Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium HD Sound Card Review @ [H]

Just got my Titanium HD
What settings are you guys using for games? IE: BC2
and what settings are you guys using for music?
Thanks in advance!
 
anyone here know if there's a breakout box available for the titanium hd, or if there are any that are officially announced to be released?
 
for music with sennheiser 595: audio creation mode, 2/2.1 speaker, eax off, enable bit-matched playback

for games with sennheiser 595: game mode, 2/2.1 speaker, eax on, cm3ss-3d on, crystal off
 
CSC Tiscali said:
anyone here know if there's a breakout box available for the titanium hd, or if there are any that are officially announced to be released?
Click to expand...

That was something we have asked repeatedly and we have been told there are no plans to release any expansion bay at this time.
 
Been really enjoying my Titanium HD, especially considering how underwhelmed I was with my HT Omega Striker.

Now time to get some decent headphones...
 
How would i go about connecting this card to my receiver with one RCA cable/plug? The receiver is only connected to two front speakers, so am only looking for stereo. Hoped it was as easy as connected the RCA cable to the red connector(which also have a red led) and then connect the RCA cable to one of the DIGITAL IN connectors on the back of my receiver, but so far no luck.... My receiver is a Onkyo TX-NR609 btw.


Edit: If i've understood correctly the red led input is only for optical cables and not RCA/coaxial cables? If so that explains why i don't get any sound, but that's a bummer... Is there no way i could use this RCA/coaxial cable with the soundcard and my receiver in some way?
 
Last edited:
Analog RCA connections depend on two cables, one for each channel, left and right, red and white... For digital you'd need an optical cable. If you're using the analog output you'd need to go from the RCA outputs on the card to the corresponding analog RCA inputs on the receiver.
 
Impulse said:
Analog RCA connections depend on two cables, one for each channel, left and right, red and white... For digital you'd need an optical cable. If you're using the analog output you'd need to go from the RCA outputs on the card to the corresponding analog RCA inputs on the receiver.
Click to expand...

Well the cable is coaxial, but the connector is RCA, if am not mistaken, which is what i have going from my receiver, but as i've found out, the soundcard only supports a optical cable for digital as you mention, so i guess i have to get one of those, but getting one that is 10meters doesn't look to be easy, that's why i got a coaxial cable in the first place.

Edit: Also looks like it have to be mini "optical" in the soundcard end, which makes it even harder i believe.

Edit2: But maybe i can get some sort of coaxial to optical converter?
 
Nitrius said:
Well the cable is coaxial, but the connector is RCA, if am not mistaken, which is what i have going from my receiver, but as i've found out, the soundcard only supports a optical cable for digital as you mention, so i guess i have to get one of those, but getting one that is 10meters doesn't look to be easy, that's why i got a coaxial cable in the first place.

Edit: Also looks like it have to be mini "optical" in the soundcard end, which makes it even harder i believe.

Edit2: But maybe i can get some sort of coaxial to optical converter?
Click to expand...

Frys has the mini toslink cables.
 
So, has anyone found a use for what looks like an expansion connector on the proximal end of the sound card yet?

I was thinking some sort of expansion bay would be coming out, but no dice thus far.

Has anyone tried it with the expansion bays of older creative products?
 
nigthstar757 said:
wish it had a hdmi. or can you connect this to your video card's hdmi??
Click to expand...

HDMI would be kind of pointless since the sound card it doesn't have video output :p

You could use a device like this:
http://www.kanexlive.com/iadapt51

This particular one is intended for MacBooks, which is why it has a 3.5mm adapter and a mini display port, but combined with some other adapters it should work.

Most modern video cards that have an HDMI connector have a built in Realtek audio chip which is pretty equivalent to your on board sound, that will run audio out over HDMI. it shows up in the device manager as "NVIDIA HD Audio Device" or "AMD HD Audio Device" or something like that.

The thing is this. If you NEED audio over HDMI, you are probably using your TV's built in speakers. If you are doing this, they are most likely crappy enough that you won't really notice the difference between a good sound card, and an on board level sound card, and you might as well use the sound chip on the video card for when you are using your TV.

If you - instead - have a higher end surround sound or other sound system for your TV, it most likely has a receiver with multiple options for sound inputs, which makes the sound over HDMI a moot point.
 
can someone tell me how the digital input works on this card? My SPDIF Tab is greyed out so I can't change any of the options. I've tried inputting optical connections from many different sources (stereo, dts for hopefully passthrough, etc).
 
If you use the spdif out, do you still retain EAX and hardware acceleration, or is SPDIF just a pass through?
 
I bought an STX and I am not liking the CPU-oriented drivers. I like to listen to music while encoding or performing other tasks. Scanning new music's replaygain levels causes massive losses in samples. This is in Foobar, so maybe I can assume that specific thing is a problem with Foobar. But when there is high load on the CPU, there are dropped samples. Would the Titanium HD be better in this respect, having a real processor, or does none of this actually matter in the end for ASIO?
 
All I can say is I have no problems with audio when running a ReplayGain scan in fb2k. Tried kernel streaming? Should be the same path but you never know.
 
I thought that kernel streaming is for XP. I've also never heard of anything but ASIO being a bit-perfect path for the STX.
 
It might work, or it might not. Seems to be random.

That or just try changing the buffering length.
 
Buffer length is 1.5 seconds already. I wish someone would work on ASIO stuff for Winamp. It doesn't work with the STX. It's much superior in library management. I hate this playlist-based way of thinking.
 
grimster said:
Buffer length is 1.5 seconds already. I wish someone would work on ASIO stuff for Winamp. It doesn't work with the STX. It's much superior in library management. I hate this playlist-based way of thinking.
Click to expand...

Try MediaMonkey, it has lots of good directory based filters and tools for library management, and scripting.
 
Last edited:
Can a fancy person with an oscilloscope please measure the output impedance of the headphone out?

Pretty please! :D

I even asked Creative and they're not upfront with it. I dropped them an email asking for the exact specification and they told me the 330/33 Ohm impedance for the Headphone and Front Panel out. :confused:
 
No because those numbers are the maximum impedance headphones that they recommend using. At least that's my understanding. I want to know the output impedance so that I know what the damping factor and the frequency response is.
 
"The sound card has a large IDE or MIDI shaped connector that can only be reached from inside the PC case once installed. In the past, these have been used to connect Creative's "Live Drives!" or I/O bays. We tried to confirm this theory with the company, but Creative said that plans for the expansion module have not been finalized for all accessories and upgrades for the card."


Did Creative ever get around to releasing a front panel I/O bay that utilizes this IDE connection? Do you think the front panel from the Audigy 2 ZS will work on it?


Thanks.
 
My Audigy 2 doesn't have the connector but it does have the solder points for it.Though when I purchased my Audigy2 ZS card long ago, so anyone with a newer Audigy 2 should have the WHITE CONNECTOR.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top