[evolved_st8]

So has anyone heard if CL is doing ANYTHING AT ALL? The X-FI is getting old. Isnt it about time to go to the NEXT LEVEL. Just curious. I love my X-Fi but doesnt it seem we are about due for whats next?

[thideras]

Originally Posted by evolved_st8

So has anyone heard if CL is doing ANYTHING AT ALL? The X-FI is getting old. Isnt it about time to go to the NEXT LEVEL. Just curious. I love my X-Fi but doesnt it seem we are about due for whats next?

Just because it is old doesn't mean it is outdated or bad. Does it work for you? If you answer yes to this, I don't see a reason for them to release another until a "breakthrough" is found. If no, then...you might have a bad one?

EDIT: I just don't see a point of upgrading if you can't tell the difference.

[Mpegger]

Especially since, unlike graphics, audio has more a less a limit of improvement. The only thing that can be added is more speakers. 7.1 will be the norm within a few years, and there are talks about expanding on that with speakers not only in the horizontal plane, but also vertical.

[UglyChild]

With next level, you will need better speakers to hear the difference.

But even with X-Fi, which i think is over priced junk to begin with, which needs improvements in the first place.

[Deadman93723]

I don't see how they can improve on the X-Fi much, sound wise anyway, I don't think the human ear can hear much better...lol

I like the title of this thread, although the question should be: What the Hell is Creative doing about drivers for Vista...lol

[maxxoverclocker]

lol, while i think the xfi is pretty good, i do see room for improvement, mainly in connectivity options (toslink 7.1... i mean come on- a 60 dollar auzentech card has it... why cant the 100+ creative cards have it? i know that is the ONLY thing stopping me from buying one, i can't connect it to my reciever w/just one cable.. haha id rather just stick w/stereo untill they get that ready.. just my two cents..

[nd4spdbh2]

what would be tight is a card with NORMAL headphone jacks for analog out (none of this 4 connector crap for analog 7.1) and then a toslink / coxial digial out with dolby digital live ON THE CARD TO BEGIN WITH!... so us gamers could have digital audio to our recievers and still have amazing surround sound. ad a price tag of 50 bucks and we got a deal.

Although like others have stated... audio isnt like gfx where u need something new every year. heck i have been running an audigy 2 value and its amazing, sound quality is great!.

[Audioaficionado]

Well it's dated because all CL cards are PCI and it won't be too much longer when mobos ditch PCI and go with the onboard sound.

So CL had better be figuring out the necessary DSP to make great PCIe 1x soundcards. It will have to be a complete hardware redesign to work on the PCIe bus.

Asus gets it

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/edi...t2007-3_5.html

[CrazyIrish]

I still have a regular audigy and I don't think soundcards have improved enough to make me consider upgrading.

[Deadman93723]

I went from an Audigy 2 ZS to an X-Fi Fatal1ty and noticed a big improvment in sound quality.

[Hipcrostino]

I use an Audigy 4 and it sounds greats, but what most people will find its that using real speakers, no ****ty computer speacker sets from creative and oter manufactures, will improve sound quality over anything else.

that said, i do in fact used really crappy speackers. But my Seenhiser headphones are worth every penny

[UglyChild]

Listen to M-Audio Revolution card, then listen to any of the X-Fi cards, and youll hear the difference.

[Europa]

the best they can do is add a

front
rear
side
center/sub
Front side
rear side
S/PDIF digital
S/PDIF coxail

12.1 sound card

[soloz2]

I'm good for a while longer... I just swapped some caps and the op-amps on my X-fi and it sounds sweet now

this looks promising though.... CL is doing something right 4 a change
http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php

[evolved_st8]

Originally Posted by Deadman93723

I don't see how they can improve on the X-Fi much, sound wise anyway, I don't think the human ear can hear much better...lol

I like the title of this thread, although the question should be: What the Hell is Creative doing about drivers for Vista...lol

Yes. I agree. Vista Drivers suck. The thing im wondering most tho. Can we get HD audio from creative? I mean even realtek has HD audio support. AND CREATIVE DOESNT?!!??!?! Thats y im asking whats next. Make a breakthrough.
(Also im prepared to build a $3000 gaming system. Just waiting for R600. Would be nice if everything that went into it was the absolute newest technology.

[Mpegger]

Ooooo... good thing I didnt get the HTOmega card right now. Looks like I'll have to keep my eyes open for that Auzentech card. EAX + DDLive would be sweet.

[Slayer2003]

I will never buy a CL sound card again, after this purchase of the X-FI Platinum.

It sounds ok, but just ok. I still get too much static for my taste with my cans on, but sounds pretty good on my speakers. I use my cans 90% of the time though. It sounds absolutely tinny in games. Enough to make me start playing music over my Zune while I play.

They cannot make the remote work, without someone on their forums tell you to use a 3rd party program. Oh, and this program, will only let about 20% of the buttons work. For the rest to function, they ask that you "donate" $10-35 to their cause. Creative currently has no fix for their own remotes, if it doesn't install on your rig. Sorry, but I just shelled out $200 for this card, and you're telling me my remote will not work, period?

(Please do not try to trouble shoot my problem, I've been on the phone with their techs, I've scrounged and posted on their forums, and I know how to use Google. )

I really like the looks and features of that Asustek card, and love that it's PCI-e x1. Finally, someone makes a card I can use the slots on my mobo for. Woot!

[R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3]

The Soundblaster series is made for games, they have a long long ways to go in true sound quality. But then once you reach an easily acceptable sound quality it's one of those things you can only appreciate if you know what you're missing. Try looking at Creative E-MU professional series.

[Deadman93723]

I'm of the opinion that the X-Fi series is only good if you use headphones and play games. If you want to do any serious sound stuff, get another brand.

Oh yeah, listening to music is also good on the X-Fi, except in Vista...lol

[Prodigious]

Creative has A LOT they could do to improve their cards.

First of all DD live and DTS connect would be really nice. $60-70 mid range cards from several other manufacturers have had it for a long ass time yet even creatives top of the line 300 dollar cards have never supported it. It's not exactly hard to incorporate it on a card, licensing fees are probably more of an issue than any kind of technical obstacles.

Stop resampling everything internally to 48khz. X-Fi overcame some issues with resampling(still does it) but it's still not optimal to have to downsample certain sources so the card can apply effects.

Improve the dacs. PLEASE. The burr browns on the top model were nice but the ones on every other version arent very good and there's no reason they couldn't use slightly higher quality components, it wouldn't drive up the price very much at all.

There's an assload of new audio formats now that HDDVD and Blu-Ray are out. Adding support for those would be nice, since they are going to be the standard eventually.

PCI-E interface. This is a no brainer. At the very least they need some models that will actually work with future pcs. It'd be sad of creative's flagship stuff only worked on legacy interfaces.

Replace breakout boxes with daughter cards. I love extra connections as much as the next person, but having tons of cables hanging out of the front of my pc doesn't appeal to me. Put it in the back where it belongs please.

All of those things are extremely reasonable and already exist on other cards that are cheaper than a lot of creative's line up.