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Titanium vs Titanium HD

J

Joe_coral

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
75
I'm kind of new to the world of PC sound cards.
Is it really worth the 100% increase in price to buy the X-Fi Titanium HD over the regular X-Fi Titanium?
And how do they compare to the Xonar Essence ST (pretty much same price as the titanium HD)?
 
I have owned all three.

The HD is on par with the Essence STX for music (slight nod to the STX).

The HD is much better than the STX for gaming.

The HD was on par for gaming with the Titanium. (Slight nod to the HD).

The HD was noticeably better for music than the Titanium.

So the question is was it worth double the cost? For me yes. I have a pretty nice headphone/amp music setup, and I am REALLY into my sound for gaming.

I would get the HD over the Essence STX all that being said. All this is my opinion of course, and having heard/owned all three.
 
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Will the rca to 1/8th adapter provide better sound quality with headphones also, or just speakers?
 
After owning the STX, Titanium, and HD, i would give the sound quality nod to the HD, ive been into music for years, also music creation, as creative has a VERY good low latency ASIO drivers, i use 5ms with no stuttering in sound. The HD tho has buggy drivers for me, the audio dissapears sometimes when i switch modes. Sound quality wise, HD wins all the way, best sound card for PC.
 
I just ordered the HD. It might have been a mistake because I hate creative's drivers with a passion. With my older x-fi, my pc will hard lock when I switch modes on occasion. No other device I've ever owned has done that to me.
 
Do these cards still have driver issues with WIn7, or have those issues since been resolved?
 
I personally have never had driver issues with my current Titanium HD nor with my PCI X-Fi Fatal1ty. I've run both with Win 7 Pro x64. However, in both cases I did do a full clean install of Windows since other components were being upgraded as well.
 
Anyone else have hard freezes when switching modes? That annoys me to no end. Especially because my windows drive is an SSD, hopefully I'm not corrupting it.
 
It never takes my rig more than 1-2 seconds to switch modes, although I don't switch modes that frequently. I'm using a WD Black HD.
 
Gmok Bonecrusha said:
The HD was on par for gaming than the Titanium. (Slight nod to the HD).

The HD was noticeably better for music.
Click to expand...

i've owned both the Titanium and Titanium HD and i second this. 'worth the cost' is a relative thing, i got my Titanium HD for $135 and it was worth the $35 premium over the Titanium in my opinion.

kniah said:
It never takes my rig more than 1-2 seconds to switch modes, although I don't switch modes that frequently. I'm using a WD Black HD.
Click to expand...

same situation here; using a WD Black drive and it takes a second or two to switch modes, never locks up. i switch modes occasionally, usually a few times per week.
 
I'm thinking of getting a DAC for music and movies and leaving my card on gaming mode. I think my Fatal1ty Pro is fubared because I uninstalled the official drivers to try Daniel_K's and even Pax drivers and neither of them acknowledge that a supported device is installed.
 
As for the mode switcher. I have the HD swap to Entertainment mode when any of my media players is active (FB2K, WMP etc). Defaults back to gaming when they close. It works like a charm.

I have always had issues with Creative cards at some time, with every single one of their cards that I have owned. This is the 1st Creative card I can honestly say I have had zero issues with. That alone is worth the price. Well, that and CMSS3D.
 
Gmok Bonecrusha said:
As for the mode switcher. I have the HD swap to Entertainment mode when any of my media players is active (FB2K, WMP etc). Defaults back to gaming when they close. It works like a charm.

I have always had issues with Creative cards at some time, with every single one of their cards that I have owned. This is the 1st Creative card I can honestly say I have had zero issues with. That alone is worth the price. Well, that and CMSS3D.
Click to expand...

Where can I download Auto Mode Switcher? I just re-installed the official drivers and it's not included.
 
only thing I can't do with my XF-I Titanium HD is get the headphones and RCA's to switch via software or automatically when a headphone is detected...

As it is now, I have to swap cables which is a pain in the ass.
 
Just wanted to ask one more time if I can use a 1/8th to RCA Y-adapter for headphones. Thank you.
 
