Sound card creative sound blaster x fi. Reviews: Sound card USB CREATIVE X-Fi HD Sound Blaster SB1240. Game Mode - Surround Sound in Games
Do you know the word Auzen? I would venture to suggest that not, unless, of course, you follow absolutely all the news on computer topics. Nevertheless, all lovers of high-quality sound on a personal computer should remember this name.Auzentech, Inc. Is a very young company specializing in sound cards. The company is not yet two years old - the first press release is dated February 2006 - however, it managed to announce its fifth product of its own development, as well as start selling several interesting devices third party developers. The rookie's vigorous activity is respectable, especially when you consider that Auzentech pays special attention to the sound quality of its latest products. They use some of the best converters manufactured by Asahi Kasei, replaceable operational amplifiers, solid dielectric capacitors, and original PCB layout.
Auzentech's first three products were based on C-Media controllers, and the company without undue modesty calls itself the world's first manufacturer of sound cards with support for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect technologies. I admit that Auzen was indeed the first, but such opportunities appeared thanks to the work of C-Media engineers and programmers, and therefore are implemented on all cards with a corresponding chip. But in April this year, the entire Internet was excited by another news: Auzen is preparing a new product on the Creative X-Fi audio processor! Until now, Creative Labs did not supply its technologies to third-party manufacturers, so this fact itself was already akin to a revolution, but the president of Auzentech did not think this was enough and he set the engineers (as stated on the website - leaders in the field of analog and digital sound) the task of creating a product audiophile quality, so that the happy owner of the card can not only taste the fruits of the latest Creative gaming technologies, but also enjoy high-quality music and even create their own, no less high-quality works.
Design
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1
The Auzentech X-Meridian tested digital-to-analog converters AK4396, solid-state electrolytic capacitors, combined digital inputs-outputs, allowing the connection of both coaxial (SPDIF) and optical (TOSLINK) cables using the supplied adapters were thrown into battle. In addition, the card uses the best models of two-channel operational amplifiers and the highest quality digital-to-analog converter from Asahi Kasei - AK5394A, which provides a dynamic range of 123 dB and distortion at the level of -110 dB. The DAC parameters are also excellent (120 dB and -100 dB, respectively), but it is worth noting that the AKM has an even better AK4397, as well as a pin-compatible AK4395 with an improved digital filter, so the reasons for choosing AK4396 for all four stereo outputs personally are not entirely clear to me. Moreover, the front output is different from the other three.
Firstly, it provides for the possibility of replacing the operational amplifier with a slight movement of the hand (which we did not hesitate to use during the testing process) - the microcircuit is not soldered to the board, but installed in the "crib". Secondly, the LM4562 operational amplifier, which was instantly famous for its excellent sound characteristics, is used in the output low-pass filter, while the equally famous OPA2134 is used for the other channels. In addition, the board height was not enough for an equivalent layout of all four channels, so the DAC and the front output filter were moved a little further from the connector. Such a solution can increase noise and channel interference.
The power supply of the operational amplifiers is provided by two stabilizers for 8 V, the power supply of the digital-to-analog converters, apparently, is not stabilized.
From the table below of the main parameters of the operational amplifiers used in the Auzen Prelude, it follows that the National Semiconductor product outperforms the Burr Brown product in all respects, except for the Settling Time, the time for stabilizing the output voltage level after changing the input voltage. However, this parameter is more important for the ADC input filter, where the OPA2134 is used.
Returning to the question of the strange layout of the board: the digital-to-analog converter is located very far from the input connectors, practically on the opposite edge of the board.
The capacitance of the capacitors that smooth out the ripple of the reference voltage of the converter is chosen equal to 470 μF, therefore, distortion at frequencies below 80 Hz will exceed the declared threshold of -110 dB.
It is hoped that the op-amp of the filter is used in the inverting connection, otherwise the distortion will be greater at high frequencies.
If we compare the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude with the top product of Creative Technology itself, then they have a lot in common: the exact same ADC, four stereo DACs and the same number of operational amplifiers, as well as two memory chips for X-RAM (Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro one of them is on the back of the board).
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
Not taking into account the more logical layout of the X-Fi Elite Pro board and a different number of connectors, the Creative card differs from the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 only in its element base: digital-to-analog converters CS4398 (dynamic range 120 dB and distortion at -107 dB) , operational amplifiers NJM2114 from New Japan Radio Corporation for the front output filter, NJM2068 for the rest of the outputs, and some kind of unknown brand NE5532 for the ADC filter.
As you can see from the table, the distortion of these operational amplifiers is slightly higher than that of those used on the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, however, they were measured at a tenfold gain, so a direct comparison with National Semiconductor and Burr Brown products cannot be made. As a guideline, the OPA2134's passport distortion with this gain also increases by a factor of 10. The line outputs of both cards do not have additional buffers, which may result in a dependence of the system sound on the quality of the interconnect cables used, and also limits the ability to connect headphones directly to the line-out of the cards. The last remark applies to the Creative product to a much lesser extent, since the NJM2114 is capable of delivering several times more current to the load than the LM4562 or OPA2134.
The main difference between X-Fi Prelude 7.1 and X-Fi Elite Pro is the switching of inputs and outputs. Creative offers one port for digital, line and microphone inputs, which are switched using four electromagnetic relays, as well as three line outputs, two of which use Creative's non-standard four-pin 7.1 speaker jack. The board has an AUX input to which you can connect a TV tuner or other similar device. The rest of the input and output is concentrated in an external unit, connected via a 25-pin one-meter cord.
The external module, which allows both horizontal and vertical installation, has a pair of digital inputs and outputs for coaxial and optical cables, a MIDI input and output, an analog input with RCA connectors, two 6.35 mm jacks for a microphone, an electric guitar and other music devices, a digital output for connecting Creative acoustics and a headphone output with a 6.35 mm jack and a 3.5 mm adapter. The block also contains some controls for the card: a knob for adjusting the volume of analog outputs, buttons for selecting inputs, enabling EAX, CMSS 3D and Crystalizer.
Auzentech has a completely different philosophy. Directly on the card, the customer gets a full set of standard connectors: four line outputs, line, microphone and AUX inputs, digital input and output, as well as a very useful port that adds a second microphone input and allowing to connect audio connectors of the computer case.
Unlike the Auzen X-Meridian 7.1, where the headphone output is served by a TPA6111A2 two-channel inverting amplifier, in the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 it is connected directly to the front-output filter op amp through 47uF capacitors. Input switching appears to be done using an ADG412 solid state relay. The card was supposed to get more functionality using the X-Tension DIN module, originally developed for the Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 and providing an additional input for a dynamic or electret microphone (type selectable by a jumper), SPDIF and MIDI I / O, plus the connection of Creative multichannel digital speakers , however, in practice, only the MIDI interface and SPDIF output were compatible with it.
Installation
There is a lot of empty space in a large and beautifully designed box, first of all because the package bundle of the card, frankly speaking, is meager. The box contains a good optical cable three meters long, a pair of transparent adapters for it, instructions in many languages \u200b\u200band a CD. No additional software is supplied with the card, the disk contains only the driver for all operating systems of the Windows family.
By and large, Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 differs from Creative X-Fi Elite Pro only in digital-to-analog converters and input switching, therefore minimally modified Creative drivers are used for it. The installer has been greatly simplified: Flash animations have been removed, there are no optional programs, no unnecessary questions are asked, so the process goes pretty quickly and smoothly. In addition to demonstrating the license agreement, it is proposed to select only the initial operating mode of the card and the number of connected speakers.
Already at the installation stage, a difference in product positioning is visible. Creative's development installer suggested a different order of card modes: Game, Entertainment, Audio Creation.
For the review of the card, Auzentech provided a beta driver from November 11th, which at the time of testing was not yet available on the official website. The driver is not digitally signed, but did not cause any serious complaints either in Windows XP or in Windows Vista 64-bit.
