VOGONS

Sound Blaster X-Fi Series

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First post, by Great Hierophant

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The newish Sound Blaster X-Fi models come in four varieties:

Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - $130
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum - $200
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1y - $280
Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro - $400

The difference between the Xtreme Music and the Platinum is that the Platinum comes with the I/O Drive and more software and the Xtreme Music does not. The difference between the Platinum and the Fatal1y is that the Fatal1y card comes with 64MB of X-RAM. The difference between the Elite Pro and the next lower two is the slightly better SNR and THD ratios and the I/O Console.

However, if you buy the Fatal1ty vs. the Platinum, I believe you are paying $80 for different drivers. The Platinum cards contain X-RAM on them as to the Elite Pro and Fatal1y. The Xtreme Music also has the X-RAM. I believe Creative is disabling this functionality on the lower priced cards instead of omitting the RAM altogether. What a crock!

Reply 1 of 3, by HunterZ

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No offense, but I couldn't care less about Creative any more, for reasons I have previously listed here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=165010&cid=13779654

These days I'm happy with my Realtek/nVidia on-board sound, but I've recently become interested in these: http://auzentech.com/ (made by this company: http://www.hidiaudio.com/ based on chips from this company: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/)

Other products based on the same technology:
http://www.diamondmm.com/XS71DDL.php
http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards/mtgoddl/

I'm waiting for the HDA X-Plosion to make it to market, as it's based on C-Media's second-generation of DDL/DTS Connect chips (all other cards I mentioned are first-gen).

BTW, you'll notice that even the X-Plosion with its upgradable op-amps for analog output is only $120 or so.

Reply 2 of 3, by HunterZ

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Looks like even Realtek is jumping on the DDL bandwagon with their ALC882D: http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/products1- … modelid=2005041

My guess is that Creative will eventually be pressured into adopting DDL and/or DTS Connect. The problem is that the only companies that have implemented it so far have been chip makers (C-Media, Realtek, nVidia) who won't sell out, and Creative seems to neither engineer their own hardware nor license any from anyone else. I can only hope that they will wait as long as possible, and that they will lose their dominance in the gaming PC sound hardware market.

Also, getting back to your original post, I see Creative is still subscribing to a bloated software mentality, but has now layered on top of it a scheme in which they cripple the capabilities of the device in software. This is going to lead to a lot of people buying the $130 unit and soft-modding it through hacked and/or third-party drivers. I did the same thing with the kxProject drivers on a couple of Live/Audigy cards a few years ago.

Reply 3 of 3, by Great Hierophant

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Upon studying the photographs of the available cards, it seems that the Fatal1y card does have a difference from the lower cost cards, LEDs! A 64MBx64 module, even SDR, costs a few bucks that they could have saved by eliminating it. It just begs to be "unlocked."

However, the X-Fi series is their last hope for dominance.

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