Barracuda AC-1 vs Creative X-fi

[krisz]

Does anyone here have any experience with the Razer sound card?
I saw some reviews but i would rather prefer user feedback than reviews.

Thanks

 

[uber_g]

Does anyone here have any experience with the Razer sound card?
I saw some reviews but i would rather prefer user feedback than reviews.

Thanks

Read on !!!

http://hardware.gotfrag.com/portal/story/35984/

 

[irocem]

I own one..plus I own an xf-i...guess which one is in my case..not the xf-i..I have a razer review in under sound cards in the forum..look it up and let me know what you think..

 

[krisz]

Thanks guys. I am deciding what to get now i have an older creative sound card. I have been looking at the x-fi fatal1ty but this card caught my eye. I had razer mouse before but i didnt like it too much because it was way too sensitive for me. But it was a superior product regardless. I read a few reviews about this sound card and everything seems positive, but i just wanted to hear some reviews from actual people using this card in gaming.

Thanks again i will look up that review in this forum than.

 

[uber_g]

i would just get the creative X-fi because ALOT of games support but if your a music Jinkie then go with the Razer sound card with some good speakers

 

[krisz]

Well i am gaming mostly. I do listen to music as well while i browse the net or browsing in forums like right now, but i am looking for a sound card upgrade to replace my Audigy 2 ZS. I will also get a new headset as well probably something 5.1 because 99% of the time i have a headphone on for gaming.

I really like the Barracuda but i am not sure about what to get now with Vista right around the corner as well.

 

[snowysnowcones]

I'd go for the Barracuda, only if you're going to get the Razer Headset too. I've read countless good reviews on both of their products.
They're pretty expensive, but well worth it from what I've heard

 

[irocem]

Get the Razer..the eax doesn't matter..I tried battlefield 2 and 2142 with both cards..The xf-i on ultra high and the razer on high..they sound exactly the same..Except I think the razer is clearer..On top of that..its got dolby digital live..dts..real optical outs..I'm going to double my rig as a theater pc too...Screw the headphones..Get a logitech z5500 speaker system..They have optical and coax outs..My xf-i is collecting dust..

 

[gondo]

I have the Zalman 5.1 headphones. Just amazing. In FPS at the LAN I could hear which direction the people where walking around me and could sneek on them or be ready for them comming. Amazing.

 

[krisz]

I have creative GigaWorks 7.1 surround sound speakers. It is not digital. Standard 3 pin AUX. I use the headset for gaming because my wife does not appreciate the sound of the AK47 for some reason

I do use my speakers sometimes when i am home alone and i dont bother anyone with the sounds, but 99% of the time i use headphones.

I play 90% FPS games so directional audio is pretty important. I was leaning towards the cuda sound cards because i wanted to try something new. I have creative sound cards since the first sound blaster card came out, like 10 years ago or something. I also have the Asus motherboard and i heard that X-Fi cards are having that cracking sound problem with Asus mobos.

I still have not decided but i am 85.7% sure i will go with the Barracuda.

I will look into those Zalman headphones. Senheiser is a bit too expensive for my taste for the ones i like. I am not ready to drop like $200 on a set of good headphones. I agree they probably sound awesome but still that is just a bit too much for me.

Thanks guys for your feedback. Keep em coming

 

[irocem]

Go with the cuda..you won't be sorry promise..Just make sure you thank me when that card rocks!!

 

[uber_g]

Yea since u have the Creative sound system go with the Cuda, it will do u just fine

 

[krisz]

I pretty much decided i will go with the cuda and the headset that goes with it.
The Zalman looks pretty good as well but the lack of volume control on the cord turned me off. I would hate to adjust my volume from windows all the time. I had that problem before i purchased my speaker set, and it was no fun.

Anyways thank you all for your input i greatly appreciate it.

 

[gondo]

I love the creative gigaworks speakers. Better than Logitech in my opinion. Logitech seems to have to much bass and not as well a full range sound. Logitech does have the decoder and a nice sound at a lower price though.

