X-Fi or X-Meridian?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CodeRed

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
329
Sorry if there are other threads on this. I haven't seen one..
I'm considering either a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic or an Auzentech X-Meridian. I'm not sure which one to get; gaming is low on my priority list and the X-Meridian seems to sound better otherwise, but the X-Fi is about $50 cheaper. Is the difference worth the price? I may do the opamp mod on the X-Fi if I get that. I'm also trying to factor in driver support as buying something better-sounding but non-mainstream has failed me once in Vista..

EDIT: Actually.. seems like the Auzentech card is at least double the price.. is it worth it? :(

EDIT2: ok.. the x-meridian, the clear winner, is a bit out of the price range. How would a similar Bluegears b-Enspirer compare to the X-Fi?
 
What's your acoustic system? If it's typical PC multimedia, you most likely won't hear that much difference.
 
X-fi has built in ram, used for gameing really. It all really comes down to what you need it for. If your producing or running your DJ stuff off of your comp id say spend the extra money.
 
If you don't mind using a soldering iron, why not get a cheaper Oxygen HD card like Sondigo Inferno and change the OPAMPs. I don't know about other Oxygen HD cards but X-Meridian already has the drivers for Vista. If you ask me, I would say that the price of the X-Meridian is really worth it over the X-Fi but I haven't change the OPAMPs of my X-Fi. My receiver has double the price of X-Meridian but I still prefer how my X-Meridian sounds.
 
I have been using the card in Vista for quite a while now and the drivers are great in X32. The company just released X64 drivers aswell. Anybody I have spoke to that have bought a X-Meridian, doesn't regret the purchase. You can always mod a X-fi to get better sound out of it. It i not like the X-fi sounds bad it;s just the XM sounds alot better. The X-Meridian is the king of the hill for analog sound quality. People argue the X-fi for games but that is their opinion based on EAX/OpenAL. I can understand that. The XM for analog is everybodies opinion who has heard the card...It is just a fact. Should also mention the company is bringing out a new card melding the best features of the X-fi and X-Meridian. The card is called the Prelude and should be released end of the month. The XM is a pricy card -worth every penny in my opinion. The Prelude will have a similar price.
 
Krilikz said:
X-fi has built in ram, used for gameing really.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, less than a handful of titles have actually utilized X-RAM thus far.

Remember that the sound card is just a source, OP. Predominantly, your speakers and your room are going to determine the quality of the sound. If there are specific features you feel you need, I'd recommend buying based on those features.
 
Ahriman4891 said:
What's your acoustic system? If it's typical PC multimedia, you most likely won't hear that much difference.
Click to expand...

I have a Logitech Z560 4.1 system from a few years ago.. THX Certified :p

Audioguy: The X-Prelude seems like it's gonna be super expensive?

Krilikz: No producing or anything, more like 85% music/movies and 15% gaming..

alg7_munif: I thought about it but I don't want to be left out in the cold without new drivers at some point when they get bored of supporting the card.. Which one would be better though?
Sondigo inferno @ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156003 ?
bluegears b-Enspirer @ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829127002 ?
Others?

phide: I think the X-Fi XtremeMusic doesn't have X-Ram anyway so that's not even a factor IMO..

Otherwise.. does any place have the X-Meridian cheaper than $170? I can get an OEM X-Fi XtremeMusic for $70.. And finally.. anyone compare a modded X-Fi to a stock X-M?
 
i'm trying to make a similair decision but i didnt think it required a new thread

i'm only going to be using my klipsch 5.1 ultras and my cans for a mix of about 60% music/movies and 40% gaming (but i dont plan on upgrading to vista anytime soon) i would say music/movies are more important to me but i live for great game positional sound... think i should get the xfi

i can pick up the xfi xtremegamer fatal1ty pro for $100 after $40 MIR from newegg for the next few days
 
If you really just care about listening to music and movies, then I say neither.

Just get a inexpensive card that reliably does digital out, and spend the money on a better speakers, recievers, amp, etc. watch all your movies using digital pass through, and make sure any cd's you listen to on the computer is outputted "bit perfect" (aka, not remixed and resampled by windows mixer)

Or get one of the music production orientated sound interfaces (they come in pcie, usb, firewire varieties) and go from there... (although for movies, you'll probably end up just doing digtal pass through anyways) If you are looking to do music production, you'll want to just get one of these.. maybe as a 2nd sound card, since they aren't built with gaming performance in mind.

