Creative X-Fi

[AiponGkooja]

Well, that's rather annoying. Having to unplug my speakers to use headphones is lame. But oh well, so far I like the sound it's giving me, and that's really all I paid for.

 

[Shyatic]

I'm going to get the $200 version only for the drive... I like the headphone feature and besides, I've been on onboard sound for quite some time

 

[Rubycon]

The placement of the headphone volume control beneath the optical SPDIF out is annoying because you cannot turn the volume up and down with this cable connected.

Does anyone know when the elite pro will show up in stores? That's the one to buy anyways.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja
Is there any documentation of where to plug in an headphone jack from the case onto the X-fi card? The one from my case isn't a nice plug; it has about 7 little one pin connectors that you have to put all in the right spot, so I need a good diagram of what each plug is on the X-Fi ExtremeMusic edition card.

Thanks to anyone who can find this information, I will keep looking also.
Aip

Or I guess documentation of the I/O drive plug for the platinum or > would do just as well. Can find out where to put my mic plugs also.

You can't. The internal connections on the X-Fi and Audigy are all proprietary digital for use with the Live Drive that comes with the respective card.

Edit: Doh, beaten to it.

PS Boston: No trolling please

Yes you can. I did with the XtremeMusic version and the front ports on my Dell 8400 case. It's the same connector that fits onto the onboard pins and the pins on my old SBLive! 24-bit (which came with the computer). While the pins on the X-fi certainly proprietary abilities, they output to my front-of-case headphone jack perfectly fine....AND the card registers it as headphones being plugged in, thus switches to headphone mode and mutes the speakers (as per my chosen settings).

So it worked for me, but I dunno if all case audio jacks have the same internal-cable/pin layout.

[edit]
I connected to this connector.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

That tells me the Live Drive has no DACs of it's own. Reasonable, as it would be more expensive. I'm surprised by the audio quality of the analog signal over the ribbon cable. Not great, but I thought it would be worse. Why can't SB tell people these things?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Yes you can. I did with the XtremeMusic version and the front ports on my Dell 8400 case. It's the same connector that fits onto the onboard pins and the pins on my old SBLive! 24-bit (which came with the computer). While the pins on the X-fi certainly proprietary abilities, they output to my front-of-case headphone jack perfectly fine....AND the card registers it as headphones being plugged in, thus switches to headphone mode and mutes the speakers (as per my chosen settings).

So it worked for me, but I dunno if all case audio jacks have the same internal-cable/pin layout.

[edit]
I connected to this connector.

I took a look at your research, and after a bit of digging, I've come to the conclusion that neither of us are quite right.

As you can see in a zoomed shot of the X-fi Gamer, the connector you've circled is indeed there, and you can clearly see the label "Dell FP" on it. In comparison, here's a shot of an Audigy 2 which does not have that connector(although there's a space for it on the PCB), and there are other Audigy cards that have never even had a space for it. To my knowledge, the only cards that have shipped with such a connector(up until the X-fi) were OEM cards for Dell itself. For consumers in turn, their only option was to use a Live Drive if they wanted front access to a headphone plug, as the AUD_EXT connector is all digital and needed a Live Drive with DACs to be used.

On the positive side, you've got me; it appears that all of the X-fi's are shipping with this connector in place now. On the down side, because this was a Dell-only feature before, I have only been able to find one piece of documentation related to the connector, and I don't trust the validity of it. However, if it's right, it would mean that the connector is in fact another digital connector, in which case the only reason it's working for you is because you have a Dell case that would have the appropriate DACs(albeit low quality ones I would think), and that it would not be of help to anyone else, putting us back at square-one. Without better documentation/confirmation, I certainly would not agree that the X-fi has the proper features to be connected to a normal front panel audio jack.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Interesting. Good detective work, ViRGE. You must really have a bug up your butt. jk

BTW, anyone hear about Creative's money problems? This linkeroo is about RIO shutting down, but mentions Creative too.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Yes you can. I did with the XtremeMusic version and the front ports on my Dell 8400 case. It's the same connector that fits onto the onboard pins and the pins on my old SBLive! 24-bit (which came with the computer). While the pins on the X-fi certainly proprietary abilities, they output to my front-of-case headphone jack perfectly fine....AND the card registers it as headphones being plugged in, thus switches to headphone mode and mutes the speakers (as per my chosen settings).

