PC Peripherals Suggest a Good Soundcard for 10K

[Amol]

That's a perfectly shitty review, pardon me.Z-580s arent exactly reference speakers. Some studio monitors should be used for benchmarking at least.

This comparison @ 16/44.1 is a joke.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-x-fi/index.x?pg=10

Audigy 2 cannot be better than a Revo since the Revo does not resample on it's native mode.

I wouldnt prefer buying a x-fi for music. The fact is that, despite creative's claims of a high dynamic SSRC, it still RESAMPLES ! I feel cheated with creative's claims of coming up with non-resampling core.

IXBT's review says that the driver options shows the option of 44.1 khz in analogue output mode, but it fails to see that there are only two options in the digital out mode - 48 khz and 96 khz. This means that the core is uncapable of doing a true 44.1 khz, and the analogue mode is a resampled mode.

X-fi uses a bad analogue output stage, perfectly comparable to an audigy 2 level card, and isnt any better. It isnt comparable to a Professional card.

 

[Anish]

Wow ! That's quite a link Amol ! Does the X-Fi really Resample ? :O

If thats true then its a big blow for Creative, when they have failed to produce a non-resampling core again.

I'll read the article later, so maybe you could throw more light on it.



Samsung ? TCCx chips for X-Ram :S

Edit: Its TC-60 chips I suppose dug this up

 

[Amol]

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/multimedia/creative-x-fi.html

Scroll down to the topic of SRC. The X-fi core is capable of doing a low noise SRC, no doubt. But it doesnt need one if it's directly processing a 44.1 khz signal in the first case.

All games have their sound frequency locked to 48 khz. So the question of SRC does not arise.

The audio content mode is meant for people who are thinking of mixing 44.1 khz content, but it does not mean that they can do it so without converting it to 48 khz.

Check this flowsheet of the content being processed from 44.1 - > 44.1 khz again.

http://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/creative/x-fi/xfisrc.png

It goes through a 44.1 -> 48 path and then gets resampled back to 44.1.

Basically from what it appears is that creative has eliminated the need of the use of SRCs used in audio playback software, since it does all the resampling in hardware, which it earlier did too , but in really poor quality; which is now improved a lot with quite low noise.

But the fact remains that it still resamples.....

 

[Anish]

But why do they have to make such a chip ? I mean the Envy24's were there long back som can't Creative just produce a non-resampling chip ???

But otherwise Amol, how is the audio quality ? I'm planning on getting the XtremeMusic soon, so is it better than say a Revo 7.1 ? And yeah, I wan't EAX HD as well...

 

[Amol]

But why do they have to make such a chip ? I mean the Envy24's were there long back som can't Creative just produce a non-resampling chip ???

They can make non-resampling chips. It already uses those chips on EMU soundcard series. Remember here the target audience is gamers, not musicians and people who want non-resampled audio.

All games comply with AC97 standard of 48 khz. So creative makes that the default sample rate on their cards to minimize the load on the CPU, and keep full processing compatbility with games.

X-fi uses a good quality SRC engine with very low noise, so it might be actually quite good if they made use of a nice quality analogue part.

I am not sure how well they have made it, but if i were you, i would get a M audio Revo 5.1 for music, and a X-FI separately for gaming.

Revo 5.1's analogue output quality is comparable to some high end cd players according to some reviews.

I would suggest you getting a Revo 5.1 for music exclusively and the cheapest X-fi exclusively for gaming.

 

[Anish]

I am not sure how well they have made it, but if i were you, i would get a M audio Revo 5.1 for music, and a X-FI separately for gaming.

Well, hehe, can't do that It will work out tooo expensive

As for speakers I am only going to be using an analogue output as my comp. is connected to my Sony system.

Lets see, most probably it should be the X-Fi XtremeMusic but I'll post here before I buy...