Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD

After being attacked by the card again today, I think I'm going to get rid of it. It played a strange, painfully loud blip over the audio of the game I was playing. The actual audio of the game seemed unchanged except for the loud sound playing over it.

And yes, I did everything cyclone3d suggested. I'm just sick of this thing hurting my ears.
 
are there any cards out there without the popping sound?? is there a company that makes one that doesnt have issues?
 
Pointing me to a SINGLE reviewer source? Please... how about forming your own opinion, and intelligently stating it yourself.
 
^

-It emulates EAX

-It has an amazing DAC

-It has a good DSP

-Decent opamp

-The specs are good

-A simple google search will give you mountains of great reviews and forum threads filled with both regular people and audiophiles raving about how amazing it sounds

-Look at some of the reviews on newegg

Seriously. Audio is subjective. Reviews from obsessive people are the most important way to figure out whether a piece of audio equipment is any good. So I would be posting a bunch of reviews if I were him as well quite frankly. For the same price the santo claro from ht omega has slightly better support hardware however it lacks some of the driver features that the asus cards have such as EAX 3/4/5 emulation (important for games). So if your a pure music listener the santo claro would be a better choice for a hi-fi/headphone setup. I do think the xonar essence is a better card overall though.
 
OFaceSIG said:
Pointing me to a SINGLE reviewer source? Please... how about forming your own opinion, and intelligently stating it yourself.
Click to expand...

Really? You want me to do the work when its you who is making the buying decision? :p I've done my research and made my purchase. Your turn.

Not to mention thats a link to Stereophile... i would love some some Creative crap get reviewed there.
 
450 said:
YAY!!! :D

I hope Creative finally released a product with good drivers!
Click to expand...

Yeah right. :rolleyes:

Even if the drivers are good to start with it won't be long before the support peters out like always.
 
I assure you my Turtle Beach Montego does not use the same C-media chipset as mobo ones do. And if you manage to find me a mobo that uses it. I will show you one expensive mobo.

It kicks the hell out of onboard. Has EAX emulation Dolby Digital Live It is missing Dolby Headphone but I bought it at the time for the DDL.

The only reason I am thinking about replacing it is because I want Dolby Headphone.
 
Well, why I'm not surprised? 5 years and 3 operating systems later Creative is still unable to fix the shutdown problem.
Code: 
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f)
A driver is causing an inconsistent power state.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000003, A device object has been blocking an Irp for too long a time
Arg2: fffffa8005b7a060, Physical Device Object of the stack
Arg3: fffff80000b9c518, Functional Device Object of the stack
Arg4: fffffa8009bbb0e0, The blocked IRP

Debugging Details:
------------------


DRVPOWERSTATE_SUBCODE:  3

IRP_ADDRESS:  fffffa8009bbb0e0

DEVICE_OBJECT: fffffa8006fd5b30

DRIVER_OBJECT: fffffa8006fc5840

IMAGE_NAME:  ctaud2k.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4b67e426

MODULE_NAME: ctaud2k

FAULTING_MODULE: fffff880052fa000 ctaud2k

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x9F

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  2

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff80002ef2273 to fffff80002e83740

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff800`00b9c4c8 fffff800`02ef2273 : 00000000`0000009f 00000000`00000003 fffffa80`05b7a060 fffff800`00b9c518 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff800`00b9c4d0 fffff800`02e8f29e : fffff800`00b9c600 fffff800`00b9c600 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 : nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x292b0
fffff800`00b9c570 fffff800`02e8edd6 : fffff800`03033700 00000000`0001def3 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiProcessTimerDpcTable+0x66
fffff800`00b9c5e0 fffff800`02e8f4be : 00000004`7417dc7c fffff800`00b9cc58 00000000`0001def3 fffff800`030020e8 : nt!KiProcessExpiredTimerList+0xc6
fffff800`00b9cc30 fffff800`02e8ecb7 : 00000001`29a03dc1 00000001`0001def3 00000001`29a03dab 00000000`000000f3 : nt!KiTimerExpiration+0x1be
fffff800`00b9ccd0 fffff800`02e8beea : fffff800`02ffde80 fffff800`0300bc40 00000000`00000002 fffff880`00000000 : nt!KiRetireDpcList+0x277
fffff800`00b9cd80 00000000`00000000 : fffff800`00b9d000 fffff800`00b97000 fffff800`00b9cd40 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiIdleLoop+0x5a


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x9F_IMAGE_ctaud2k.sys

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x9F_IMAGE_ctaud2k.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
---------
 
ashmelev75 said:
Well, why I'm not surprised? 5 years and 3 operating systems later Creative is still unable to fix the shutdown problem.
Code: 
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f)
A driver is causing an inconsistent power state.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000003, A device object has been blocking an Irp for too long a time
Arg2: fffffa8005b7a060, Physical Device Object of the stack
Arg3: fffff80000b9c518, Functional Device Object of the stack
Arg4: fffffa8009bbb0e0, The blocked IRP

