Are Creative's drivers still crap?

[MichaelD]

Over the past 4 years or so, onboard audio had come a long way; I'm a huge proponent of using the onboard audio. Typically, the onboard audio on a good MB gives you 95% of the sound quality of an add-on card with none of the associated driver headaches...with "typical" PC speakers.

Due to my lust for great sound, I've moved from a true 2.1 system (small bookshelf speakers powered by a pro audio amp and a 10" powered sub) to a pair of pro powered monitors (Rokit 8's).

The problem is that the better the speakers, the more system noise they reveal. The onboard audio on my Abit IP35-Pro is good but far from great. Most notably it's NOISY AS HELL. All kinds of digital pops, squeals, beeps and bleeps can be heard (albiet faintly) at all times. This is not ground hum; it's digital noise. I.E. double click a program icon and you can hear the PC "thinking"...almost like modem noise. Turning down the gains on the speakers does not help. This noise was audible with the 2.1 system, but it was more tolerable. These powered monitors play every sound you feed them...in detail...including noise.

Creative chips (and drivers) are used on 90% of the cards out there; are their drivers still crap? Years ago I had used pretty much all of their range of cards from "gamer" to "hifi" to whatever and the drivers always broke something or caused problems. They had great sound and a low noise floor. Problem was always that they caused problems.

Is it safe to buy a Creative card these days? Which one for 2-channel use? Don't need surround or special gaming modes. I need a quiet card.

Thanks!

ps
Sorry for the novel.

 

[Leyawiin]

I had an X-Fi XtremeGamer that died after 13 months. It was O.K. as far as installing drivers goes, but the lifespan of the card really disappointed me. I bought a new Audigy 2 Value on Amazon to replace it (didn't want to spend another $80 so I went for an older card). The drivers were a massive p.i.t.a. to install and any attempt to update them broke the associated apps that came on the install CD like the mixer, equalizer, speaker settings, etc... I finally was able to get it working without headaches by using a third party driver/apps compilation from a driver guru who posts on their official forums - the guy is better than anyone employed by Creative (daniel_k). Now it sounds as good as the dead X-Fi did when new.

Long story short, yes, their drivers are still finicky pieces of crap for the most part.

 

[TC91]

Since you are using 2 channels only, grab the Asus Xonar STX. It's got the best analog sound quality of any consumer soundcard and also has a built in headphone amp. It's only 2 channel out for analog though if that matters.

 

[brblx]

if you're gonna go creative i'd get one of the old audigys with the all the gold connectors and such. like 30-40 bones, maybe. good sound, drivers should be better than xfi. don't ever buy a creative card with those cheap plastic jacks (all non-xfis now), i've have a couple break.

with anything other than normal cheap desktop speakers, i find onboard audio pretty horrible. headphones reveal all the noise and glitches...not even sure why it's bad, you'd figure it wouldn't be that hard to process the sound and put it out as a low level signal without introducing all kinds of distortion. is it that hard to graft the same stuff in a cheap mp3 player onto a mobo?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

no, their drivers still suck. they're slow to update.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks very much, Leyawiin, TC91, brblx and BlahBlahYouToo; I appreciate your responses. It's sad that "the only" soundcard company still can't get it right after 10 years.

There are other companies that make soundcards (Asus, Azuntech) but they all seem to use Creative's chipsets and hence, drivers, unfortunately.

I will take a look at the Xonar STX; all I need is a a standard analog L/R 2-channel out.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Does your motherboard audio have coax or optical digital out? Does your amp have digital input, or can you add a preamp?

That will get rid of 100% of the RFI noise and will let you use the DACs on your (pre)amp or receiver to decode.

I also use a second PC for a music server so I don't get Windows event sounds mixed in.

 

[MichaelD]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the suggestion. I moved to pro powered monitors. They have XLR in, balanced 1/4" in and unbalanced RCA ins. I'm running a lowly 3.5mm stereo-->L/R RCA jacks cable into them.

Previously, with the 2.1 setup, the input was the same; two 3.5mm cables. One to the sub, the other to the power amp for the satellites.

The problem is the audio on my (not cheap when I bought it) Abit IP35-Pro MB. Overclocks like nobody's business, but honestly, it's the noisiest onboard I've heard in about 5 years. I own two of them; the other is in my HTPC. It's analog-out also has this problem. But I'm running it's optical-out into my receiver...no prob there.

I can either buy a $100 soundcard that will (hopefully) solve the problem or buy a whole new i7 system ($500 or so). Not feeling the $500 ATM.

 

[MichaelD]

The specs on the Asus Xonar DX 7.1 look really good. And just as importantly; it's doesn't use Creative's chipset!! I may be getting this card. I'm still reading reviews. Thanks for pointing me in this direction!

 

[DaveSimmons]

> to a pair of pro powered monitors (Rokit 8's)

Oops, skimmed over the "powered" part, so you do need to feed them analog.

I'd still be tempted to put a preamp or receiver in between them and the PC instead of adding a soundcard:
PC onboard's digital out => preamp / receiver, decoded line out / preamp out jacks => powered monitor line in
... just to move the digital-analog decoding away from the RFI hell of a PC case.

But that's more expensive than a soundcard, not to mention adding another component to find a place for. A soundcard with good enough isolation for its analog outs could work just as well.


> can either buy a $100 soundcard that will (hopefully) solve the problem or buy a whole new i7 system ($500 or so). Not feeling the $500 ATM.

That IP35 is a nice board, it would be a shame to dump a working system and spend hours setting up an i7 system in its place.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, Dave.

The Xonar DX seems to be the way to go for me. TigerDirect has the card for $90...not bad considering the specs on the card (and it's reviews).

Asus even seems to be supporting it with driver updates.

 

[ViRGE]

I have no problem with their drivers on my X-Fi.

 

[Adul]

my brother picked up the HT striker omega from newegg recently. very good sounding good, seems to have some descent op amp on it. Their tech support is very fast to respond as well.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Adul
my brother picked up the HT striker omega from newegg recently. very good sounding good, seems to have some descent op amp on it. Their tech support is very fast to respond as well.

Thanks, Adul.

Hmm...that card looks suspiciously like an Azuntech X-Plosion 7.1, except the opamps are not replaceable. It seems that there are very few manuf's that actually make their own stuff anymore...everyone duplicates a design and slaps their logo on it.

The Asus Xonar uses CMedia chips, true; but it seems to be an original design...I think.

 

[zerogear]

Yes, they are. I am on Vista x64, 95% of the bsod/crashes are caused by creative drivers.I need to get this crap out of my PC.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Yes, they are. I am on Vista x64, 95% of the bsod/crashes are caused by creative drivers.I need to get this crap out of my PC.

I've had 0 sound problems with my xfi and Vista64. In fact, I've had few problems in general with Creative over the years. My biggest complaint is bloated driver packages, but hd space is cheap enough.

 

[Rubycon]

No card/driver is going to fix a ground loop.

 

[tk421storm]

Nice monitors! They make such a big difference. If you're gonna go big with the monitors, you definitely don't want to skimp on a card, which is why I would recommend the HT Omega Claro. I've had mine in since January, and I've never heard such a big difference in tonal quality. Even my skeptical roommates with their terrible, terrible logitech speakers have to sit quietly in awe of FLAC files playing through the monitors. You won't be disappointed!

 

[MadAd]

I was interested when i heard the blurb about the Xonar, especially after putting up with the snap crackle and pop on an xfi/nvidia chipset combo for too long but i read the asus forums and thought twice about it