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

The card never did output distorted sound of any kind but the operational amplifiers the card features really matured the longer they were used. A break-in period of a few weeks to more than month for a card of this nature is absolutely necessary.

Assuming that the former sentence is not audiophile BS, can any good person explaim like i was 5 years old how this Op-amp break-in works on a hardware-physical basis:confused:

and how about a basic value comparison against bitperfect setups, that at least offer an explanation that i can swallow: that every bit on the original audio file is checked by the receiver prior to sound generation, thus enabling "bitperfect" sound reproduction...oh god why adiophilia sounds soo much like BS:confused:
 
It's a shame that there were no benchmarks, comparisons, versus the few other cards in the market at a similar price point and perceived quality,
What does this gain over the forte, if anything, how does it compare to a notable competitor, xonar st/x? Are there any measurable benefits, increased fps, where it is likely to matter?
I mean, if i'm already at 95 fps, I probably don't care about a few more fps?
If i'm gpu limited already, am i going to get that extra frame, or a higher minimum frame rate?

How's the frequency response? Slight variations in frequency response probably account for most of the qualitative differences in hifi. Shifts in frequency response that are less than .5db can account for major perceptual changes. To quote someone who knows more about audio that probably anyone on here "Slight changes in center frequency and/or filter attenuation caused disproportionate perceptual changes from dull to hi-fi. " Dr. S. Linkwitz on his redesign of the orion in revision 3. Later a .17db change in the response curves... makes a massive difference.

Sound is subjective....or rather pleasure is subjective. I mean, popular music is designed to sound good on ipod buds.... based on the specific hearing of the person mastering the song/track, and the equipment he is using. Your hearing, your equipment, differs...your taste differs, and the placebo effect is huge!!

But this is the [H], you need some hard data.

my computer Audio path was Adlib/SoundBlaster/Soundblaster 16/ AWE32/ Audigy/Audigy Pro/Xifi fatal1ty/integrated sound for two years/ Xonar STX.

The xonar is the "best".. so far... but it still pails in comparison to my home audio equipment, if only because I'm standing 8 feet away from my speakers, who aren't 6 inches from the back wall mounted on a glass desk.
 
J Macker said:
Are you serious?
There are many bookshelf stereo / receiver combos that would blow your "quality" z5500's away at $300.
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Don't you think I know that?
Maybe you should read my post again.

I said I'd have to use the Z5500 because I can't use the Klipsch promedia ultra 5.1, which would blow the z5500 away. In fact, I'm using the Promedia sats with the Z5500 sub at the moment. But I *want* to use my Ultra sub. The Z5500 has an optical out; the Klipsch doesn't. Ok, so you're telling me I have to go spend ANOTHER $300...(for something I don't have room for). Send me a check, please..

The "Quality" set I was talking about was my Klipsch Ultras.

Also, I don't have room for bookshelf speakers. I'm in an apartment....I hardly have any FURNITURE here.
Please stop your speaker thumping, ok?

At one time, I was once going to get a Hsu VTF M3 plus some reference $1k a speaker setup (Cadobhuk (RIP) had them and showed me a photo..I was floored, but since I'm not in a house anymore...)
 
Morphes said:
I am confused, when I get a blue ray drive will it not work with this sound card?
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It'll work and it should be able to do bitsteaming (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.) and Analog 5.1/7.1 but it won't do the lossless audio codecs like DTS Master Audio because it doesn't have HDMI.
You won't get the absolute most out of Blu-Ray, but to get all of that up and running you're going to need a decoder (likely an A/V Receiver) anyway.
 
Wow, i'm glad to see that we are still getting new sound cards by Creative, but I am also afraid that they arn't going to change their ways of releasing crappy drivers that are way outdated, and then not keeping them up to date. I guess time will tell, but at least the legend is still alive.
 
Is it just me or does this website hand out gold like candy these days. I don't know how such a vague review such as this would lead one to belive it is, sans the past history of said product.
 
