I have a broadband network connection connected to my onboard NIC. There is a mail monitoring program running in the background. I ran Foobar with ASIO selected and then ran the latency checker with the music playing.
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I have a broadband network connection connected to my onboard NIC. There is a mail monitoring program running in the background. I ran Foobar with ASIO selected and then ran the latency checker with the music playing.
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Neither company's interface has changed significantly at all in years.
We later chose 5.1 analog output as our speaker choice in PowerDVD and let the Creative card do its own encoding of Dolby 5.1. We tested it with DTS as well but found we had no preference. The only thing to consider is that if a new buyer of this sound card wants to use a receiver with either DTS or Dolby Digital handling abilities, he can be confident in his choice because the Creative software offers both encoding options.
Either its a typo, or its the most stupid thing a sound card reviewer has ever done.
Why would someone decode a DD/DTS stream in software only to re-encode it in hardware and then send it to a reciever so its decoded again?
Thanks for the review! I miss my Auzentech Forte as it definitely gives me a better audio experience than onboard. I have to say though that upgrading my sound card will be one of the last things I do as I need to build me a solid rig first.
I tested SPDIF pass-through, analog out with two channel playback, and 5 channel analog out. The X-FI Titanium HD does not have rear or center/sub jacks. I thought it best to show that if a potential buyer of this card only had bookshelf speakers, it would work in analog mode.Either its a typo, or its the most stupid thing a sound card reviewer has ever done.
Why would someone decode a DD/DTS stream in software only to re-encode it in hardware and then send it to a reciever so its decoded again?
As stated clearly in the review and product specifications, the front panel output is only rated at 33 Ohms. It certainly cannot supply certain brands and models of headphones properly while the 330 Ohm amplifier on the back of the Titanium HD will without issue.I too would like to know what opamp was used. Opamps do have minor differences, but they don't "break in", instead the listener's brain just adjusts and percieves the change as normal.
Besides the lack of objective testing, what annoys me is the lack of understanding of what impedance is and how it relates to driving headphones.
It's a high end sound card, I would expect all of it's outputs to work with high end headphones. The idea that someone is going to buy a high end sound card and couple it with "drug store headphones" means either the product is targeted at idiots or the product has a critical fault.The whole point, in my opinion, of the card's duality with front panel vs. rear headphone amplifier is that average drug store headphones and/or low impedance headphones used on your front panel will be fine for average use.
Those with good cans that require up to 330 ohms can simply use the back amp with no worries.
Yes, currently the card is only stereo output throguh analog and surround through digital. However, the card does have a expansion header on the back. It may just be for a bay or it may be for a exapnsion card like seen on other products. This is all just speculation though..I find it unbelievable that it won't do 5.1 or 7.1 analogue out.... May as well just keep my PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty. I thought the whole idea was to use the sound cards 'performance' not bypass it using an spdif to my av amp..... Am I wrong? really wanted to like this card...
The card is meant for high end stereo output.Wow, a good reciever is expensive, $200 - $300 just starting out. Creative expects people to spend $180 dollars on their new sound card and only then if they have a reciever near their PC, and I can assure you, most people don't, then that's the only way they can get surround sound via optical? You are kidding me?
I've heard that a few 4.1 / 5.1 speakers for pc have optical but unsure of this. I know my Klipsh 5.1's don't.
A lot of people have 4.1 and 5.1 speakers.
That is nuts.
I would also think the same would be true for competing sound card companies where their cards have nearly identical back planes, i.e. HTOmega and ASUS.![]()
I wouldn't say that as in many cases the components used for the amps are very cheap.
Good question.So why the hell didn't they include one?
The snap crackle and pop was not caused by EMI shielding to the best of my knowledge. I have frequented the Creative forum and it is quite commonly known that SCP was caused by NVIDIA Nforce chipsets, Some Geforce cards, a few INTEL chipsets, and their incompatibility with certain Creative cards.