At the end of the installer's work, no reboot is required and no annoying suggestions to register are issued, the Auzentech Audio Console icon appears in the control panel, and a shortcut to the Volume Panel application appears in the "Start" menu, which is automatically added to "Startup".
Unfortunately, there is no additional software included, including such useful products as the THX Setup Console and Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player... The latter, being installed from the Creative disc, works with Auzen X-Fi Prelude, but the THX console does not see this sound card at all.
The Volume Panel icon that appears in the system tray is very convenient: by left-clicking the mouse, the volume control window itself pops up, which also allows you to launch any of the installed Creative applications, and by right-clicking you can quickly change some basic settings. The application takes up no more than 9 MB of RAM.
The rest of the settings are concentrated in the Audio Console, which has long been familiar from SoundBlaster Live !, Audigy and X-Fi sound cards. The only noticeable difference is related to Dolby processing: instead of the Decoder tab, where the built-in decoder of the Dolby Digital and DTS multichannel stream was configured, a section with completely opposite content appeared.
Auzen X-Fi Prelude can encode all output audio (for example, multichannel audio in games) into Dolby Digital on the fly, eliminating the need to lay bundles of interconnect cables around the apartment. We can only guess what will happen with a signal already encoded into this format (for example, with a DVD audio track) - there are no more decoder settings. The card will not support effects such as Dolby Pro Logic IIX, Dolby Virtual Speaker and Dolby Headphone, because CMSS-3D technology replaces them, and DTS CONNECT is promised to be implemented in early 2008. However, I have no doubt that all these technologies will simultaneously appear on Creative Technology cards.
Double-clicking on the Volume Panel icon launches the so-called console, an application that provides convenient control over the volume and other map functions. For each of the three modes of operation, it is seriously different.
In entertainment mode, the console is stylized as a home system, with a volume control for a good half of the application window and inconvenient tone controls. The second half is occupied with an imitation of a multifunctional display with indication of current parameters and buttons for calling the following settings: acoustics configuration, reverberation effects, CMSS-3D, 24-bit Crystalizer, automatic volume control, graphic equalizer, mixer, Dolby encoder, digital output frequency. Clicking on any of them removes a row of buttons from the screen, which is why to go to any other section of the settings, you have to press the "Main display" button that appears below each time.
Given the slowness of the display metamorphosis, it is not very convenient to use such a program, but the biggest drawback lies elsewhere. On Creative X-Fi cards, bass routing and cutoff frequency settings are controlled both in the speaker configuration section and via the THX settings panel. The latter is not licensed by Auzentech, and for some reason there is no corresponding button in the console under Windows XP, while in Windows Vista the Bass Boost button is in its rightful place.
In game mode, the Bass Boost function in the console is preserved under Windows XP, but otherwise the set of functions is almost the same as in the Entertainment mode.
The drivers have implemented saving the acoustics configuration for each of the three possible card modes. For three speaker configurations, the CMSS-3D state is remembered, and the set volume level is memorized separately for speakers and headphones and does not change when switching card modes. Unfortunately, this driver feature was not taken into account in the music creation mode console.
The volume control on the monstrous panel, which fully fits on the screen only at its resolution of at least 1024x768, remains indifferent to the volume change caused by the transition from headphones to speakers or vice versa. In addition, the console does not respond to changes in the reference frequency of the clock generator made by the Settings button in its lower left corner. The actually set frequency will be displayed only after closing and reopening the application.
All sounds reproduced via Windows will be converted to the base sampling frequency set in the Settings window, and automatic frequency switching is implemented for ASIO. When Dolby Digital Live is turned on, the clock generator is set to 48 kHz, and any attempts to change it result in blue screens of death, so be careful. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the sampling rate of 192 kHz is not supported by the card at all, even in Entertainment mode with stereo speakers, the sound is output at 96 kHz.
The list of recording sources is shown in the picture below. For digital sources, it is possible to turn on the bit-to-bit precision of the recording, after which the item for selecting the format of the saved file disappears. If you then switch to any other signal source, then this item remains invisible. For some reason, the signal level for all inputs is set to zero by default, and its addition does not always work correctly. If you find that silence is being recorded in one of the channels, simply slide the knob to zero and then adjust the level again.
Unlike Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, which has several additional line inputs through an external module, on Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 all analog inputs are united by the Analog mix item, in the additional settings of which you can turn off the signal from the Aux and Mic inputs. In Entertainment and Game modes, this is done from the console itself, while in Audio Creation you will have to use the Windows mixer tools. It also allows you to adjust the volume for each of the eight available playback channels.
The set difference in volume between channels will be respected when changing the Master Volume. By the way, the maximum volume of the line outputs of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is more than twice the generally accepted level of 2 V RMS and is, according to the manufacturer, 5 V. The standard volume is achieved when the Master Volume control is set to 85%.
I can't help but mention a small incident. At one point, after removing the card from the system unit for photographing, the console was suddenly transformed: separate Line-In, Mic, AUX "inputs" appeared, and the Bit-Matched checkbox was displayed for all recording sources, but the card did not function due to this. broken.
Audio Creation allows you to completely disable the processing of sound output by applications. To do this, you must activate the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option in the window that appears after clicking the Settings button, or on the corresponding tab of the audio console.
In my opinion, the disappearance of the equalizer, "crystalizer" and SVM is more than compensated by the increase in the quality of music reproduction.
Measurements
Objective testing of the card before listening allows not only to check the compliance of the card with the declared technical characteristics, but also to reveal possible pitfalls, such as additional signal processing in the driver or various problems in the analog path. For these purposes, we used the software package RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0.6 Pro, which outputs a set of test signals to a given audio device, and then analyzes the recorded result. The basic principles of working with the program are set out in the official manual.The measurements were taken at the maximum sampling rate during recording to observe the widest possible spectrum. For tests of the analog part of sound cards, one of the line outputs was connected to the line input of the same or another (during the tests, we tried both options) of the card with an extremely short cable with mini-jack connectors. Full test reports can be obtained by clicking on the summary tables of results. The measurements were carried out on a stand with the following configuration:
Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 motherboard
AMD Opteron 165 processor
RAM Corsair XMS-3200XL
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro graphics card
Hard drive Hitachi T7K250
Power Supply Rosewill Turbo Series RT550-135-BK (550W)
Since sound cards are powered by the motherboard, the test results for their analog path depend on the quality of other components in the system unit. For example, the lack of power stabilizers for operational amplifiers on the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro led to the fact that the measured signal-to-noise ratio even depends on which PCI slot the card is installed in, and even the connection of the power connector of the external unit to the cable from which it is powered also the hard disk, causes an even more significant deterioration in this parameter. In this regard, the final measurements, the results of which are given below, were carried out with the external unit turned off.
To obtain the most objective results, it is necessary to turn off any possible signal processing in the driver, such as tone settings and software volume controls, overlaying special effects and format conversion. For cards on the X-Fi audio processor, this is possible only in the Audio Creation mode, provided that the "Bit-matched playback" option is enabled and the reference frequency of the card matches the sampling frequency of the reproduced signal. Choosing "Wave" as the recording source, you can make sure that the original (Reference) and signals transmitted via DirectSound are completely identical. The MME interface (in the terminology of most programs it is "Wave output") does a little processing, most likely adding uncorrelated noise (dithering).
Checking for no signal processing by the driver
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Auzen X-Fi Prelude
The measured level of distortion is also alarming. Compare with Creative X-Fi Elite Pro results.
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Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
More than 10 dB benefits across all parameters are suggestive. These measurements were carried out on the card's own line inputs, and their quality has not yet been confirmed by anything. In addition, RightMark Audio Analyzer displays in the summary the average result for both channels of the card, while in Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 they, as can be seen from the nonlinear distortion spectrogram, are very different:
Auzen X-Fi Prelude
The left channel is clearly not all right, the level of the second, third and fourth harmonics is 10 dB higher than in the right. To identify the source of the problem, the signal from the Auzen X-Fi Prelude was recorded to the line input of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, which got along in the same system with the Auzen product only after prolonged shamanic dances.
