X-plosion is out woohoo!

M

Mazgazine1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
345
I ordered mine over the weekend - it looks like alot of e-tailers have it!

whew, I was worried it was going to get delayed further.. Well this is good news.

I wonder how DTS for games is gonna sound :D ? I will be definitely post my impression ASAP.

I changed the title to make my thread have more cents!
 
I will tell you what an X-plosion is:

THe official name is : Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 DTS DD -

It is supposed to be the first DTS encoded sound card, which means 5.1 DTS out to through an optic or Coax digital connection to a reciever.
 
Wonder how stable the drivers would be. I sold my X-Mystique because the drivers I used constantly locked my system up. Dont know how much they have matured at this point.
 
I know the very first driver releas was absolute crap - my Brother had a Mystique. But, the second revision was perfect. Everything saved fine, and nothing crashed. People have still reported problems but from what I've seen they look good..

Of course that is the drivers for the Mystique not the Xplosion.. I hope they work just as well.

I was so sick of the audigy 2 hum and the REALLY bizarre driver problems I was having, and the fact that there is not speaker 'setup' program like the mystique and Hercules setups. I really wanted to try the newset version out.
 
Mazgazine1 said:
I will tell you what an X-plosion is:

THe official name is : Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 DTS DD -

It is supposed to be the first DTS encoded sound card, which means 5.1 DTS out to through an optic or Coax digital connection to a reciever.
Click to expand...

You know you can just bypass that and use the receiver's encoder/decoder.
 
threedd97 said:
You know you can just bypass that and use the receiver's encoder/decoder.
Click to expand...

I do not see how this will give you the ability to ENCODE in realtime to DTS? Games would be the ones to benefit from this.
 
I've been waiting for this card for a while as well. Mine should be here today or tomorrow sometime. :D I can't wait, this looks like an awesome card!

... I always wondered how DTS would sound in a car. :cool:

-Ben
 
Mazgazine1 said:
It is supposed to be the first DTS encoded sound card, which means 5.1 DTS out to through an optic or Coax digital connection to a reciever.
Click to expand...

Whats the difference between this and DDL(Dolby Digital Live)? I notice the card has DDL as well, so isn't that kind of repetitive?
 
liquorman said:
Whats the difference between this and DDL(Dolby Digital Live)? I notice the card has DDL as well, so isn't that kind of repetitive?
Click to expand...

It's 640kbps vs 1500kbps, basically just higher bandwidth. Some old receivers only have Dolby Digital support, and since it's a software solution there really isn't a reason not to include DDL with DTSC.
 
So . . . .

Dolby Digital = 640kbps
DTS= 1500kbps

Good to know. Personally I am no audiophile, and don't know if I would be able to tell the difference. But I am a big proponent of "one cable to rule them all", I hate having to switch between my digital connection for movies and analog for games.
 
sure uhh

check out auzentech.com and there 'where to buy' section -

if you want to get it quick I know zipzoomfly.com has it
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=234502

ncix.com - also has it (but not in stuck juust yet) -

http://www.iocombo.com/product/showproduct.php?productid=0OOK

google seach usually brings up a few places.

I hope I get mine by the end of the week.

I'd also like to add, that Creative is really dropping the ball on a very very awesome feature (that being the optical 5.1 stuff). I've very surprised that even their X-fi stuff doesn't have any digital connections (unless you get some crayz proprietery stuff). They must rely on this kinda of consumer cornering to get that extra bit of cash..
I mean buying a $150 sound card is a good chunk of money, why can't they include that 7.1 channel analog dongle?
 
does this mean it can do realtime digital encoding of games that have analog 5.1 support and still get the correct channels plus no sound lag?
 
I wonder if the microphone jack will work properly this time around. It was friggen horsesh*t on the x-mystique. Everything maxed out on recording + mic boost turned on and all you'd get is 3 input bars outta a scale of 15-20 bars when you talked into the mic. :rolleyes:
 
Jason711 said:
is this in hardware or software?
Click to expand...

software


does this mean it can do realtime digital encoding of games that have analog 5.1 support and still get the correct channels plus no sound lag?
Click to expand...

Yep, it is virtually the same thing as DDL except at a higher bandwidth.
 
Jason711 said:
has the impact been measured in gaming?
Click to expand...

Yeah if it is anything like the Mystique, and I'll assume it is, any type of decent/recent CPU with non-EAX HD games (like Half-Life 2) it should not be a problem, but EAX HD intensive games (BF2 and FEAR, or basically any OpenAL game because it has to run it in software) a noticeable hit will be seen.
 