So it worked for me, but I dunno if all case audio jacks have the same internal-cable/pin layout.

[edit]
I connected to this connector.

I took a look at your research, and after a bit of digging, I've come to the conclusion that neither of us are quite right.

As you can see in a zoomed shot of the X-fi Gamer, the connector you've circled is indeed there, and you can clearly see the label "Dell FP" on it. In comparison, here's a shot of an Audigy 2 which does not have that connector(although there's a space for it on the PCB), and there are other Audigy cards that have never even had a space for it. To my knowledge, the only cards that have shipped with such a connector(up until the X-fi) were OEM cards for Dell itself. For consumers in turn, their only option was to use a Live Drive if they wanted front access to a headphone plug, as the AUD_EXT connector is all digital and needed a Live Drive with DACs to be used.

On the positive side, you've got me; it appears that all of the X-fi's are shipping with this connector in place now. On the down side, because this was a Dell-only feature before, I have only been able to find one piece of documentation related to the connector, and I don't trust the validity of it. However, if it's right, it would mean that the connector is in fact another digital connector, in which case the only reason it's working for you is because you have a Dell case that would have the appropriate DACs(albeit low quality ones I would think), and that it would not be of help to anyone else, putting us back at square-one. Without better documentation/confirmation, I certainly would not agree that the X-fi has the proper features to be connected to a normal front panel audio jack.

Wow, well done. I never even noticed the "Dell FP"...I just saw a connector that looked familiar. Crazy. However, I don't think that there's any kind of DAC on the FP (front panel, I assume)....at least none that I saw when I checked. Just cables a connectors on a piece of PCB for the front headphone jack and USB ports.

Well, hopefully, there's a way for people to convert their front audio cables...or something. Certainly does only help the Dell users/upgraders otherwise.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Yes you can. I did with the XtremeMusic version and the front ports on my Dell 8400 case. It's the same connector that fits onto the onboard pins and the pins on my old SBLive! 24-bit (which came with the computer). While the pins on the X-fi certainly proprietary abilities, they output to my front-of-case headphone jack perfectly fine....AND the card registers it as headphones being plugged in, thus switches to headphone mode and mutes the speakers (as per my chosen settings).

So it worked for me, but I dunno if all case audio jacks have the same internal-cable/pin layout.

[edit]
I connected to this connector.

I took a look at your research, and after a bit of digging, I've come to the conclusion that neither of us are quite right.

As you can see in a zoomed shot of the X-fi Gamer, the connector you've circled is indeed there, and you can clearly see the label "Dell FP" on it. In comparison, here's a shot of an Audigy 2 which does not have that connector(although there's a space for it on the PCB), and there are other Audigy cards that have never even had a space for it. To my knowledge, the only cards that have shipped with such a connector(up until the X-fi) were OEM cards for Dell itself. For consumers in turn, their only option was to use a Live Drive if they wanted front access to a headphone plug, as the AUD_EXT connector is all digital and needed a Live Drive with DACs to be used.

On the positive side, you've got me; it appears that all of the X-fi's are shipping with this connector in place now. On the down side, because this was a Dell-only feature before, I have only been able to find one piece of documentation related to the connector, and I don't trust the validity of it. However, if it's right, it would mean that the connector is in fact another digital connector, in which case the only reason it's working for you is because you have a Dell case that would have the appropriate DACs(albeit low quality ones I would think), and that it would not be of help to anyone else, putting us back at square-one. Without better documentation/confirmation, I certainly would not agree that the X-fi has the proper features to be connected to a normal front panel audio jack.

