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Best replacement for aging X-fi Titanium sound card...??

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Computer used as a htpc ans well as everything else.

Speakers would be the Logitech z-5500's.

Hoping to find a card that delivers great sound, does not have constant driver issues, and won't break the bank.(yes I know, who isn't)

Any thoughts..??

Thanks.
 
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haven't had issues with my soundblasterx AE-5.
 

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If it still works then stick with it.

But if you had to spend money then it really depends on your overall budget.

Not a whole lot of reason to upgrade if it aint broke unless you want to go down the AVR/External DAC route. soundcards have lost their relevance for general use. Hardware Accelerated games died many years ago and most game engines make use of their own directional audio coded into the game.

Its spending money for the sake of spending money if the card isnt broke IMO. Theres not enough of a change to warrant spending money/
 
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onboard ... they are quite good enough, the SounBlaster Recon3D of my mobo would be plenty for a HTPC and most ALC 1150 and above are on par with dedicated soundcards (unless professional setup)

if the HTPC is the one in your SysSpec ... then the onboard would be more than enough, it use a ALC 1220-VB
i did the same error of sticking a soundcard on my current rig just to notice that was just about the same quality as the onboard ... :laugh:

or ... well right now i use a Fiio Q1 Mark II as DAC (using the special DAC-UP usb ports of the mobo, which yours has too ) seems to sound a little better than the onboard (or a dedicated Recon3D
 

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Depending on your actual budget the SoundBlaster Audigy RX7.1 is for creative a budget card however it has some Hi tech specs such as a good headphone amp and can be had for well under $100 US and gets good reviews certainly in terms of value to performance.
Otherwise if you want something better and the gains over the RX7.1 don't necessarily justify the price, the SoundBlaster AE5 would be the middle ground price wise when compared with the SoundBlaster ZxR .
 
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First and the most important question which comes to my mind is: why do you want to replace your current soundcard?

I have the same card since 2009 and i like it and i'm kinda looking at reviews of new cards from time to time.
 
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First and the most important question which comes to my mind is: why do you want to replace your current soundcard?

I have the same card since 2009 and i like it and i'm kinda looking at reviews of new cards from time to time.

Some modern HW configs do not play well with the old cards... it is a total lottery sometimes. Some are fine, some not.

Also if the sound CPU is near death it acts strange too, looking like driver problems. I had multiple X-Fi cards, they died in similar manner. Few BSODs, crackles here and there... and get the casket ready.
 
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Asus Xonar cards.
 
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Asus Xonar cards.

No... just a big FAT no... they are dead driver wise too...

Devote yourself reading about them here...


Specific AMD list.

 
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No... just a big FAT no... they are dead driver wise too...

Devote yourself reading about them here...


Specific AMD list.

wierd, i never had a single problem with my xonar dx nor those drivers.. but yes.. some chips are close to end of life used in the xonar cards (sadly the cmi8878 in the dx is one of them).
 
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No... just a big FAT no... they are dead driver wise too...

Devote yourself reading about them here...


Specific AMD list.


I have never had any issue like that with my cards. Having said that I find the onboard sound pretty good for the 1220.
 
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Onboard is pretty good these days. Not sure how old the parts youre using are.

I miss my Creative Xfi Xtremegamer card.
 
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haven't had issues with my soundblasterx AE-5.
I have, mine started going to right channel only about 2 months ago.

@op, Get a USB DAC.
 
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The only performance gains you will get using a dedicated card now a days is taking the loads off your cpu and gaining a few extra fps's. Other then that, as mentioned several post above, windows ditched the ability to make use of various sound enhancements, so unless you are running windows 2000 or xp, you really dont need a different card and keep using the one you have, or if you can live with losing 3 fps in your games, switch over to the on board card, for in the audio/video forum section there is several threads that you can used to mod the realtek drivers to do some outstanding stuff that creative cannot do at all, even with their newest cards out ;)

BTW, its kick ass that you are still running that Z5500 set! I used to have it back in the day till I sold it and went with hometheater receivers to handle all my sound for I like having much more inputs and outputs, plus bigger speakers and fuller sound. If you ever get rid of it, make sure to buy a older receiver with analog 5/7.1 ext inputs for the newer 4K stuff doesnt have those inputs anymore, and though you can select DDL or DTSI for sound, older games, and newer games, will only play sound in stereo over the spdif (coaxial) line, and need the run the 5/7.1 analog to the receiver to get surround sound in games, movies not so much, but for sure games :)
 
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Computer used as a htpc ans well as everything else.

Speakers would be the Logitech z-5500's.

Hoping to find a card that delivers great sound, does not have constant driver issues, and won't break the bank.(yes I know, who isn't)

Any thoughts..??

Thanks.
I have an AE-5 and love it. Not very expensive, never had a problem with the drivers.

