X-Mystique GOLD 7.1

[Droban]

I'm about ready to buy this card, I think my sig explains why.

I do have the Audigy 2ZS, and I am pretty happy with it, but I can notice a huge difference when my speakers are hooked up via digital coax to my DVD player while watching movies vs. the audigy 2zs analog and watching movies.

I was wanthing to get the Mystique to give my games crisper sound as well as my music. Right now I use EAX to get my music into surround sound(and all 2 channel sources on the desktop). I was wondering if I can still do this with the X-Mystique.

So basically what I'm looking for is any last minute info, experiences, go-for-its, and don't-do-its.

Thanks!

[Droban]

Okay, well I looked at diffferent forums, including hardforums.com and I've decided to try out the X-Mystique. I'm sure I'll lose a couple FPS in games compared to my audigy 2zs, but with my new speaker system, the audio doesn't seem as good is it could be with a digital connection. In music, everything seems like it's spread to thin. The high's seem scratchy and the bass isn't clean(I'm exhaggerating a bit). Movies are a joke in analog compared to digital(but the Audigy can do digital with movies). And from what I've read, a digital connection in games really helps with channel seperation and ambient noises come alive.

I will let you guys know what I think of the card, how the sound quality is, and how the performance goes in comparison to the Audigy 2zs, and whether or not I'm keeping it.

[zabomb4163]

let me know as well

[6rendel]

I just found a card being distributed by a chinese company. They list the cards features one of which is "Supports realtime Dolby Digital Live 7.1 output for all digital audio sources (software realtime content encoder)". This card looks nothing like the mystique however I have not found the brand listed at any of the online stores that I use regularly.

[lowfat]

I'd also like to know how it sounds. I've been delaying a A64 purchase because i dont want to downgrade my sound :(

[Droban]

Okay so I bought the card and here's what I think.

Sound quality in games
+The most significant difference between this card and my Audigy 2zs(although all the differences are fairly significant) is how much more bass comes through using the Mystique over the Audigy2zs. In games I have DDLive enabled and when it is you can adjust the volume of your PC to adjust the amount of bass(this does not change the volume of sound though since it is in digital) for some reason it changes the level of bass though. I found that once you figured out a good level for gaming you could just not mess with it after, or just continue to adjust

+Channel seperation is very key. The sound is so much more defined with this card. Each channel is divided up and gives the sound more depth and perception. With the Audigy2zs, the sound seems like it is spread across each channel, giving it a flat feel. But this topic relates to my next point.

-There is a lag of sound. Now let me make this clear. The lag occurs when quickly changing direction in front of a stationary sound source, i.e. in Half-Life 2 during a dialoque sequence and you change from Alyx standing to your right to your left with one swoop of the mouse. The lag comes with changing which channel the vocals are coming from. Now the only reason I found this was because I was trying to hear if there was any lag. The sound in the game itself is not lagging though. Every explosion hits exactly on cue, and I didn't notice the lag at all during the rest of the game except when "talking" with someone and moving the mouse really fast. I didn't find it to be degrading to the actual gameplay since the sound was not actually lagging, simply the channels couldn't keep up with the mouse when I tried to force a lag.

Technical Issues
-We need new drivers. We need drivers period for x64. The "beta 64 drivers" are useless if you're using DDLive which I believe is the purpose of this card. The beta 32-bit drivers gave me the bugs others have reported, the popping effect. But I have not tried the betas while enabling magic voice(a feature in the drivers that makes sure DDLive is constantly on rather than turning on when sound is passing through making a gap in the beginning of sounds). Also when booting into windows, the speaker settings in windows are reverted to default(desktop stereo speakers)even though I set them to 5.1 speaker system.

+/-I use the S/PDIF passthrough for music and just have my receiver put the 2.0 signal into Pro Logic II:Music mode. But I have had a problem with movies. I use the S/PDIF passthrough so the movie can just be decoded with my receiver, and it sounds outstanding, but every once in a while I get a brief lapse of sound. This effect disappears when DDLive is enabled. I reported the bug, I received an email several days ago from HiTech saying that they were planning on releasing new drivers in a couple of weeks, etc. But my digital out won't work with my audigy2zs and my receiver, and my onboard sound is pretty good analog with a optical and coaxial S/PDIF out, but I don't get good enough performance in games to use it.

Conclusion
New drivers are a must for this card. There are a few issues that could be solved and make this card even sweeter. Although there is a lag with the channels in games, I think the sound quality far outweighs this fault. The thing is, with my audigy2zs, I notice the lag is less, but the sound is so stretched out, there really is not much chance for there to be a lag between channels. Since the Mystique gives games a much more movie-like quality, there is a sacrifice. Although the card is not perfect, I don't think I would be able to go back to my Audigy 2zs now. I recommend this card for people with High-End systems. Users that have an Audigy 2zs hooked up to a Hi-Fi system are just crippling their capabilities. There is such a lack of bass and clarity compared to the Mystique. Users with lower end, computer speakers, might not hear so much of the difference due to subwoofers with higher crossovers with extra amplitude to make up for small satellites, or just overall much cheaper speakers that can sound just fine with a decent analog sound card.

Oh and it is sweet to have one cable from my PC to my receiver.

[thegreek]

pretty good review... I was also thinking of adding a reciever to my sound card to hook up custom speakers and a home built sub

[zabomb4163]

looks like a good card to me. i wish it were slightly cheaper. i just bought a few "toys"
(2) 250gig hard drives for media
20.1" lcd
and some 20' gold plated rca cables.

i'm still considering that card though.

[Droban]

New Drivers.
http://www.hidiaudio.com/download/index.html
Will post results later.

[Droban]

Ok so here's what I've found so far with the new drivers.

