DACs on X-fi Elite Pro

G

gerbiaNem

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I have an X-fi Xtreme Music now, but I'm wondering what I would notice with an upgrade to the Elite Pro. The only difference in sound quality stems from betters DACs onboard.

I mostly listen to music and movies, a game here and there (but far less frequent lately), and have a 1k-5k speaker system (depending on what I feel like spending) coming in soon to replace my current one.

Would the sound be noticeably better? Or is the XM version good enough, and the EP is for some very over the top system?
 
it's the DACs and the Opamps, plus the quality breakout box.

One thing of note is that some have reported on the XM's is that they get noticable distortion when volume is over 79%. On my EP, I can go to 100% master vol / wave and not have any, which is good since I use an external HT receiver and/or headphone amp.

I haven't been able to confirm this since some haven't reported the issue.
 
I have tried using both the receiver and X-fi to raise the volume, no distortion either way. Hmm, would it be worth the money...
 
Seriously man, if you really want a better DAC, get an external DAC, do not mess around with anymore sound cards. Even the highest end X-Fi is inferior to a good external dac

Try this one at Channel Islands Audio:
http://www.ciaudio.com/vda1.html

That DAC has a GREAT reputation and has been compared in sound quality to DACs that cost twice as much.

There are MANY other DACs out there at different price points. Looko around. That Channel Islands DAC is highly recommended by many though.

You would just run a cable from the digital out on the X-Fi you have now to the DAC, then go from the DAC to an amp, presto.

It is a much better idea than getting yet another soundcard.
 
"It is a much better idea than getting yet another soundcard."

Yeah, at the meager price of only $349, you too can gave great STEREO gaming and music. C'mon folks, external DACs are useless and price prohibitive at anything realistic for PC usage, unless your setup is 2.x or headphones.

According to your logic, you can have "good" 5.1 audio for only $1050 worth of DACs. Oh and don't forget to add those Margules ADE-24 units to clean up those odd harmonics!

For $399, you can have top-of-line DACs with very decent opamps on all 7.1 channels. If that wasn't good enough, solder in new ones.

Svperstar: have you ever listened to the Audigy4 Pro or X-Fi Elite Pro? Or even the EMU 1212M or 1820M? A LynxII? If you haven't please do so before typing and spouting uneducated opinions.
 
Why not get a reciever and use SPDIF and have bit perfect playback? Also if you're using a pair of $150 pc speakers or something it's kind of silly to nitpick about DAC's.
 
The X-Fi Elite Pro is equipped with Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC's, sporting advanced multi-bit Delta-Sigma architecture. The same A/D converters are used in Digidesign's ProTools HD 192 I/O interface. Which is, by all means considered a mastering grade converter.
It is considered a premier DAC for music creation and studio mastering/multitracking and thus, should be more than enough fom audio playback.

Considering that you are not likely to have 3000$+ near/mid field monitors attached to your computer unless you are a professional musician/audio engineer, this is kind of a moot point :)

Going for external DAC's is not overkill, it's a waste of money unless you have external clock, balanced cables of the highest quality and a pair of kick-ass monitors. In which case you shouldn't even have the computer box in the same room with your speakers (noise), treated/conditioned power outlets, routed & muffled air-conditioning and blablablabla... you get the point...

If you trully want to appreciate what an Elite Pro can do for audio playback, I suggest you also buy a pair of Mackie HR824's or even a pair of DynAudio BM-15A along with it.

Cheers!
John
 
Chastity said:
Svperstar: have you ever listened to the Audigy4 Pro or X-Fi Elite Pro? Or even the EMU 1212M or 1820M? A LynxII? If you haven't please do so before typing and spouting uneducated opinions.
Click to expand...

Umm yea..... lets try this the other way around.

Chastity: have you eve listened to the DAC Svperstar suggested?
If you haven't please keep your arugmentaive, uneducated comments to yourself.

See how that works? ;)

Of course this applies to Svperstar as well.
Svperstar: Do you have any experience with the DAC you suggested or is this another case of read but never used? :p
 
peacetilence said:
Why not get a reciever and use SPDIF and have bit perfect playback? Also if you're using a pair of $150 pc speakers or something it's kind of silly to nitpick about DAC's.
Click to expand...
Not sure if it is possible to get bit perfect play back since all the Sound Blaster cards mess with source sounds from what I have read. Up/down converting, adding in effects, etc.

Personally, I wish you could set the card up to output the exact source material 1:1.

....for example, a 16bit 44kHz track would output at exactly 16bit 44kHz.

Anyways, I can dream.

Not to get off topic, but how are you supposed to properly configure the windows sound settings when you have powered speakers with their own volume, bass control, etc.?

Do we crank up the windows master volume 100%, wave volume 100%, etc.???
 
mike_j_johnson said:
Not sure if it is possible to get bit perfect play back since all the Sound Blaster cards mess with source sounds from what I have read. Up/down converting, adding in effects, etc.

Personally, I wish you could set the card up to output the exact source material 1:1.

....for example, a 16bit 44kHz track would output at exactly 16bit 44kHz.

Anyways, I can dream.

Not to get off topic, but how are you supposed to properly configure the windows sound settings when you have powered speakers with their own volume, bass control, etc.?

Do we crank up the windows master volume 100%, wave volume 100%, etc.???
Click to expand...

X-Fi can record and playback bit for bit.

Donnie27
 
I been thinking of getting external dac too, but having X-fi's gaming abilities casterated with SPDIF kind sucks. I guess I could always run 2 cables from sound card analog out and spidif out, just keep the analag out handy to unplug spidif and plug analog in for gaming and then use spdif for music and movies, but pretty big pain in the ass really. I have a hard time justifying 400 bucks for a elite pro though.. that's alot of smack for a sound card that will be obsolete in a year or two.. a good outboard dac will remain good for many years, like when we are using EAX 9. Not to mention when the card does go obsolete you will have to replace it with yet another "premium" product if you want the high end dac/opamps. Else you'll have a new card that can process eax 7 and 300 sound channels that has inferior dacs to your old elite pro.

Regards,
Mike
 
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