X-FI Titanium Replacement

D

Drakenfeng

Gawd
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
671
Sad day, my X-FI Titanium died; it doesn't even show up in the device manager. I knew putting it directly over my video card would eventually kill it, but it was the only slot it would fit in. Reverted to the on-board audio and it sounds terrible.

Do any of the newer sound cards compare in quality or should I track down a replacement? In particular I enjoyed the Crystalizer feature and being able to load instrument soundbanks for playing back MIDIs.

Thanks
 
Drakenfeng said:
Sad day, my X-FI Titanium died; it doesn't even show up in the device manager. I knew putting it directly over my video card would eventually kill it, but it was the only slot it would fit in. Reverted to the on-board audio and it sounds terrible.

Do any of the newer sound cards compare in quality or should I track down a replacement? In particular I enjoyed the Crystalizer feature and being able to load instrument soundbanks for playing back MIDIs.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I put a Z in mine 2 weeks ago. It sounds better and has better controls than onboard. I purposely got the base model without the Pod because I read in a few places that the pod causes a quality drop in the output signal. Unverified. Didn't need it anyway.

As usual with creative, hooking up cables requires the pretzel bend around the computer, flashlight held with teeth, diagram card in one hand, and cable in the other. WTF creative.
 
I picked up a Creative X7 from Massdrop for $299 last week, should be shipping out on the 16th. It's USB so you don't have to worry about heating up in your case, also frees up some PCI lanes.
 
Are you using speakers or headphones for listenting? If headphones, I've really enjoyed my O2 DAC & amp combo. My Titanium HD card has been collecting dust. I need to sell it.
 
My X-FI has been acting up lately. I'm interested in the recommendations as well.

My speakers: Logitech Z-5500
Headphones: Sony MDR-7506

Any thoughts?
 
Keep an eye out for a used Titanium HD. DAC is just as good as the one on the newer Creative ZxR, and much better than the one on the stock X-Fi Titanium. You would already be familiar with it's feature set, and you should be able to find one for sale pretty cheap.

The Titanium HD also comes with a plastic case/shield unlike the regular Titanium which is just a bare card, that might help shield against the heat if you are going to install it above your videocard again. I have my Titanium HD right above both of my GTX680s in SLI, with no issues.
 
Last edited:
Maybe it's just me but I wasn't impressed with the Creative Z. I ended up selling it. I was impressed with the Asus Essence STX but I sold it as well and moved on to USB DAC's, etc.
 
Whats a good USB Dac that won't break the bank? That Steinberg stuff is too much after spending $1000 on a speaker setup :)
 
Usb dac is the way to go. A good one is the objective 02 head phone amp and dac. I bought one from mayflower it cost me 275$ and i could connect it to studio monitors
 
Last edited:
TechLarry said:
Whats a good USB Dac that won't break the bank? That Steinberg stuff is too much after spending $1000 on a speaker setup :)
Click to expand...

Depends on budget. I'd say something like a Schiit Modi2Uber @$149.
 
If gaming, get a Creative Z (or ZxR if you wanna spend more), if gaming is not important get a DAC/AMP combo.
 
I have a Z card. That's what is feeding things now. This machine isn't for gaming. Music and guitar work is more important.

The Amplifi TT I have will act as a sound card if I plug it in as USB, but I'm not sure how good it is.
 
you people do know that USB DAC's only offer 2 channels? right?

you wont get any directional sound with USB DAC's, I would only use USB DAC for listening music with headphones or two speakers.

My Titanium HD is still well after many years with SLI setups, my rigs always had great cooling, so the heat was never an issue.
 
There are a few things in this thread that should probably be clarified.

External DACs. External DACs are nothing new. External DACs have the inherent benefit of being able to exist outside of a noisy environment (like the inside of a computer or a receiver). This can reduce electrical interference and noise. It's important to understand however that this is only one variable. A DAC doesn't automatically become special just because it is in an external enclosure. Comparing a higher-end DAC located on a soundcard vs a lower-end DAC in an external enclosure, the DAC on the soundcard is still likely to sound better. An external enclosure helps against interference, but interference isn't guaranteed. I don't get any using my Titanium HD inside my computer.

