The X-Fi doesn't work in Linux. This infuriates me to no end.

 

[Skrying]

What the heck is the difference between the XtremeMusic, Gamer and Audio?

I doubt you'll find new XtremeMusic ones anymore (at least Newegg doesn't carry it anymore). They were released as the lowest end X-Fi at launch, this is the card I owned. For the time it was really awesome and to be honest I wish I would have kept it.

The Gamer and Audio are different, I don't believe the Audio has any hardware acceleration (so certainly not what you want, as no acceleration includes OpenAL) and the Gamer I think does (Makes sense, Gamer and all..) but probably uses lower quality DAC's.

Personally I can't wait for the Auzentech X-Fi. It should be the next upgrade in my audio setup as it has all the features I need and want in a sound card.

 

[Quitch]

I believe you're confusing the XtremeMusic with the XtrmeAudio (unless you're saying it was retired and replaced at the low-end). The Music has a larger board design than both Gamer and Audio, the two of which look pretty much identical, barring the heatsink on the Gamer.

 

[Malo]

The XtremeAudio is a re-badged Augidy SE. It doesn't have any hardware acceleration and isn't recommended for gamers by Creative (for obvious reasons).

 

[swaaye]

Ya know my Audigy 2 ZS seems just fine in Vista. It's even doing 4 speaker audio in games for me. And the card has never had any background noise at all.... Considering they are like $20 or less on eBay, maybe you need more of them! lol

There is even a hacked version of Aalchemy out there so you can rip off Creative and their "low cost" Vista software upgrade. I haven't tried it out yet tho.

 

[Rainbow Man]

Neve rhad issues with background noise with any of my Live/Audigy cards either (3 of them in total).

Maybe the problem's local in your PC/setup. Humming is often a problem with grounding. Bad shield in your cables maybe? A loose connection somewhere?

Move the card to a different card slot in case there's interference inside your case..

Also re-jiggle youir cabling so audio signal cables are kept away from the rest.

Your card should NOT hum!
Peace.

 

[Colourless]

Humming probably caused by unmuted analog inputs on the card. CDRom/MIC/TAD/AUX/PC Speaker Analog inputs can pick up lots of noise when not connected. Line in usually isn't too bad, but if you're not using them, mute them.

 

[swaaye]

Do you have PCs linked together or any other separate electrical devices besides speakers? A ground loop issue will introduce a low frequency hum at the same frequency as your power source (60 Hz here in US). I had to get a ground loop isolator to run my laptop's line out to my Audigy 2's line in. Laptops are poorly grounded.

 

[willardjuice]

Oh. My. God. Creative could you suck any harder? Your cutting edge card and now, eight months into Vista, and God only knows how long after it was available for public beta, and you still can't even bloody manage 6.1 sound!

You are going to be waiting a long time since Vista itself doesn't support 6.1; it's not a Creative issue.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

What mother board do you have? Not all onboard audio is bad.

 

[Frank]

I have a laptop with an on-board Reaktek High Definition sound "chip", and it has incredibly good (5.1) sound, through the build-in speakers. It also has a bass speaker on the bottom. It definitely doesn't sound like a laptop!

 

[Davros]

does vista not support 5.1 either ?
what does it support ? surround ? basic stereo only ?

ps: about 6.1, i know you can get 6.1 speaker systems but there is no 6.1 standard. Movies either use ac3 (dolby digital 5.1) or dolby truehd (7.1) Games use surround sound (4.1) or ac3 the closest is dolby digital ex its 6 channels but the 6th channels is sent through the rear repeakers