The bad=when rebooting, windows reverts settings back to desktop stereo speakers(not that big of a deal for me since I don't reboot that often)
The good=drivers seem much quicker than the old, the sampling rate issues seem to be fixed(48khz isn't so boomy anymore), movies sound great with DDLive enabled with the fixed sampling rate of 48khz, and finally, Half-Life 2 sounds great...the lag is much better, I could still hear it if I tried hard enough, but it seems to be much better and virtually doesn't affect gameplay whatsoever, although it didn't really before.

So it looks like these drivers are well on their way. The final release should have everything resolved(aka the windows reverting to desktop speakers).

[kelbern]

Thanks for the review - looks like i'll be going digital now, I was just wondering any idea how it would stack up to the audigy 4 which is supposed to have better DAC's etc...

[kelbern]

Another thing - have you compared the analog outs for headphones on the audigy and X-Mystique at all (for gaming that is)?

[james.miller]

bump.

Why isnt there more of an interest in this card over your side of the pond? Let me put this bluntly - this card is AUSOME.

Thwe analogue outputs are ausome, The pcm digital is ausome. Games performance as a whole is absolutely fantastic - much better then my old soundstorm any many people say it's better than their old Audigy2 zs's in gaming, and walks all over them for music quality.

I dont have a single audio issue with the x-mystique. There are driver issues yes, but with the beta drivers the issues that are left a re so small they really dont effect anything. Sometimes windows does still revert to 2 speakers, but thats not really problem. They card now does bit perfect 44.1,48 or 96khz outputs. The opamps are upgradable on the card so you can use some real high quality ones if your amplifer is up to it.

Just to expand on what droban has said:

Okay so I bought the card and here's what I think.

Sound quality in games
+The most significant difference between this card and my Audigy 2zs(although all the differences are fairly significant) is how much more bass comes through using the Mystique over the Audigy2zs. In games I have DDLive enabled and when it is you can adjust the volume of your PC to adjust the amount of bass(this does not change the volume of sound though since it is in digital) for some reason it changes the level of bass though. I found that once you figured out a good level for gaming you could just not mess with it after, or just continue to adjust

There is a strong bass output yes, but as you say once you've found a comfortable level it's just fantastic.

+Channel seperation is very key. The sound is so much more defined with this card. Each channel is divided up and gives the sound more depth and perception. With the Audigy2zs, the sound seems like it is spread across each channel, giving it a flat feel. But this topic relates to my next point.

Agreed - better than the soundstorm or the a2 zs. Easily.

-There is a lag of sound. Now let me make this clear. The lag occurs when quickly changing direction in front of a stationary sound source, i.e. in Half-Life 2 during a dialoque sequence and you change from Alyx standing to your right to your left with one swoop of the mouse. The lag comes with changing which channel the vocals are coming from. Now the only reason I found this was because I was trying to hear if there was any lag. The sound in the game itself is not lagging though. Every explosion hits exactly on cue, and I didn't notice the lag at all during the rest of the game except when "talking" with someone and moving the mouse really fast. I didn't find it to be degrading to the actual gameplay since the sound was not actually lagging, simply the channels couldn't keep up with the mouse when I tried to force a lag.

Thankfuly, i dont have this problem. Strange you do though :confused:


Technical Issues
-We need new drivers. We need drivers period for x64. The "beta 64 drivers" are useless if you're using DDLive which I believe is the purpose of this card. The beta 32-bit drivers gave me the bugs others have reported, the popping effect. But I have not tried the betas while enabling magic voice(a feature in the drivers that makes sure DDLive is constantly on rather than turning on when sound is passing through making a gap in the beginning of sounds). Also when booting into windows, the speaker settings in windows are reverted to default(desktop stereo speakers)even though I set them to 5.1 speaker system.

I have the speaker setting problem as discribed above, but i dont have the sound problem apart from when the opening sound is played when you first boot into windows. I didnt have the spdif problem with my soundstorm either when many other people did. I'm guessing it also has something to do with the amplifier/speaker set you are using at the time?

+/-I use the S/PDIF passthrough for music and just have my receiver put the 2.0 signal into Pro Logic II:Music mode. But I have had a problem with movies. I use the S/PDIF passthrough so the movie can just be decoded with my receiver, and it sounds outstanding, but every once in a while I get a brief lapse of sound. This effect disappears when DDLive is enabled. I reported the bug, I received an email several days ago from HiTech saying that they were planning on releasing new drivers in a couple of weeks, etc. But my digital out won't work with my audigy2zs and my receiver, and my onboard sound is pretty good analog with a optical and coaxial S/PDIF out, but I don't get good enough performance in games to use it.

Cant say ive ever had that problem with my HDA:(

My conclusion:

The HDA x-mystique is everything i wanted my soundstorm board to be and more.
* It doesnt have the phaze issue with the LFE bass output.
* It doesnt shift the bass up 1/2 a note with DDlive enabled like my soundstorm used to.
* It doesnt play any noticable distortion in the upper frequency range when bass is play, unlike my old soundstorm.

* it is the best sounding card ive ever used. For gaming or music.
* opamps are socketed and easily upgradable - a great feature for the audiophile users
* bit perfect spdif output, unlike the soundstorm

This honestly is the best thing since soundstorm in a pci card. Actually, its better than soundstorm in every way, and knocks the a2 za for six as well.

highly recommended:) 9.5/10. They just need to sort those minor driver issues.

[kelbern]

so its better for headphone gaming than an A2?

I'm using soundstorm at the moment but will need a new SC once I go 939, I was looking at the A2 for headphone gaming and the X-Mystique for surround gaming hooked up to my reciever. If the X-Mystique is better for headphones as well I will only have to get one card :D

you say the opamps are socketable - what ones do they have on there currently?