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For some reason, possibly due to the formation of "ground loops", in such measurements the signal-to-noise ratio often deteriorates, however, the situation with nonlinear distortions of Auzen X-Fi has normalized - which means that the increased level of distortion was obtained due to the line input of Auzen X- Fi Prelude. Unfortunately, the true nature of the distortion of its output now has to be examined through the picket fence.
Auzen X-Fi Prelude (write to Creative card)
One can state a very low level of the third harmonic and a complete absence of higher-order harmonics. Creative X-Fi Elite Pro formally still surpasses Auzen X-Fi Prelude in terms of nonlinear distortion, but the spectrum clearly shows the fifth and seventh harmonics, which, according to some studies, have an extremely negative effect on the sound:
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
It makes no sense to compare the amount of intermodulation distortion due to the too large difference in the noise level, it remains only to note that the fears about a large interpenetration of channels came true - at frequencies above 1 kHz, Creative X-Fi Elite Pro is better by 15 dB in this indicator.
Using the ASIO interface or the channel duplicators in the Audio Creation console, we can route audio to any of the card's four analog outputs. By the way, when ASIO is working, a strange tone at 12 kHz is visible in all measurements, the origin of which is a mystery to me.
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Auzen X-Fi Prelude
The Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card showed no significant difference between outputs, but the front output is still slightly better in all respects, except for channel interpenetration. It is these results that could be expected based on the topology and the element base of the map. On the contrary, the rear outputs of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro are significantly worse than the front ones in terms of distortion.
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Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
In conclusion, I cannot but mention a strange fact. After some time, perhaps after listening to the card with headphones without an external amplifier, the level of low-frequency noise increased in the right channel of the front output of Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1:
Auzen X-Fi Prelude
It turned out that the LM4562 operational amplifier behaved this way, replacing it with any other will normalize the situation. True, I did not manage to notice this noise by ear, subjectively the sound of the card did not change.
Listening
To compare the sound of sound cards of such a high level on acoustic systems, a very high-quality sound path and an acoustically prepared room are required, which we did not have, so we used high-quality Grado SR325i and Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones, as well as a C.E.C. HD53R-80 and Monster Standard Interlink 200 interconnect cable.
The amplifier operates in class A, has a low coefficient of nonlinear distortion (according to the manufacturer's statements, it is 0.009%, our measurements at a level of 2 V at the output showed a value of 0.019%) and easily copes with both low-impedance Grado (32 Ohm) and high-impedance Beyerdynamic (250 Ohm). But the linear outputs of sound cards with headphones work worse: the interpenetration of channels significantly increases, the frequency response changes at low and high frequencies, intermodulation distortions increase significantly. Thus, comparing sound cards when connecting headphones directly to the line-out is completely wrong - each of them will react in its own way to such a load.
Comparing the sound of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude to a C.E.C. and without, we can note the deterioration of the dynamics, as well as the clarity and size of the scene. The lower the load resistance, the more obvious the amplifier's advantage became, including in terms of volume - the signal level at the card's output drops significantly when a low-impedance load is connected and "walks" from the uneven impedance in frequency. It seems that some of the electrolytic capacitors near the output filters are installed in the signal circuit, because the same headphones connected to the FP_Audio output (which, as mentioned at the beginning of the review, is connected to the operational amplifier through a 47 uF capacitor) sound noticeably louder. Subjectively, the OPA2134 loses a little less detail, so if you still have to use headphones without an amplifier, try connecting them not to the front output and output sound to the desired channels using ASIO.
With amplifier C.E.C. the card showed just fantastic sound! When I heard this for the first time, I could not believe my ears - familiar things sounded so unusual. Scorpions - Holiday, Gary Moore - Always There For You, Too Much Rope by Roger Waters (I have been using these compositions for a long time to quickly assess the sound quality) suddenly blossomed, sparkled with new details, struck with naturalness. I listened to my entire collection of test recordings, and in each I found nuances that were previously either not noticed at all, or perceived differently. Interestingly, every nuance sounded differently left not the slightest doubt - this is the correct sound, and none of the "home-game" level sound cards I have heard before was able to reproduce it with such naturalness and softness.
Auzen X-Fi Prelude creates an incredibly believable scene, filling it with deepest bass and natural reverberations, with extremely precise positioning of instruments. The smallest details are reproduced in the sound of each of them, which, coupled with a delightfully clear transfer of volume and distance, gives an unforgettable effect of presence. Reviews about the sound qualities of the LM4562 operational amplifier more than once said about the complete absence of sound coloration, but I still did not expect such cosmic transparency. There are no barriers between the listener and the music; on high-quality live recordings, it seems that you actually looked into the room where the concert is taking place.
The sound from the other line outputs served by the OPA2134 is very good too. The scene and detail at the midrange is close to the LM4562, but there is no such amazing volumetric bass, the high frequencies sound a little differently. And yet, even this sound seems to me preferable to the sound of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro. The latter, in no way inferior in detail, has a bright, but somehow lifeless sound. On the other hand, the Creative card copes much better with headphones connected directly to the line-out.
Taking the opportunity to change the operational amplifier without soldering, I decided to find out what is the reason for such an interesting sound of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, for which I listened to it with two Texas Instruments operational amplifiers that I had in stock. OPA2132P sounded similar to those installed on the rear channel of OPA2134, although it seemed to me that it is slightly worse at high frequencies, but closer to LM4562 in bass depth. But with the NE5532 the card sounded no better than many others - flat, bright, less detailed.
Without activating the Bit-Matched Playback option or switching to Entertainment mode, the sound remains clear, but loses in clarity and volume. Activating the Crystalizer effect gives a small change in frequencies, but almost completely kills the scene, in my opinion, this advertised technology is relevant only in game mode, where the sound of the music spoils very much. Even with the EAX, CMSS-3D, SVM and Crystalizer effects disabled, listening to music is unpleasant, it is not dynamic and dull, and when CMSS-3D Headphones is activated, it is completely unbearable.
The gaming capabilities of Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, as expected, do not differ from Creative cards with an X-Fi audio processor, so I see no reason to talk about them in detail. I will only note that for HRTF processing it is necessary to use CMSS-3D, but, in my ear, the quality of Creative's three-dimensional sound is greatly exaggerated. In the "2 / 2.1 Speakers" mode, the sound when the protagonist turns is ragged, with abrupt volume transitions from channel to channel (interruptions can also be heard in the speaker test, where a helicopter flying around the player is simulated), and in the headphones mode, the sounds are unnaturally muffled, transmitted incorrectly distance, the tone is strongly distorted. The helicopter demonstration sounds great, but I couldn't hear the same positioning in games. Moreover, playing the new blockbuster Crysis with the "2 / 2.1" setting is much better than with "Headphones".
Summary
Auzentech has released a very interesting product that combines great gaming capabilities with great sounding music. This is probably the most "musical" sound source for a computer today, but a number of shortcomings significantly limit its use. For example, the lack of speaker positioning forces you to use similar receiver functions, making the quality of analog outputs meaningless. The meaning of having a headphone output without a built-in amplifier is also incomprehensible to me. Finally, the card is not suitable for recording music due to the small number of inputs, the lack of a standard MIDI interface and problems with the quality of digitization. So the circle of buyers who will be delighted with the purchase narrows down to music lovers who prefer to listen to music from a computer.Summing up the pros and cons of Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1
Advantages:
excellent sound on all analog outputs;
the ability to output multichannel audio to a digital output;
the ability to connect both coaxial and optical digital cables;
the ability to connect audio connectors of the case;
hardware support for EAX 5, DirectSound 3D and OpenAL;
excellent optical cable included.
Disadvantages:
lack of sound adjustment in accordance with the placement of speakers;
lack of bass management functions in Entertainment mode under Windows XP;
inability to play 192 kHz DVD-Audio;
many flaws in the console of the Audio Creation mode;
no buffer for headphone output;
sloppy implementation of an analog-to-digital converter.
