"Modest" claims for Creative chipset...

dhaen · 12th October 2005, 11:15 AM

..The X-Fi also upgraded EAX to support up to 128 simultaneous hardware-accelerated 3D voices, and promised to enhance compressed audio playback to sound better than the original CD.

Modesty has never been one of Creative's strong suits.....snip
Article

Wow, I'm glad I chose M-Audio...

inteificio · 17th October 2005, 10:04 AM

Just a thought, has anyone tried this card?
I am interested in the music quality (relative to EAX supporting pc sound cards not hifi) and whether the cmss (i think thats what they call there virtual 3d headphoneything) is any good.

I like decent quality sound repoduction when playing games. When you are 24 and you are FORCING yourself not to look behind you, you know nothing is there, its just a game, but you just have to look.

Thief 3 at one point has the sound of footsteps and a girl giggling (spookily) following you about 3 feet behind you. OMG it made me want to scream! If anyone was curious, I went and turned the lights on and checked behind, that game is SOOO scary.

M-audio cars for music playback may be better but I need the EAX as I am a gamer.

Any tips of advice?

Tweeker · 17th October 2005, 02:05 PM

As a gamer, I despise Creative for destroying real 3D sound by forcing its competition bankrupt with expensive litigation Creative lost. After this litigation Creative bought up the patents from this bankrupt firm and instead of offering 3D sound, sat on them to keep anyone else from using it and continued to offer reverb instead.

That said this appears to be the first line of Creative cards that can be setup to not utterly mangle music. The "enhance compressed audio playback to sound better than the original CD" claim is hyperbolic, but in some cases of badly mastered CDs may be true. Its certainly not better than a decent original, and it wont help good music compressed with high bitrates much either.

inteificio · 17th October 2005, 02:57 PM

Now the choice is get the £80 one or get the £400 one with a better DAC.

Schaef · 17th October 2005, 05:42 PM

The Tech Report posted a rather nice article about the boards. Including a subjective review of the different features. The interesting thing they found was that the "enhancer" for making MP3's work better than the original was to boost the bass and treble higher than the mid and to boost the overall volume! When the reviewer re-balanced the volume to better match, the "enhancer" lost out almost every time!

Here's the article for those interested:

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4...i/index.x?pg=1

12th October 2005, 11:15 AM	#1
dhaen diyAudio Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.K.	Modest claims for Creative chipset... ..The X-Fi also upgraded EAX to support up to 128 simultaneous hardware-accelerated 3D voices, and promised to enhance compressed audio playback to sound better than the original CD. Modesty has never been one of Creative's strong suits.....snip Article Wow, I'm glad I chose M-Audio...

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17th October 2005, 10:04 AM	#2
inteificio diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: York	Just a thought, has anyone tried this card? I am interested in the music quality (relative to EAX supporting pc sound cards not hifi) and whether the cmss (i think thats what they call there virtual 3d headphoneything) is any good. I like decent quality sound repoduction when playing games. When you are 24 and you are FORCING yourself not to look behind you, you know nothing is there, its just a game, but you just have to look. Thief 3 at one point has the sound of footsteps and a girl giggling (spookily) following you about 3 feet behind you. OMG it made me want to scream! If anyone was curious, I went and turned the lights on and checked behind, that game is SOOO scary. M-audio cars for music playback may be better but I need the EAX as I am a gamer. Any tips of advice?

17th October 2005, 02:05 PM	#3
Tweeker diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio	As a gamer, I despise Creative for destroying real 3D sound by forcing its competition bankrupt with expensive litigation Creative lost. After this litigation Creative bought up the patents from this bankrupt firm and instead of offering 3D sound, sat on them to keep anyone else from using it and continued to offer reverb instead. That said this appears to be the first line of Creative cards that can be setup to not utterly mangle music. The "enhance compressed audio playback to sound better than the original CD" claim is hyperbolic, but in some cases of badly mastered CDs may be true. Its certainly not better than a decent original, and it wont help good music compressed with high bitrates much either.

17th October 2005, 02:57 PM	#4
inteificio diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: York	Now the choice is get the £80 one or get the £400 one with a better DAC.

17th October 2005, 05:42 PM	#5
Schaef diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH	The Tech Report posted a rather nice article about the boards. Including a subjective review of the different features. The interesting thing they found was that the "enhancer" for making MP3's work better than the original was to boost the bass and treble higher than the mid and to boost the overall volume! When the reviewer re-balanced the volume to better match, the "enhancer" lost out almost every time! Here's the article for those interested: http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4...i/index.x?pg=1

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