HDA X-Plosion

[imported_cosmotic]

Has any one tried the HDA X-Plosion sound card? It is distributed by Auzentech in the USA and manufactured by HiTec Digital Audio (http://www.ihda.co.kr/).

Lots of people seem to have a lot of good things to say about its older brother the X-Mystique.

I am interested in buying this card, but I haven't seen any reviews or opinions on it.

-Charlie

 

[Nohr]

Elite Bastards - HDA / Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect sound card review

 

[keldog7]

I bought one last week and it arrived today. Not installed yet. The above review was quite favourable.
I wrote the company, asking about linux support, and they bascially said they had not been "able to convey sufficient need" to Cmedia to get drivers developed for linux.
I am scouring the Net for any more info, prior to install.
-A

 

[keldog7]

I just installed the card tonight. Went in without a hitch. Since I'm running Mandriva 2006 x86-64, the card was automatically detected at boot, and the CMIPCI driver is being used to drive it. I'm pretty sure that this is a generic driver for other CMedia chips, but it *does* give me stereo audio right off the boot. Once I have a bit more time, I'll upgrade my version of ALSA, and see what happens when I use the 8768 driver (for the previous X-Mystique) - in an attempt to get multichannel sound.

For kicks, I rebooted to Windows 2000 (which I use only for Lightscribe...that is until k3b supports it in the next few months), and installed the drivers for the X-Plosion. The control panels are nice, with graphics to help understand your config setup. I haven't tried using it to stream digital output to my Denon receiver yet (via ONE optical cable...), but I will in the next week or so...which means I'll have to install Half-Life 2 or somthing to the Win2K boot.

Anyway, the very basics of the card function "out of the box" under both Windows and linux. The only gripe I have with the card is that it lacks a header to attach to PC case front mic and headphone outputs. In my case, this is very minor, since I can attach my headphones to the receiver - but for some, this will be a dealbreaker.

-Adrian

 

[Innamoramento]

I got this card last week. Before that I was using either the onboard sound from A8N-sli Deluxe or SB Audigy whenever it was working.
Right now I have only stereo speakers attached to it. But I am going to order new digital surround speakers (propably logitech Z5500).
So far I have been happy with it. All the mp3's and other music files sound clearer to me. I have no "golden ears" so that might just be my opinion on that.. =)
I am nowadays using my computer mostly for listening to music and watching movies.
About games I don't know yet because I am waiting for a new graphics card that I can play games with. With current card new games propably won't even start.
So in short haven't had any problems with driver's or bluescreens...

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Innamoramento
I got this card last week. Before that I was using either the onboard sound from A8N-sli Deluxe or SB Audigy whenever it was working.
Right now I have only stereo speakers attached to it. But I am going to order new digital surround speakers (propably logitech Z5500).
So far I have been happy with it. All the mp3's and other music files sound clearer to me. I have no "golden ears" so that might just be my opinion on that.. =)
I am nowadays using my computer mostly for listening to music and watching movies.
About games I don't know yet because I am waiting for a new graphics card that I can play games with. With current card new games propably won't even start.
So in short haven't had any problems with driver's or bluescreens...

why oh why did you get this card if you will be using the Z5500's? Connection with analog is simple with computer speakers

 

[Nohr]

nV News - HDA X-Plosion 7.1 Sound Card Review

 

[krylon]

Elite Bastards is the only one that looks at gaming performance hits. I am really considering the X-Plosion over the X-Fi, but nearly 20FPS different from an Audigy is quite significant. Hopefully a driver update will address this?

 

[imported_cosmotic]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Innamoramento
I got this card last week. Before that I was using either the onboard sound from A8N-sli Deluxe or SB Audigy whenever it was working.
Right now I have only stereo speakers attached to it. But I am going to order new digital surround speakers (propably logitech Z5500).
So far I have been happy with it. All the mp3's and other music files sound clearer to me. I have no "golden ears" so that might just be my opinion on that.. =)
I am nowadays using my computer mostly for listening to music and watching movies.
About games I don't know yet because I am waiting for a new graphics card that I can play games with. With current card new games propably won't even start.
So in short haven't had any problems with driver's or bluescreens...

why oh why did you get this card if you will be using the Z5500's? Connection with analog is simple with computer speakers

Because using a digital connection (especcially optical) means the best possible signal quality to the speakers. Uness the decoder in those speakers has inferior components compared to the xplosion.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cosmotic

