X-Fi to replace Live 5.1?

[TheMatrix]

Hello-

I have had a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 for, well, as long as I can remember...t's been with me from (homebuilt) system to system. But according to Creative, they aren't going to support anything below Audigy for Vista. Sometime within the next few months I plan to move to Vista, which means I need to upgrade my sound card.

That's not why I'm posting this though. I have a question: I've been using Logitech Z-680 speakers directly connected to my Live 5.1 card - will I notice an improvement in quality with an X-Fi? I read somewhere they most new sound card improvements are only related to gaming, and not general music playing.

Just wondering.

Thanks.

-TM

 

[Sagekilla]

You might get some audio quality improvement, but it would probably be very difficult to notice. For the most part, sound cards from Creative Labs are geared towards gaming. The only improvement I can think of that you would get from the X-Fi is the higher SNR.

 

[BMFM]

Just a heads up…

There've been some problems about a crackling sound with X-Fi and some nVidia based mobos.

Apparently, Creative blamed at some point dual channel DDR for this as well.

Link:
Creative blames Nvidia for X-Fi problems