Wow, well done. I never even noticed the "Dell FP"...I just saw a connector that looked familiar. Crazy. However, I don't think that there's any kind of DAC on the FP (front panel, I assume)....at least none that I saw when I checked. Just cables a connectors on a piece of PCB for the front headphone jack and USB ports.

Well, hopefully, there's a way for people to convert their front audio cables...or something. Certainly does only help the Dell users/upgraders otherwise.

My gut feeling is that there are DACs on the Dell, otherwise the connector is on a really odd spot for some of the X-fi cards(e.g in the back and not close to the analog jacks), but someone would need to do some testing.

 

[AiponGkooja]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Yes you can. I did with the XtremeMusic version and the front ports on my Dell 8400 case. It's the same connector that fits onto the onboard pins and the pins on my old SBLive! 24-bit (which came with the computer). While the pins on the X-fi certainly proprietary abilities, they output to my front-of-case headphone jack perfectly fine....AND the card registers it as headphones being plugged in, thus switches to headphone mode and mutes the speakers (as per my chosen settings).

So it worked for me, but I dunno if all case audio jacks have the same internal-cable/pin layout.

[edit]
I connected to this connector.

I took a look at your research, and after a bit of digging, I've come to the conclusion that neither of us are quite right.

As you can see in a zoomed shot of the X-fi Gamer, the connector you've circled is indeed there, and you can clearly see the label "Dell FP" on it. In comparison, here's a shot of an Audigy 2 which does not have that connector(although there's a space for it on the PCB), and there are other Audigy cards that have never even had a space for it. To my knowledge, the only cards that have shipped with such a connector(up until the X-fi) were OEM cards for Dell itself. For consumers in turn, their only option was to use a Live Drive if they wanted front access to a headphone plug, as the AUD_EXT connector is all digital and needed a Live Drive with DACs to be used.

On the positive side, you've got me; it appears that all of the X-fi's are shipping with this connector in place now. On the down side, because this was a Dell-only feature before, I have only been able to find one piece of documentation related to the connector, and I don't trust the validity of it. However, if it's right, it would mean that the connector is in fact another digital connector, in which case the only reason it's working for you is because you have a Dell case that would have the appropriate DACs(albeit low quality ones I would think), and that it would not be of help to anyone else, putting us back at square-one. Without better documentation/confirmation, I certainly would not agree that the X-fi has the proper features to be connected to a normal front panel audio jack.

Wow, well done. I never even noticed the "Dell FP"...I just saw a connector that looked familiar. Crazy. However, I don't think that there's any kind of DAC on the FP (front panel, I assume)....at least none that I saw when I checked. Just cables a connectors on a piece of PCB for the front headphone jack and USB ports.

Well, hopefully, there's a way for people to convert their front audio cables...or something. Certainly does only help the Dell users/upgraders otherwise.

My gut feeling is that there are DACs on the Dell, otherwise the connector is on a really odd spot for some of the X-fi cards(e.g in the back and not close to the analog jacks), but someone would need to do some testing.

My case doesn't have an actual plug for the headphone jack, it has a bunch of single pin plugs for the headphone/mic jacks. Should I try to plug them in where he has them? I would need to know the layout of the plug on your case though, so I can put them all in the right place.

 

[bluemax]

Envy24. $20. Awesome quality. Done.
And anyone willing to spend $200 on a sound card should get PRO AUDIO, not game cards.

 

[ViRGE]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I've finally seen some documentation on that Dell FP connector I mentioned earlier. Someone has successfully diagnosed the pins and figured out how to attach connectors to it, but it's apparently an odd size from a normal connector and requires a decent amount of building/modding to make work. But the good news is that the pins are indeed analogue(not digital as I earlier theorized), so it's possible to do a case-front hookup, it's just hard.

 

[Rubycon]

Oh and BTW the Elite Pro is definitely "quieter" than the Platinum model. With the Pt you could definitely hear a hissing when the crystalizer was engaged and cranked all the way open with the master volume all the way up.

On the Elite Pro, there is no hissing at all. The headphone output also drives better to the point of getting close to distorting the headphone diaphragms. Much better than the Audigy2 external box does.