I have owned the card maybe a month or so. I am coming off a Xi-Fi Titanium.

I went clean install of Win7 64 Ult.

The drivers don't feel bloated. They contain everything you will probably use. I have in fact used all the software at some point.

This may have been there in other versions of the Xi-Fi cards, but the auto-mode switcher works perfectly. Open up Fooba2K and I have it go into Entertainment Mode with my settings on the slight treble increase, or whatever settings you may wish. Once Foobar2K is closed, it goes back to Gaming Mode. LOVE it.

Sound quality wise. Coming off the Titanium I personally wouldn't say it's night and day in GAMING, things sound a tad sharper.(BC2 you really can hear a difference) Music and movie wise...yeah. It's pretty damn noticeable. So much show I kept the card.

I am no audio expert, nor am I great with wording what I hear when it comes to music. The shit just sounds great. Much better than the Titanium. Most music is FLAC I now own. Crystal clear with no distortions that I can hear. I listen to Motown, 70's 80's R&B, some Jazz, little Hip Hop. (I'm a 40 Y.O geezer I know). I am also open to new genres if people can make a case.

I own maybe 100 games on Steam? I have been through about half my library and have had no issues what so ever. NONE. Hell even BF 2142 (not Steam) works flawlessly when I had screeching and hissing, from the Xi-Fi Gaming to the Titanium. The Titanium HD was flawless. I didn't believe it. Dawn of War II also caused me issues. None with the Titanium HD.

I am coming out using the RCA's to my Maverick Audio D1/A1 setup, to some HD 650's. (Not using the optical because of gaming). Card sounds fantastic. I had issues with the optical with my Maverick D1 swapping modes also. So I just don't use, nor can comment on the optical. Sorry.

Overall, I can honestly say this is the first hassle-free, Creative card, I have owned. And by quite a bit, the best sound card I have owned by Creative.
 
The only thing that bothers me about the review is they used z5500s for testing...(snicker).

I have a X-Fi Forte right now, but I think I might just pick up this titanium. It is very sad they didn't put forth any effort to change the software, what a cop out. As it's been said several times in this thread the Creative software is very bloaty.

I also have a Asus Xonar in my other comp. It's nice that the software is more lightweight, but the design is lacking. I definitely prefer the Forte to the Xonar, even with it's bloaty software.
 
I really don't see where this thing fits into the market.

If you are using it for HT use, you will use a digital out and the receiver will do the work.

If it's for headphone/stereo use, then an outboard DAC is much more bang for the buck, as you are only paying for top-end stereo processing- not to mention you remove the device from the noise inside the box.
 
I just went to Best Buy and picked this card up because of the Gold Award from [H]. I have always been a creative labs fanboi. Had every top of the line product since the AWE32 (AWE32, AWE64, SB Live 5.1, SB Audigy 2 ZS and the Fatal1ty Titanium) I did not even know they were coming out with a new card until I read it here.

Great review, cannot wait to install it at home tonight.
 
GoodBoy said:
Could I get a little clarification on some questions about EAX and OpenAL? I need to understand the API's more, where Alchemy fits in, and how it compares to the ASUS Essence card.

OpenAL: is this the new sound API which replaced DirectSound when Vista came along (I know directsound was dropped)?

The X-Fi mentions EAX5. Is this directly supported with hardware acceleration, or is Alchemy needed? Do new games use EAX anymore?

I read somewhere in the past that Alchemy bypasses the hardware acceleration to at least provide EAX support (via software solution) in Vista/Win7, is this true? Cause if it does that kinda sucks.
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Here is the info on OpenAL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAL

Creative's drivers get the OpenAL calls and send them to the sound card hardware for rendering.