If do some gaming though, IMO, get a X-Fi and hook up analog channels for gaming to your reciever, and then use its digital out for music and movies (I've never used X-Fi's digital out though, so duno if there are any gotcha's)

I run a two card and speakers setup.. X-Fi on some lowend logitech 5.1 speakers for gaming.. M-Audio 192 with RP8's for music work. I don't watch movies on this computer, but my HTPC downstairs is simply digital out to my reciever.

BTW, might want to consider reducing the noise from your PC too.. Silencing it, or my favorite, just moving it out of the room.. No sense in spending all that money, only to have noise from your PC burble in the background.
 
Going digital is great. If the equipment your connecting the digital signal to is decent. You may think you have a good receiver and so you will get good sound. Fact of the matter is alot of people these days are figuring out when they try this that their digital to analog circuitry is less then stellar. Unless you have top quality DAC circuitry in the gear your connecting to you might aswell stay in the analog domain. You are at the mercy of this gear. You really need to decide what you want. What features you need and decide from there....simple. The Prelude will be about $200 when released. I payed that for the XM and don't regret one cent. Do some research read some reviews ask questions. You will figure out which card is the best for you. There are lots of great soundcards out there. They all have strengths and weaknesses.
 
ynnek888 said:
If you really just care about listening to music and movies, then I say neither.

Just get a inexpensive card that reliably does digital out, and spend the money on a better speakers, recievers, amp, etc. watch all your movies using digital pass through, and make sure any cd's you listen to on the computer is outputted "bit perfect" (aka, not remixed and resampled by windows mixer)

Or get one of the music production orientated sound interfaces (they come in pcie, usb, firewire varieties) and go from there... (although for movies, you'll probably end up just doing digtal pass through anyways) If you are looking to do music production, you'll want to just get one of these.. maybe as a 2nd sound card, since they aren't built with gaming performance in mind.

If do some gaming though, IMO, get a X-Fi and hook up analog channels for gaming to your reciever, and then use its digital out for music and movies (I've never used X-Fi's digital out though, so duno if there are any gotcha's)

I run a two card and speakers setup.. X-Fi on some lowend logitech 5.1 speakers for gaming.. M-Audio 192 with RP8's for music work. I don't watch movies on this computer, but my HTPC downstairs is simply digital out to my reciever.

BTW, might want to consider reducing the noise from your PC too.. Silencing it, or my favorite, just moving it out of the room.. No sense in spending all that money, only to have noise from your PC burble in the background.
Click to expand...

Same here and QFT!
 
CodeRed said:
I have a Logitech Z560 4.1 system from a few years ago.. THX Certified :p
Click to expand...

Typical PC multimedia :p *runs away*

To the receiver advocates: you do realize that It'll take a very expensive receiver to get the same DAC quality as X-meridian? I would think that X-meridian($150) paired with a decent 7-channel power amp from e.g. Emotiva ($500) will beat the crap out of any $650 receiver in terms of SQ.
 
Ahriman4891 said:
Typical PC multimedia :p *runs away*

To the receiver advocates: you do realize that It'll take a very expensive receiver to get the same DAC quality as X-meridian? I would think that X-meridian($150) paired with a decent 7-channel power amp from e.g. Emotiva ($500) will beat the crap out of any $650 receiver in terms of SQ.
Click to expand...

Thanks :rolleyes: lol
I wish I could go the digital way, but I have two constraints working against me here. One is space; the other is money. At least my speakers aren't the limiting factor here, as there was an obvious difference when I switched from my M-Audio Revolution 7.1 to the built-in sound on my motherboard.

So... X-Fi XtremeMusic or another similarly priced C-Media-based offering?
 
If you want the best analog sound quality available in this price range. The X-Meridian is the way to go. If price is a concern or you want EAX or OpenAL then you might aswell go with a $80 X-fi.. I couldn't imagine using anything other then a XM unless it sounded the same or better. Just my opinion.
 
For the people that say just pipe digital to your receiver...that doesn't work extremely well since you need to compress the audio with anything more than 2 channels.
 
CodeRed said:
Thanks :rolleyes: lol
I wish I could go the digital way, but I have two constraints working against me here. One is space; the other is money. At least my speakers aren't the limiting factor here, as there was an obvious difference when I switched from my M-Audio Revolution 7.1 to the built-in sound on my motherboard.