It's also important to understand that an External DAC is not necessarily a soundcard replacement. Traditional External DACs simply convert a digital input to an analog output. You still need to feed it a digital signal from something (such as your soundcard). In this case, you can have the best of both worlds, using a gaming soundcard, feeding digital output to an external DAC.

USB DACs. A USB DAC is simply an external DAC with a cheap, generic USB soundcard built-in so that it can operate as a stand-alone device and not require a digital input from a separate source. This will lack any and all features found on most gaming soundcards.

It is amusing how people latch on to the idea of USB DACs as simply being better. People talk about having "moved on" from soundcards to USB DACs, and simply put, it's bullshit. If you're going to go with an external DAC, do it the right way and don't limit yourself using some POS generic USB sound device, feed a real external DAC from a real digital source. If you're just looking for a good gaming card and want good sound at the same time, both the Titanium HD and the creative ZxR come with very good DACs that rival and even surpass what you might find in many USB DACs.
 
people moved to exterrnal dacs becuase they are less noisy and do not require drivers. they work with any os with out any issues. alot of people got fed up with driver support on alot of soundcards. most on boards dacs are fine but the amplifers on them suck and generally just amplify the noise from inside the case
 
I have both my trusty old Titanium HD (In my rig currently) and my ZXR (which is in a closet collecting dust currently) I use the DanielK drivers for my HD because they are so much better than the official creative drivers and give new life to the XFi Ti HD.
 
Thanks for the input guys, I'll try the Z. It pains me that they don't make the X-FI series anymore, and that Creative's drivers and support are rather bad but there doesn't seem to be another option.

I like being able to switch between speakers and headphones and it seems like with the external DACs I'd have to be swapping wires constantly, whereas with the internal cards I can leave the speakers plugged in and use the front ports on the case for headphones. That and the volume range difference between my headphones and speakers is rather massive and really require separate settings (which the Creative drivers do handle correctly).

Is it possible to plug a PCI-E 1x card into a 4x slot and still have it function? I'd like to avoid putting the new card directly over my video card again if possible.
 
Drakenfeng said:
Is it possible to plug a PCI-E 1x card into a 4x slot and still have it function? I'd like to avoid putting the new card directly over my video card again if possible.
Click to expand...

Yeah there should not be any issues putting a 1x card into a 4x slot or even a 16x slot.
 
GotNoRice said:
It is amusing how people latch on to the idea of USB DACs as simply being better. People talk about having "moved on" from soundcards to USB DACs, and simply put, it's bullshit. If you're going to go with an external DAC, do it the right way and don't limit yourself using some POS generic USB sound device, feed a real external DAC from a real digital source. If you're just looking for a good gaming card and want good sound at the same time, both the Titanium HD and the creative ZxR come with very good DACs that rival and even surpass what you might find in many USB DACs.
Click to expand...

Not sure who that was directed at but since I used the term...I did in fact move on. I don't game as I don't have time. I'm currently using cpu graphics and before that I was using a lower end AMD card. I've read enough of your posts in this subforum to agree on pretty much the stuff you've posted for quite some time. All depends on needs.


Drakenfeng said:
Thanks for the input guys, I'll try the Z. It pains me that they don't make the X-FI series anymore, and that Creative's drivers and support are rather bad but there doesn't seem to be another option.
Click to expand...


For what it's worth, I never had any driver issues with the Z. Didn't have any with the STX either like some have had.
 
I have a fully functional X-FI Elite in the closet. Where does it fit in all this ?
 
I moved from Titanium HD to Yamaha RX-V379 receiver and HDMI audio output thru a video card. Much better.
 
ashmelev75 said:
I moved from Titanium HD to Yamaha RX-V379 receiver and HDMI audio output thru a video card. Much better.
Click to expand...

Yes it works, however the video card is still giving "low end" audio - unless something has changed recently. You are basically using onboard sound. That is perfectly fine for your use and most of the population as well, but for someone who wants premium sound it isn't really a proper suggestion. Since OP had a soundcard and obviously wants to maintain a higher level of sound, he should stick with a sound card.