 

[krisz]

Well i am not sure about the Logitech speakers but i have these babies : http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=113&product=9306

I got them on the day they were released. I am very happy with them. Now i am just looking at a way to connect these as well as my headset to the barracuda sound card. I have to get an RCA cable splitter of some sort, otherwise i will have to disconnect my headset and connect the speakers every time i want to use my speakers.

 

[IcY18]

Ahah! Now see if you would got either a X-Fi Fatality or Platinum or the Logitech Z-5500s, and readily available volume control, all three offer a headphone connection without having to go to the back of your pc...

i am running the Z-5500 and wouldn't trade em for anything. i would trade in for a soundcard that has optical out so i could take advantage of the digital in on the logitech. i have never personally heard of barracuda but i'm very interested as to how it would perform. i was disappointed at its price, if it closer to $100 then it would be more attractive. like what i paid for my x-fi xtrememusic. both creative's platnium and fatality undercut that barracuda at 189 and 179 and they both come with a fron't i/o panel with optical out.

After a quick overview i would say the barracuda is overpriced, and thats saying something since usually the x-fi stuff is always higher priced. granted i never tested these to see which is better but just a quick look says otherwise.

 

[krisz]

Ahah! Now see if you would got either a X-Fi Fatality or Platinum or the Logitech Z-5500s, and readily available volume control, all three offer a headphone connection without having to go to the back of your pc...

i am running the Z-5500 and wouldn't trade em for anything. i would trade in for a soundcard that has optical out so i could take advantage of the digital in on the logitech. i have never personally heard of barracuda but i'm very interested as to how it would perform. i was disappointed at its price, if it closer to $100 then it would be more attractive. like what i paid for my x-fi xtrememusic. both creative's platnium and fatality undercut that barracuda at 189 and 179 and they both come with a fron't i/o panel with optical out.

After a quick overview i would say the barracuda is overpriced, and thats saying something since usually the x-fi stuff is always higher priced. granted i never tested these to see which is better but just a quick look says otherwise.

Sorry if i was not clear with this issue but i do not have to go to the back of my PC for my headphones unless i want the true surround 5.1 in my headphones. As for X-Fi i know they sound good but their latest drivers and as their drivers in that past year or so were good for sh1te. I am running Vista, so EAX will make no difference because Vista is the end of the EAX era. There will be a different audio standard and games do not use DirectX anymore for the sound. Now Razer's sound card is 100% compatible with Vista. I have been reading reviews and comparisons all over the web in the past few days and i have yet to find any bad reviews of the Barracuda sound card.

I went to this site and read the forum posts of a person who was tested both sound cards and compared them:
http://razerblueprints.net/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=99&topic=5724.0

Now again i am a creative sound card user since the beginning of Creative Labs and i know they make good products but i am looking at something different, and also it seems like the Razer products have much higher quality because they try to brake into a market that is owned by a monopoly company Creative, so therefore they have to create high quality products otherwise they dont stand a chance.

Thats just my opinion.

 

[krisz]

christ, it shows i am not up to speed with vista. what do you mean no more EAX. what so suddenly going to stop game dev's using EAX. surely microsoft can't control that.

Have a look here :
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=Vista&message.id=1694

 

[krisz]

This is another good read i found about Vista's sound generation:http://www.openal.org/openal_vista.html

 

[krisz]

No i think you get it wrong. They will work fine the creative driver will make them work, it just wont be such a big difference in sound quality anymore as it was in XP. In fact i am using the old Audigy 2ZS in vista right now and with the lates creative drivers the card sounds much better than it did in XP.

I think the old cards will sound a little better under Vista that will be the biggest difference, oh and of course the hardware acceleration will not work, so the CPU will have to do a little more work for the sound generation.