P.S. On October 15, 2007, the second revision of the card went into mass production, perhaps some corrections have already been made to it.
Any more or less large-budget game imposes certain requirements on the player's technique - so that the processor is more powerful, the monitor is bigger, and the acoustics are of better quality. A decent sound card is also vital. The sound codecs built into motherboards, of course, do their job, but you shouldn't expect much from them.
With sound cards as separate boards, everything is dull. FROM EAX 5.0 only series cards work X-Fi from Creative, the rest can only access the outdated specification EAX 2.0... As you can see, there are no or almost no alternatives to Creative products.
For some time now entered the market of sound cards ASUS... Not so long ago, she introduced a sound card Xonar DX - with a new PCIe x1 interface, better components and support for all EAX effects. With all this, the novelty is not more expensive X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.
We thoroughly tested the Xonar DX and compared it to. It costs significantly more than the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, but only due to the presence of an external unit with connectors and a remote control in the delivery set, so everything is fair.
| Vocabulary |
Frequency range - the frequency band that the source can reproduce. A person hears sounds with a frequency of 20 to 22,000 Hz. Sampling- the process of converting an analog signal to digital. Sampling frequency- a parameter showing how many times a second a sound wave is read. The higher the sampling rate, the wider the range of frequencies that can be recorded. For accurate sound recording up to 22 kHz, the sampling rate must be 44.1 kHz. DAC- digital-to-analog converter, required to output sound to speakers. ADC- analog-to-digital converter , required for recording. Signal to noise ratio- the ratio of the useful signal power to the noise level. The higher this indicator, the less noise at the output will be. Beat in sound- the step with which you can take the values \u200b\u200bof the sound wave. With a 16-bit processor, the wave can be split into 65536 segments, with 24 bits - into 16,777,216. |
Round 1: an inside look
By 2005, Creative had lost the budget sound card market to built-in codecs. I had to come to terms with this, as a result, the company switched to more expensive solutions. As a result of such a change in course, the X-Fi (Xtreme Fidelity) chip saw the light, in terms of power it surpassed Audigy 24 times.
X-Fi has huge capabilities: four cores work with sound at once, they calculate flows in parallel; the number of effects and methods of processing the audio stream is more than enough; while the processor power allows you to do all this in real time. Especially in Creative, they are proud of the X-Fi architecture - earlier the sound was passed through a rigidly defined chain of effects, with the advent of technology Audio Ring it is sent to the bus to which only the necessary modules are connected. This approach not only relieves the processor, but also allows you to get rid of unnecessary effects.
Alas, it was not without a fly in the ointment: the sound cards of the X-Fi series use outdated chips for audio output and capture, nothing has changed since the days of the Audigy. A DAC (digital-to-analog converter) is responsible for sound output Cirrus Logic CS4382, which can work with acoustics of class 5.1, but is limited to a low sampling rate (96 kHz) when using multichannel audio, and the signal-to-noise ratio is too low. The same goes for the ADC (analog to digital converter). To ensure high quality recording, Wolfson WM8775SEDS too low indicators. Whatever one may say, but today the X-Fi line does not look so attractive.
ASUS Xonar DX is another matter. This board does not have a revolutionary processor, a solid chip from C-Mediaand the chip Oxygen HD CMI8788 It cannot boast of anything special - its sound passes through a classic rigid chain of effects, delays during processing in real time are relatively high. But high-quality ADC and DAC are attached to all this. Two chips are responsible for sound output at once: two-channel Cirrus Logic CS4398 and six-channel Cirrus Logic CS4362A... Together they can work with eight-channel acoustics and are a cut above the solutions from Creative in quality. It is worth recording Cirrus Logic CS5361which has a much wider range and significantly less noise compared to Wolfson.
The X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition board looks solid: black textolite and a glowing red logo will look good in a transparent case. The card has been assembled conscientiously, the main processor is covered with a radiator. There are enough connectors on the card: there is an AUX In input for a TV tuner and an additional 4-pin power supply (the card works without it), in the center there is a connector for controlling the computer's power, for turning on from the remote control, in addition, there are two outputs for connecting external panels from X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Elite Pro, but there are no standard audio connectors on the case. The I / O panel includes a gaming port, three speaker outputs and one Flexi Jack combining digital output and microphone input. The card is connected via a PCI interface.
The Xonar DX is very different from the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition. The board is half the size of the competitor, connects via the PCIe x1 interface and is compatible with low-profile cases (a special bracket is included in the package). The downside is that the chips are located on both sides of the board, which is quite expected given the limited space. The Xonar DX has slightly more connectors: there is AUX In, S / PDIF In and an output to the front panel, on the input-output panel there are four outputs for acoustics and Flexi Jack.
The minus of both cards is that the connectors for the cables are too close, it will be difficult to connect expensive wires with thick insulation. In addition, the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Xonar DX are equally poor: only CDs with drivers and instructions. ASUS has only added a low-profile bracket, which we mentioned, and an S / PDIF adapter.
| Table 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Round 2: endless possibilities
Connecting X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition begins with installing drivers and an impressive set of software. It is nowhere easier to make settings, the programs are all clear and reasonably convenient. It is enough to select the mode of operation of the card (games, recording, entertainment), after which the necessary functional modules are connected.
During the installation process, so many different programs are prescribed on a computer that a separate article could be devoted to them. Let's talk about the most important ones. You have to manage the map through Creative Console... The usual mixer and equalizer are available, but there are also much more interesting tabs - for example, 24-bit Crystallizer and CMSS-3D.
Let's start with the first one. The X-Fi processor is designed to work with 24-bit audio. This is all good, but in practice no one needs it, because music is written using a 16-bit stream. To justify itself, Creative just came up with the 24-bit Crystallizer technology, which artificially expands and amplifies the frequency range, the level is set as a percentage. The idea is not new, many sound editors can do this. One way or another, after such processing, the bass is amplified, the highs become sharper, and the mids are denser. When listening to music, at first it seems that the sound really improves and becomes more assertive, but a little later you notice that the sound is blurred. The basses turn into a puffing mess, only the loudest tones stand out from the top, the voice fades into the background against the background of the music.
The second technology turned out to be more viable. CMSS-3D is an algorithm that produces surround sound from a conventional stereo track. When you turn it on, familiar songs are transformed, there is a complete feeling that you are in the very center of what is happening: either a guitar will sound somewhere behind, or a drummer will play from the side. Another plus of CMSS-3D is the ability to turn headphones into 7.1 acoustics.
ASUS Xonar DX software pleases with its simplicity. |
A few words about cinema: technology Dolby and DTS are fully supported only under Windows XP. Everything there works at the hardware level and does not load the processor. But drivers for Windows Vista will appear only at the end of summer (the developers are somehow in no hurry). Creative also offers its own music player, media file organizer and even a karaoke function.
ASUS doesn't have such a variety of technologies and software, but maybe it's for the better. All settings are collected in one window, where you have to select the mode of operation of the card - music, movies, games. ASUS did not reinvent the wheel and took advantage of the developments Dolby Laboratories, a recognized leader in the field of sound. I would especially like to highlight the algorithm for obtaining surround sound: if Creative's CMSS-3D is impressive, then the work of Xonar DX, coupled with Dolby ProLogic literally blows the tower down. At the first acquaintance with this technology, there is a strong desire to listen to the entire music collection. Technology performed just as well Dolby Headphone, she easily tucked in the Creative X-Fi belt. And here's why: if CMSS-3D overloads the headphones with low frequencies, then the ASUS sound is light, airy.
Another trump card of the Xonar DX is that the board is excellent at positioning the sound and masterfully moving it away. In terms of sound quality, the ASUS card turned out to be cleaner than the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition, this is especially noticeable when connecting multichannel speakers - honest 192 kHz make itself felt, and the noise is much less. The beginner is inferior only in terms of the output signal power, headphones with an impedance of 64 ohms can be shaken with difficulty, an amplifier is needed.