OP I have been using an STX for 2 years and love it, although I wouldn't say I could find a difference between that and my X-Fi Titanium.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Yes it works, however the video card is still giving "low end" audio - unless something has changed recently. You are basically using onboard sound. That is perfectly fine for your use and most of the population as well, but for someone who wants premium sound it isn't really a proper suggestion. Since OP had a soundcard and obviously wants to maintain a higher level of sound, he should stick with a sound card.
Click to expand...

The quality of his sound would have been completely dependent on the DAC inside his Yamaha receiver. HDMI audio output is really no different than any other digital audio output in that context. For him to say that moving from the Titanium HD to his Yamaha receiver was an improvement is a fairly silly comment though. Going from whatever he was using as an amp when he was using the Titanium HD to using the Yamaha receiver as an amp would likely have just as much affect on the sound as changing the DAC.

In terms of gaming, the HDMI to receiver solution would provide a very basic audio solution. The Titanium HD comes with lots of features and effects that can come in handy for gaming.
 
Use the builtin and get a Headphone AMP that does SPDIF, only sane choice these days even though newer motherboards have pretty decent builtin sound cards.
//Danne
 
Last edited:
diizzy said:
Use the builtin and get a Headphone AMP that does SPDIF, only sane choice these days even though newer motherboards have pretty decent builtin sound cards.
//Danne
Click to expand...

So people who want a gaming sound card with gaming features aren't making a "sane" choice? :rolleyes:

You can use a gaming soundcard with an external SPDIF AMP/DAC just fine if you want to, and lose none of the features that come with the gaming soundcard.
 
So pseudo surround and THX TruSound, the latter is available on Realtek boards too.
I guess it all boils down to how much of an audio purist you are...
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
So pseudo surround and THX TruSound, the latter is available on Realtek boards too.
Click to expand...

Were you under the impression that I had listed every feature? I gave a few examples.

diizzy said:
I guess it all boils down to how much of an audio purist you are...
Click to expand...

I'd love to hear your definition on what exactly constitutes an "audio purist" :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Depends on who you ask, isn't no enhancement/eq or anything on "high-end" gear for instance.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Depends on who you ask, isn't no enhancement/eq or anything on "high-end" gear for instance.
//Danne
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. EQ certainly does have a place in high-end audio. If you are using speakers and your goal is a truly flat response, then you need to compensate for room gain, etc.

Also you seem confused on exactly how a gaming soundcard works. The ability to use something like CMSS-3D while gaming doesn't mean that it will automatically be used for your music also. You give *nothing* up in terms of music listening by having a gaming soundcard.
 
Compared to a good DAC you do, since all you'll be doing/should be doing is to bitstream.
Oh well, I guess some like the pseudo effects.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Compared to a good DAC you do, since all you'll be doing/should be doing is to bitstream.
Click to expand...

Having a gaming soundcard does not prevent the use of an external DAC, just run the digital out from the soundcard into the digital input of the DAC. Though really, I would put the DACs inside of cards like the ZxR and Titanium HD above that of many external DACs out on the market right now.

diizzy said:
Oh well, I guess some like the pseudo effects.
//Danne
Click to expand...

Dismiss it out of ignorance if you want, but it can actually help audio in games a lot. Being able to actually use 5.1 or 7.1 positional audio when you are just using headphones or stereo speakers is quite an improvement in many games.
 
Though it's becoming less and less of an issue since OpenAL isn't a big deal anymore, I'd point out that the newer lines of Creative sound cards do not support hardware acceleration of OpenAL. If you can't find another full-fledged x-fi (Titanium, most others --like xtreme music-- don't have the emu processing chip), I think I'd consider the Audigy RX. Newegg has it for $59. My understanding is that it does indeed have the emu hardware and will do hardware processing of OpenAL.
 
GotNoRice said:
In terms of gaming, the HDMI to receiver solution would provide a very basic audio solution. The Titanium HD comes with lots of features and effects that can come in handy for gaming.
Click to expand...

I did not use any of the Titanium HD features. Tried some, turned them off in the end.
Crystalizer? Stupid 2.0 -> 5.1 enhancements? Completely unnecessary for modern games with built-in multi-channel audio.

Also HDMI output is uncompressed (comparing to DD Live) and if not affected by analog noise (comparing to analog 5.1 output to my old receiver).

And most importantly - no longer I have to use garbage drivers by Creative. Good riddance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top