Depending on your actual budget the SoundBlaster Audigy RX7.1
This is also a good choice if you're lean on money.
 

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I am still rolling with my 12 year old SoundBlaster Xifi Elite Pro, works fine on Win 10 with creative beta drivers thankfully, however it has to go to the graveyard in a couple of months when I upgrade my build as it's a PCI card and it was hard enough 2 or 3 years ago finding a Z170 motherboard with a PCI slot, I fear I am not going to find one again for AM4 or Z390.
 
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I am still rolling with my 12 year old SoundBlaster Xifi Elite Pro, works fine on Win 10 with creative beta drivers thankfully, however it has to go to the graveyard in a couple of months when I upgrade my build as it's a PCI card and it was hard enough 2 or 3 years ago finding a Z170 motherboard with a PCI slot, I fear I am not going to find one again for AM4 or Z390.
You may try some crazy pci-express->pci adapters or usb->pci adapters but ye, adapters.
 

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Soundblaster Z or ZX I had an X-Fi Fatality previously and while the Z line is technically "inferior" to the X-Fi I definitely found the overall sound quality better much to my surprise. I've never had a single driver issue or any real issues at all.

I am still rolling with my 12 year old SoundBlaster Xifi Elite Pro, works fine on Win 10 with creative beta drivers thankfully, however it has to go to the graveyard in a couple of months when I upgrade my build as it's a PCI card and it was hard enough 2 or 3 years ago finding a Z170 motherboard with a PCI slot, I fear I am not going to find one again for AM4 or Z390.
Thats why I had to move to the ZX just ran out of PCI slots...
 
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With the motherboard listed in your specs, I'd just run on-board audio and save the cash. Realtek ALC1220 is pretty decent. And maybe consider running S/PDIF out to your Z5500's then it takes the sound card out of the picture entirely.

I'd give that a go first. If you're still not happy, then start looking into a new sound card.
 

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With the motherboard listed in your specs, I'd just run on-board audio and save the cash. Realtek ALC1220 is pretty decent. And maybe consider running S/PDIF out to your Z5500's then it takes the sound card out of the picture entirely.

I'd give that a go first. If you're still not happy, then start looking into a new sound card.
Well spotted! SPDIF just "does the job" regardless of the onboards quality.
 
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Out of curiosity i just compared myself my x-fi titanium and my motherboard's (asrock x570 taichi) integrated realtek alc1220 soundcard and with mixed feelings i have to say dedicated soundcards are still relevant. Yes, integrated audio sounds pretty good and will be good enough to most users who didn't hear proper soundcard. From my quick test of listening to few songs, watching few scenes from few movies and playing a match of bf5 all i have to say sound of integrated one is decent but doesn't have that power, strength and range as x-fi.
 

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Memory 2x8 G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3200C14, 2x8GB G.Skill Trident Z Black and White 3200 C14
Video Card(s) Zotac 4070 Ti Trinity OC
Storage WD SN850X 2TB, SN850 1TB, SN770 1TB - Asus Hyper M.2, 2x SN770 1TB
Display(s) LG 50UP7100
Case Fractal Torrent Compact RGB
Audio Device(s) JBL 2.1 Deep Bass
Power Supply EVGA SuperNova 750w G+, Monster HDP1800
Mouse Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard Logitech G213
VR HMD Oculus 3
Software Yes
Benchmark Scores Yes
I have a Xonar ST, but rarely use it these days. My computer is plugged into my AVR, then to tv. I've just been using the gpu. But even on my ancient Z77 the onboard is fine, especially with just computer speakers. I do prefer my Xonar over onboard when it comes to headphones though.. Nothing fancy just some old KEF M500s.
 
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
177 (0.04/day)
System Name Pops pc
Processor Amd Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
Cooling Noctua NH-D15S chromax.Black, Premium Dual-Tower
Memory G.SKILL FlareX 32gb 3200
Video Card(s) GIGABYTE AORUS Radeon RX 6600 8GB
Storage SAMSUNG 980 Pro M.2 1TB NVMe, Black 2TB, WD Red 6TB, WD Gold 10 TB, 2x Seagate 2TB, Seagate 4TBext
Display(s) ASUS 31.5" Full HD (1920x1080) Led-Lit Monitor (VA VA325H)
Case Thermaltake Suppressor F-51 Window
Audio Device(s) Xfi Titanium pushing Logitech Z-906's's
Power Supply EVGA 650 GQ, 80+ GOLD 650W
Mouse Logitech
Keyboard Azio Large Print Backlit
Software Win 10 64
I found a new driver, released last summer that seems to have eliminated the weird crackle I was hearing, hopefully that'll do the trick.

The one I had, from a few years ago was labelled as the final release for this "end of life" sound card.

Guess I'll hold fast for now.
Thanks all....:)
 
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