Round 3: how does it work?
When you put both cards into game mode, EAX settings appear, voice control, Creative disables 24-bit Crystallizer and equalizer, and Xonar DX activates the DirectSound 3d GX 2.0 (more about her later).
Before the tests, let's explain why Creative has long been considered the only manufacturer of sound cards aimed at gamers. For a long time, the sound in games remained in the background: the steps of the characters sounded the same both on the grass and on the asphalt, no changes were felt when moving from one room to another, the distance to the character could only be judged by the picture on the monitor. Technologies like Microsoft DirectSound and Aureal 3d only supported the reverb effect and a very small number of sound sources.
In order to spur interest in their cards, Creative has developed EAX technology. It allowed not only to change the sound depending on the conditions in the game, but also to calculate the distance to the sources. For the first time EAX support appeared in 1999 in the series cards Sound Blaster Live! - then the technology allowed processing up to 32 sources, was able to independently process effects, thereby significantly relieving the CPU. By the time X-Fi was released, the technology had grown to version 5.0. A powerful processor was taught to work with 128 sound sources, take into account the surface of the floor, walls, ceiling, smoothly change the sound when moving from one location to another, handle the obstacles encountered, and for complete happiness added an impressive number of new effects.
On the way to popularizing EAX, one problem arose - one card is not enough to support the technology, games need to be sharpened using EAX, and this is an additional cost. Over the past three years, a little over twenty games have appeared that are compatible with EAX 5.0 - not at all. But Creative was not upset, they are still convinced that it is impossible to play without EAX. There is some truth in this, but EAX is not a panacea, in the same Call of duty 4 dispensed with this technology, and the sound is still great. And then Windows Vista came out, in which they got rid of support for hardware sound completely, it can be implemented only through the software interface OpenAL... This move by Microsoft has significantly shaken Creative's position in the market.
In general, Creative's policy in relation to EAX is quite strict; the company, in principle, does not license older versions of the standard to third-party hardware developers. There is no trial either, and ASUS chose a different path: it is clear that the processor from C-Media is not powerful enough to process EAX 5.0 instructions, but the computer's central processor copes with this task perfectly. And here they are absolutely right - modern CPUs are powerful enough, have two, three or even four cores, which are just waiting to be loaded with something. The EAX support scheme is as follows: as soon as we launch the game, DirectSound 3D GX2.0 intercepts EAX commands, sending them for processing to the CPU, after which the calculated sound goes to the card and acoustics. Nobody talks about full support for EAX 5.0, but work with 128 sound sources and basic effects are guaranteed. The solution is not the most transparent, but it works.
Round 4: final battle
To test the sound in games, we assembled a computer based on Core 2 Duo E6300 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz, installed two 512 MB memory sticks and limited to a video card GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB. The shock line of games was Unreal Tournament 3, Call of duty 4 and BioShock... The main thing we were interested in was how well the Xonar DX will work with EAX and whether there will be a noticeable difference compared to the X-Fi. In order not to miss anything important, the sound of each pass of the level was recorded and compared.
First in line was BioShock. The game supports EAX 5.0 and features a variety of environments with challenging environments. The first launch took place on the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition card. To heighten the effect, we first passed the level without EAX support, after which we turned it on. The difference amazed us. The sound changes dramatically. If without EAX everything goes in a common flow, then when the processing is turned on, the transitions from one surface to another are perfectly traced, the volume of the rooms is felt - for example, in large rooms, steps sound more resonant than in small ones. In rooms with carpets, sounds seem to drown, while in empty rooms, on the contrary, they are amplified. It is clearly audible whether the enemy is in the same room as you or not, the distance to the sound source is easily determined. But the CMSS-3D technology clearly fails - it is impossible to understand where the source is in the headphones.
Moving on to the Xonar DX. First of all, we checked the settings, EAX was still available. The sound from the ASUS card turned out to be completely different. While a competitor from the Creative camp crushes with bass, the Xonar DX clearly distinguishes every echo. I was especially pleased with the Dolby Headphone technology - it is clearly superior to CMSS-3D. Now about EAX-effects: there is a difference by ear. Xonar DX works with some lag, sound passing through the wall is not audible so clearly, transitions from one room to another are sharper, the water splash calculation is slightly different. Overall impression: we cannot say that the sound of the Xonar DX is worse, it is just different.
Unreal Tournament 3 interacts with EAX much more intensely than BioShock. The results of both cards in it were approximately the same. In large spaces, when playing with headphones, Xonar DX took the lead - thanks to more competent positioning.
We left Call of Duty 4 for dessert: there is no EAX support, so both opponents fought on equal terms. The sound in the game often loses its dynamics and is replete with high frequencies. Thanks to the bass boost and 24-bit Crystallizer, the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition delivers a dense, live sound that is much more like what you can hear in a movie theater. The Xonar DX simply did not have the necessary filters to tighten the sound, and besides, Dolby Headphone, the main trump card of this card, refused to work in the game.
Let's draw the line
ASUS has got an excellent card, it not only does not yield to Creative products in sound, but often even surpasses it. When working with music or films, high-quality technologies from Dolby are used, which easily plug all Creative developments into the belt. Most importantly, the Xonar DX really does work with EAX 5.0. Not as flawless as Creative's own cards, but in the heat of battle, you can hardly tell the difference.
The Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty has a processor that the Xonar DX has yet to grow and grow. But everything else is hopelessly outdated in three years. What looked impressive recently is now becoming history. Older ADCs / DACs are inferior to the Xonar DX in all respects.
Creative has a lot of software, but it's often useless and unstable. Over the course of the tests, we got one full Windows crash and several blue screens. In addition, X-Fi boards do not have an output to a standard soundbar on the case, there is only support for expensive proprietary expansion panels.
The situation with recording is much more complicated. Creative has advanced software and full ASIO support. The X-Fi processor provides low latency in real-time audio processing, and external panels with a large number of connectors make it easy to connect microphones and musical instruments. You can work with several channels at once - record simultaneously voice and instrument. But the limitation in the form of 96 kHz interferes. Xonar DX allows you to make better recordings, but you can forget about working with sound in real time.
Each sound card has its own pros and cons. If you already have an X-Fi series card installed, then you should only change it to Xonar DX if you decide to buy high-quality acoustics. But if until now you have gotten by with built-in sound and you do not need to record music, then the Xonar DX will be an excellent choice.
| Two in one | |
After installing a separate sound card, the built-in codec on the motherboard will not go anywhere. It can be turned off, but is it worth the hurry? There are several ways to use two cards at the same time. You can output different audio streams to different cards. For example, if you are watching a movie, the sound goes through a discrete card. At the same time, someone wants to listen to music with headphones, then in Winampthe audio output is set to the built-in codec, and everyone is happy. Another option is to use the main card to output sound from the game, and the second one for TeamSpeak communication via a headset. Convenient and practical. |
Two USB sound cards with quality DACs
In today's article, we compare two interesting sound cards with each other: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD vs. Asus Xonar U7. These are two products, similar in price and capabilities, in which the emphasis was placed on high-quality converters. At the same time, both cards at the time of this writing were on sale at a very low price, a little over 3 thousand rubles.
In the forum, the Asus Xonar U7 was dubbed “the best choice” in absentia, based on a review of photos and specifications. Many people completely in vain forget about the need for direct comparison of devices by sound. The majority are also unable to correctly interpret the measurement results.
Name
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD
- Asus Xonar U7
The Creative card has a confusing name as it is not related to the X-Fi cards and has nothing to do with the Titanium HD card. As a result, the release of the card went unnoticed. This product is not known to anyone at all, except for some computer sound enthusiasts.
The Asus Xonar U7 also has an obscure name. The fairly old U1 and U3 cards are budget products with integrated audio quality. The U7 has nothing to do with past products in this series.
