What's next from X-Fi? Still worth buying?

I just bought a 7800GT, and within a month, the 7900 series came out. Blagh. Can't help wondering if the same would happen if I bought an X-Fi.

Is there some new hot kinda tech coming out soon which I should wait for or is this the oppurtune moment to fish one o these beats out?

 

No. the videocard market is very different from the soundcard market. Soundcard technology advances much more slowly, partly because Creative kind of have a monopoly going on right now. And the X-Fi is a completely different architecture compared to the Audigy 2 ZS, so Creative will probably make a few more models based on it before its superseded

 

Hey Pogo, you have one of the older versions of they SB Live! correct? IF you do you can add the KX drivers and it'll be like you got a new card. I Used the SB Live! for along time. I was getting bored with it. Then I found KX and I kept using it for another Year. I have since wen to the AUdigy 2 but I still use KX drivers. Fruit is absolutley right. You don't need to have the same concerns you do With GFX cards. The Gaming industry pushes GFX development and GFX development pushes the gaming industry then you have the rivalry. None of this is the case with Audio. You can get a Audigy 2 very cheap now or grab a X-fi. Don't worry about a newer better X-fi coming out tommorow..it won't happen.

 

get it

i brought my xfi card a few weeks ago - its the best 100pounds iv spent on pc stuff in ages. get one now! read the reviews and believe what they say - the difference is huge!

 

You need to fill out your specs.

 

Just get one.

Think about the A2ZS. It was just about the king of audio for 3 years, (Not inlcluding the A4's, cause they were too expensive), and now the X-fi's have replaced it. You can expect it to stay on top for at least a year.

I replaced my A2ZS with one and the difference, though small, was noticeable.

 

I find it rather amusing that everyone compares the A2ZS to the A4PRO. When the A4 basic and A2ZS are priced so similarly and performe similarly.

I dun understand why people mess up prices they keep believeing that A4 series is forking out extra cash for nth. Actually the price difference is very minimal considering i got my A4 cheaper then a A2ZS.

A4 = A2ZS
They are both in the similar price range and audio quality although A4 has better SNR of 116 which i dunno what difference it does i cant even hear it.

My bros system has a A2ZS i have an A4. We have identical functions just that i have a remote :supercool

The X-FI series is the next generation of Audio cards EAX 5.0 and CMSS3D really make things amazing for gaming i heard um myself and i can vouch for CMSS3D directional capabilities. EAX 5.0 is a bumped up version of EAX 4.0 with 128 voices kinda cool but i am not sure its a hack of alot of improvement . How i wish i have CMSS3D for my A4 arrrrrrrrr

 

yep, CMSS-3D Headphones on X-Fi is the best surround over
headphones system I have ever heard.

 

The Audigy 2 ZS Plat Pro has 116 SNR at least, indicated on a entire piece of paper Creative decides to notify all the buyers of the ZS that they have gotten a last-minute development breakthrough. Again, emphasizes that A4 = A2ZS

 

believe me when i say out of my new rig i just built i may just be most impressed by the X-FI soundcard. ITS AMAZING

 

To put this into perspective:

X-fi over previous generations is like replacing you S3 GFXcard with a RIVA TNT 16MB.

The X-Fi is quite impressive. I upgraded from the lauded Soundstorm Nforce2 setup and I was blown away -- except for the fact that I had to throw out my Digital 5.1 teac set and get one with analogue connectors to experience the surround capabilities!

A Week after I bought my 7800GT the price of the exact same card fell by 35%! -- So I kinda know how you feel!

On Topic:
No new development on the Sound Card front that I know of, or have heard of! Getting the X-Fi is a safe bet (although in my case it was more of an investment) - $$$ I am still recovering

 

Hey , thanks for the info. I just installed the kx drivers & they sound AWESOME. You are the shiznit!

 

Yeah, they are pretty cool, Get the UFX pack. that has a bunch of cool new effects like parametric Equalizer, new reverb Module. Very nice stuff, put's life back into the old Live's actually it makes it sound like a different card all together. if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

Not really. S3 cards were quiet good even compared with Riva TNT
It's more like S3 Savage compared with GeForce 2 Ultra...

 

I tried the KX drivers on my SBLive a while ago. No noticeable change in sound quality. This X-Fi is looking sweeter by the day though, I mostly play CS:Source and do a lot of music composition so all that power should come in handy. Thanks for the help folks.

 

YOu swapped the Front and rear connection like you are supposed to right? this is what improves the sound quality on the Live! they actually used the best sounding chip on the card for the rear channels..True fact. Even on the Audigy 2's so KX drivers swapp the fron tand rear connections by defualt sending your fron channles through the I2S codec ( the good on) and sending the rear through the AC97 codec(bad one)..YEs audigy's have a Ac97 chip. JUst wondering because I heard a major increase in quality when using KX, did you try the UFX pack? all those awsome sounding plugins all nicley skinned..totally blow away any GUI by Crea tive for those models.

 

Yeah I flipped the front and rear alright. It was the only way I could actually get any sound at all. But it's all over now, both my onboard chip and SBLive have died in the same week so now I seriously need a new card. :/

 

yeah swaping the front to the rear does improve sound quality. if you need a new card then go x-fi, if you have the benjamins...

 

What? Swapping them? I can hear mine, but its not overpowering... I'd do it for gaming maybe, but not music.

 

Is there any real-world difference between XFI Platinum and Fatality?

I mean in sound quality/performance in games (fps-wise maybe?).

I know that Fatality have that 64Mb inboard memory what lower-end models doesn't.

But there are still that price difference (here in Finland 170e-215e), so i'm more interested about Platinum.