It is hard to say at this point what is better XP or Vista but i know i will upgrade because i want to take advantage on the new DX10. As for sound i am sure they will figure something out to make every sound card work fine especially the creative ones since 98% of the sound cards in current PC's are creative labs.

 

[IcY18]

I also would like to try something out like the barracuda and it looks promising since it is vista compatible, but i would take that with a grain of salt as anything claiming to be vista compatible right now could easily be plagued by driver issues later.

i agree that we need much more competition in the soundcard segment and better driver support, all i was saying was that for almost 200 bucks the barracuda ac-1 did not feature a front i/o panel. and with creative monopolizing the market and charging a high price for their products when the barracuda comes in priced higher at newegg and doesn't have a front i/o panel well thats disappointing. not to say the card itself is a bad product but when you hit that 170-200 dollar segment i expect more, and even though i wish there was more competition i don't think this is the most competitive product yet. hopefully in time cheaper and better cards will come out

 

[krisz]

Well for me Barracuda looks good. As for the front panel i dont see the reason for that. If you have a speaker system than you should have a console sitting on your desk where you adjust the volume and stuff and that console should have your regular mic. input and headphone jack. (at least for me anyways)

For the remote you get i already have a remote for my speakers although i didn't see the point of that either since i am sitting right next to it. It is like giving you remote for your car stereo :roll:

I also like Razer's approach of not going the EAX route but doing something different. That causes your CPU to work a bit harder but with todays CPU's powerful enough you will absolutely not see any different at all. I agree $200 maybe a bit high, but i am sure it is high because you are paying for quality, and not for (for me anyways) useless extras like remote or front panel, or better yet X-RAM. For a while i was going to get the X-Fi fatal1ty but every thread i read and every review i saw saying that not many developer takes advantage of the X-RAM and even the ones that do you will see no different in games.

So for now i like Barracuda. It is a bit high in price it would be more interesting at around $150 it would be much more interesting looking for a lot more people. It is a brand new product and i am sure it will come down in price but i remember when the X-fi fatal1ty was first released it was howering around the $300-$280 mark, nowadays it is around $200 all we had to do is wait like a year 8O

I want a new sound card now not in a year. As for Vista compatibility i trust Razer more to write a kick ass driver for their product than Creative. Creative doesn't have to worry too much since they own the market so they can afford to be lazy a little, but for Razer they have to kick ass in order to brake into this market.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[IcY18]

Well when or if you get the Barracuda AC-1 please reply to tell the pros and cons and the driver stability. Before i even knew of this one the only other one to look at that i thought actually competed with the X-fi was the AuzenTech XPlosion 7.1, not only does it have the standard typical PC analog output but optical out. I'm surprised to find it now much cheaper, now $80 than when i last saw it at or above $100. The only issue i knew of this card was a slightly buggy drivers that may have been worked out by now.

I guess if you wanted a comparable option to the AC-1 would be AuzenTech AZT-XM71 7.1, although after a brief look at the reviews on newegg it doesn't look so promising but still should check it out

not sure of there quality but if your looking something that is non-creative here is another option

 

[kg4icg]

Well let's see , i got my x-fi platinum for 180 bucks and the front panel has optical in/ouputs plus spdif. EAX is hardware not software related, it doesn't matter if Microsoft writes drivers for it. If it's still supported by the games then it's used.Plus 2 the remote comes in quite handy with it also.

 

[irocem]

Guy..I own a barracuda..People keep saying go with creative..I love creative,but I've been looking for something better for year..I tried the Montego DDL and it was crap in games..I'm telling you right now..The cuda is on par or better..Yes your paying $200,but your getting dobly digital live and dts..with optical outs..the sounds are cleaner than creative..The sounds in bf2 and bf2142 sound the same..Even when xf-i is on the ultra settings..I was simply blown away..The razer is in my machine right now and the xf-i is on the shelf..Take from someone who OWNS one! NOt from people who read reviews..I did hard core tests with them and I liked the cuda..Plus now my rig can double as a home theater pc.. if you have questions,ask away..