^That's what I was thinking. If you can change the opamps and caps to make this into a better card, then cool, but if you can't you're still getting a $100 sound card for $50. Win/win.
^ you're right, there is a good difference with the latest sound cards & drivers. Its the poor people that either have bad ears or no money for nice speakers that say theres no difference and that onboard is enough.
So, you're saying if a person only uses the digital out, and connects to an external receiver, they'll be able to tell a difference?
I was under the impression that onboard was perfectly adequate for digital out to a receiver, unless the X-Fi can do something special with the digital signal that onboard can't. I always thought that the difference is in the analog out, and that that was where the X-Fi beat onboard.
I was under the impression that onboard was perfectly adequate for digital out to a receiver, unless the X-Fi can do something special with the digital signal that onboard can't. I always thought that the difference is in the analog out, and that that was where the X-Fi beat onboard.
For some reason, a lot of people seem to think digital signal = perfect transmission.
Well, too bad, it's not.
Digital transmissions are simply more resistant to interference. That's why even cheap cables will screw your A/V setup just as easily as with analogue outputs.
The biggest weakness of onboard audio chips is the lack of shielding. Depending on board layout, you could have the best chip in the world and still have static through digital outputs due to bit flipping. You're running a couple hundred watts of electronics inside a steel frame. There's going to be interference. The only question is how much and whether or not you notice.
It is possible to get interference in a digital signal however, it would not be in the form of static or output degradation. Ever use a dtv adapter with a poor signal? You don't lose quality, what you get is completely different than what you're supposed to get. With digital, if it gets to the point where you can notice the interference, you will really notice it. With spdif, it probably would not even output any sound as the receiver would not be able to correct the signal. So either it works or you get something completely different. You don't get degraded sound. There's no grey area with these types of signals.
No, analog out is where better soundcards shine, hence the opamp upgrades.So, you're saying if a person only uses the digital out, and connects to an external receiver, they'll be able to tell a difference?
^^ yes it is, the audigy 2 ZX is 8-9 years old dude...
I was under the impression that onboard was perfectly adequate for digital out to a receiver, unless the X-Fi can do something special with the digital signal that onboard can't. I always thought that the difference is in the analog out, and that that was where the X-Fi beat onboard.
It's called post processing, ie anything that the scard processor has to process.
Well what else is gonna be? Hardware emulated? Anyway it's not software emulated anything. Again, poor word usage. We're not talking DSP's here (digital sound processors); that take the original mix and emulate it into a desired form. Sounds in games, as in movies, are recorded and put into a mix. Sometimes they're not the greatest of quality, especially with surround material. But the one's that are good are worth it. If you can show me a program that can artificially create sounds without using pre-recorded material I'd be quite impressed.My point was that it's software emulated anyways so it's not even good quality sound. At any rate, many receivers have 6 channel analog inputs.
You can read minds? That's impressive. I wouldn't have anything to dispute if you knew the English language better, and that you don't really know what you're talking about in the first place.You weren't being a stickler, you just didn't read my post well enough then tried to dispute me using a point I already covered.
"Post-encoding" isn't applicable to anything as far as I know. Even if it was, encode and process aren't synonyms.
Well what else is gonna be? Hardware emulated? Anyway it's not software emulated anything. Again, poor word usage. We're not talking DSP's here (digital sound processors); that take the original mix and emulate it into a desired form. Sounds in games, as in movies, are recorded and put into a mix. Sometimes they're not the greatest of quality, especially with surround material. But the one's that are good are worth it. If you can show me a program that can artificially create sounds without using pre-recorded material I'd be quite impressed.
SPDIF is generally prefered over analog. Less cable clutter, better control over the signal at the reciever level. If the sound processing on the card greatly surpasses that of the receiver, you'd probably be better off just going with a seperate amp(s).
You can read minds? That's impressive. I wouldn't have anything to dispute if you knew the English language better, and that you don't really know what you're talking about in the first place.
I was under the impression that onboard was perfectly adequate for digital out to a receiver, unless the X-Fi can do something special with the digital signal that onboard can't. I always thought that the difference is in the analog out, and that that was where the X-Fi beat onboard.
Well, my amp is an analog model from the 80s, so I finally bit. Got an extra $3.00 off from Bing CB, making it $47.00 shipped AR & Bing CB. Not bad.
We'll see if this card's moddable or not. My guess is that it is.
I see you have a Xonar card. I am selling one on Ebay because it doesn't perform as well as an old Audigy 1 I had in the closet. It was lagging my games out and surround sound was fubar. The sound was a bit clearer on the Xonar, but it doesn't justify it's price. With the Audigy my KDR has gone up dramatically and surround sound actually works well. I listen through Klipsh 2.1 and Turtle HPA2 headphones.
Cool.Your impression is exactly correct.
It might be a while before I work up the courage to try. It sounds great as-is.If you mod it, you should post on here if it works (or PM me).
Same here. No problems. Definitely better than my onboard (Analog Devices Soundmax ADI AD1988B), which I considered decent. As long as I get my rebate I'll consider this a worthwhile purchase.hans030390 said:Just got my card in today. Uninstalled my onboard sound drivers, disabled onboard, installed the card and the latest drivers from Creative's website...works just fine (Win 7 64-bit).
Your impression is exactly correct.
I was under the impression that onboard was perfectly adequate for digital out to a receiver, unless the X-Fi can do something special with the digital signal that onboard can't. I always thought that the difference is in the analog out, and that that was where the X-Fi beat onboard.