As for Alchemy, when configured for a game, it puts a special .dll in the game directory(at least the way I always configure it). The game then sees that dll instead of the one from Windows so that the sound gets routed through the Creative drivers for hardware acceleration instead of through Windows which only has software sound rendering.
 
nealric said:
If it's for headphone/stereo use, then an outboard DAC is much more bang for the buck, as you are only paying for top-end stereo processing- not to mention you remove the device from the noise inside the box.
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Then what would yo use to output the digital signal to said DAC? On board sound?
 
Earl:

Thanks for reviewing this soundcard! It is nice to see reviews for things other than power supplies and CPU coolers...

:)

(There is nothing wrong with those reviews. It is just nice to see other types of hardware reviewed!)
 
Domingo said:
Not 100% sure about how this works now, but a year ago only a few onboard audio solutions would do 5.1 audio for non-multichannel items. For instance you might get Dolby 5.1 watching a movie, but if you wanted to play MW2, you'd only get a digital 2.1 audio.
In the case of Creative's cards, they had Dolby Digital and DTS "Live" formats, which would do multi-channel all of the time.
If your on-board has this you're good to go. If not - that's reason enough.
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What about a difference in sound quality? It is my understanding that Optical Out from any source is going to be the same since it's just digital data that will be decoded by the receiver.
 
For 100$ more than the standard x-fi titanium, I'd hope it would sound a lot better.
 
Gmok Bonecrusha said:
I have owned the card maybe a month or so. I am coming off a Xi-Fi Titanium.

I went clean install of Win7 64 Ult.

The drivers don't feel bloated. They contain everything you will probably use. I have in fact used all the software at some point.

This may have been there in other versions of the Xi-Fi cards, but the auto-mode switcher works perfectly. Open up Fooba2K and I have it go into Entertainment Mode with my settings on the slight treble increase, or whatever settings you may wish. Once Foobar2K is closed, it goes back to Gaming Mode. LOVE it.

Sound quality wise. Coming off the Titanium I personally wouldn't say it's night and day in GAMING, things sound a tad sharper.(BC2 you really can hear a difference) Music and movie wise...yeah. It's pretty damn noticeable. So much show I kept the card.

I am no audio expert, nor am I great with wording what I hear when it comes to music. The shit just sounds great. Much better than the Titanium. Most music is FLAC I now own. Crystal clear with no distortions that I can hear. I listen to Motown, 70's 80's R&B, some Jazz, little Hip Hop. (I'm a 40 Y.O geezer I know). I am also open to new genres if people can make a case.

I own maybe 100 games on Steam? I have been through about half my library and have had no issues what so ever. NONE. Hell even BF 2142 (not Steam) works flawlessly when I had screeching and hissing, from the Xi-Fi Gaming to the Titanium. The Titanium HD was flawless. I didn't believe it. Dawn of War II also caused me issues. None with the Titanium HD.

I am coming out using the RCA's to my Maverick Audio D1/A1 setup, to some HD 650's. (Not using the optical because of gaming). Card sounds fantastic. I had issues with the optical with my Maverick D1 swapping modes also. So I just don't use, nor can comment on the optical. Sorry.

Overall, I can honestly say this is the first hassle-free, Creative card, I have owned. And by quite a bit, the best sound card I have owned by Creative.
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thx for that heads up - had HUGE issues with my xifi on Windows 7 and been using onboard after I gave up after 18 months of trying to get it to work
 
Falkentyne said:
This looks like a great buy for people with HEADPHONES and desktop/bookshelf stereo speakers and optical receivers, but what about all of those with quality 5.1 analog sets? Sure I can hook it up to my Z5500 in optical out mode and use dolby digital live, but what if I want to use my much superior Klipsch set? (The Klipsch sub and sats blow away the z5500)...I know some of these audiophile cards offer a dongle for front/rear/center/sub hookups, but this one doesn't... that pretty much means if I want to game, I have to either use headphones, or stick to stereo :(
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I'm in the same boat- my Klipsch Promedia 5.1 THX are analog only, baby- unless I scour eBay for a DD5.1 and run the price way up at auction. But I'd rather use that $300 for something more useful (new SSD, anyone?).