So... X-Fi XtremeMusic or another similarly priced C-Media-based offering?
Click to expand...

Hey, I made the post half-jokingly... don't take offense :) I guess audiophile snobbery is getting to me :( even though I don't have nearly enough $$ to be considered a "real" audiophile. However, most onboard solutions have really low quality; I felt the difference when going from onboard nForce2 sound to Chaintech AV710 on a $20 pair of speakers, and the difference was very noticeable, one of the biggest jumps in audio I experienced :eek: What I'm saying is this: you'll likely feel the difference, but in order to be able to properly judge soundcards against each other (at least soundcards of approx. the same level) you really need good acoustics--I'm talking 100s of $$ for a stereo setup. On my setup ($140 receiver, $150 DIY speakers--effectively they are $250-300, so you could say I have a ~$400 setup) I do feel the difference between 0404usb and x-fi, but the difference is way more pronounced on both my headphones. Speaker upgrade is my next big step.

Sorry if the above post was not very coherent, I'm not very sober right now :eek:
 
Ahriman4891 said:
Hey, I made the post half-jokingly... don't take offense :) I guess audiophile snobbery is getting to me :( even though I don't have nearly enough $$ to be considered a "real" audiophile. However, most onboard solutions have really low quality; I felt the difference when going from onboard nForce2 sound to Chaintech AV710 on a $20 pair of speakers, and the difference was very noticeable, one of the biggest jumps in audio I experienced :eek: What I'm saying is this: you'll likely feel the difference, but in order to be able to properly judge soundcards against each other (at least soundcards of approx. the same level) you really need good acoustics--I'm talking 100s of $$ for a stereo setup. On my setup ($140 receiver, $150 DIY speakers--effectively they are $250-300, so you could say I have a ~$400 setup) I do feel the difference between 0404usb and x-fi, but the difference is way more pronounced on both my headphones. Speaker upgrade is my next big step.

Sorry if the above post was not very coherent, I'm not very sober right now :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah dont worry, no offense taken :) I wish I could afford a proper music listening setup but this is all I got for now. I guess I have decided to not go all-out on an XM and now I'm trying to decide between a Bluegears b-Enspirer (I wish it was still $90..) and an X-Fi. I was looking at the Sondigo Inferno too but I think the comparison @ The Tech Report seemed to place the X-Fi a tad above in terms of sound quality. Even worse, the reviews keep contradicting themselves and I'm just trying to get the best value for the money..

Seems like the Bluegears card uses similar or even same DACs and opamps as the Auzentech card so theoretically the b-Enspirer should at least be almost as good?
 
Similar is not even close actually....just so you know. The XM is the XM....nothing compares for analog in it's price range. I guess the Prelude will....
 
CodeRed said:
Yeah dont worry, no offense taken :) I wish I could afford a proper music listening setup but this is all I got for now. I guess I have decided to not go all-out on an XM and now I'm trying to decide between a Bluegears b-Enspirer (I wish it was still $90..) and an X-Fi. I was looking at the Sondigo Inferno too but I think the comparison @ The Tech Report seemed to place the X-Fi a tad above in terms of sound quality. Even worse, the reviews keep contradicting themselves and I'm just trying to get the best value for the money..

Seems like the Bluegears card uses similar or even same DACs and opamps as the Auzentech card so theoretically the b-Enspirer should at least be almost as good?
Click to expand...

Reviews just come down to who would you trust? I'd take Tech Report and MaximumPC over Guru3D and the rest 10 out of 10 times. Not just with Sound Cards but ALL HARDWARE.

Auzen seemingly agrees with TR and MPC since they'll also use the X-Fi chip in the Prelude. That should have ended all of the negative BS about OpenAL + EAX and Drivers.
 
CodeRed said:
Yeah dont worry, no offense taken :) I wish I could afford a proper music listening setup but this is all I got for now. I guess I have decided to not go all-out on an XM and now I'm trying to decide between a Bluegears b-Enspirer (I wish it was still $90..) and an X-Fi. I was looking at the Sondigo Inferno too but I think the comparison @ The Tech Report seemed to place the X-Fi a tad above in terms of sound quality. Even worse, the reviews keep contradicting themselves and I'm just trying to get the best value for the money..