The EP box is huge! Most people will either want it under a monitor pedastal or sit it vertical with the stand. Unfortunately the cable connection to the PC card is at the TOP when used vertically and some may find this cumbersome.

The driver CD seems more "up to date" as well as the CL auto update did not find any newer "critical" updates for drivers like it did for the platinum version.

Over all a nice package. CL did a good job with this.

Just remember there are DRM restrictions with certain media types but these can be undone if you're handy with computers. (definitely NOT me haha)

EDIT:

Comments regarding the crystalizer. It's not an equalizer. It sounds more like a compander working in several bands simultaneously. Some material it is desireable and some material it's not. As far as making a MP3 sound better than the source or the cd that's marketing BS. In certain controlled conditions this claim may have merits (perhaps they're following the high horse of Apple hehe) but don't expect miracles. Being able to record the effect is nice as some will like it. Just remember if you do record this and you play back these recordings on your (x-fi) system to turn it off as you will be double processing and that can cause weird distortion or clipping which is very bad especially if this is connected to a stereo system and not pc speakers.

 

[Some1ne]

Just to add my thoughts about the card, I installed an X-Fi Platinum, and I'm happy with it. I'm not particularly fond of the DPS's, as the crystallizer just sounds like a bass/treble boost to me and does not really seem to make my MP3's sound "better", and although the CMSS-3D upmixing actually does work well in most cases, it introduces noise in the form of a white-noise hiss that is audible during quiet sections of some songs, so I leave this one disabled as well.

Apart from the lackluster DSP's however, the quality of the sound provided by the X-Fi is definitely a step up from the card it replaced (an Audigy 1). The low-end is the most noticeably improved, although things sound clearer across the entire spectrum, regardless of whether I'm using my Klipsch 5.1 speakers hooked up to the card's built-in outputs, or my bigger, fancier stereo reciever hooked up to the I/O Drive accessory, and furthermore the maximum volume the card can output also seems to have been increased from the Audigy version, and unlike the Audigy, turning the volume up high does not introduce hissing or other noise (as long as the DSP's are left off).

The remote is nice, although what I'd really like is some sort of utility for remapping the buttons to perform custom actions so that instead of launching Creative's media player thingy I could set it up to control Winamp, or other programs, and so on, but it's still nice for controlling volume and other things from the couch when listening to music. Maybe a future driver will address this, or maybe there's some third party thing already out there that's worth digging up.

So anyways, overall it's a good product, although I haven't tried gaming with it yet. The DSP's don't deliver quite everything that Creative tries to promise that they do, but at the same time the quality increase that the card offers over some of the more outdated models makes it worth it in and of itself, especially when you also take into consideration the nice accessories like the I/O Drive, and the remote that has the potential to be extremely useful as soon as there is a utility for remapping its commands. If you've been hanging onto an old card like the Audigy 1 in hopes that something less of an incremental step up than the Audigy 2 would come out, then now micht be a good time to go ahead and upgrade.

 

[Ghouler]

Originally posted by: Some1neThe remote is nice, although what I'd really like is some sort of utility for remapping the buttons to perform custom actions so that instead of launching Creative's media player thingy I could set it up to control Winamp, or other programs, and so on.

intelliremote??

 

[Some1ne]

That sounds like it should do the trick, although I can't seem to figure out how to configure it (and the MS Intellitype drivers that it wants won't install), and the documentation is a bit lacking. Is there a help place for this thing anywhere?

 

[Ghouler]

I did not have chance to play with it recently, I remember it worked fine with Live card
It is a plugin for RM-X app available here now...
With a new thread you would have better chance to find someone that actually tried that with X-Fi, good luck!

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Accord99

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
Ummm...no. Read the whole thing, not just the parts you like. The Digital Out located on the card is not SPDIF.

SPDIF is a protocol for sending digital audio data. The Creative digital output supports it, otherwise receivers would not automatically recognize the data coming in from the soundcard.

