Creative soundcard users.....SIC

[royfrosty]

got, but thinking of using something better than the realtek onboard sound card when i use my triplefi or HD595 :/

Get a standalone DAC to pair with your tf10 or hd595. If you want an external soundcard can try the premium HD.

 

[ragnarok95]

Im using the X-fi HD DAC paired with the bose companion 2 seriesII 2.0 setup. It's a decent DAC to be honest. Def sound better than onboard, at least, i can heard the diff.

 

[royfrosty]

Hmm guys, I think I'm set on getting the M10 Swan speakers, but will upgrade(at least 1 year later though LOL).

Looking for a good set of DAC to pair with the M10 speakers, probably getting on monday.

Saw these Creative DACs on Amazon, what's the difference between them and sound cards, and are they good? If the only difference is that this one don't have amp, then I'll get these DAC, since I don't use headphones.
And since I have no idea about the wiring and connections, want to ask if my comming Swan M10 2.1 speakers can go through these DAC?

Amazon.com: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB Audio System with THX SB1240: Electronics

Amazon.com: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB Audio System with THX SB1095: Electronics

Also, which one better? And bang for buck?

Don't know whether creative SG still have the national day promo of $48 for the surround 5.1 pro. Or else can hoot that for sure...

Those 2 cards you mentioned is an external sound card. The newest one would be is with the THX aka premium HD. The previous one has been in market for almost 2 years already.

There are not much of a difference from internal ones. Unless you are talking about the 1st gen 5.1 surround which is terrible.

 

[jokerd]

Question: If I get a headset with a USB dongle like the Logitech G430 or the Razer Tiamat, and I have a sound card, will I still be using the sound card's processing power or the USB will take over?

 

[pa9797]

Where to get Omamps? thinking of changing and what to change?

 

[Illusionist_85]

asking here where to get muses02 for some times liao

 

[shadow84]

asking here where to get muses02 for some times liao

You should ask this at the headphones sections..... There got a lot of pros who swap opamps like swapping tissue paper.

 

[jkohlc2]

Should I get titanium hd or asus xonar essence stx?

 

[bemylove]

the most improvement for a soundcard over integrated is you can turn the volume loudly without distortion and you get better dynamics from quietest moments to the most bass banging moment all very clear. in short, dedicated soundcard produces cleaner, louder and betterly separated audio.

imo THD at 199 is more value than STX, but if you are a headphone user with a cans that is >300omh, than get STX or ZX.

STX i think is 249
ZXr is 299
ZX is 199

STX got 3 year warranty while all creative only 1 year. i heard of soundcards dying...maybe because most users kiap it between their hot gpu and large heatsink.
THD has better processors and dac than ZX though.

But hor you need to have a quality speaker/headphone setup first.

 

[Teng Zai]

Don't know whether creative SG still have the national day promo of $48 for the surround 5.1 pro. Or else can hoot that for sure...

Those 2 cards you mentioned is an external sound card. The newest one would be is with the THX aka premium HD. The previous one has been in market for almost 2 years already.

There are not much of a difference from internal ones. Unless you are talking about the 1st gen 5.1 surround which is terrible.

Ok, thanks for the tip on the 5.1. Guess I just use onboard till I find something really nice to hoot

Training to fight poison LOL

 

[Illusionist_85]

not sure its allowed posting here

my driver is found on this webpage

PAX Download - PCIe X-Fi Series

 

[r3f3r3e]

try looking at corsair SP2500 2.1 speaker.

Hey thanks will keep a lookout ..

Last qn: I notice alot of nice review for audio engine .. Not sure any bros here use ZXR tgt with audio engine A5+ with s8. Any reviews or comments ?

 

[trigger25sg]

Just hootz creative zxr and tried analog 5.1 and dolby and dts via optical to logitech z906. The surround in analog is so good vs dolby when dog barking from behind, i actually turned my head around thinking a dog was behind me.

Gonna try pairing it with aego m 2.1 but my wire not long enough, any idea where to get or buy this cable?

Turtle Beach, Inc. - X31,X3 Stereo Audio Splitter Cable

Thanks.

 

[shadow84]

Just hootz creative zxr and tried analog 5.1 and dolby and dts via optical to logitech z906. The surround in analog is so good vs dolby when dog barking from behind, i actually turned my head around thinking a dog was behind me.

Gonna try pairing it with aego m 2.1 but my wire not long enough, any idea where to get or buy this cable?

Turtle Beach, Inc. - X31,X3 Stereo Audio Splitter Cable

Thanks.

Can try LHS at Sim Lim Tower... that is just a 3.5mm to RCA cable... quite common.

