Creative X-Fi or X-Plosion

[RichQ03]

Ive seen good reviews for both? Which is better?

 

[todd2fst4u]

depends really. x-fi is better for gaming

 

[Stoly]

Consider the x-plosion only if you intend to use it with a DD/DTS reciever/home theater.

Otherwise go with the X-fi

 

[WCES Ryan]

I would imagine that the X-Fi is better sounding, period. I haven't investigated the X-Plosion in depth, but it seems that it's purpose is primarily for movies. For everything else (music, gaming, etc), X-Fi 100%.

 

[MantisIT]

X-Fi's main perk(s) if any, is the Crystalizer which itself is both good and bad for gaming/movies/music. Some audio sources are clarified so deep that you hear popping and crackling even if you adjust the level to low/high. What's worse is that creative releases drivers rarely (remember how long it took them to make x64 drivers?! sheesh..). If money is a pinch then get the x-treme music.

If you do have the $ to spend, my def. recommendation for you is the receiver / HT speaker setup. Which means: go with the X-Plosion. I've just set mine up about 2 days ago and it kicked my x-fi's ass from here to next year . Sounds incredbile, and the interface is easy/clean.

 

[peacetilence]

X-plosion if you use SPDIF and have multiple speakers since it allows 5.1 with gaming using SPDIF. It also converts to DTS so there is a chance the sound quality will be better.

Personally this would be the card I would buy if I wanted a new soundcard. (I have a Chaintek AV-710 and now use the SPDIF on my DFI mobo...)

X-fi if you don't use SPDIF and want EAX features.

Personally I would never buy a creative soundcard because they are expensive, have bloated drivers, and lack simple features in other cards (such as spdif, dd and dts decoding etc) unless you want to throw more money at them for external brackets and decoders.


Then again I do watch alot of movies, listen to flacs using kernal streaming and have a panasonic XR-55 and Axiom M3Ti's hooked up to my pc.

 

[Uncle Jim]

It also converts to DTS so there is a chance the sound quality will be better.

How come *converting* to DTS makes sound *quality* better? Or maybe I should ask better then what? Better then Dolby PL? Probably yes, Better then Dolby Live? Arguably, yes. Better then original 6CH via analog? Defenitely not.

Personally I would never buy a creative soundcard because they are expensive, have bloated drivers, and lack simple features in other cards (such as spdif, dd and dts decoding etc) unless you want to throw more money at them for external brackets and decoders.
Then again I do watch alot of movies, listen to flacs using kernal streaming and have a panasonic XR-55 and Axiom M3Ti's hooked up to my pc.

You may want to correct yourself piecetailence, I guess you never saw/used X-Fi. I do have one so let me explain:

Xplosion costs $139. X-Fi Xtreme Music costs $120 or less.

Hitec cards are not exactly smooth going, problem-free and cristal clear sounding.
Previous card Mystique was never propely patched so without manual changes in the registry it would no work.TBH I never had any of these cards, but that's what I read. Maybe Xplosion is better, nobody exactly knows, yet.
The fact that each new model is distributed under new brand name (Mystique was Bluegears and Xplosion is Auzentech) does not help, either.

X-Fi does have SPDIF.X-Fi also does have both DTS and DD decoding.
It does not have encoding which matter for games - only if you are choosing digital connection over 6CH analog.

Neither DTS Connect nor DD Live encoding has anything to do with sound quality improvement for music or movies. Music and Movies come encoded already so there is no need to encode soundtrack into DTS or DD again.

DTS Connect is simply a way to compress 6ch data generated in game and to squeeze it into spdif (which was meant for stereo, you have adat for 8 ch). So, until there are alternatives like, e.g. ADAT for home cinema receivers( i.e. 8 ch digital interface used in pro recording - for those who do not know what it is)
using SPDIF for 6 or 8 channels -instead of analog connectors - is, IMO, worthless.

 

[SockMan!]

The DACs in Amps are probably superior to the build in DACs in consumer soundcards, so DDL and DTS-connect makes sense if you want to get the best sound quality out to your home audio setup.

Technically, sound quality won't improve with DDL and DTS-Connect. Instead, you'll be playing back on superior equipment so that audio could sound better. Most people would agree that a good home theater setup is far better sounding than the best 'multimedia' speakers and mainstream soundcards have ever accomplished.

Basically, if you want to use your soundcard with a receiver, then the X-plosion seems like the best bet. Otherwise, the X-Fi seems like the logical choice.

 

[SLee]

The DACs in Amps are probably superior to the build in DACs in consumer soundcards, so DDL and DTS-connect makes sense if you want to get the best sound quality out to your home audio setup.

They're pretty similar, the X-Fi is comparable to the DACs used on many good quality receivers.

Technically, sound quality won't improve with DDL and DTS-Connect. Instead, you'll be playing back on superior equipment so that audio could sound better. Most people would agree that a good home theater setup is far better sounding than the best 'multimedia' speakers and mainstream soundcards have ever accomplished..

That has a lot to do with the speakers.

Basically, if you want to use your soundcard with a receiver, then the X-plosion seems like the best bet. Otherwise, the X-Fi seems like the logical choice.

Depends, gaming maybe, movies doesn't matter. Music, the X-Fi does bit-perfect digital output, I haven't seen anything definitive about whether the X-Plosion can. The X-Mystique could not.