I have disproved every point you have tried to make, I am done arguing. Thanks for playing.

Actually, it's the other way around. I disproved your notion that the Mystique makes for the best soundcard for audiophiles and HTPC.

It's not the best card for audiophiles, no (a card for audiophiles definately needs bit-perfect playback) but I beg to differ on the HTPC part.... it encodes analog surround sound, games, WMA Pro (WMVHD audio format) to Dolby Digital on-the-fly, and passes through AC3/DTS to a capable reciever. It also has both Coax and TOSLINK out on the back. The only problem I see with it, is the optical in on the optional duaghterboard isn't able to be passed through the optical out, nor can a PVR record a signal from it, in DD or other format.

I don't really belong in this thread, as I have no interest in anything from Creative until they manage to give me true surround-sound in games from a single optical or coax plug into any industry-standard DD/DTS capable reciever. The X-Mistyque gives me that, and that's probably what I'll upgrade to, when I can budget for a new audio system for a computer.

 

[Ghouler]

@Raduque
Not sure if X-fi is good or not for an audiophile, depends how you define that, but i think x-fi has bit-perfect playback, anyway it does not need to resample, i.e. resampling can be turned off, I checked that before ordering mine, so take it for granted

true, onboard Live Encoder would be cool even though it would be of no use to me ;p
=perfectly happy with my analog setup

Creative seem to have thought about guys that like to have even more toys in the room and they have encoder as a separate hardware unit, check this site DTS610 Interactive Encoder .

 

[evident]

i just got the x-fi platinum. it sounds way better than audigy 2 zs, and even beats the chaintech envy-24 soundcard in my opinion. I have a nice pair of headphones (sennheiser hd-595). I am returning hte platinum and getting the elite pro shortly as i'm selling my guitar amp and going to start recording.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
@Raduque
Not sure if X-fi is good or not for an audiophile, depends how you define that, but i think x-fi has bit-perfect playback, anyway it does not need to resample, i.e. resampling can be turned off, I checked that before ordering mine, so take it for granted

true, onboard Live Encoder would be cool even though it would be of no use to me ;p
=perfectly happy with my analog setup

Creative seem to have thought about guys that like to have even more toys in the room and they have encoder as a separate hardware unit, check this site DTS610 Interactive Encoder .

Call it a "DTS610" and it doesn't even support DTS ES 6.1 Discrete. How does 5.1 DTS encoder get a "610" in the model number? That's one deceptive peice of "buy another accessory to add functionality that should be built in so we have more profit" lameassbullshit. The hole point of digital output so to NOT use any analog cables.

 

[niggles]

So just wondering the entire thing with the X-fi is the ability of it to simulate surround sound with 2 simple speakers. What this means to me is that I can stop using my Zalman 5.1 headphones and switch to some nice Sennheisers. I'm just wondering, if I felt like using my logitech USB microphone headset will that be a problem. I guess the question really is can USB headphones produce this effect even though they are not plugged directly into the sound card. Can this effect be passed accross the bus? Not sure how it is achieved so any help on this would be appreciated.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: niggles
So just wondering the entire thing with the X-fi is the ability of it to simulate surround sound with 2 simple speakers. What this means to me is that I can stop using my Zalman 5.1 headphones and switch to some nice Sennheisers. I'm just wondering, if I felt like using my logitech USB microphone headset will that be a problem. I guess the question really is can USB headphones produce this effect even though they are not plugged directly into the sound card. Can this effect be passed accross the bus? Not sure how it is achieved so any help on this would be appreciated.

I'm pretty sure you'd have to be plugged into the X-Fi to get the surround headphone feature.

 

[niggles]

anyone with one of these that might be able to confirm this?

 

[Ghouler]

I'd take YOyo....llo's word for it.

Do not have usb mic to check this for you, but usb mic for PC is just another "sound card" and I do not know ways of passing ouput signal from one soundcard into another card straight thru the bus. If the usb dongle for the headset had line in theoretically this could be possible, otherwise I do not see how it could be done.
Maybe with some wicked soldering?