Debugging Details:
------------------


DRVPOWERSTATE_SUBCODE:  3

IRP_ADDRESS:  fffffa8009bbb0e0

DEVICE_OBJECT: fffffa8006fd5b30

DRIVER_OBJECT: fffffa8006fc5840

IMAGE_NAME:  ctaud2k.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4b67e426

MODULE_NAME: ctaud2k

FAULTING_MODULE: fffff880052fa000 ctaud2k

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x9F

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  2

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff80002ef2273 to fffff80002e83740

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff800`00b9c4c8 fffff800`02ef2273 : 00000000`0000009f 00000000`00000003 fffffa80`05b7a060 fffff800`00b9c518 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff800`00b9c4d0 fffff800`02e8f29e : fffff800`00b9c600 fffff800`00b9c600 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 : nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x292b0
fffff800`00b9c570 fffff800`02e8edd6 : fffff800`03033700 00000000`0001def3 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiProcessTimerDpcTable+0x66
fffff800`00b9c5e0 fffff800`02e8f4be : 00000004`7417dc7c fffff800`00b9cc58 00000000`0001def3 fffff800`030020e8 : nt!KiProcessExpiredTimerList+0xc6
fffff800`00b9cc30 fffff800`02e8ecb7 : 00000001`29a03dc1 00000001`0001def3 00000001`29a03dab 00000000`000000f3 : nt!KiTimerExpiration+0x1be
fffff800`00b9ccd0 fffff800`02e8beea : fffff800`02ffde80 fffff800`0300bc40 00000000`00000002 fffff880`00000000 : nt!KiRetireDpcList+0x277
fffff800`00b9cd80 00000000`00000000 : fffff800`00b9d000 fffff800`00b97000 fffff800`00b9cd40 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiIdleLoop+0x5a


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x9F_IMAGE_ctaud2k.sys

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x9F_IMAGE_ctaud2k.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
---------
Click to expand...

LOL Never seen this before. I've heard of the "snap and hisses" lockness monster type errors that everyone always rants about but this "shutdown error" is a new one to me.
 
OFaceSIG said:
LOL Never seen this before. I've heard of the "snap and hisses" lockness monster type errors that everyone always rants about but this "shutdown error" is a new one to me.
Click to expand...

I think the crash had something to do with DDL encoder enabled and it appears that they've fixed it in the June's beta driver. The card comes with Feb 2010 driver on a CD.

Previously I've seen shutdowns delayed by 10-20 seconds with other creative cards, but they did not crash the system.
 
ashmelev75 said:
I think the crash had something to do with DDL encoder enabled and it appears that they've fixed it in the June's beta driver. The card comes with Feb 2010 driver on a CD.

Previously I've seen shutdowns delayed by 10-20 seconds with other creative cards, but they did not crash the system.
Click to expand...

What is the filename of the June beta version? I have a few newer files but I want to make sure that I'm not shafting the Entertainment mode's THX TruStudio PC settings.

Edit: Scratch that. I found it... XFRL_PCDRVBETA_US_3_00_0037.exe
I'll test it out soon
 
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Zachstar said:
Are you serious? You are willing to have crappy drivers and horrific support because you might save MAYBE 1 percent CPU use?

C-media no better than onboard? Where do you come up with this stuff? My 50 USD DDL card same as onboard? 200USD cards same than onboard?

I have to just laugh so hard at that.
Click to expand...

This is an X-Fi card by Auzen, and while they were not using a Core i7 in this review, that audio was taking up around 18 percent of the CPU usage at one point for the Xonar DX, whereas the Creative Chip never went above 2 percent.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/auzentech-xfi-home-theater-hd-71-soundcard-review/9
 
King of Heroes said:
Will you be reviewing the USB version as well? As I said before, I'd love to see if it supports OpenAL over USB or not.
Click to expand...

I'd like to know this as well. After 5 years, I want to get my X-Fi out of my case but I don't want to lose features or proper acceleration.
 
Nowadays laptops are equipped with intel core i7, so the audio acceleration is meaningless to me . . .

What matter are the 3D surround and EAX HD and other features.

It would be very pleasing if the usb sound blaster X-Fi HD support up to EAX 4.0 for notebook users :)
 
Last edited:
SoundBlaster said:
Nowadays laptops are equipped with intel core i7, so the audio acceleration is meaningless to me . . .

What matter are the 3D surround and EAX HD and other features.

It would be very pleasing if the usb sound blaster X-Fi HD support up to EAX 4.0 for notebook users :)
Click to expand...

