SB Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music - worth buying?

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SlasherDNA

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
Messages
421
hello

i got Creative SB Live! 5.1 sound card now in my computer, i need to get a better one (mainly for music). i was looking at SB Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music, what you guys think? worth buying? good choice?
 
I think the X-fi's are great. Something to keep in mind tho is what connecters you need/want. Music only has S1 S2 S3 and a Flexi jack. If you want optical oin/outs and a front headphone then you should go with either the plat or Fatal as they come with i/o bays that are rather useful. Now you can buy a music and then later buy bay or breakout box but be warned. So far those Ive only seen avail on CL's UK store, not in USA. Even there just the bay later costs around 130 us dollars so as you can see cheaper to buy with bay in the first place. The diff tween the plat and the Fatal is that the plat doesnt have the 64 megs of memory. How much it will get used by game developers is an unkown and debated. I personally opted for fatal myself figuring hopefully CL will really promote the feature to game makers
 
i dont need bays, just connectors at the back to plug in my logitech speakers and headphones. :)
 
Thats what I meant. without the bay you only have one plug on the back of the card that will work for speakers and a headset. You will either have to use some sort of splitter or switch to alternate between speakers and headphones or manually change plugs if you dont have the bay. Thats all I was trying to warn you about.

Anyway the thing was trying to explain is

Music =$130
Plat w/ I/O = $190
Bay later = $120

If you decide later you dont wanna keep swaping plugs and get the bay you end up paying at least $50 more than if had just gotten a plat to start. Now I know Radioshack sells a computer audio switch device for like $20
 
i understood your first post, i just didnt replied to all of it. :)
thanks for the warning though.

and still a stupid question, but still want to hear it just to make 101% sure, it will be a noticable difference in X-Fi and Live! 5.1, right? :)
 
XFi has true 24bit Wolffson and Cirrus Logic DACs while who knows what kind of DACs the Live has.

It WILL be better!
 
I got the platinum X-Fi and i have heard sounds in games i didn't even KNOW were there before... :p
 
I'm agree with him, SB live! is nothing over X-Fi . . . day and night differences between them.
 
one question, lads. i dont know what words to use, so ill try to ask and explain my question as simple as possible.
i have z5300 logitech speakers, and you know on remote controler, there is a connector so you can just plug in the headphones.
now, would there be any better quality on the headphones if i would connect them on the sound card (when i want to listen on headphones) directly, or it doesnt matter, if i have them plugged over the logitech controler?
im thinking of getting Platinum edition, because if its better that headphones are connected directly on the sound card, im gonna go nuts from all that switching (from speakers to headphones, and vice versa), and leaning to the back side of the chassis all the time.
 
Is it worth upgrading the X-Fi extreme music from my Audigy 2 ZS?
I have Inspire 5.1 speakers.
I found it at Best Buy for $96.
 
At 50 ohms that unit should be able to be driven by the headphone port on the Logitechs, tho I am unsure how clean/robust it would be. The Line-Out on the back of the card would suffice nicely, as would the Platinum's headphone port.
 
Only thing I can think of is if when you use speakers headphone plug if it will effect how CMSS-3D headphone output sounds
 
Thats what I don't know LOL. It may pass thru just fine or the speaker circuitry for headphones may do something weird. I am fairly certain tho that by using the speaker plug you will probably have to manually switch your output in the speaker settings.
 
hmn, ill just throw some more buck and buy Platinum edition instead.

now i only hope those bays dont need much power, my PSU aint that strong. ive read some topics here some said their comp freezed when pluging bays, because of lack of power.
 
I think he's refeering to using the front mic jack with BF2. For sopme reason the Game company has made the game so it will ONLY take a primary mic (the one one the back of the card. Some want to blame CL for this but its the game makers that made the resriction in their software and state the same in a knowlege base article at the games support site. You would still be able to play the game tho.
 
Just my 2 cent, DO NOT USE THE HEADPHONE JACK ON THE LOGITECHS.

:D If you do, might as well buy 5 dollars headphones from walmart, because that will be what they sound like. Night and Day difference between straight from soundcard, and through speakers.
 
bratboy said:
I think he's refeering to using the front mic jack with BF2. For sopme reason the Game company has made the game so it will ONLY take a primary mic (the one one the back of the card. Some want to blame CL for this but its the game makers that made the resriction in their software and state the same in a knowlege base article at the games support site. You would still be able to play the game tho.
Click to expand...

To me anyway, it will just crash(totally LOCK UP) after X amount of time, it's totally random.

Read my thread here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=989440
 
i got Platinum today like 12hours ago, this is UNBELIEVABLE ! the clear sound, the BASS, the volume!

hands down to this card.
 
aZn_plyR said:
Just my 2 cent, DO NOT USE THE HEADPHONE JACK ON THE LOGITECHS.
:D If you do, might as well buy 5 dollars headphones from walmart, because that will be what they sound like. Night and Day difference between straight from soundcard, and through speakers.
Click to expand...
yea i agree.

one stupid question tho, now that i have bays infront, i should plug headphones there, right? or still behind the sound card, tho this doesnt make sense..
:)

@intel inside, i dont play games, so i give a less shit about BF2. just css like once on 2 weeks or so. i listen to music 24/7 tho.
 
SlasherDNA said:
yea i agree.

one stupid question tho, now that i have bays infront, i should plug headphones there, right? or still behind the sound card, tho this doesnt make sense..
:)

@intel inside, i dont play games, so i give a less shit about BF2. just css like once on 2 weeks or so. i listen to music 24/7 tho.
Click to expand...

No, not on the back of the card, use the one on the Bay first.

Donnie27
 
Intel_Inside said:
To me anyway, it will just crash(totally LOCK UP) after X amount of time, it's totally random.

Read my thread here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=989440
Click to expand...

I've had NO problems running BF-2 with the X-Fi installed in either my Intel or my AMD based rigs, hell, may buy the Platinum. That's using the Ultra or High Hardware settings.

Donnie27
 
Was a waste of money to me. I'm building a new computer when the AM2's come out, by then if a new soundcard isn't out, I might invest in a new X-Fi.
 
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