Seems like the Bluegears card uses similar or even same DACs and opamps as the Auzentech card so theoretically the b-Enspirer should at least be almost as good?
Click to expand...
b-Enspirer, Sondigo Inferno and Theatron DTS are all exactly the same card, they all use the same components and also the same circuit board, just get the cheapest of all. Btw since gaming is low on your priority, you don't need to get into trouble with X-Fi, EAX or OpenAL.
Donnie27 said:
Reviews just come down to who would you trust? I'd take Tech Report and MaximumPC over Guru3D and the rest 10 out of 10 times. Not just with Sound Cards but ALL HARDWARE.

Auzen seemingly agrees with TR and MPC since they'll also use the X-Fi chip in the Prelude. That should have ended all of the negative BS about OpenAL + EAX and Drivers.
Click to expand...
Because you are banned from Guru3D's forum? :rolleyes:
 
Read the reviews. If you care about artificial effects within your games then buy a X-fi but you lose sound quality. The X-fi is simply no match for the X-M for sound qualty..no review will change that fact. Read for yourself.

http://techgage.com/article/auzentech_x-meridian_71/1
http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/sound/auzentechxmeridian/index.php?p=1
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=27
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/auzentech/index.php
http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/399/1/
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index...29;♥♥♥♥reviews&id=532
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2069437,00.asp
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/sound/XMeridian/index.htm
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/23/review_auzentech_x-meridian/
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/index.shtml

You read "Best soundcard ever in our Labs", "Best soundcard we have ever tested" etc.
 
alg7_munif said:
Because you are banned from Guru3D's forum? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

No, I'm not banned from any of the others though LOL! That's too easy. TR and MPC's reveiw mirror my own experiences not all of the other reviews. I just said Guru3D since their's was one of the worse ones done IMHO.

For the record I was banned from MaxPC:rolleyes: For less of a Flame than Firedemon and Audioguy flamed me here.
 
Audioguy said:
Read the reviews. If you care about artificial effects within your games then buy a X-fi but you lose sound quality. The X-fi is simply no match for the X-M for sound qualty..no review will change that fact. Read for yourself.

http://techgage.com/article/auzentech_x-meridian_71/1
http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/sound/auzentechxmeridian/index.php?p=1
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=27
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/auzentech/index.php
http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/399/1/
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index...29;♥♥♥♥reviews&id=532
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2069437,00.asp
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/sound/XMeridian/index.htm
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/23/review_auzentech_x-meridian/
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/index.shtml

You read "Best soundcard ever in our Labs", "Best soundcard we have ever tested" etc.
Click to expand...

That quote came from a Site that never tested a X-Fi, sort of like you:rolleyes:

Exteme Tech's Quote.

We like Creative Labs X-Fi cards for gaming, but this is primarily a home theater PC. One very cool audio card that's out now is the Auzentech X-Meridian, which is specifically targeted as an audiophile sound card. This card even has user-replaceable op-amps, if you're really hard core. More useful for us are the digital audio output and input ports on the card. These ports are dual-input, and can be used with either coax copper or TOSLINK fiber optic cables.
Click to expand...

Same thing Tech Report said BTW.

Now please Quote me saying anything different than that? Please for you and alg7? Saying that same thing ET said got me called a Troll and Banned from Guru3D's forums and caused you to post crap to me as well.

If Auzen agreed with you and your cohorts, there's NO WAY in hell they use a X-FI for any reason. Why mess with Buggy drivers and inferior Sound Effects?

Please stop posting this line? If you care about artificial effects within your games then buy a X-fi but you lose sound quality. It's silly since all games sounds are artificial LOL! You add sound effects to make them "More Realistic".:p
 
@Codered. I would think you do research into gear as most do. Do your research and check different forums and ask questions. Choose what is the best fit for you and your gear.
Creative Labs knows who makes the best sounding cards...this is not a opinion, it is a fact.
 
Audioguy said:
@Codered. I would think you do research into gear as most do. Do your research and check different forums and ask questions. Choose what is the best fit for you and your gear.
Creative Labs knows who makes the best sounding cards...this is not a opinion, it is a fact.
Click to expand...


Auzen knows who makes the best Gaming DSP, has the best sound effects and that's a fact.
 
I would suggest reading as much info as you can on both cards. Look in different fourms, You will quickly figure out which card is suited to your tastes and what you do with your PC.
If you get the prelude you can have both cards rolled into one:D
 
yes your best bet is to just read and go for what you want. just go on google and research.