But here's my other fault with the card: It's only PCI-E.

I know, I know- move into the future. But my motherboard isn't that old nor is it fringe- it's an Asus P6T. I have a single PCI-E x1 slot, and now that I just bought a couple of 5850s that slot is covered. So I either plug that card into the third PCI-E x16 slot, or I buy a PCI card.

That's the problem with the recent requirement that enthusiast video cards be dual-slot. And it's not limited to the Asus- the MSI 890FXA-GD70 I'm about to buy for my HTPC box has the same issue. The Gigabyte MA785-UD3H in my server would work, but after skimming the recent Giga reviews here on the [H] I see that it's hit or miss. So now it's PCI or bust.
 
well i was tempted to buy one, at 160ish it looked like good value

too bad they want 260 here in aus. they can go get stuffed
 
st4rk said:
The only thing that bothers me about the review is they used z5500s for testing...(snicker).

I have a X-Fi Forte right now, but I think I might just pick up this titanium. It is very sad they didn't put forth any effort to change the software, what a cop out. As it's been said several times in this thread the Creative software is very bloaty.

I also have a Asus Xonar in my other comp. It's nice that the software is more lightweight, but the design is lacking. I definitely prefer the Forte to the Xonar, even with it's bloaty software.
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And you saw that we used Klipsch 2.1 for testing music. Which is a proper way to do so.

Snicker....
 
Well, it didn't take me long to do as I said. Had some gift cards to burn. So I picked one up at BB.

HUGE improvement over the E760's onboard sound for stereo listening!
 
geok1ng said:
The card never did output distorted sound of any kind but the operational amplifiers the card features really matured the longer they were used. A break-in period of a few weeks to more than month for a card of this nature is absolutely necessary.

Assuming that the former sentence is not audiophile BS, can any good person explaim like i was 5 years old how this Op-amp break-in works on a hardware-physical basis
Click to expand...

This triggers my BS detector as well. Speakers are mechanical, and they break in due to the surround (the part that centers the cone and coil) being pliable and physically changing over time. An op amp is a solid state electronic device. Unless subjected to excess heat or radiation (or vibration to cause physical damage), there will be no measurable change in the properties of the device over weeks.

In other news, James Randi still hasn't paid anyone $1 million.
 
EarlKeim said:
I feel onboard sound is ABSOLUTELY terrible. Every time I hear someone is using onboard sound, I cringe. I used it myself for two days. Never going back.

Once you use a good dedicated card whether it be a $70 Xonar or the new Creative card you will notice. Even the headphone jack on a PC with onboard sound just totally sucks. Read this and you will know. Onboard sound is not shielded in anyway from EMI and this colors your sound with a flutter and flatness.

Read this article and see if that helps to explain:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-On-Board-Audio-Works/28/1
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agreed, I have the original X-Fi XtremeMusic, and I tried one day out of boredom to see if there was a huge difference in between the two and it was like night and day. Plus I absolutely love the X-fi Crystalizer, it makes all my music sound amazing even my lossless music ( most of my stuff is 256k MP3 or M4a to save space with minimal loss in quality.
I read the review and might upgrade, and give my X-fi to a less fortunate friend with Integrated audio still.
 
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.

2lnxvl5.jpg
 
I was disappointed with the review:

1. It does not list which DAC's, ADC's, opamps, or headphone amp are used on the card.
2. This review states like a fact that burn-in makes opamps sound better. This is HIGHLY debatable. We are talking about solid state components here.
3. RMAA results would be nice. Nobody is saying that it tells then entire picture of how a card sounds, but frequency response, SNR, dynamic range, etc are real measurements that can provide a baseline as to the quality of the sound card.
4. This is a gaming oriented site. Why not give us some benchmarks to see if this affects frame rate and/or CPU utilization? Some real-world performance data, [H] style.
5. Why don't we steal from the video card reviews and see how much power this pulls? System efficiency is the cool thing these days.


