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is XFI worth it

D

Digital Viper-X-

[H]F Junkie
2FA
Joined
Dec 9, 2000
Messages
16,314
well in another situation

my current motherbord the Intel 975XBX seems to have issues with cutting out the sound to my receiver via SPDIF RCA Cable, while watching a movie mostly DIVX / XVID encoded ones it seems to cut out every once in a while and it will give a weird popping noise, then come back on.

Now here are my options, 1 Sell the mobo and go for the Gigabyte DS3 (which did not have this problem)

2 buy a sound card again. my 2 options are

Audigy 2 ZS OEM for $79,99
or
X-FI Platinum for $199
why theplatinum you ask? well The regular XFI cards only has 4 jacks, 3 for speakers and 1 for Mic/Line In/SPDIF out, I have a mic I need to use and I have SPDIF I would like to use also =/

so the question is
IS the XFI worth the $ over the ZS and what are the benifits?
 
I had always thought that SPDIF was an optical interconnect, hence wouldn't use RCA connectors?
 
drizzt81 said:
I had always thought that SPDIF was an optical interconnect, hence wouldn't use RCA connectors?
Click to expand...

SPDIF works on RCA / minjack aswell? Well I used the same RCA cable with my last mobo the gigabyte DS3 and i had no problems like this =)

All i know is that SPDIF stands for sony philips digital interface!
 
Correct. S/PDIF is just an interface, and for consumer gear, there's optical with Toslink connectors and digital coaxial, which is just a 75 ohm copper-strand RCA terminated cable.

As for the X-Fi; no, it isn't worth it, in my opinion. That's $120 best spent elsewhere.
 
RCA connectors are a much better solution than optical as they are very easy to make/repair, very cheap, can be very long and dont break easily like optical cables.
There is no difference in the signal quality or sound quality.
I used the RCA digitalout on my old SBLive for a long time to pump digital audio to my amp on the other side of the room.
 
where are you getting the $80 ZS card?

Aren't they like $40 on ebay from creative's store?
 
The X-Fi X-Music would be worth the money over a ZS but I don't think the Platinum is.
 
The ZS goes for about $40-45 US shipped on eBay(I checked on eBay.ca while I was looking into getting a new card for myself). Have a look and see for yourself.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
well in another situation

my current motherbord the Intel 975XBX seems to have issues with cutting out the sound to my receiver via SPDIF RCA Cable, while watching a movie mostly DIVX / XVID encoded ones it seems to cut out every once in a while and it will give a weird popping noise, then come back on.

Now here are my options, 1 Sell the mobo and go for the Gigabyte DS3 (which did not have this problem)

2 buy a sound card again. my 2 options are

Audigy 2 ZS OEM for $79,99
or
X-FI Platinum for $199
why theplatinum you ask? well The regular XFI cards only has 4 jacks, 3 for speakers and 1 for Mic/Line In/SPDIF out, I have a mic I need to use and I have SPDIF I would like to use also =/

so the question is
IS the XFI worth the $ over the ZS and what are the benifits?
Click to expand...

Got both and would take the X-Fi everytime.
 
I would go for the XFI I love my Xtreme music. If you watch you can usally find them for around 100 bucks. For an all around good card you cant do much better.
 
I have an Audigy 2, and I was wondering the same thing. Will I notice a difference going to the X-Fi Xtreme Music from the Audigy 2?

is there really that big of a difference like in games, movies, and music?


thanks
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
SPDIF works on RCA / minjack aswell? Well I used the same RCA cable with my last mobo the gigabyte DS3 and i had no problems like this =)

All i know is that SPDIF stands for sony philips digital interface!
Click to expand...
phide said:
Correct. S/PDIF is just an interface, and for consumer gear, there's optical with Toslink connectors and digital coaxial, which is just a 75 ohm copper-strand RCA terminated cable.
Click to expand...

thanks guys. My question was serious, no I am more knowledgable :)
 
well i said screw Creative and got another Gigabyte mobo :p lol thanks for the input ^^ now i know which card to get next!
 
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