Price
- Creative: 3700 RUB
- Asus: RUB 3100
The cards cost almost the same, the difference in absolute values \u200b\u200bin price is not serious. More importantly, such an affordable price makes them interesting to a large circle of buyers. They have practically no competitors among USB-cards!
At the same time, the Asus card appeared quite recently. The manufacturer also reports that the Asus Xonar U7 Echelon Edition will soon appear with an army camouflage paintwork and more functional drivers.
The target audience
- Creative: mass, audiophile
- Asus:mass, home theater
The Creative model is a card with full-size TRS headphone and microphone jacks. Interestingly, there is a phono input for digitizing vinyl, with ground. It also works in the normal line-in mode. THX and other proprietary processing is software only. For movies, there is an optical digital output for connecting a 5.1 receiver with a decoder.
You can connect 7.1 speakers to the Asus card by analogy, minijack connectors. The emphasis is on Dolby software included. Digital output - combined, optical / coaxial. Both cards have a line-in, but in the case of Asus, the line-in is combined with the microphone, which is quite difficult to guess.
It remains a mystery why, in addition to the high-quality output, it was necessary to load both cards with so many functions and software. This inevitably blurs the audience and distracts from the main advantage of the cards, namely high-quality DAC... All the rest of the dregs are in abundance in almost any sound card. In the description of sound cards and in the design of the boxes, as they say, "you can't see the forest for the trees." It is unclear who will organize a 7.1 cinema around a computer or laptop - this is inconvenient and in practice not in demand. Fortunately, the user does not overpay much for all these additional functions, since the price of the cards is very low.
Volume knob
- Creative: Miniature metal volume knob with original location. There is a Mute function when you press the knob. It is not very convenient to use the pen, since it is located very close to the table surface: the fingers are in a very unusual position and slip on the surface.
- Asus: The smooth handle is recessed into the body. Pressing the knob turns off the speakers in favor of the headphones and vice versa. It is inconvenient to use: considerable effort is required, otherwise the finger will slip. The notch for the finger is made for beauty - it is much easier to adjust it by pressing your finger where there is no notch.
In both cases, a flawless digital controller is used. The ergonomics of the regulators are rather arbitrary. Due to the combination of the functions of the regulator and the button, the Asus regulator is quite noticeable. Many users would prefer to remove the button without any backlash. Also, Asus' recessed knob is handy for carrying around the audio interface. In all other cases, this decision looks controversial.
Illuminations
- Creative: blue LED on top
- Asus: 3 signal LEDs on the top panel
The activity light on the Creative card is brighter. In principle, this will not be a problem for most. But we had a keen desire to seal it with electrical tape so that it would not be an eyesore and would not be constantly visible with peripheral vision.
Headphone out location
- Creative: in front
- Asus:in front
Both cards have convenient connectors.
Filling
- Creative: DSP Creative CA0189-2AG, 2-channel DAC AKM AK4396 (123 dB), 2-channel ADC CS5361 (114 dB).
- Asus: DSP CM6632A, 2-channel DAC Cirrus Logic CS4398 (120 dB), 6-channel DAC Cirrus Logic CS4362A (114 dB), 2-channel ADC CS5361 (114 dB).
The filling of both cards is quite interesting. And this is the main feature of the cards, against the background of which nobody else is interested in everything else. The Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC is considered a class higher than the AKM AK4396.
All Creative USB sound cards are equipped with a CA0189-2AG RISC processor of its own production with a frequency of 100 MHz. Unlike the usual Creative DSPs, this chip does not have hardware audio processing. Its purpose is a fast USB 2.0 controller and a multichannel interface to full-fledged I²S / I²C converter chips such as those used by Cirrus Logic and AKM. Two quartz oscillators are soldered on the board.
Asus has an interesting CM6632A chip that supports both HDA codecs and I²S / I²C converters. Number of channels - 8 + 2 (analog + digital) output and 2 + 2 input. There is support for 192 kHz. The chip can be clocked at once from three generators, 12, 24.5 and 22.5 MHz, which was used by the creators of the card. The decision to throw pasta from one edge of the DAC board to the other with connectors remains not very clear.
All processing in both cards is performed exclusively at the software level. The maximum data rate of 96 kHz is not a big problem as 192 kHz content is practically non-existent. Hi-Res did not give anything to ordinary users and did not go to the masses, and aesthetes and lovers of Hi-End sound cards for $ 100 are unlikely to be interested.
Auto switch to headphones
- Creative: there is
- Asus:there is
The speakers are muted when plugged into the headphone jack. This feature was first implemented in integrated audio as part of the AC'97 and HDA standards. First, the determination of the connected headphones was carried out by impedance, and then by a mechanical sensor. External cards with good converters are not inferior to integrated sound in this matter. In practice, however, this can cause problems.
Complete software
- Creative: a set of software on the disk, update the driver on the manufacturer's website
- Asus: the same installation kit on CD and on the manufacturer's website
The software disc is the same as all other Creative products.
The appearance and content of the Entertainment Console of the X-Fi card have already been described more than once in our materials. Audio Control Panel is included in the package immediately and allows you to control absolutely all settings without the nooks and crannies of the graphical menu, except for the equalizer. Creative Volume Panel - it is not clear why the necessary program is supplied for the assortment. An important difference between drivers for XP: they provide a choice of frequency and bit depth directly from the Entertainment Console. The frequency is limited to choose: 48 or 96 kHz, regardless of the OS. This choice is typical of all Creative USB sticks.
The Asus card panel is very odd. Parameters can be selected only through the context menu by right-clicking!
There is an interesting parameter for setting the headphone output volume limit.
In the jungle of settings Asus has a separate option - Dolby Home Theater v4, which seems to have surpassed the Creative card in terms of the number of enhancers.
44 kHz support
- Creative: no
- Asus:there is
The Creative card contains two crystal oscillators and also has 44 kHz DSP support. However, the drivers for neither Windows XP nor Windows 7/8 support operation in 44 kHz mode: only 48 kHz or 96 kHz can be set in the device settings. In the card for audiophiles, this indicates either inadequacy or complete incompetence of the developers. To listen to music in 99.9% of cases, 44 kHz is used. We are looking forward to the comments of the map developers themselves.
The Asus card has support for all frequencies: 44, 48, 88, 96, 192 kHz.
ASIO driver availability
- Creative: no
- Asus:there is
The lack of an ASIO driver for Creative cards is beyond our grasp. The best listening option for the Creative card is the WASAPI interface and software resampling in the player. Conversion from 44 kHz to 48 or 96 will always force the Windows sound engine, or you need to select on-the-fly conversion in the media player. For example, in the player foobar 2000:
Sound in speakers
Listening was carried out on active monitors Adam S2.5A and Adam ARTist 5. For comparison, we used the very famous sound cards E-MU 1616M (CS4398) and E-MU 0204 USB (AK4396).
First surprise: all cards play completely differently! In the first place in terms of sound quality is the E-MU 1616M card, the second - the E-MU 0204 USB, the third - the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, and the fourth - the Asus Xonar U7.
The sound of the Asus card is the least like the E-MU 1616M (contrary to the same DAC installed). This is due to Asus's distortion problems, as we reliably know about the 1616M's unsurpassed analog output implementation. This is a measurable 120 dB S / N, a measurable 0.0003% distortion, and a wonderful clear sound experience. The 1616M is not much inferior in sound to the best implementations of rack-mounted studio devices, it is comparable to Pro Tools HD and Lynx Aurora, so we boldly choose the 1616M sound as a reference for devices under $ 150. E-MU 0204 USB is inferior quite a bit. X-Fi HD sounds brighter and more emphasized on the treble, therefore, for all its effectiveness, it is slightly farther from the original sound. The Xonar U7 disappointed us very much with its meager HF and rather sluggish sound. Perhaps this problem is solved by flashing or drivers; we will definitely clarify this issue with the manufacturer. In any case, there should be no distortion of 0.01%. Both the digital and analog parts of the card can do more.