I am in the group of not buying any more Creative cards. After nothing but snap-crackle-pop on Vista with my X-Fi Fatality, I can't imagine going back. I use HDMI from the video card now to let my receiver's DAC's and processing do their magic. I have thought about buying the Xonar Essence STX for headphone use however.
 
I don't understand how this can be branded "HD" if it lacks both HDMI and Lossless audio output. The competition has cards that can do this why not Creative?
 
I just went back and checked the review to see what mode you guys were using for audio playback, as I was leaning towards "Audio Creation Mode".

It's weird. It's like the "entertainment mode" has a slight roll off on the highs to stave off listener fatigue...but at the expense of audio detail. I don't know if there's any Creative documentation that backs up what I'm thinking.

In any case, listening to 2-channel FLAC's on this card is been an extremely pleasing experience.
 
grifter_66 said:
The lack of HDMI, Dolby Digital True HD and DTS Master Audio makes me wonder what the point of this card is considering the competition.
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Agree. I have the Auzentech True Theatre HD and the pops and cracks of the windows-based sounds drives me insane. However moving to Creative's newest seems like a step down. I believe Auzentech is going out of business . Newegg just dropped the Auzentech line. Anyway, the way Creative enclosed the soundcard, does make it somewhat appealing. I am just very surprised it does not have the Blu-Ray bells and whistles, i,e., HDMI 1.4 etc.
 
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I love my X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty, but this looks like a worthy upgrade for my 64bit Windows 7 setup.

I use the existing Alchemy for cod4 with my Art-Monitor 2D headphones for real 3d combat.

Sigh... save save save...
 
vengence said:
Now would it be a couple of thosand dollars? Sure. But IMHO, "subjective listening" is worthless.
Click to expand...

I agree, reviews based solely on subjective listening contain too many variables to be useful without supporting objective data. You have to take into account the listener's state of mind, the speakers, the listeners physical position in relation to the speakers and most importantly, room acoustics, which will impact the subjective listening experience far more than which DAC or opamp the device uses.

EarlKeim:

It's fine to state that soundcard X > onboard, but you should also be able to back up that claim with data. As well, if you wish to know whether your opamps are aging or your brain is playing tricks, then measure it over the course of the review period. FFT analyzers aren't that expensive. SMAART runs about $900, and for testing gear like this it only requires another computer, a semi-pro sound card, cable and some know-how. Add a measurement mic and you can compare speakers and listening environments, too. Basically, if you can send a signal into a device and have it appear at it's output in real time, you can measure what that device is doing to the original signal.

Sound is very subjective and there is value in reporting that you enjoyed the experience you had with the device. However, your subjective claims will carry greater weight if you can also back them up with data that shows a difference in how one device performs compared to another. Your analogy of how different engineers/system techs will make different subjective choices when mixing records/tuning sound systems doesn't apply when talking about reviewing the performance of a piece of audio equipment. When reviewing a piece of equipment, you should include data on it's comparative technical performance. Stating that there is no way to objectively compare the performance of different pieces of audio equipment does no service to consumers. There is enough snake oil audiophile nonsense out there and [H] should consider applying their usual methodical processes to audio reviews. And the best part is, once you learn how to use an FFT analyzer we can all put a down payment on a house instead of getting sucked into buying these:

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/11/most-expensive-speaker-cable-world-audioquest-audiophile/

I'm sure they'll loan you a set for objective testing purposes. :)

The key to creating useful objective data when it comes to listening experience is comparison. That's why THD, SNR and Freq. Resp. specs alone seem like 'wtf?' numbers to most people. Does a device with a 122dB SNR sound better than a device with a 115dB SNR? I don't know, they're both damn quiet. Device A has a frequency response of 10Hz - 90kHz, but how flat is that response? Is it more accurate than Device B that "only" claims a frequency response of 10Hz - 46kHz?