Mazgazine1 said:
I've very surprised that even their X-fi stuff doesn't have any digital connections (unless you get some crayz proprietery stuff). They must rely on this kinda of consumer cornering to get that extra bit of cash..
Click to expand...
1/8" mono to RCA cable or adapter is proprietary?
 
versajacks are cheap. how much would it have cost them to put an optical out on it? i was pretty disapointed to see that. but ohwell.
 
Jason711 said:
versajacks are cheap. how much would it have cost them to put an optical out on it? i was pretty disapointed to see that. but ohwell.
Click to expand...
It's a question of real estate on the backplate. Also, what's the diff anyway whether it's coax or optical?

Besides, anyone with a breakout box has the optical option.
 
has anyone received theirs yet?

is the front panel still included?

if not i'll probably wait for the XRaider as the only thing before that the XPLosion had was a front breakout box.
 
the front panel of the X-fi plat has spdif,optical,rca,midi,headphone,mic ports. I got mine on sale for 159. the front panel also has a little amp in the front bay which i use together with my A500(which dont need an amp anyways)
 
Chastity said:
It's a question of real estate on the backplate. Also, what's the diff anyway whether it's coax or optical?

Besides, anyone with a breakout box has the optical option.
Click to expand...

other companies figured out how to do it? creative cant? i certainly have no use for the breakout box.. esp for a single connection from the front of the comp.

optical is better anyway. if your gonna run digital through a copper cable you have copper loss plus the typically inferior dac to worry about, why not just worry about the dac?
 
Jason711 said:
other companies figured out how to do it? creative cant? i certainly have no use for the breakout box.. esp for a single connection from the front of the comp.

optical is better anyway. if your gonna run digital through a copper cable you have copper loss plus the typically inferior dac to worry about, why not just worry about the dac?
Click to expand...

This is simple not true. Optical is NOT better than Coax for digital transmision. Which is why creative does not bother, its not that they dont know how its that they figure their is no real reason to. As for pruity of signal opitical has to go through an extra conversion step that digital coax does not.

In many instances Coax suffers less jitter than Optical due to this extra conversion step.

Opticals only benefit is that it is less affected by external noise than coax, however for the short runs that they support this is a non issue.
 
In the audiophile world, digital coax is usually favored over optical, unless it is a very long run in an electronically noisy environment, FYI.

DTS encoding is useless, without software that will create the mix up front. If you think game devs are going to do that for anybody except creative, considering the state of the pc audio market, you need to think again.

With respect to gaming, DD and DTS encoding(on your soundcard) are buzzwords, not actual useful features.
 
eastvillager said:
In the audiophile world, digital coax is usually favored over optical, unless it is a very long run in an electronically noisy environment, FYI.
Click to expand...

im afraid i do not understand why. :confused:
 
Jason711 said:
im afraid i do not understand why. :confused:
Click to expand...

The poster before me mentioned it already.

With digital coax, you skip the electrical<>optical conversion at each end. That conversion can introduce problems.

Presumably, if we had audio gear that used entirely optical circuits internally---we don't---, optical would be the better choice for the interconnect.
 
m1abram said:
This is simple not true. Optical is NOT better than Coax for digital transmision. Which is why creative does not bother, its not that they dont know how its that they figure their is no real reason to. As for pruity of signal opitical has to go through an extra conversion step that digital coax does not.

In many instances Coax suffers less jitter than Optical due to this extra conversion step.

Opticals only benefit is that it is less affected by external noise than coax, however for the short runs that they support this is a non issue.
Click to expand...

wouldnt that be dependent on the quality of the dac? (just guessing)
 
Jason711 said:
im afraid i do not understand why. :confused:
Click to expand...

If you do some googling their are many sites that back up this claim. Check out AVSforums too.

However my quick understanding is that the biggest issue is the jitter introduced with the conversion from electrical->optical and then back. Digital Coax does NOT have this extra conversion.

And since the standard optical used in consumer AV gear can NOT be sent any farther than usually than about 10 feet without boosters or repeaters, the resistance to EMI is a moot point since at that short of distance Coax is sufficiently good at sheilding out any noise that would degrade a digitial signal. Remember it takes a fair amount more noise to cause issues to a digital signal than an analog.
 
Jason711 said:
wouldnt that be dependent on the quality of the dac? (just guessing)
Click to expand...

Not really the DAC but the part used to do the electrical->optical then optical->electrical conversion. This would be both on the source device and receiving device.

The DAC usually encompasses on side of this piece but does not have to.

Short answer yes the better the part that handles the conversion the less chance of jitter.
 