 

[bemylove]

ya analog is definitely better in yours and most cases.

1. dolby digital is compressing the audio stream so it can use only 1 cable to send the 5.1 sound. the compressed format is 640kpbs only

2. your logitech decoder will decode the signal and play back the audio using its own DACs which is expected to be way inferior to zxr.

so if can, stick to analog surround...although it will be a bit messy with 3 cables coming out instead of 1.

next thing is try to play a music cd on your aego m with zxr and compare to your integrated audio. sure gotch different. enjoy your new audio bliss siol!

oh if you going lhs, may want to consider buying better graded cables. not sure if your logitech can take regular rca cables, if can, get some belden made by lhs and the audio will be even fuller....but each these custom cable strands will be thicker than your average computer audio cables. cost i think $4 per meter and need 2 pairs of rca plugs per strand...so for one 2m strand will cost $12-14...hehee can bargain abit.

 

[trigger25sg]

ya analog is definitely better in yours and most cases.

1. dolby digital is compressing the audio stream so it can use only 1 cable to send the 5.1 sound. the compressed format is 640kpbs only

2. your logitech decoder will decode the signal and play back the audio using its own DACs which is expected to be way inferior to zxr.

so if can, stick to analog surround...although it will be a bit messy with 3 cables coming out instead of 1.

next thing is try to play a music cd on your aego m with zxr and compare to your integrated audio. sure gotch different. enjoy your new audio bliss siol!

oh if you going lhs, may want to consider buying better graded cables. not sure if your logitech can take regular rca cables, if can, get some belden made by lhs and the audio will be even fuller....but each these custom cable strands will be thicker than your average computer audio cables. cost i think $4 per meter and need 2 pairs of rca plugs per strand...so for one 2m strand will cost $12-14...hehee can bargain abit.

Hi thanks for the tips and yeah my logitech already on belden cables and they are very thick lol. On a side note between sound blaster titanium hd and zxr is the dolby or dts.

On the THD although anlaog 2.1 sounds very good, i can actually use the dolby digital and use the play stereo mix features like surround, EQ, bass enhancement and add to it with dolby etc. It sounds damn good esp for games like skyrim.

On the ZXR its not possible, if i use dolby digital and use play stereo mix features, it will disable the dolby n go pcm.

Tomorrow i going to try get a rca splitter and try on aego m 2.1 vs msi realtek 1150 with sound blaster cinema codecs on the Z87-GD65 gaming series motherboard (This mobo onboard sound did impress me for a bit after comparing it with alienware laptop with sound recon3d chip in it).

 

[trigger25sg]

Can try LHS at Sim Lim Tower... that is just a 3.5mm to RCA cable... quite common.

It a rca splitter not the regualr rca to 3.5mm. So far never seen this in shops before though. So far i only seen this cable when i bought the razer chimera 5.1 but also gave it away when i sold the headset.

 

[CeSaRiO]

Just curious, has anyone been playing with the opamps on the soundcard?

Excluding me that is.

 

[bemylove]

Hi thanks for the tips and yeah my logitech already on belden cables and they are very thick lol. On a side note between sound blaster titanium hd and zxr is the dolby or dts.

On the THD although anlaog 2.1 sounds very good, i can actually use the dolby digital and use the play stereo mix features like surround, EQ, bass enhancement and add to it with dolby etc. It sounds damn good esp for games like skyrim.

On the ZXR its not possible, if i use dolby digital and use play stereo mix features, it will disable the dolby n go pcm.

Tomorrow i going to try get a rca splitter and try on aego m 2.1 vs msi realtek 1150 with sound blaster cinema codecs on the Z87-GD65 gaming series motherboard (This mobo onboard sound did impress me for a bit after comparing it with alienware laptop with sound recon3d chip in it).

interesting...although the thd soundchip is actually more powerful than zxr, are you sure the settings of zxr cannot use eax/cmss3d eq of dolby sound, is that what you meant by tweaking the digital mix?

btw if possible use dts instead of dolby. dts compression rate is 1.5mbps if not wrong, more than twice better in theory than dolby.

but in the end if you can use analog cables for surround, may as well stick to that, it is higher audio quality. dts and dolby are just more convenient single cable solution that uses your speaker decoder box assumingly higher quality DAC. another downsides of dts/dolby is they introduce some latency, means the game move millisecond before the sound...some may noticed some dont.

 

[bemylove]

Just curious, has anyone been playing with the opamps on the soundcard?

Excluding me that is.

quite costly and troublesome to get the correct tools leh...also dun know after swapping is the time spent worth it to test.

btw if want to add more body to thd sound signature, which opamps is good?