Yes, what's curious to me is if you go to Newegg, the previous USB model (Surround 5.1) seems to have all of the standard X-Fi features but with the new X-Fi HD, they seem to be missing. It's either a marketing oversight or a downgrade with the new model.
 
Just found these info along with photos of internal components about sound blaster X-Fi HD version in asia (renamed to: sound blaster digital music premium HD) :
http://www.soomal.com/doc/10100001585.htm

According to the above Chinese website, the audio chip being used is CA0189 ,

the same one that is being used in X-Fi Surround 5.1,

for more details about this chip visit Creative Labs OEM site:
http://www.creative.com/oem/products/chips/ca0189.asp

So, this will assure the support of EAX 4.0
 
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Well, I swore off Creative back in the Audigy days. I just couldn't stand the bloated drivers...even back then.

Ever since I've been using on-board solutions, most predominately Realtek. On my ep45-ud3p, the sound was ok. Gigabyte probably has the worst on-board sounds integration of anyone, however the ease of use with the Realtek software and drivers compensated for the average sound quality. Through my Z5500's, surround sound and Dolby Digital were flawless. Game audio was fine.
However an utter lack of support for Bad Company 2 (crashes game) forced me to look for alternatives. Since I found the Creative titanium X-fi professional adjective adjective adjective blah blah blah card on sale, I bought one.

First install went south after a couple hours. Apparently my habit of downloading the updated drivers off the net doesn't work with creative labs. Have to load drivers from the CD...THEN update off the web. During this process I was bombarded with half a gig of crap that I had no clue what the hell it did, or why I needed it. Do I really need soundfont bank manager, and the creative media player? They were labeled as "urgent" or whatever on the dl bar. First time around I installed everything.

I then went to setup my mic on ventrilo. Even though there is a ventrilo endorsement right on the fracking box, it wouldn't work. Perhaps it was the lack of a true mic input (its a flex input...), perhaps it was the stupid worthless front bay adapter with its own mic input that would override all my other settings. Or perhaps it was there absolutely worthless drivers...
Either way, in the process of turning on and off various features and settings looking for a solution, I broke the driver install. Yes, you heard correctly...I BROKE the drivers. I didn't even think such a thing was possible, but the sound card driver just disapeared, and I couldn't repair it. Creatives Diagnostics (a separate DL online btw), told me nothing was wrong. Yet windows listed nothing as my audio device.

Long story short and several driver installs later, I got things working. I still get random issues...for example, my sound randomly died the other day and only a restart would fix it. Or during playback the sound will migrate from the left and right channel (stereo audio), to the right and right rear channel. I still can't explain the last one...

At least I can play Bad Company 2 though...in stereo mode (Realtek supported surround when it worked...).
 
Well, after ten days of using X-Fi Titanium HD with ATH-AD700 I can say the sound they produce is very nice.

I'd like to note two things. If your speaker configuration is set to 5.1 in Creative control panel, it still outputs the signal to headphones, but only a signal from the front left and front right channels. As I found, youtube or ventrilo output goes to the center speaker so you'll hear some weird buzz instead.
So basically you can't just turn off your regular speakers connected via SPDIF and wear headphones at night, for example.

Also the automatic headphone detection is pretty lame. Seriously, do they expect me to crawl under my desk to plug headphones in every time I want to use them and then crawl under again to unplug them when I don't?
 
I have to buy a mini plug because creative 7.1 not requires 4 to 4 cable from soundcard to the speakers. Creative says don't support old speakers. I went out and bought a mini plug for side speakers and now works great. I am stuck with lame creative I guess since other sound cards not as good either. I am happy fixxed my problem because chabge how sound is done in windows 7. Creative needs to innovate and get better drivers.
 
ashmelev75 said:
Well, after ten days of using X-Fi Titanium HD with ATH-AD700 I can say the sound they produce is very nice.

Also the automatic headphone detection is pretty lame. Seriously, do they expect me to crawl under my desk to plug headphones in every time I want to use them and then crawl under again to unplug them when I don't?
Click to expand...

This is the exact same issue I have with this card, I hate the fact that I can't keep my speakers and my headphones plugged in at the same time. It automatically defaults to the headphones regardless of what you select in the Creative control panel.

In fact I called Creative's tech support and was told the same thing, it can't be done. Maybe I should've kept my Essence STX.. lol, that card did allow you to keep both plugged in at the same time and you could select which to have active via the asus control panel.
Aside from that I love the card, sounds great.. no driver issues whatsoever.
 
Eh? Sorry if I'm wrong, but in the "Old" X-fi drivers for the original and Titaniums, you can just unclick "automatically enable headphone settings", and then it will never switch to headphone.

You can't do that anymore? Surely, you can....
Or you can disable CTxfispi.exe (which controls the audio panel as well as detection...)
 