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: Innamoramento
I got this card last week. Before that I was using either the onboard sound from A8N-sli Deluxe or SB Audigy whenever it was working.
Right now I have only stereo speakers attached to it. But I am going to order new digital surround speakers (propably logitech Z5500).
So far I have been happy with it. All the mp3's and other music files sound clearer to me. I have no "golden ears" so that might just be my opinion on that.. =)
I am nowadays using my computer mostly for listening to music and watching movies.
About games I don't know yet because I am waiting for a new graphics card that I can play games with. With current card new games propably won't even start.
So in short haven't had any problems with driver's or bluescreens...

why oh why did you get this card if you will be using the Z5500's? Connection with analog is simple with computer speakers

Because using a digital connection (especcially optical) means the best possible signal quality to the speakers. Uness the decoder in those speakers has inferior components compared to the xplosion.

Some games will not work on hardware mode with the X-Plosion, causing a decrease in performance. You are also encoding to a LOSSY digital format. So I am afraid you are misinformed. A good analog connection for gaming is still the best quality provided the card has good analog performance such as the X-fi.

BTW: Digital coax vs optical will make no difference in audio quality.

 

[imported_cosmotic]

Ah yes, it is lossy. However, analog is noisy. And using optical, there is absolutely no possibility of any grounding problems.

Also, I dont know how objective it is, but subjectively, it sounds better when its on digital, it seems crisper... at least with my system.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cosmotic
Ah yes, it is lossy. However, analog is noisy. And using optical, there is absolutely no possibility of any grounding problems.

Also, I dont know how objective it is, but subjectively, it sounds better when its on digital, it seems crisper... at least with my system.

Yup true. Although analog should have no problems given the short run of cabling often needed for multimedia speakers.

:thumbsup: Its a good card though, enjoy it!

 

[imported_cosmotic]

It's short, but its snaking around all sorts of other cables... VGA, USB, Power, Ethernet.

I'ts really silly that it's lossy. I can't believe a better interconnect hasn't been invented in 13 years. From my simple calculations (3 primary colors * 500mhz (slightly higher than USB2's 480mhz) /8 bits-per-byte) I get slightly less than 190mB/s for an optical connection, and (24bits, 96khz) .275mB/s per channel for uncompressed audio... And halving the bitrate for error correction, thats over 300 Channels over 1 cable. If you reduced the spec to like... 10mhz for the optical cable, thats still enough for at least 7.1... uncompressed. So ether my calculations are off, or there is no reason there is no better interconnect.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cosmotic
It's short, but its snaking around all sorts of other cables... VGA, USB, Power, Ethernet.

I'ts really silly that it's lossy. I can't believe a better interconnect hasn't been invented in 13 years. From my simple calculations (3 primary colors * 500mhz (slightly higher than USB2's 480mhz) /8 bits-per-byte) I get slightly less than 190mB/s for an optical connection, and (24bits, 96khz) .275mB/s per channel for uncompressed audio... And halving the bitrate for error correction, thats over 300 Channels over 1 cable. If you reduced the spec to like... 10mhz for the optical cable, thats still enough for at least 7.1... uncompressed. So ether my calculations are off, or there is no reason there is no better interconnect.

since when are we using all three primary colors?? And you're calculations are misguided

 

[imported_cosmotic]

I see no reason to just use red... You could use blue and green and then filter them to achieve 3x the bandwidth.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cosmotic
I see no reason to just use red... You could use blue and green and then filter them to achieve 3x the bandwidth.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think you are thinking of this wrong.

The reason fiber optic is bandwidth limited is because of the way data is transmitted. Seeing as you are sending pulses of light that enter at different angles they can take a different amount of time to reach the end of the connection. The receiver then has to process the signal. There has to be a large enough gap in data transmission that the receiver will be able to sense the changed bit. So adding more wavelengths of light is not the problem...it is how fast we can send/receive data on the connection.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/toslink.php

This explains the bandwidth limitations in an audio sense. You need 11 MHz of bandwidth to be able to accurately transmit a 1.586 MHz square wave.

48KHz * 16 * 2 = 1.536 MHz

 

[alcoholbob]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: cosmotic
Ah yes, it is lossy. However, analog is noisy. And using optical, there is absolutely no possibility of any grounding problems.

