Bluegears b-Enspirer (CMI8788) sound card review!!!

Realistically how much difference in sound quality would there be between the X-Meridian and the b-Enspirer? There reaches a point in not just audio but a lot of areas where spending significantly more money does not yield a proportional improvement in quality.

Admittedly the X-Meridian does have other things going for it besides things that should make the audio quality better. The choice of capacitors should make the card last longer (at least thats what I've read anyway) and it's the only 8788 based card that has both coax and optical digital inputs and outputs (AFAIK). Plus it has a better quality optical cable included.

If these things are really important to you and you consider them worth the extra money then by all means buy the X-Meridian. If you want to save yourself some money and still have a fantastic card which I consider the b-Enspirer to be (notwithstanding the problems I have been having which could actually be normal or something to do with my system), then you should choose the b-Enspirer.

Are you looking to keep the card for a long time or just use it till the next good audio solution comes along?

 

Actually even by changing the cable connecting a sound card to a same speaker, the sound will change so if you change the whole board and components, they will also change the sound, so if you think the b-Enspirer is the same card like X-Meridian, they are actually not.

 

At no stage did I state or imply that they sounded the same. I asked how much difference there was between them and then said that if he thinks the X-Meridian's extra expense was worth it, then he should buy that. If not, he should buy the b-Enspirer (or any other 8788 based card) and he would still have a fantastic card.

 

I agree with you, b-Enspirer is also a good card. X-Meridian is newer than b-Enspirer, that is also a reason why it is more expensive but I'm sure the price will come down, it has gone down at Newegg and I hope that the price will drop more later.

 

yea the X meridan price is droping alot. its like 169 now. This be a good chance to get one before it goes backup to 200.

 

as for the sound quality difference between the blue gears and the XM. If you read review of both cards only the XM has phrases like "best card I ever heard" or "best card we have ever had inb the labs" etc..
Don't take my word for it..look for yourself.

 

Sure, I read a lot of reviews of both before I purchased. My point is, it may be the best but by how much? I have seen the objective comparison between the cards and the XM comes out on top. But is the extra cost worth it for the probably only slightly noticeable increase in quality? To me the answer is no. And I just think people should consider that question before they buy.

I'm not sure what the price is of the two cards in other parts of the world. I am basing this on Australian prices. The Enspirer is $180, and currently the XM is listed on a site with its RRP of $299 as it's not available. Even if it sold for $250, thats a considerable difference and not worth it in my opinion.

 

Well these cards have been compared a few times and the word "slight" never comes into the conversation when considering the difference. If your happy with your b-Enspirer great. I have my XM and I wouldn't trade it for a bluegears card I wouldn't care if it was $100 cheaper. That's just my opinion.

 

to true, i would love to see a review that compared all the 8788 cards, because there are a few out there!

one thing i have noticed is in regards to fps', is that my card doesn't seem to take the hit the xm does, keep in mind i'm just going by reviews online, oh well!

 

Both cards use the same chip, if you don't get the fps hit with b-Enspirer, you also won't get it with XM. I don't get the fps hit with Xm on my setup too, that's why I don't think that you should buy a sound card to improve your fps. If you want to improve your fps, look for other hardwares.

 

This is my standpoint aswell. People think you gain alot of FPS when you get a hardware card. You do not. For the most part all the 8788 based cards are cookie cutter version of the reference design., Now the XM was custom designed but still incorperates the same 8788 chip. The Blue Gears card being no different then the Sondigo inferno or others. I think they had outside factors during comparisons.

 

Robscix well the Razer has the support for its headsets and the Razer ESP. In vista The only thing that dont work with with the other cmedia vista drivers on my card. Is my Headsets.

All of the same sounds from the front comes out the back besides the front same for the back eh.

 

Installing the Razer program with X-Meridian driver on XP will reveal a "hidden" output in my Xear3D when I choose HD-DAI. Razer ESP is just the Virtual speaker shifter in my Xear3D. HD-DAI is the only difference between Razer and other Oxygen HD sound cards.

 

oops, i meant cpu use, for some reason the bluegears is sitting with the x-fi with utilization, the xm is using more, weird