X-Fi Support Syndicate & Owner's Clubhouse

[hat]

Originally Posted by hat

I wasn't planning on OMG I WANT ONE NOW, I was gonna get one with my birthday money (plus a video card of course).

I see Audigy 4's going CHEAPO on Ebay. Do these handle 128 voices?

go ahead

what do you think of my... uhh... picture link thingy skillz?

[hat]

BTW found this error in Post #1:
"Sound Lbaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express"

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by hat

Do these handle 128 voices?

No, they don't have 128 hardware voices, it's exclusive to the CA20K1 processor X-Fi cards.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by hat

This needs to be stickied.
I want a sound card that can handle 128 voices. My Audigy II is a good card but it handles only 64. Will the Audigy 3 handle 128 voices? Will the Audigy 4? Or do I need an X-Fi card? If so, which one should I get? I've heard horror stories of X-Fi cards that are re-branded audigies or something and didn't handle X-Fi technology (worth a shit).

You wouldn't mind some free advertising would you? (I.E. me taking the sig pic, using it and also making the pic a link to this thread)

I agree with all of bta's recommendations.

As to the sig thing, not a problem! TBH, I don't think enough users here actually realize this thread exists, considering the number of x-fi related threads (and other sound related threads) that keep popping up in General Hardware - was a big reason why I recommended adding a "soundcard and audio" forum on the main page (); to get all those threads out of General Hardware. They pop up quite often, but are still buried by all the other threads, and I don't think people know how to use the search function (or are too lazy) . . . but I guess not enough 'important' people thought the new forum is worth the hassle . . . oh, well . . .

Anyhow, like bta said, the Audigy 4 doesn't support 128 hardware voices; it's still restrained to 64 voices like the rest of the Audigy lineup.

TBH, though, unless you're really strapped for cash, it's worth upgrading to an X-Fi. The Audigy 4 line is probably the best sounding Audigy series, but, the Au4s were released along side the early X-Fi cards in 2004/05, and really just add some new revisions and EAX capability over the Au2s (plus some other nominal additions). I don't think Creative plans on keeping up with official drivers for the Audigy's past this year, as they've neared the end of their support life.

[imperialreign]

caught wind of a new gaming headset that will be joining the market here soon:

http://www.ideazon.com/us/products/banshee.asp

not sure bout the speaker offerings of it, but spec wise looks like it could potentially compete with the Razer Barracuda - although, I think the Razer would still have the upper hand with the true 5.1 speaker capabilites of their headset.

although, the Banshee looks like it'll be priced in the $70-$100 range.

[btarunr]

Nice headset. Ideazon keyboards pwn. But no headsets/headphones for me until Aurvana

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Nice headset. Ideazon keyboards pwn. But no headsets/headphones for me until Aurvana

I'm defi interested in the Ideazon, I have the MERC Stealth keyboard and it just kicks ass - worth the money, IMO; but, I'm liking the specs of their headset. Anyhow, you going after the Aurvana X-Fi?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

I'm defi interested in the Ideazon, I have the MERC Stealth keyboard and it just kicks ass - worth the money, IMO; but, I'm liking the specs of their headset. Anyhow, you going after the Aurvana X-Fi?

Yes, I'm after the Aurvana. It's selling for $249 in Singapore (home of Creative). Someone I know is going there this summer. I'll have them bring me one.

Hmm. They gave the product page an edit.

[btarunr]

Creative has rolled out a revised full range of Aurvana personal audio products, namely professional headphones, earphones. There's a broad range of applications and prices vary. The top of the line being Aurvana X-Fi.

The description extract from the website is as follows:

[Wile E]

Those in-ear phones look good on paper. Wonder how they sound in person.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by Wile E

Those in-ear phones look good on paper. Wonder how they sound in person.

from reviews I've read, they've been given rave reviews in the earbud market. I haven't had a chance to use them in person yet, though.


@btarunr - whenever you acquire you're Aurvana headset, defi try and write up a review of sorts or something - I'm truly curious how well they sound. Reviews that I've read so far have been very posititive, and most seem to respond they're as good or better than competing high-end headsets in that same price braket - but, I haven't really seen any reviews fro any audiophile sources, so I've taken them all with a grain of salt.

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

from reviews I've read, they've been given rave reviews in the earbud market. I haven't had a chance to use them in person yet, though.


@btarunr - whenever you acquire you're Aurvana headset, defi try and write up a review of sorts or something - I'm truly curious how well they sound. Reviews that I've read so far have been very posititive, and most seem to respond they're as good or better than competing high-end headsets in that same price braket - but, I haven't really seen any reviews fro any audiophile sources, so I've taken them all with a grain of salt.

I only ask, cause my Shure E3C's just took the dump. I was listening to them, and they got caught on my gf's arm as she walked by. Ripped the cord right out of the right bud.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by Wile E

I only ask, cause my Shure E3C's just took the dump. I was listening to them, and they got caught on my gf's arm as she walked by. Ripped the cord right out of the right bud.

that sucks, man! they aren't cheap, either (I figure you spent over $100, right?). To the best of my knowledge, though, the Aurvana earbuds are more inline with the Shure E2Cs, but I might be wrong, though . . .

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

that sucks, man! they aren't cheap, either (I figure you spent over $100, right?). To the best of my knowledge, though, the Aurvana earbuds are more inline with the Shure E2Cs, but I might be wrong, though . . .