Ok. I thought that since the rca ports had a superior signal-to-noise rating that I would be well served using the RCA ports. Thanks for replying.
 
Riddleofsteel said:
Ok. I thought that since the rca ports had a superior signal-to-noise rating that I would be well served using the RCA ports. Thanks for replying.
Click to expand...

The output quality (and op-amps) are superior on the RCA output compared to the headphone output. However, depending on what headphones you are using (and how difficult they are to drive) it may be better to just use the headphone output as they may not be driven properly by the RCA out.
 
DisrupTer911 said:
only thing I can't do with my XF-I Titanium HD is get the headphones and RCA's to switch via software or automatically when a headphone is detected...

As it is now, I have to swap cables which is a pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a HUGE pain in the ass. And unfortunately, it's not going to change. According to Creative, the inability to switch via software or automatically when headphones are connected/disconnected was an intentional design decision in order to provide "better audio quality". Here's the thread about this topic in the Creative forums. To me, it's a giant usability issue. Given that previous X-Fi cards had this ability, I think it's understandable why people would expect this card to perform that way, as wel. I suggested (via forum, e-mail and phone) that Creative advertise this fact so potential consumers are aware of this "design decision" so they can decide if it's a problem for them *BEFORE* they purchase the card. Needless to say, they're not interested in doing that.
 
I installed my HD last weekend and expected the headphone switching to be an inconvenience, but I discovered it's not a problem for me since I primarily use the digital out and it runs both the headphones and digital output simultaneously. I'll be able to just leave the headphones connected 99% of the time.
 
how do you guys get rid of the poping sound on the Titainium HD.

this is the first Creative card where ive had issues.

ive tried all the nomral stuff changing bit rat etc.
 
I already enjoy the quality of my card that just arrived today compared to my old Fatal1ty card. Would I be able to eliminate electrical noise or otherwise benefit by connecting the Titanium HD to an optical DAC like the Musiland 02? I can use my headphones just fine but my Dayton speakers are just bare wire connectors. Not sure how to connect them to my card now.
 
I fixed my own problem. I noticed in the packaging of the Titanium HD that there's a proprietary RCA cable. Connected that from my HD to the Dayton T-Amp (I had been using a Harman Kardon Receiver) and now it sounds bangin'. I need to manually switch to headphones now, as far as I know.

Now I really need to get rid of the receiver, but I was still wondering about using a coax connection to a Dac. Thanks for replying.
 
Hello guys, sorry to bump this old thread but im also interested in Titanium HD vs Xonar STX.

So few questions.

1. If i use the front panel conector, do i lose quallity regarding headphones usage? do i have to plug my headpones in the back of the case, in order go get best sound?

2. Does the Titanium HD have good quallity headphone AMP? i heard its limited to around 300 ohms, but thats not problem for me, because i got HD595 which are 50 ohms.

3. Would this card work good togethet with my HD595 regarding Hi-Fi sound? im huge fan of cristal clear/detailed sound, over anything else regarding music.

4. What kind of music does this card produce best? i listen mostly to rock, electronic, and some ambient/classic music.

5. Does this card have good 5.1 emulation in games/movies? i got 5.1 crappy Logitech X-530 and i want to get 5.1 sound from them if thats possible because they are analog speakers, im not into audio much if you could share some toughts regarding 5.1 sound would be nice.

Thanks in advance!



P.S. One more thing, this cards are going around 80$ on Ebay which is crazy price, are there some issues with some revisions of them? because its impossible card listed to around 180$ on newegg/online stores to be more then 2x cheaper on ebay (new cards that is) any reason behind this?
 
psyside said:
P.S. One more thing, this cards are going around 80$ on Ebay which is crazy price, are there some issues with some revisions of them? because its impossible card listed to around 180$ on newegg/online stores to be more then 2x cheaper on ebay (new cards that is) any reason behind this?
Click to expand...

BestBuy was apparently trying to move these out of their stock recently, and quite a few people were able to buy cards for ~$50 from BB stores.

Many people purchased multiple cards to re-sell, which is the reason for all the recent ~$80 deals on eBay.
 
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