elementOfpower
Newcomer
Has anyone tried hooking this card up to their 5.1 surround stereo receiver? From the looks of the card the front panel has the optical out that I need for a direct optical hookup to my stereo, but I just want to be sure.
X-Fi Fatality Optical out/Surround
- Thread starter elementOfpower
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elementOfpower
Newcomer
I've been told that I still can't get digital 5.1 surround even when hooking up the optical between the receiver and the front panel of the Fatality, because the Fatality decodes the digital signal to analog. Is this true?
I've also been told that the DTS Home connect could be used to encode the signal back to digital to send to the receiver.
This sound right?
I've also been told that the DTS Home connect could be used to encode the signal back to digital to send to the receiver.
This sound right?
elementOfpower
Newcomer
Never mind. I got my answer. The Fatality is on its way back to newegg.
The X-Fi has never been advertized as being able to encode DD surround sound, it merely passes pre-encoded through to its digital outputs, or decodes it to its analog surround channels. If you somehow didn't understand this, you've not done your homework properly! 
It's a great soundcard though, the best really. I'm using an X-Fi Fatality myself right now. Awesome sound clarity and channel separation compared to scummy SoundMax on-board CPU-driven AC97 crap...
It's a great soundcard though, the best really. I'm using an X-Fi Fatality myself right now. Awesome sound clarity and channel separation compared to scummy SoundMax on-board CPU-driven AC97 crap...
The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy
Newcomer
Are they still having PCI issues causing pops and crackling or is that all fixed now?
dependss , so no.
Eh the only X-Fi problem right now for me is the latest drivers break ASIO, which sort of sucks for audio playback (or anything to do with ASIO). But Kernel Streaming is just as good as a hot-fix.
Dunno; I never experienced any of that with any of my soundblaster live/audigy/x-fi cards...
Anyway, depending on your particular system and its faults and quirks, it may not BE fixable, since cards that do hardware sound stream mixing must fetch each sample in bitesize pieces within a certain timespan, or else the hardware buffer in the sound chip underruns and you get pops in your audio. If your system has a bugged PCI controller (older VIA shit, faulty bios or such), or weird PCI bus traffic etc, you'll get pops even though it's through no fault of creative's at all...
The_Wolf_Who_Cried_Boy
Newcomer
Dunno; I never experienced any of that with any of my soundblaster live/audigy/x-fi cards...
Anyway, depending on your particular system and its faults and quirks, it may not BE fixable, since cards that do hardware sound stream mixing must fetch each sample in bitesize pieces within a certain timespan, or else the hardware buffer in the sound chip underruns and you get pops in your audio. If your system has a bugged PCI controller (older VIA shit, faulty bios or such), or weird PCI bus traffic etc, you'll get pops even though it's through no fault of creative's at all...
It's not effecting me, reports of the problem put me off buying an X-Fi after my Audigy died (which, aside from it's very premature demise, I didn't have any problems with). It seems to span the full gammut of chipsets, of the top of my head peple with NF4 and 5X0 series and Intel's 975 and 965 series have complained in forums. The opinion seems unanimous it's Creatives fault. (?)
What internet "opinion" is, probably has the least bearing on actual truth of all!
Seriously tho, it's so hard to tell what is the fault of what with PCs, there's hardly a piece of software or kit that doesn't bug on SOME system. IMO, the X-Fi is a very solid, high-quality device. I wouldn't be afraid of buying one (and indeed I did buy one, I might add).
Seriously tho, it's so hard to tell what is the fault of what with PCs, there's hardly a piece of software or kit that doesn't bug on SOME system. IMO, the X-Fi is a very solid, high-quality device. I wouldn't be afraid of buying one (and indeed I did buy one, I might add).
elementOfpower
Newcomer
Guden--
I probably could've done a little more "homework" in this case, seeing as I'm not a regular audiophile by any means when it comes to digital encoding and all that stuff (though I can hook up equipment pretty well), but when a sound card has an optical out on it it sure leads you to believe that it can encode digital 5.1. I've never seen anybody run 2-channel analog stereo through an optical cable, but maybe I just live in a small world.
I did check to see if it had dolby digital and DTS capability, and it did. However, it said "decoder" instead of "encoder" and I didn't catch that.
On top of that, the card is 200$. 200$ and no digital surround? No thanks. Creative won't get another dime of my business until they fix this issue.
I probably could've done a little more "homework" in this case, seeing as I'm not a regular audiophile by any means when it comes to digital encoding and all that stuff (though I can hook up equipment pretty well), but when a sound card has an optical out on it it sure leads you to believe that it can encode digital 5.1. I've never seen anybody run 2-channel analog stereo through an optical cable, but maybe I just live in a small world.
I did check to see if it had dolby digital and DTS capability, and it did. However, it said "decoder" instead of "encoder" and I didn't catch that.
On top of that, the card is 200$. 200$ and no digital surround? No thanks. Creative won't get another dime of my business until they fix this issue.
I really don't see that connection, but alright. If you say so.
Actually, the optical connection was MADE for 2-channel stereo audio - it was invented during the CD era (SPDIF stands for Sony-Philips Digital InterFace - it also comes in electrical coax version I should add). That's why multichannel transmissions must be compressed, there isn't room enough in the signal for more than two channels of CD quality otherwise.
Why do you even care? DD surround is a rather aggressive lossy compression, you can only lose quality by going that way. Okay, so the DACs and passive components in a good receiver might be better than those on the X-Fi, though I doubt most people have the speakers - or the ability - to notice. Especially with a whirring PC sitting next to them.
There's litte to no point in having realtime encoding. You also add a slight lag to all sound through the encoding process I might add, not all that much perhaps, but it's there.
I recently sold my X-Fi. Basically its not the greatest sounding sound card, not even close really. The gaming features are kinda nice, 3DCMSS Headphone is useless and its crazy annoying going from gaming mode to audio creation mode depending on what you're doing.
I just said forget it and ordered a dedicated DAC, ahh much better sound quality.
I just said forget it and ordered a dedicated DAC, ahh much better sound quality.
Its just an external DAC outside the computer, it has no other purpose than digital to analog converting audio. Generally DACs are included on sound cards but they might not be as high quality because sound cards have many other features.
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.
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.
Funny, I actually never changed that setting at all.
I just nailed it at gaming and kept it there... 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...
Subtlesnake
Regular
My friend uses CMSS with the Sennheiser 595 headphones for gaming, and the quality of the positional sound is incredible.
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.
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.
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.
s/good/accurate. One is a subjective quality, the other is not. It's the same reason many like Koss headphones. They think they sound good. On the other hand, they tend to 'colour' the sound, so they're not accurate.
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