Worth Upgrading from X-Fi Elite Pro to ZXR?

Hey guys!

Reinstalled Windows 10 this week and had lots of problems getting my X-Fi Elite Pro working properly again. I always use Daniel_K's drivers but for some reason they weren't doing the trick. I resorted to looking for a ZXR as it's really what I'm looking for in a card (a 5.1 surround card with solid RCA inputs for recording) and began checking for deals. While looking I found a solution to my problem with my Elite Pro, which was to first install Creatives official Windows 10 driver and then install Daniel_K's drivers over it rather than Daniel_K's or Creatives by themselves. However after finding that out I actually managed to find a new ZXR for $179.99, which is a fairly competitive price. Now I'm wondering if I should just upgrade.

Anybody with any experience switching from X-Fi to the newer Z series? I'd be curious to hear if you guys think the switch is worth it, or to hold out and keep the $180. Thanks for reading!

If you are recording, why not use a professional input box?

I have the ZxR, upgraded from the ZX so I could get the black mic pod. I bought a used one here on the forums for $100 shipped. There was another one recently for $100 shipped as well.

Shoot I didn’t realize I could find them that cheap on the forum! I should check that out.

I’ve just been trying to find a good all-in-one solution so I figured I’d find something good with 5.1 and recording as well. I don’t record super often, but when I do it’s over RCA so I’d like to have a relatively high-quality option that doesn’t take up any additional space. The elite pro has historically been that for me, but I’m wondering if the zxr is a worthwhile alternative

Just so you know, the ribbon cable can be routed between the 2 cards if you have them stacked 1 slot apart.
I tried to have them next to each other but the cable was pushing the cards apart, so they were cockeyed.

Good to know! I bought a PCI compatible mobo originally for the elite pro so I will have a spare slot up the tower for the daughter card. Thanks for the advice!

Speedy77 said:

Good to know! I bought a PCI compatible mobo originally for the elite pro so I will have a spare slot up the tower for the daughter card. Thanks for the advice!

Click to expand...

Daughter card isn't a card, there is no edge connector on it. it just needs a case slot to mount to.
If you happen to have one of those cases that have vertical slots for GPU's, you could mount it there if you wanted.

Get ZXR and upgrade opamps

Or get Asus Xonar STX (or STX II) and erase something called "driver issues" from your mind completely
Like seriously, literally "ZERO" driver issues going from XP to Vista to Win7 to Win8 to Win8.1 to Win10 (actually I skipped Win8.x but tested it and had no issues with Xonar)

The STX, ZxR, nor any other card has what the X-Fi Elite Pro offers. The breakout box is very valuable if you actually use it to its full capabilities.

There is a lower cost solutions if your are willing to use a converter cable. The Audigy RX. Its supposed to have really good recording capabilities and actually has a hardware DSP. It uses the old Audigy 2 (I think) hardware dsp, but is pcie x1.