Mazgazine1 said:
I'd also like to add, that Creative is really dropping the ball on a very very awesome feature (that being the optical 5.1 stuff). I've very surprised that even their X-fi stuff doesn't have any digital connections (unless you get some crayz proprietery stuff). They must rely on this kinda of consumer cornering to get that extra bit of cash..
I mean buying a $150 sound card is a good chunk of money, why can't they include that 7.1 channel analog dongle?
Click to expand...

X-Fi Extreme Music

ZZF Our Price: $114.99 X-Fi
ZZF Our Price: $141.99 X-Plosion

I think you got the numbers mixed up?

If DTS is realllllyyyyy a must, then DTS-610 might do the trick!
 
With respect to gaming, DD and DTS encoding(on your soundcard) are buzzwords, not actual useful features.
Click to expand...

Eh? This is not true, DDL and DTSC takes the 5.1 audio source and converts it to either DD or DTS. Gaming worked perfectly fine on my Mystique.
 
eastvillager said:
DTS encoding is useless, without software that will create the mix up front. If you think game devs are going to do that for anybody except creative, considering the state of the pc audio market, you need to think again.

With respect to gaming, DD and DTS encoding(on your soundcard) are buzzwords, not actual useful features.
Click to expand...

Please give examples and details?
 
A link from another thread.

X-P 7.1 review

Elite Bastards said:
When we looked at HDA's first entrance into the discrete sound card market, the X-Mystique, we saw an excellent piece of hardware that introduced a much sought-after feature with it's Dolby Digital Live encoding abilities. Quite simply, the X-Plosion has topped that achievement, and by quite some margin. The addition of DTS Connect may not be a show-stopper for everyone, but it is bound to attract a fair amount of excitement and interest, and rightly so. From our testing however, the biggest news should perhaps be the improvements in overall audio quality that have been made with the X-Plosion, with it giving a substantially better showing than its predecessor, and more than giving the SoundBlaster Audigy (Audigy 1)a run for its money. Sure, it may not quite be an X-Fi (That may well be a comparison for another day), but everything it does do, it does exceptionally well.

As with the X-Mystique, the X-Plosion's biggest falling point is in its gaming performance and featureset - The lack of support for the latest, greatest EAX functionality may well put off gamers, and sadly is something we will most likely never see change with Creative Labs having the stranglehold on the discrete sound card market they currently do. This is a real shame, as a combination of Dolby Digital or DTS encoding alongside EAX would make for a gaming experience par excellence. As it is however, using Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect does add to the gaming experience, so if you can live without EAX 3.0 and upward support, and don't mind a heavier performance hit from using hardware 3D sound, then the X-Plosion may still be able to tempt even avid gamers.
Click to expand...

Actually you can get all 128 voices from Battlefield 2 with an X-Fi and a DTS-610. also 100% EAX 3.0 for Call of Duty as well as the Star Wars games, OpenAL and WoW type games. Oh and this review does shows the Mystique doing worse than an Audigy 1 LOL!
 
Donnie27 said:
A link from another thread.

X-P 7.1 review



Actually you can get all 128 voices from Battlefield 2 with an X-Fi and a DTS-610. also 100% EAX 3.0 for Call of Duty as well as the Star Wars games, OpenAL and WoW type games. Oh and this review does shows the Mystique doing worse than an Audigy 1 LOL!
Click to expand...

Lol why do all these Mystique/HDA/DDL threads get derailed into a Creative vs the World debate (i see Donnie is still at it)

for gaming, i don't think the DTS-610 is a solution, the encoding delay is too great IMHO to even be considered if some of the word of mouth is true. i personaly haven't tried it, all i know is i haven't been able to notice any delay from my mystique (the DTS-610 is specced at 50ms delay) while gaming. I heard of a lot of people on this board who said they where going to give it a try, but until there are some good reviews of the DTS-610 in a good gaming situation i'd have to pass..

not to mention the price point. An XFI for 120$ + the DTS610 for 100$ = 220$, i'll pass for now.

(this is off the creative forums)
linatyk said:
Hi, and yes. The analog->digital conversion is made in realtime, except for this small latency of 50ms.
I got one of this devices 2 days ago and connected from my Audigy 2 ZS to my SAMSUNG HT-DS400, and I hear that sound really nice. Games with EAX ADVANCED HD with DTS are GREAT!!!!.....

The only problem that I find is a small difference of time between the acción it take place in your PC screen and the sound (of course is a small amount of time). When playing with a shooter, Battlefield2, it becomes strange, and I find this delay noticeable.
Click to expand...
 
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