Let's scold Creative for the lack of a 44 kHz mode. It's just inexplicable, nonsense! How can you make an audiophile card, put in two crystal oscillators and forbid it to work at 44 kHz? Don't provide the user with an ASIO driver that bypasses Windows? This is just the wildest incompetence of the developers. The E-MU 0204 USB device for the same money has no such problems! The feeling that one division of Creative is mercilessly competing with another: stubbornly developing a bicycle with square wheels, when a racing sports car has long been developed and tested in the next room.
Headphone sound
We used Sennheiser HD600 high impedance headphones (300 ohms) and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro (250 ohms).
The volume is sufficient in both cases, but the Asus card has practically no headroom. Creative was able to surprise us once again. In terms of sound quality, the places were distributed as follows: E-MU 1616M ranked first, Sound Blaster X-Fi HD ranked second, E-MU 0204 USB ranked third, and Asus Xonar U7 ranked fourth. The professional E-MU 0204 USB interface, in principle, performed well, but X-Fi HD looked like a clear favorite against its background and had a significantly larger volume margin. The Asus Xonar U7 card is the quietest, but its volume rises sharply when processing is enabled. Perhaps this was done on purpose, so that there was a so-called headroom for Dolby technologies and other auto-equalizers. Thus, the Asus card is the least suitable for simple listening to music, the emphasis in it is placed on the effective processing. The screeching and hooting of the map fans remain completely incomprehensible to us.
Measurements in RMAA
Tests at the RMAA were rated Excellent. This means that the devices have no frank jambs. It doesn't mean anything else. (But as soon as artificial intelligence makes it unnecessary to analyze measurements by humans, we will be the first to tell you about it!)
Both cards have been tested through their own path as they have the same high quality CS5361 ADC.
Asus is slightly better in noise, Creative is better in distortion. We were concerned about the look of the Asus graph in the floating tone intermodulation test: usually anomalies in this test indicate frequency scaling or some other digital processing. We have checked all the settings several times. Results do not change. We ran additional tests with Windows XP and Windows 7 cleanly installed. The latest drivers and firmware were used. There is only one result: the Asus card has about 10 times more distortion at high frequencies.
Instructions for setting the maximum sound quality on a Creative X-Fi sound card.
2015-08-18T08: 43
2015-0408-18T08: 43
Audiophile "s Software
Note: The information in this article is relevant for the Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI sound card (as well as those similar to XtremeMusic, Fatality, etc.) and Windows Vista to 10 operating systems. cards. When using interfaces / devices / drivers / programs other than those specified in this article, the setting may not lead to the desired result.
Copyright (C) 2015, Taras Kovrijenko
Full or partial copying of the text is allowed.
1. Introduction
Note: since I would not like to repeat myself, and also so that you do not miss something important, I strongly advise you to read this article from beginning to end.
The first thing I want to say is that the sound card is worth its money. Given its capabilities (which many probably don't know about), $ 100 is a very reasonable price. Besides, other manufacturers simply do not have analogues of this card (in terms of multimedia capabilities).
2. Preparing for installation
It means that we have, as they say, "out of the box". This is actually the sound card itself, a bunch of manuals and other waste paper, and two disks: one for Windows XP, the other for Windows Vista. "What should Windows 7 and 8 users do?" - you ask. “Take these two disks and put them neatly in the bin,” I will answer. Well, at least put it back in the box with the waste paper and throw it away in the closet. Simply because it doesn't need anything from that disk. You can, of course, install software from these disks, but the fact is that drivers, for example, will have to be installed for XP, and software for Windows Vista. In this case, you have to go to a number of tweaks (like compatibility modes, etc.). And it's not a fact that in the end all this will work properly. In addition, a lot of unnecessary garbage is installed from the disk.
Therefore, we will go the other way, in one package after downloading the latest versions of software, already sharpened for new OS - say thanks to Daniel Kawakami.
3. Installing drivers and utilities
So, how everything should look initially:
Moreover, in the Start-\u003e Programs folder (and in Add / Remove Programs) there should be nothing related to Creative. If this is not the case for you, run Add / Remove Programs and clean. After removing all software from Creative, unpack the Support Pack, go to the \\ Audio \\ Drivers \\ SBXF subfolder and run the Setup.exe file. After selecting everything, as in the screenshot, click ok:
Having got rid of Creative software and got a device without drivers in the manager, we reboot again (just in case).
Now let's go directly to the installation. It is advisable to install the following components from the X-Fi Support Pack:
- Audio Drivers - the latest versions of sound card drivers;
- Audio Control Panel - provides basic options for setting up a sound card;
- Console Launcher - control center for sound card capabilities;
- Speaker Setup Console (THX) - a utility for calibrating 3D effects in accordance with the position of the listener relative to sound sources;
- Volume Panel - a handy utility that starts automatically and allows you to directly adjust the volume in the tray and launch other utilities from there;
- ALchemy is a utility that restores hardware environment effects in Windows Vista +.
We respond positively to the offer to restart.
If everything went well, after starting the OS, a silvery icon with a volume knob will appear in the tray, and in the start you will see a group of Creative programs:
And, of course, the system at startup should already make some sounds (if they are enabled).
4. Configuring Windows Mixer
As I said before, Microsoft has made the sound subsystem much more complex since Windows Vista. At the same time, not only has the functionality expanded, but also some "pitfalls" have appeared.
Well, let's try to get around these stones.
Go to Windows Control Panel-\u003e Hardware and Sound-\u003e Sound. This window will appear:
Disable SPDIF through the context menu (because in some cases this device can cause switching of the reference frequency of the sound card, which is undesirable), in the same way make our device (Creative SB X-Fi Speakers) the default device (if it is not is an). Then double click on the device. Now check that the settings on the tabs match the screenshots:
5. Sound card modes
In order to make the most of the X-Fi DSP resources for a wide variety of tasks, there are three modes:
- Audio Creation Mode - audio creation, and in our case, playback. Since only in this mode accurate sound output is available without unnecessary conversions.
- Entertainment Mode - the mode is mainly designed for reproduction of multichannel audio (including tracks to video films) with the imposition of various effects, channel conversion, etc.
- Game Mode - the name of the mode speaks for itself. Only here you get access to the latest Creative developments in the field of 3D sound for an unsurpassed effect of presence in modern games.
It is convenient to switch modes via the Volume Panel context menu:
The Console Launcher appears when you double-click the Volume Panel icon in the tray.
5.1 Audio Creation and Music Playback
So, turn off all unnecessary:
Now a few words about setting up the foobar2000 player. Due to the unreliability of other interfaces (they really sometimes turn out to be not quite adequate), it is recommended to output sound through ASIO. Fortunately, this card has a full-featured ASIO 2.0 driver. All you need is to install the foo_out_asio plugin (you can download it on the page foobar2000 + plugins), add an ASIO device in the plugin settings, and select it in the output settings. Pay attention to the channel layout (useful for multi-channel systems).
Now you can enjoy clear sound, not spoiled by all sorts of "enhancers" and other nonsense.
Another nice little thing - the ASIO driver automatically switches the reference frequency of the sound card in accordance with the sampling rate of the audio being played. For example, if you first played a track with a frequency of 44.1 kHz, and then you start a track with a frequency of 96 kHz, the reference frequency will switch, accompanied by a characteristic sound. Some people do not like this, however, this function is a significant advantage, because only if the frequency of the material and the reference frequency of the card coincide, bit-to-bit playback is possible. Besides, now you probably won't need a resampler.
But here it is necessary to make a note - sometimes there are tracks with a sampling frequency different from those supported by the ASIO driver (remember: these are 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz). For such cases, you can add SoX Resampler mod to the DSP chain (which can be downloaded from the same page foobar2000 + plugins). It will resample all frequencies not included in the list of supported ones (we specify them in the resampler settings) to the specified frequency - in order to minimize quality loss, just in case, we will specify 96 kHz:
5.2 Entertainment Mode - Watching Movies
This mode opens up some interesting features of the X-Fi signal processor.