You need to measure the device on hand and compare it to measurements from the device that you are claiming it is superior to. FFT analysis will allow you to show that the difference that you feel exists actually exists and isn't subjective (ie: influenced by price, pedigree, excitement, word of mouth). If the device is not altering the input signal, the FFT transfer function will be a flat line. If it is altering the signal, you will be able to see what part of the frequency spectrum is being affected and by how much. You will also be able to measure what the device is doing to the signal in the time domain (ie: phase response). You want to see what the specs aren't telling you? Measure a device's phase response. For example, once you see what a graphic EQ does to a signal in the time domain, you will never use one again. :) Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
 
Laird said:
I agree, reviews based solely on subjective listening contain too many variables to be useful without supporting objective data. You have to take into account the listener's state of mind, the speakers, the listeners physical position in relation to the speakers and most importantly, room acoustics, which will impact the subjective listening experience far more than which DAC or opamp the device uses.

EarlKeim:

It's fine to state that soundcard X > onboard, but you should also be able to back up that claim with data. As well, if you wish to know whether your opamps are aging or your brain is playing tricks, then measure it over the course of the review period. FFT analyzers aren't that expensive. SMAART runs about $900, and for testing gear like this it only requires another computer, a semi-pro sound card, cable and some know-how. Add a measurement mic and you can compare speakers and listening environments, too. Basically, if you can send a signal into a device and have it appear at it's output in real time, you can measure what that device is doing to the original signal.

Sound is very subjective and there is value in reporting that you enjoyed the experience you had with the device. However, your subjective claims will carry greater weight if you can also back them up with data that shows a difference in how one device performs compared to another. Your analogy of how different engineers/system techs will make different subjective choices when mixing records/tuning sound systems doesn't apply when talking about reviewing the performance of a piece of audio equipment. When reviewing a piece of equipment, you should include data on it's comparative technical performance. Stating that there is no way to objectively compare the performance of different pieces of audio equipment does no service to consumers. There is enough snake oil audiophile nonsense out there and [H] should consider applying their usual methodical processes to audio reviews. And the best part is, once you learn how to use an FFT analyzer we can all put a down payment on a house instead of getting sucked into buying these:

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/11/most-expensive-speaker-cable-world-audioquest-audiophile/

I'm sure they'll loan you a set for objective testing purposes. :)

The key to creating useful objective data when it comes to listening experience is comparison. That's why THD, SNR and Freq. Resp. specs alone seem like 'wtf?' numbers to most people. Does a device with a 122dB SNR sound better than a device with a 115dB SNR? I don't know, they're both damn quiet. Device A has a frequency response of 10Hz - 90kHz, but how flat is that response? Is it more accurate than Device B that "only" claims a frequency response of 10Hz - 46kHz?

You need to measure the device on hand and compare it to measurements from the device that you are claiming it is superior to. FFT analysis will allow you to show that the difference that you feel exists actually exists and isn't subjective (ie: influenced by price, pedigree, excitement, word of mouth). If the device is not altering the input signal, the FFT transfer function will be a flat line. If it is altering the signal, you will be able to see what part of the frequency spectrum is being affected and by how much. You will also be able to measure what the device is doing to the signal in the time domain (ie: phase response). You want to see what the specs aren't telling you? Measure a device's phase response. For example, once you see what a graphic EQ does to a signal in the time domain, you will never use one again. :) Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
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Some good points.

As far as I know, this is [H]'s first soundcard review, or first in a very long time. So the lack of totally geeked out testing is forgivable.

I'm not sure how many soundcards there are which [H] users could benefit from a really in-depth review, or what it might cost in testing equipment to achieve, but believe it is worth the [H] looking into.

Earl seems quite enthusiastic (for his first hardware review? name is new to me) and if he can channel that into a really technical analysis (after getting the needed equipment and learning how to do it) we will likely get some awesome reviews, that as far as I can see no other site is doing on soundcards. (ok, I only really read [H] so my knowledge on what other hardware testing sites is limited).