Yeah, I paid $150 for them (MSRP $199 at the time). I don't think I can spend that much this time around tho. I miss them already.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

fwhenever you acquire you're Aurvana headset, defi try and write up a review of sorts or something.

Aye aye

[imperialreign]

New X-Fi drivers released - it appears that WIN XP SP2 Home and Professional x86 and x64, XP MCE 2004 and MCE 2005, Vista x86 and x64 have all been brought up to driver package 2.15.0006.

If anyone notices any degregaded performance or audio issues after installing the updated drivers, please inform me here so I can annotate post #1 accordingly - I'm really curious about the Media Center Edition drivers, as this is the first certified driver update for MCE.

[btarunr]

I was going to post that under news. Beat me to that

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by btarunr

I was going to post that under news. Beat me to that

EastCoastHandle beat me to it - he posted it up in general hardware. I hadn't even realised the new drivers were released until that post . . . for some reason, I wasn't updated by Creative's RSS feeds . . . they musta been lazy today . . .

[department76]

thow me on the members list.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by department76

thow me on the members list.

will do, and welcome aboard!

Hello, i've got some questions concerning my xfi extreme audio notebook card. I've posted this on numerous forums but people seem to be clueless so i'm hoping this place might hold some answers. Here it goes :

Whenever i'm gaming while being on ventrilo and i alt-tab(windows key) back to deskptop my sound either gets screwed up for the people listening to me on vent(so my outbound) or all my own sound goes crazy. 90% of the times this happens and i'm not sure what to do about this as when it's just my outbound messing up it seems to get fixed by reconnecting to ventrilo but when all my own sound is screwed i sometimes have to reboot to get it working normally again. The best way i can describe what happens is that my sound get very metalic, sharp and distorted. Is this a known issue with vista and my sound card (xfi xtreme notebook audio)? My gf has the exact same laptop as me and she also has the same issue, she's had it alt tabbing out of her bookkeeping program back to desktop(this takes ventrilo out of the equation). And she has it also under the same circumstances as the ones i listed above.

Thnx for your time

*update* I managed to narrow the problem down to the xfi xtreme notebook audio card. When i switch to the onboard realtec i can't duplicate the issues. The problem is everything sounds so much better with the xfi card when it's working properly that i dread going back to the realtec full-time. Are there no other xfi notebook card owners out there that can tell me if they can alt-tab out of 3-D applications without messed up sound?


Hoping someone else has experienced similar issues so i can either put the issue to rest while i wait for new drivers or actually fix the problem.

[btarunr]

This case isn't isolated to the Xtreme Audio Notebook. In fact it's a known bug with all EAX 3.0+ cards be it notebook cards or PC expansion cards.

The explanation would be that: EAX 3.0+, unlike being a stream of audio data to be processed for reverb/echo effects (or other EAX effects), is transported in the form of blocks.

When an audio card has to playback simple wave output (as in music/videos, etc) there is no processing to be done and the audio data moves in the form of a stream from the system to the audio device. However during EAX processing, (that is upwards of EAX 2.0), the data moves in the forms of blocks, each block of data is perfectly synchronised to other outputs like the video (when gaming). When you task-switch, the video-output of the game is disturbed. The application skips several frames, the video and audio lose synchrony and as an aftereffect, the sound gets garbled. Garbeld as in: 1. There is a disturbance in the balance of stereo output. There is choppy output.

This affects audio input as well, input as in any analog/digital input because while an analog input (like say from a microphone) is perfectly a stream, the audio device cannot transport as stream and blocks simultaneously so block transfer takes place, unless the audio device's archtecture has seperate DAC and ADC. Most audio devices have combined DAC and ADC in a single chip, while the chip has seperate circuitry for DA conversions and AD conversions, the convertors share the same clock generator. In case of AC'97 codecs, the AC in the southbridge uses the SB's clock, could be similar with Intel Azalia HDA.

[imperialreign]

That might be a good part of it, as there are also a ton of issues with EAX and Vista from the start.

@ Dready; make sure you have the most recent OpenAL drivers installed, too. The OpenAL API + the EAX DSPs will give you the same playback as in XP.

I'm wondering, though, if the software he's using loads up access to a specific API within the OS kernel, and when you alt+tab out, Vista re-directs audio to a different API (i.e. WASAPI), resulting in a software conflict trying to access the hardware, and trying to alt+tab back into your application, the OS API either doesn't want to relenquish control and close down, or the application API was hung due to the conflict.

Certain early software applications in WIN XP had these types of issues a few years ago, and the only thing one could do was to avoid alt+tabbing, wait until a patch was released, or go about some registry hacks to keep the conflict from occuring.

[btarunr]

Vista only has one API, that's WASAPI. OpenAL comes with the audio drivers.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Vista only has one API, that's WASAPI. OpenAL comes with the audio drivers.

OpenAL comes with the X-Fi Vista drivers? I didn't realize Creative was that . . . Creative, lol!


Actually, though, Vista has 4 core API's:

Windows Audio Session API
Windows Multimedia Device API
DeviceTopology API
EndpointVolume API

the WASAPI is the beast of the bunch, though, and makes use of a few smaller API's to go about the legwork of audio sessions.