Falkentyne said:
Eh? Sorry if I'm wrong, but in the "Old" X-fi drivers for the original and Titaniums, you can just unclick "automatically enable headphone settings", and then it will never switch to headphone.
You can't do that anymore? Surely, you can....
Click to expand...

You can do that, but it does not stop the output to headphones.
 
I curretnly have the X-Fi Titanium Champ or what ever... its in my sig, and before I upgraded my mobo I was having issues with crackling randomly, the only thing that would fix it was changing the audio mode from say entertainment to gaming and back again, but that was on a NF790i mobo, and creative has had issues with nvidia boards for years and doesnt seem to be willing to figuare out the issues and fix them. After the mobo upgrade I have had very little of that crackling sound, its been mostly very slight static, and I havent dealt with it enugh to see if another issue has been resloved which is having headphones attached to the front panel and having no audio in firefox after awhile, youtube videos and the like.
 
Judd Sandage said:
I curretnly have the X-Fi Titanium Champ or what ever... its in my sig, and before I upgraded my mobo I was having issues with crackling randomly, the only thing that would fix it was changing the audio mode from say entertainment to gaming and back again, but that was on a NF790i mobo, and creative has had issues with nvidia boards for years and doesnt seem to be willing to figuare out the issues and fix them. After the mobo upgrade I have had very little of that crackling sound, its been mostly very slight static, and I havent dealt with it enugh to see if another issue has been resloved which is having headphones attached to the front panel and having no audio in firefox after awhile, youtube videos and the like.
Click to expand...

Are you using the front audio ports on your case? I have them cabled to my card and with my Razer Carcharias I heard a bit of static. When I plugged them directly into the card all the static went away and it was crystal clear. The front ports usually use the crappiest quality copper case OEMs can find to save money. Creative chooses better gear for what goes on the card.
 
I've just ordered one (the card was unavailable for us Canadians until yesterday). I was under the impression that it would be much more expensive, especially considering the prices of their current lineup.
 
aldamon said:
I'd like to know this as well. After 5 years, I want to get my X-Fi out of my case but I don't want to lose features or proper acceleration.
Click to expand...

Have you found any good reviews about the USB version? I am very curious about that one as I don't currently want to put a soundcard back in my SG-03.
 
I'm amazed that in this day and age there are still people that will put up with subpar bloated Creative drivers and mediocre sound for the small benefit of audio acceleration. I am primarily a headphone gamer (Denon AH-D7000) and let me tell you the sound quality difference between my Xonar Essence and any Creative card I have tried is very apparent. I would gladly sacrifice 5-10 FPS for proper audiophile sound. The Xonar Essence is actually a steal at $199. A proper headphone amp that sounds as good would cost far more.

To be fair I have not tried the Titanium HD yet but I will. I have a bit of a sound card fetish so I try nearly every new high end sound card that comes out. I have tried the X-Fi Titanium Fatl1ty, which is very similar to the Titanium HD, and was not at all impressed with the sound quality. The drop in FPS between it and the Essence was not noticeable using an i7 at 3.8Ghz and GTX 470s in SLI but the difference in sound quality was. If I find the Titanium HD to be superior to the Essence I will post back.
 
mumstead said:
I'm amazed that in this day and age there are still people that will put up with subpar bloated Creative drivers and mediocre sound for the small benefit of audio acceleration. I am primarily a headphone gamer (Denon AH-D7000) and let me tell you the sound quality difference between my Xonar Essence and any Creative card I have tried is very apparent. I would gladly sacrifice 5-10 FPS for proper audiophile sound. The Xonar Essence is actually a steal at $199. A proper headphone amp that sounds as good would cost far more.

To be fair I have not tried the Titanium HD yet but I will. I have a bit of a sound card fetish so I try nearly every new high end sound card that comes out. I have tried the X-Fi Titanium Fatl1ty, which is very similar to the Titanium HD, and was not at all impressed with the sound quality. The drop in FPS between it and the Essence was not noticeable using an i7 at 3.8Ghz and GTX 470s in SLI but the difference in sound quality was. If I find the Titanium HD to be superior to the Essence I will post back.
Click to expand...


what about the X-fi forte with better drivers based on the x-fi chipset with upgradeable opamps? I think the Auzentech Forte is a good option
 
123Lanoix said:
what about the X-fi forte with better drivers based on the x-fi chipset with upgradeable opamps? I think the Auzentech Forte is a good option
Click to expand...

I have tried the Forte and the Bravura. I think that they are both very good sound cards and for many would be just fine. I preferred the sound of the bravura for my headphone listening over the forte but the essence is still my favorite. If you are using standard computer speakers, like logitech, there will not be a huge difference. If you are using a good set of cans it is hard to beat the Essence IMHO.
 
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