Want to enjoy the 5.1 sound of your favorite movie, but don't have multichannel speakers? Not a problem! After all, a person has only two ears, which means that with the help of two sound emitters, absolutely any virtual source can be recreated at any point around the listener, so much so that it will be indistinguishable from the real one!
Using special processing algorithms, the X-Fi chip converts multichannel audio to 2.0 for acoustics or headphones (note that the algorithms for creating a surround effect in headphones and speakers are very different).
And now - about how we can take advantage of these opportunities. First of all, let's launch the Console Launcher:
Let's consider the main sections one by one.
In this section you need to choose the configuration of your speaker system, or headphones. Pressing the THX button opens the speaker calibration window. We are interested in the Speaker Position tab. The fact is that when using a two-channel speaker system (which most users have), the position of the listener relative to the sound emitters is far from always the same (worse, sometimes it is unstable, but there is nothing you can do about it). In order for the algorithms for creating the ambience effect to work, they need the correct data about the position of the listener. In this case, you must specify the distance to each sound emitter and the angle of rotation about the central axis. If it's not clear, I'll explain: I mean the angle between two lines:
- a line connecting the listener's head to a dot directly in front of his face.
- the line between his head and the sound emitter
The angle is counted clockwise (viewed from above), the parameter value can take negative values.
So, if you want a 3D effect - hold the ruler in your hands and forward - measure;)
On this tab, you can enable the effect of the environment - amphitheater, concert hall, etc. In the case when selected None, the Enable EAX Effects checkbox does not affect anything, but just in case, leave this option enabled.
This option is responsible for enabling X-Fi CMSS 3D - an algorithm designed to improve the surround effect and positioning accuracy of virtual sources. This function will be useful when playing multichannel audio on 2.0 acoustics or headphones, or vice versa - for the so-called upmix - sound decomposition into several channels (for example, playing stereo recordings on a 5.1 system). If you turn it on when playing, say, stereo material through headphones, it will be of little use - except that it will create some effect of virtual sound sources directly in front of the listener, which, for example, does not sound very pleasant to my ears. But in any case, the choice is yours.
The famous (thanks to eloquent marketers from Creative) X-Fi Crystalizer - at times it can give expressiveness to the sound, but at the same time it inevitably introduces a significant portion of distortion. Lovers of "honest sound" are certainly not recommended. Although, by ear, it sounds very interesting with the slider set to minimum - distortion in this case is almost invisible, but the effect is pretty good.
Smart Volume Management - to some extent - the same Advanced Limiter in foobar2000, albeit with a larger pre-buffer. Since the data on the DSP output is inevitably converted to a fixed point format, measures must be taken to prevent clipping, which is what Creative's programmers did. When SVM sees an excess of the permissible volume in a fragment of an audio stream, it underestimates its volume. The main disadvantage is compression (the volume balance between audio fragments changes significantly). Although, dynamic range compression is the second purpose of SVM. If, for example, you want to watch a movie at low volume at night (so as not to disturb anyone), but when the volume is lowered, quiet sounds cease to be heard, then the compressor will help. It will increase the volume of quiet parts, bringing them to approximately the same level with the rest - and you can adjust the overall volume to the level you need.
But if there is no need for the above, I would advise when turning on the effects (and playing multichannel sound, including) - set the volume (Master Volume) not to maximum, but about 50% - usually this is enough to avoid distortion.
Here we see a regular 10-band equalizer with an additional level control. If not needed, turn it off.
And this is a sound card mixer. Here you can enable playback from line-in, microphone, etc. Turn off unnecessary sources (since the line input and microphone, for example, can make noise).
With a sound card, that's it. As for the player, there are also some nuances. First - the player should output the sound "AS IS". That is, all software mixers must be turned off so that in the case of 5.1 tracks, for example, all 6 channels are directly transmitted to the sound card. For watching movies, I can recommend the MPC HomeCinema player and ffdshow audio / video filters (included in Sam CoDec Pack). I would also like to write about their setting in detail, but it will be later in another article. Below I will give the main points of setting up sound output (player and ffdshow filter), and there - I hope you will understand:
5.3 Game mode - surround sound in games.
Creative is without a doubt the leader in 3D audio for gaming. It was Creative programmers who created a set of extensions for DirectSound3D, the so-called. EAX. You can read about this technology in the article EAX FAQ and also on Wikipedia.
The latest EAX version is 5.0, but our card supports all versions up to and including the fifth.
So, let's get started with the setup. Some of the settings sections overlap with the Entertainment mode settings, so we will not review them again.
This tab contains the main settings - speaker configuration (which must be set in accordance with the real configuration of your speaker), SVM, EAX on / off (meaning only environmental effects - reverberation, etc.). Mic Environment FX is a new feature that allows you to apply effects to the microphone sound to match your surroundings in 3D play.
Also, in this mode, speaker position calibration (THX) is extremely important. And I also advise you to pay attention to the Master Volume - in order to avoid distortions, it is advisable to keep this control in the position somewhere around 35-40%.
X-Fi CMSS-3D settings are of particular interest in this mode. With this feature enabled (which is highly recommended for dramatically improving the 3D effect in games), two new extensions are available in EAX 5.0:
- MacroFX - the effect significantly increases the realism of sound sources located in the immediate vicinity of the ear.
- Elevation Filter - the effect significantly improves the positioning of sources along the vertical axis (above / below the listener).
Parameter value On means to force the effect on for all sound sources (for which the effect is intended). By clicking on the Test button, you can run a small test of the environment effects.
Well, we're done with setting up the sound card. Remaining software setting. As I already wrote, unfortunately in Windows 7 programs do not have direct access to the hardware resources of the sound card through the DirectSound3D API. OpenAL is the only API that has access to hardware 3D sound. So, without hesitation, Creative started developing the Alchemy utility that converts DirectSound / EAX calls to OpenAL. I'll tell you about setting it up now.
So, if you followed all the instructions exactly from the beginning of the article, you should already have Creative ALchemy 1.43.06 beta installed. It was not for nothing that I chose this version, since in some incomprehensible way the latest release version does not quite honestly fulfill its functions - it is obvious that EAX with its use is software, plus the MacroFX and Elevation Filter effects do not work.
So, on the left we see a list of installed games that were detected automatically. By moving the game to the right list, we automatically enable the Alchemy functionality for it.
You can also add games manually. Let's take this opportunity. Install the program RightMark 3DSound and add the address of the folder with the executable file of the RightMark 3DSound Positioning Accuracy test (RightMark3DSound.exe) utility to the Creative Alchemy list:
Let's move the added program to the right list. Now the program can be started.
The screenshot shows how you can recreate a sound source located behind an obstacle, behind, to the right of the listener.
This program is a great opportunity to try out MacroFX and Elevation filter technologies. Turning these effects on and off, try to first bring the sound source in the program closer to the listener's ear, and then move it down and up along the vertical axis - you will feel the difference!
And do not be confused that the program does not include EAX 5.0 - most of the effects of this version are automatically applied to all sound sources, regardless of the version of EAX supported by the program / game.
Games are configured according to the same principle - the main thing is to add the address of the folder with the executable file of the game to Alchemy. If the game has the appropriate settings, they need to enable EAX support. If there is no such option, there is an alternative: enable multichannel sound in the game. At the same time it will be converted into stereo by the sound card and you will get excellent positioning of sounds.
If you want to fully experience all the effects of EAX 5.0, I can recommend S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat. This game uses the OpenAL sound engine, which gives it direct access to all EAX effects (no need to use Alchemy) - you just need to enable EAX support in the game settings and select the SB X-Fi Audio device.
6. Epilogue
That's all I wanted to tell you about the X-Fi XtremeGamer setup. I hope the information in this article was useful for you and now you can unleash the full potential of your sound card. Happy listening!