Also, I dont know how objective it is, but subjectively, it sounds better when its on digital, it seems crisper... at least with my system.

Yup true. Although analog should have no problems given the short run of cabling often needed for multimedia speakers.

:thumbsup: Its a good card though, enjoy it!

Noisy vs lossy...I prefer slightly more line-in noise rather than lossy output. The first is only sometimes obvious on sources with significant compression during quiet scenes, the second is ALWAYS obvious.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Astrallite

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: cosmotic
Ah yes, it is lossy. However, analog is noisy. And using optical, there is absolutely no possibility of any grounding problems.

Also, I dont know how objective it is, but subjectively, it sounds better when its on digital, it seems crisper... at least with my system.

Yup true. Although analog should have no problems given the short run of cabling often needed for multimedia speakers.

:thumbsup: Its a good card though, enjoy it!

Noisy vs lossy...I prefer slightly more line-in noise rather than lossy output. The first is only sometimes obvious on sources with significant compression during quiet scenes, the second is ALWAYS obvious.

I agree...but theres no point in me beating it home....he already owns the card

 

[imported_cosmotic]

I have been using a digital signal on my sound card for about 6 months (I was using digital on the old card too). I have yet to hear any lossy-sounding sound except when its a poorly compressed or low bitrate mp3. Even though the digital signal is lossy, it doesnt seem to be noticeable. However, with analog signals, I can hear noise and interfearence and a lack of clerity.

It may be from something other than type of signal, but thats just the way it is.

And Astrallite, its ok. It hurts way more when people tell me that they don't have a problem with their Creative card as I have convulsions as they try to use the Creative drivers and software, twich from the audio garbage they sputter out some times, and slam my self into a wall when they stop supporting cards they manufacture before the warentee is up.

 

[imported_cosmotic]

Wow, I had no idea how complicated an optical cable is. However, I still dont see how the ability to use red, green, and blue is a problem.

It says on that page you linked to that a bad optical cable could do 5Mhz. Using my same calculation, you could still get 7.1 losslessly compressed (using an average of .53 for the compression ratio, achievable using FLAC) data through such a cable. Using a good cable, you could double that. And thats a single stranded cable! You can, of course, use more than one signal line to increase the available bandwidth.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: cosmotic
I have been using a digital signal on my sound card for about 6 months (I was using digital on the old card too). I have yet to hear any lossy-sounding sound except when its a poorly compressed or low bitrate mp3. Even though the digital signal is lossy, it doesnt seem to be noticeable. However, with analog signals, I can hear noise and interfearence and a lack of clerity.

It may be from something other than type of signal, but thats just the way it is.

And Astrallite, its ok. It hurts way more when people tell me that they don't have a problem with their Creative card as I have convulsions as they try to use the Creative drivers and software, twich from the audio garbage they sputter out some times, and slam my self into a wall when they stop supporting cards they manufacture before the warentee is up.

Were you using the X-mystique before?

 

[seanp789]

Im disappointed that they compared this to an Audigy 1 as opposed to something in the same price range. $135 buys you an X-Fi.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: seanp789
Im disappointed that they compared this to an Audigy 1 as opposed to something in the same price range. $135 buys you an X-Fi.

Its been compared to a Audigy 2 ZS too. They performed about the same with the X-plosion having a slight edge(analog quality wise). However, they admitted that it would lose to an X-fi

 

[keldog7]

Where's the link comparing it to a X-Fi? To make this assertion, it must have been tested and compared, and I'd be curious to read it.
At present, my current rig is outputting only to analog headphones. This weekend, I'll be hooking it up to my Denon 3805 (permanently), to enjoy the 5.1 digital goodness. I don't have a X-Fi to compare it to, but I'll post again if I notice the audio quality seems anything less than perfect.
-A

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: keldog7
Where's the link comparing it to a X-Fi? To make this assertion, it must have been tested and compared, and I'd be curious to read it.
At present, my current rig is outputting only to analog headphones. This weekend, I'll be hooking it up to my Denon 3805 (permanently), to enjoy the 5.1 digital goodness. I don't have a X-Fi to compare it to, but I'll post again if I notice the audio quality seems anything less than perfect.
-A

They compared it to an audigy 2 ZS I believe not an X fi, but it pretty much matched the audigy 2 so since the X-fi is better than the audigy 2 they made the assertion that it would beat the analog output from the X-plosion...I would have to look for the link again...