If one card has something you care able or want then go for that one. you gonna have to make up your mind since you will be using that setup.
 
Audioguy said:
Read the reviews. If you care about artificial effects within your games then buy a X-fi but you lose sound quality. The X-fi is simply no match for the X-M for sound qualty..no review will change that fact. Read for yourself.

http://techgage.com/article/auzentech_x-meridian_71/1
http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/sound/auzentechxmeridian/index.php?p=1
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=27
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/auzentech/index.php
http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/399/1/
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index...29;♥♥♥♥reviews&id=532
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2069437,00.asp
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/sound/XMeridian/index.htm
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/23/review_auzentech_x-meridian/
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/auzentech_xmeridian/index.shtml

You read "Best soundcard ever in our Labs", "Best soundcard we have ever tested" etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah.. the X-Meridian seems to be the clear winner. It's a tad out of my price range though, as a $60-$100 difference is somewhat significant.

I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to either an X-Fi or a Bluegears b-Enspirer, unless anyone can sway me to a Sondigo Inferno..
 
The XM may come down when the Prelude hits. Trust me man that card is worth every cent when you hear it.
 
CodeRed said:
Yeah.. the X-Meridian seems to be the clear winner. It's a tad out of my price range though, as a $60-$100 difference is somewhat significant.

I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to either an X-Fi or a Bluegears b-Enspirer, unless anyone can sway me to a Sondigo Inferno..
Click to expand...

B-Enspirer and Sondigo Inferno are exactly the same card. There shouldn't be no difference between the two cards. Just the the cheaper card. Btw Sondigo Inferno is also distributed by Auzentech.
 
You have a point ALG, alot of the 8788 based cards are just copies of the original reference design released by C-Media. the XM doesn't follow the reference design. I guess it's up to the reviews and what you decide.
 
Audioguy said:
Have a look here.
http://www.auzentech.com/kiosk/

If your gonna go analog though and have no maney for the Xm I would try to get the best sounding card I could so read the reviews about whatever card your interested in.
Click to expand...

lol that's exactly what I'm doing. If I found a definitive answer through that, I probably wouldn't be asking on this forum :D

alg7_munif: Yeah they are basically identical PCBs. One difference that may or may not be that great is that the b-Enspirer uses JRC 4580 opamps like (similar to?) the X-Meridian while the Inferno uses 4560s..
 
CodeRed said:
lol that's exactly what I'm doing. If I found a definitive answer through that, I probably wouldn't be asking on this forum :D

alg7_munif: Yeah they are basically identical PCBs. One difference that may or may not be that great is that the b-Enspirer uses JRC 4580 opamps like (similar to?) the X-Meridian while the Inferno uses 4560s..
Click to expand...

uh ohh you asked a real question LOL!

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2007q1/oxygen-sound-cards/index.x?pg=1

The difference between EAX 2.0 and 5.0 is far from academic, and as our game performance tests show, the X-Fi's hardware acceleration can give in-game frame rates a huge boost, even with all sorts of extra 3D voices. That's not the worst of it, though. The Oxygen-based cards can't keep up with the frame rates offered by ADI integrated motherboard audio, either. If you want multi-channel output in games, get an X-Fi and learn to live with analog cables—it's better than suffering through higher CPU utilization, lower frame rates, and fewer in-game sounds just to run a single optical cable.
Click to expand...

If Auzentech didn't come to a similar conclusion, there wounldn't be a Prelude. This line " fewer in-game sounds" is the only hole in the CMedia based card's armor.
 
@CodeRed , The XM uses the 4560's out of the box and with those the card sound awsome. Most guys with the XM's will swap those for LM4562's or others to improve the sound quality even more. It's great feature, there are alot of good amps out there.
 
Donnie27 said:
uh ohh you asked a real question LOL!

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2007q1/oxygen-sound-cards/index.x?pg=1
Click to expand...

I did read that review a few times :confused: Like this line:
So we like the X-Meridian, or at least we like it more than the Inferno. But would we recommend it over an X-Fi? No.
Click to expand...

RMAA tests and subjective listening tests point out a few differences but also seem to place the X-Fi at least around the same level as the XM, which is exactly what I'm talking about. What's your point? :confused:


So.. in conclusion.. any C-Media-based card would be a better choice than an X-Fi for pure sound quality?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top