Gospel Posted October 22, 2005 Share Posted October 22, 2005 Hi all, I just got my X-Fi Platinum sound card. Below are my first impressions of this card. First, let me explain where I am coming. from. I am visually impaired so I do have extremely good hearing. I'm a little more than a casual music listener. I have 4,500+ songs in iTunes. My tastes are mostly gospel music and oldies with some modern stuff though like some new age and nature themes as well as limited select of current music. I enjoy DVDs, audiobooks, and watch TV via the computer. So, my experience is only with the X-Fi's Entertainment mode. I also have a set of Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers. Installing the X-Fi hardware was very easy. However, installing the software seems to take forever! Instead of a smoothly moving progress bar, it jumps after each section of the install process. This makes one think the installer may be stuck. The Audigy2 Drive that fits in a CD bay looks identical to the X-Fi Drive except the X-Fi does not have a firewire connector. It is probably possible to use the Audigy 2 Drive with the X-Fi Extreme Music model to make it into an X-Fi Platinum. But, no guarrentee it will work. I am NOT going to try it and take a chance of damaging the X-Fi card. The X-Fi ribbon cable does fit the Audigy 2 Drive though. So far, I think the X-Fi does sound much better than the previous Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. It seems a little more full and smoother. This mixer controls and various other control panels are now integrated into one window with a toolbar to select the desired panel. In each panel you have to click on a [back] button to get back to the toolbar. The 24bit Cryistalizer seems to help make sounds crisper and less muted at times. So, for now, I am going to leave this feature on. The X-Fi has two CMSS-3D modes: Stereo Xpand and Stereo Surround. Both seem to be good at making good use of the center speaker for centered sounds In Xpand mode it puts echos/reverb in the back speakers like you are in a large room. You can control the amount of the effect in the rear speakers. The Surround mode, of couse, copies the front speaker sound to the rear speakers. Again, you can control the volume of the the sound int he rear speakers via the CMSS-3D control panel. Personally, I prefer to be surround by music. However, CMSS does not seem to affect the Aux-In input. I have a WinTV tuner atached to it and the center speaker Is just a blend of what is playing on the side speakers. The same is true for the Line-In. The Sound Volume Monitor automatically levels out the sound volume of what is playing to keep it at an even level when enabled. Personally, I like this. But, if you are a classical music listener than you probably want to turn off this feature so you can hear the high and lows volume-wise. I'll be leaving this feature on. It is nice for TV watching becasue some of the cable stations like the SciFi Channel have less volume than the netowrks like ABC and CBS. Now, I don't need to adjust the volume when switching between these channels. Initially, the only annoyance is that I can not unmute both the Line-In on the back and the internal Aux card inputs at the same time. Unlike the Augigy 2 which had 4 internal card inputs (TADS, CD Audio, Aux, and CD Digital), the X-Fi has only one Aux connector. The card does have a long internal connector for an optoin digital break-out adaptor for SPIF-In and SPIF-out. Back to the two inputs. I have a WinTV card connected to the internal Aux connector. I have my internal 5.25 Plusdeck 2 cassette deck player attached to the rear Line-In jack. Please, no snide comments ont he cassette deck. Like I said, I like audiobooks. The Plusdeck 2 has a reaf slot connector for the inputs and outputs. Fortunately, the Plusdeck and Intervideo WinDVR software both unmute the desired input when each respective app is started. Normally, I won't be running both apps at the same time anyways. But, the WinTV Radio app does not unmute the Aux input so after running the Plusdeck software I will need to select Aux int he X-Fi mixer. Clicking on [Mute] button in the radio app doesn't mute/unmute the Aux input. I am not commenting in the MediaSource software because I don't use it. I use iTunes for music/audiobooks, WinDVD for movies, and Windows Media Player for MIDI and WAV files. Overall, I quite pleased with the X-Fi and am glad I got it. Well, that is my first impression. I haven't seen a lot of the details above in any reviews of the X-Fi. I hope this helps ohters. Please feel free to ask any questions about the X-Fi card. I'll try to help and I hope the other X-Fi owners will chime in. Enjoy life! Steven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gospel Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 OK, it has been a week since I installed the X-Fi card. Am I still satisfied with this card? Definitely YES! As I mentioned, there are some minior annoyances. 1) The XOR relationship of Line-In and Auxilary muted/unmuted state. 2) I have to turn off CMSS-3D when watcing DVD movies. Still, I have not regrets getting the X-Fi card. Enjoy life! Steven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmay119 Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 I also own the X-Fi Platinum, and all I have to say is my PM 5.1Ultras have never sounded this good. Beyond the annoyance of not being able to get my S/PDIF Coaxial input to actually playback audio it's the best sound card I have ever owned (this is coming from a Prodigy 7.1LT which I still think sounds fantastic). That's all I have to say about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullysnet Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 thanks for the review, I was confused about CMSS until I read your review and searched Creatives site. With my old Audigy I selected 5.1 for sound and it would play 4.1 for music then then watching a movie it would switch to 5.1... weird this one doesn't do that. At first I would have to say I didn't feel the card was worth the money and was about to return it. I know it was a much cleaner and tighter sound but was lacking the volume and dynamics of my Audigy 1 card..... weird I was saying. Then I realized that the surround speakers where not even on. I am use to this mode and feel that I like to be surrounded by my music on the PC. After messing with the CMSS setting I'm getting more of what I want still testing ........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 Creative's XFi lineup is a worthy one. I have two XFi and they do a great job in games and for music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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