Malum

I was thinking about getting the X-Fi new sound card, esp since my favorite game has a special setting for sound just from that PRODUCT. UNTIL I read this page, and ESPECIALLY the user comments below the article....wow.

http://techreport.com/ja.zz?comments=8641&page=2

Check that out...

StrikeFear

Man, I couldn't agree more with the comments.

I have seen nothing but marketing hype and bugs come out of CLabs since... since the SBLive, as a matter of fact.

I resent the fact that they effectively have a monopoly, because their product continues to scrape the bottom of "barely sellable."

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Telorn

Yeah, but I'd say that Microsoft's products are at least more stable and reliable than Creative.

I'll probably get this in a couple years, when all the kinks are fixed and a second or third revision is released and the price comes WAY down. I think I spent $150 on my SB Audigy 2 Gamer. I'd never spend more than that for a sound card.

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Telorn

StrikeFear

I can't believe they're trying to convince us that there is actually enough VALUE in these sound cards that they're worth the price they're asking.

KrAzY!!!

Sheesh, we already have 5.1 dolby surround with positional audio and environmental effects (when all that actually phreaking works). What the hell do they think they're gonna sell us for 300 bucks!?!? What improvement or enhancement or new features could there possibly be for that price? Pathetic bastards.

I can't wait til some startup makes a great technology and runs them into the ground and goes on to be the market leader and then.... repeat the cycle.

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MilesTeg

Creative is the Bose of computer soundcards: "Better sound through marketing"

TG_Trigger

Tom's hardware did a preview(http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20050705/) and said they are the cat's ass if you use headphones. Now I don't know if that's the case or not but I really don't care about headphones and frankly what the hell are they thinking marketing a big$ card to the headphone crowd? I'm thinking you have less $ to spend on puters if your using headphones over a speaker system. I'm curious to hear them before passing final judgement

Creative is obviously desperate to justify their existence to shareholders or there going to go belly up.

orbitz

I'm thinking you live in a place where people don't mind hearing lots of noise coming from your computer heh. I enjoy hearing things loudly and like my bass. The solution? Use a good set of headphones. Of course I may be a select few who think this way, but I don't even use speakers on my computer anymore, just a headset.

TG_Trigger

Good point, your right no one is telling me to turn it down.

On another thought... I'm big on sound I think it's an very important for good immersion. Games are becoming more and more like interactive movies. Movies have some of the best sound experiences available, DTS 7.1 surround etc is the future for game sound. That being said were going to need processing power for audio.

snaggletto

In January '05 I went from an OEM SBLive to an Audigy 2 ZS or whatever. I was quite impressed with the sound difference in Americas Army, which is what I was playing at the time. However, as AGP and PCI are about to disappear, my Audigy will have a limited lifetime.

Anyway, on the speakers vs. headphones debate. I'll definitely have to vote headphones. The positional audio really seems to do wonders when the speakers are on each ear rather than in front or around your head. Don't get me wrong, I've got ~$800 in a home theatre system in the living room, but for gaming, my ~$20 Sony MDR-CD180 headphones and Audigy 2 soundcard are sweet as can be.

For example, on Gulf of Oman the other night, I heard the crunching of grass behind me, turned to see nothing. I kept listening and dialing in on where the sound was coming from and brought up my iron sights. About that time a USMC shows up over the hill behind me lined up for a perfect headshot.

I've been playing FPS's since the day Quake 1 came out but I didn't start using headphones until after CS got big. Headphones rule. To each his own I guess...

Wulfyn

Yeah.. good post Malum - I also love the way they advertise features (like EAX) as a big thing when it has been around for a while. My favourite thing I saw from them was trying to give a quantitative answer to a yes/no question. Does it have a THX certificate or something, and their latest card having an 'excellent' certificate.

Don't believe that! AGP may be fizzled out by PCI Express in the near future, but it'd be a foolish foolish motherboard maker to kill all PCI slots for PCIx, especially as PCIx isn't being fully utilised now with top end GFX cards, let alone other cards.

PCIx modems....


As a final point, I couldn't bear to buy something that has the Fatality branding on it.

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Malum

Tom's Hardware is considered bought and paid for advertising. They've been caught at it in the past.

Malum

Oh, not to mention that apparently the Marketing guru's at Harvard School of Business are teaching that if you put "X" or X-treme on anything it will SELL!!!! Apparently we have been reduced to morons becuase we dont even get the full "X-treme" we just get "X" in X-fi! We've been cheated our Marketing goodness!!

THis webpage explains it all much better than I could
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse....treme_bull****

And, if one GRAPHIC could explain it better than I could this one does:

Telorn

I don't get nearly the positional audio from a headset that I do from my Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1. THen again, it is a $400 speaker system. If you have a properly set up 6 speaker system, then a headset is no match for a surround sound system. I can pinpoint a sound with much more accuracy with my Klipsch than I can with my headset.

There is no comparison, really. The Klipsch has 5 channels to send audio to...the headphone only has 2. The 5 is obviously going to give you a better idea of a position over 2...even if they are right on your ear.

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Telorn

Telorn

PCI won't be leaving for a very long time. How long ago did ISA stop being placed on motherboard? Only a few years.

It isn't cost effective for manufacturers to switch simple things, like ethernet card, sound card, modem, because they don't need any more bandwidth than PCI can already give. PCIx is for video cards, because they require a huge bandwidth and can benefit from it. Another thing you may see PCIx is SCSI cards.

But PCI will be here to stay for a very long time. You'll see AGP disappear long before PCI. PCIx wasn't invented to replace PCI..but to compliment it.

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Telorn

Vulcan

My 5 year old C-Media sound card still runs great. Sound is excellent too.

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