I gave up my motherboard with Vista's arrival because Nforce 3 250 did not work with ATI video cards, but it worked extremely well with an XP dual boot. Something incompatible definitely existed back then with Nforce and new drivers created since never fully fixed the chipset's incompatibilities.
Creative introduced a few "workaround" but never fully compatible drivers for the SCP issue, but again that was quite awhile ago.
I wont keep beating that dead horse, because the Titanium HD is not any of those cards that previously had the problem or incompatibility.
I have appreciated all of the feedback very much.
Wow, a good reciever is expensive, $200 - $300 just starting out. Creative expects people to spend $180 dollars on their new sound card and only then if they have a reciever near their PC, and I can assure you, most people don't, then that's the only way they can get surround sound via optical? You are kidding me?
I've heard that a few 4.1 / 5.1 speakers for pc have optical but unsure of this. I know my Klipsh 5.1's don't.
A lot of people have 4.1 and 5.1 speakers.
That is nuts.
The "driver dance" part I am familiar with myself. I had no problems with the driver in Windows 7 64 at all under two installations. As I said, I used to use an original Titanium and it took me waiting for 2.17.007 and later .008 until all of my problems went away. The last two versions of Alchemy also cleared up my legacy problems. Hope this helps.
So are we in agreement that op amps do not, in fact, "break in"?
I wouldn't say that as in many cases the components used for the amps are very cheap.
The price comes from the expensive DAC's and other high grade components. The current crop of high end cards are all using very similar components and circuit layouts.
Depends who you ask.
In theory any solid state audio should always sound the same but there are people who believe a SS amp will sound different after warming up. Can't say I ever noticed any dif myself though.
The card is meant for high end stereo output.
for gaming, you also have the option for virtual surround sound over headphones via' CMSS-3D.
If you want surround sound over analog connections you have to look elsewhere for now.
In many cases though newer soundcards will have higher end DAC's then the receivers when people use the S/Pdif input section. This is not to say the receiver is cheap or sounds bad but this is usually an area that companies cheap out on.But my Denon receiver sitting right next to my PC already has virtual surround for headphones. With digital connection from my mb to my receiver this soundcard from Creative offers me nothing I don't already have except hardware acceleration for some old games using Alchemy. I highly doubt it has better SQ than either my EMU 0404 USB or Denon receiver.
Another setup I have for good SQ for music is my laptop going to my receiver via ATI HDMI. I bought a long HDMI cable and can now sit on my couch and listen to music on my stereo from my laptop.
I find it unbelievable that it won't do 5.1 or 7.1 analogue out.... May as well just keep my PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty. I thought the whole idea was to use the sound cards 'performance' not bypass it using an spdif to my av amp..... Am I wrong? really wanted to like this card...
A digital connection is not always better...Well, for a typical 5.1 setup, you are going to have external speakers. External Speakers require amps with more power than you can find on a soundcard. The power for that you would not want on a soundcard, it wouldn't fit (5 channel amps of fair power), if it did would be heavy (heatsinks) and generate alot of heat and dump it in your case (no no no). Plus, for some of the older speakers that do not do the decoding themselves, require 5 seperate inputs. Yuck. Sending it digitally, via a single cable (optical, SPDIF, HDMI) is far better. It only requires decoding along with the amp section of your speaker setup, which is becoming the standard in pc 5.1 speakers, and is the way its been done in home theater setups for a long time.
In many cases though newer soundcards will have higher end DAC's then the receivers when people use the S/Pdif input section. This is not to say the receiver is cheap or sounds bad but this is usually an area that companies cheap out on.
Usually analog connection to receivers can yeild higher quality sound then using digital to the same receiver. This is dependant on the receiver and the card being used though. This card has higher quality components in comparison to the 0404USB and this card is using very high quality DAC's. I guess you would have to compare them to the units in the receiver, to answer that question.
If you have a high end source with good DAC's try it out....