I like seeing [H] expanding into additional hardware areas :) Keep it up.

[Kyle, if you are wondering if it's worth doing, simply ask your advertisers if there happened to be a spike in sales of this card after the review posted. If they say "yes!", maybe prod them to sponsor some testing equipment (hand out the nerd viagra)]
 
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I wonder if this would be an upgrade over the EMU 0404 PCI in terms of sound quality?

The audio quality of the 0404 already blows away the analog out on my X-Fi Titanium. In my current setup I have the 0404 in my server and the X-Fi in my main computer. I run the digital output from the X-Fi into the digital input on the 0404, basically using it as a DAC for my X-Fi and getting the best of both worlds. This also allows me to watch movies and listen to music directly on my server when I don't want to heat up my room with my main rig for no good reason.
 
Thanks GoodBoy.

I agree that the lack of in depth reviewing can be excused, but honestly I think that it's almost not worth doing a sound card review at all, other than perhaps comparing connectivity and functionality. Actual audio performance reviewing is difficult unless you really dive into it. That's the approach that most pro audio publications take, they state the facts concerning price vs functionality as opposed to price vs enjoyment.

I think there's value if [H] wants to undertake in depth audio hardware comparisons, as there seems to be a lot of confusion from the consumer perspective. But really, most consumers would actually benefit more from a basic tutorial on acoustics and how to get the most out of the systems they currently own as opposed to being led to believe that they will experience a great sonic improvement by purchasing a new sound card. Maybe not the way to free nerd Viagra, however. :) Even cheap, modern ADC/DAC's are pretty good, and most domestic systems that I've heard fall down due to cheap speakers (and yes, $300 speakers are cheap speakers) or untreated acoustical problems. The upside is, a fair amount of acoustical improvement can be made with a small amount of $ and DIY building skills (and the blessing of your wife or girlfriend!) Sound on Sound magazine has a great monthly feature called 'Studio SOS' that focuses on DIY acoustic treatment. It's primarily aimed at home studio setups, but the principles hold true for any listening environment. You can read most of their articles online, for free.

http://www.soundonsound.com/
 
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Firstly, I'd really like to say that Discussion after really makes the review. The discussion here is productive and adds value. Considering the bulk of knowledge in the Forums and the subjective nature of audio, this substantially increases the value of the review.

Do the Headphone and Soundcard reviews have an influence on my buying decision? Not yet, however my curiosity has been peaked and what I had once crossed off the buying list is back on. After having an unsavory experience with non-essentials I tend to just avoid them. The act of researching +$200 headphones and then buying BestBuy offerings shouldn't be the case now. I think you've found a niche that has been neglected for some time that your readers here can benefit from.

I do like seeing the evolution of these reviews. Today's review didn't convince me in the soundness of your advice, but it's very encouraging. I look forward to reading EarlKeim's reviews. I like your style, I like the upfront approach. I don't preached at, nor do I feel you're trying to sell to me.

So, thank you. I appreciate seeing this focus at H]ard|Forum. Audio in my next computer upgrade/purchase will be a bigger priority.
 
Creative and Sound Blaster have been synonymous with high end sound products for years, but have recently fell on rough times.
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English FAIL!

You have 2 options
  1. but have recently fallen on rough times.
  2. but recently fell on rough times.
 
I am really tempted to get this card as I enjoy cmss-3d for online gaming. But the same software interface they've had for five years? Really? I've become really spoiled with the Xonar Essence software. I enjoy tweaking Dolby Headphone and speaker shifter to make it easier to hear someone creaping up on you. Why wouldn't they have released this thing with some slick new software? Bummer.

Very nice review though.
 
I own a "old" 2009 X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio and I like it. The drivers have always worked for me... even the Beta drivers they had when Win 7 was in Beta worked great.

I never install all the software, just the driver, and I have never had any issues.

Dont know if this is a worth while upgrade, since my sound is far superior to my onboard, and im sure im getting better performance.
 
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