THG X-Fi preview

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jebo_4jc

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2011
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http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/20050705/index.html
Sounds pretty exciting to me, particularly the headphones part. I was skeptical about the advances the X-Fi will truly provide at first, but if it revolutionizes headphone gaming, I would be all for it. I also wonder about how exactly the X-Fi will interact with stand alone receivers? I know it won’t do DDL, but I wonder if some of the advanced simulated surround modes will provide good surround using a stereo output.
 
I found tomshardware's review rather dry, they should just wait for the actual product to be released or a finalized sample. Creative seems like they are going the way of gimmicks yet again with the 24 bit crystalizer, which claims to take cd audio and make it more like the source audio; that just doesn't happen. We'll have to wait and see, but right now it looks like Creative will be marketing another APU with a fancy box that doesn't say DDL on it anywhere :rolleyes: .
 
Newbify2 said:
gimmicks yet again with the 24 bit crystalizer, which claims to take cd audio and make it more like the source audio; that just doesn't happen
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Why? I'm no expert, but THG is. They seem to be pretty excited, and I trust their opinion.

Newbify2 said:
We'll have to wait and see, but right now it looks like Creative will be marketing another APU with a fancy box that doesn't say DDL on it anywhere :rolleyes: .
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That was my point above, which was maybe we will see advancements in sending 2 channel signals to receivers?
 
Interesting article though considering that they don't have hardware to preview, I'm still skeptical. The hype seem to indicate that the X-Fi a huge revolution in sound, but I'm willing to bet that it's more like an incremental upgrade from the latest Audigy models. Only time will tell though.
 
SockMan! said:
Interesting article though considering that they don't have hardware to preview, I'm still skeptical.
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I got the impression they did have preview hardware? Didn't it seem that way?
 
I would think its way more than a regualar upgrade. Perhaps it is no revolution but its probubly the going to be the biggest upgrade in computer sound in years.
 
jebo_4jc said:
I got the impression they did have preview hardware? Didn't it seem that way?
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Now that you mention it, it's kinda hard to tell. I don't recall them specifically saying that they have preview hardware or not, though since they didn't specifically say that they were using preview hardware and that the article looks like a spec preview, I'm assuming they don't. Just be reading the article, I get the impression that their experience was akin to listening to preview models on showroom floors.



Tom's Hardware said:
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]There is still a little impreciseness in the frontal positioning, judging by our experience, which is obviously still limited. [/font][font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]We'll need to experiment with the final version of several models of headphones (see above) and possible configuration adjustments.[/font]
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I love what passes for journalism these days. I wonder if THG could fawn over that product any more.

Using terms like mind boggling, astounding, amazing all when talking about things that have just been "demonstrated" is pretty weak.

Still, its the level of journalism I would expect from a site like THG.

I mean, upsampling 16bit 44khz to anything is a waste of time, i just can't imagine it doing really much better (it will have to use some kind of algorithim to "guess" the missing data)

meh, give me one of those dolby digital encoder cards, thats the shizz
 
when the hell are they going to release the date of availability? Damn them and their stupid timer! I thought they were going to tell when it would be made available but all they did was release info 3 times!!!! :mad:
 
Kristo said:
Using terms like mind boggling, astounding, amazing all when talking about things that have just been "demonstrated" is pretty weak.
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Yea that is pretty weak, probably the cheapest, most brainless adjectives in the english language. end rant/

The proof is in the pudding so hopefully the audigy4 fulfills some expectations.
 
too little too late... creative labs is not getting my money this time... I already bought the soundcard I wanted because CL is just too slow in releasing anything new.. except incrementally adding higher s/n ratio or a channel here or there, stamping a few extra certifications on the box.. then charging double for it. It's going to be sad if this card doesn't support DDL. Has anyone read anywhere that says it will? I can't seem to find anything on it.

Oh and all that crap about making the music sound like it did "before" the CD got mastered sounds like more marketing garbage.
 
god i miss sound storm...

bloody dog pooh realtek rubbish on my nf4.

gonna have to bite the bullet and buy a creative soon, might as well be the x-fi.
 
Assuming that Creative's new product does not include DDL, what are there reasons?

Licensing?

Market isnt' big enough for them? HTPC isn't mainstream enough yet?

Waiting for newer lossless format such as HDMI?

I for one have no interest in DDL because I use only headphones for PC gaming. If you are sitting in front of the monitor at your desk, there is no better way to experience game audio than through good headphones IMHO. For this reason, I'm interested in the new headphone virtualization implementation of the X-Fi.
 
thomase said:
For this reason, I'm interested in the new headphone virtualization implementation of the X-Fi.
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me too, wonder what three ideas combined will sound like (aureal, sensaura, creative).
 
I wonder what kind of DACs Creative will put on the X-Fi. High-quality DACs (i.e CS4398 quad setup), like the ones that are found in the EMU1212, EMU1820M, Audigy 4 Pro, or the lower-quality DACs (to save money), like the ones found in the Live!/Audigy/2/ZS?
 
Fawkes said:
god i miss sound storm...

bloody dog pooh realtek rubbish on my nf4.

gonna have to bite the bullet and buy a creative soon, might as well be the x-fi.
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You do know that there are soundcards out now that are basically Soundstorm on a PCI card, right? HDA Mystique or Turtle Beach Montego
 
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