X-Fi Extreme Audio OEM

[Crysalis]

i have the x-fi xtreme music connected to my x530's(5.1) and it sounds fantastic, nice crisp vocals in mp3's etc, punchy bass with CM33-3D enabled in the control panel and also the crystalizer DOES work well, some people might say its rubbish but it does make things clearer.
Im very happy with my setup, its replaced my home stereo and i havent used it since getting these speakers/soundcard as it sounds soooo much better.
But i only found out it wasnt a true x-fi after a few weeks of getting it but i dont care because it sounds great.
Id surgest spending a little more(only £15-20) and getting this Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music OEM Soundcard its oem agian so its cheaper than retail and its a real x-fi card which means you will be able to enable x-fi in games that allow it and it will use hardware for sound rather than software, taking some of the work load off the processor.

You can't be serious... It's posts like this that make me just want to stop working in audio all together and become a monk.

 

[jonny_uk]

HAHA how did i know that you'd have quoted me AGIAN in this post aswell as the other.
Why cant i have my say/opinion without you telling me a total fool

 

[Oreo]

Crysalis, from a professionals point of you like yours, it may suck or whatever. But please try to remember that without hereing ultra quality extremely pure sound like you have, stuff like the Crystaliser and CMSS-3D will sound better to us, but because youve listened to better, you can tell its false. It might sound better than his home hi-fi, because he might be using terribl speakers with that.

I fully unedrstand that if i was in YOUR position of being an Audio Engineer, id agree. But until then cheep little gismo things in these soundcards seem to do the trick for the average ear

And yeh i do play games, and i'll be getting quite a lot this year, so i'll take your advice and stick to ExtremeMusic. Even if the M-Audio's specs PwNoRz this

 

[jonny_uk]

I was going to say not everyone has £1000 or whatever silly amount it costs to spend solely on a sound setup, nor might they be bothered and be content with there 2 desktop speakers etc, but i thought that was obvious? but no im told im a wally/fool or words to that effect.

 

[wolfeyes89]

You can't be serious... It's posts like this that make me just want to stop working in audio all together and become a monk.

WTH is ur problem. A lot of us are content with a simple Z5500 setup with an X-fi card to play games or listen to some music. We don't want some stupid 1000$ monitors that aren't going to be louder than my 300 dollar system. Theres a lot of people in the world that dont need a studio in their pc, whats the use? Youre an audio enthusiast we get it and maybe you're on the wrong forum because i really dot get the point of putting an expensive set up in a pc.

 

[Crysalis]

I never said you have to buy expensive equipment. I come here to help people get the best possible sound for what they have. To do that, disabling a soundcards 'enhancements' is a must. With proper setup, everyone on this forum can have as good of a system as my monitors as long as you follow EricB and I. We do have quite a bit of experience... so we know what we are talking about. We are only trying to help, but people refuse it thinking we are trying to be snobs. We are actually helping not only your system sound better, but last longer and protect your ears (literally). If you want bad sound, turn everything you can to ON. If you want good, accurate, safe, and pure sound, keep those pieces of blankety blank blank off.

KMAN has followed my advice quite a bit and has noticed a difference. I only wish I had more time to really help him out. Then, people come along and say completely opposite of what I say and makes people question me making me look like the retard. Everyone can have good sound, but it doesn't come from a 'crystallizer' or CMSS.

EricB and I are glad to help, but we get mad and frustrated when people completely oppose our advice since they are so set that what they've done sounds awesome.

 

[Oreo]

Wolfeyes, actually if im honest, i would kill for a 2000USD Monitor set up on my pc, and if i had the money im sure cryalis has helped me, like he has in the past.

MAny people have different opinions, in your the Crystaliser may sound wonderfull, in mine, cryalsis's and EricB's it sounds wonderfully disgusting, painfull infact. Almost literally.

Crysalis and EricB do know what they are talking about, because from listening to there advice i have a great pair of headphones, heading on the right track to a good soundcard, have pure sound. and some good speakers. (And a Home Theatre set up which they don't know about yet .. Jks hehe)

I would listen to them, but if your happy with the sound youve already got, then don't.

And now because ive listened to there advice i know whats hot, and whats not so hot , I don't have much idea on why a Audio technica headphones sounds better than a SkullCandy set, but they do (well actually i could give it a good guess, but still nothing like what 'them 2' know )

cryalis, whats the difference between an X-Fi Platinum and a ExtremeMusic, doe sthe platinum have better in/out connections and better controls ? or does it just sound way better ?

 

[Oreo]

KMAN has followed my advice quite a bit and has noticed a difference. I only wish I had more time to really help him out.

Im crying with happyness , no seriously, im glad to here it.

Thanks alot.

 

[Crysalis]

the only difference between the extreme music and the platinum is the front panel. So, if you were to get the front panel for the extreme music, that would make it a platinum (which is what I have).

Mine is set up so that it sends the pure digital information (not signal or sound) to my monitors through toslink. From there, my right monitor takes the 1's and 0's from the right channel and passes the rest of that information to the left monitor. This way, the soundcard only outputs pure raw data, then the monitors convert it into audible sound. When gaming, I use headphones and let the souncard do the decoding (still with no enhancements ever).

My monitors are calibrated to sound as flat as possible by using a real time room analyzer and a measurement microphone. They are placed in perfect stereo arrangment. They are equal distances away from my computer screen (2ft) and point straight. I sit level with them 2 feet away. There should always be a perfect triangle wheb listening in stereo (your head and the two speakers being the three points os the triangle.

OK... enough for now. My boss is glaring.

 

[EricB]

from another post.

yes. now a rectangular box is fine. their are rules about building a box

this one reason we audiophile are hard on the boomers and newbies. the game complete changed in 2000. before that, most stuff were reasonably well made. then our economy took a hit.

manufacturer's couldn't afford to make thing at the same rate and survive. so they start taking quick and easy shortcuts. lots of them. then they took 1 thing and greatly increase that by tenfolds to survive. it's called aggressive marketing.

they are not going to tell you that they are making a cheap cheesey product. they are going to tell you that it's even better than their old products which is a lie. a lot of high end companies went this route too.

now at around the same time most music have turned to scream music, which doesn't have to be high quality in the first place.

now we have a whole generation of people that don't know what good sound is.


I went to a car stereo place that I've shopped at for years. they sell 1/2 mdf boxes for 12's & 15's for 100 bucks now. 10 years ago they sold 3/4 mdf boxes for 50 bucks.

c'mon now. 1/2 mdf isn't good enough for a 6 1/2 speaker. yet you can't tell these new people with systems that their bass suck. and they know more about audio than you

most americans have alway been horrible listeners. it seems to be spreading to other countries these days.

I'm not an engineer. I love audio. I always loved detail. most people think that they know good sound when they don't.

me and crysalis have enlighten many people toward great sound. they are happy for it. when x-fi first came out they marketed it with bunch of lies and charge 550 for it. they claimed to be able to make mp3 sound better than cds. the crystalizer is a fancy eq circuit. that it's