Creative Returns with SB X-Fi Titanium HD
Creative is making a comeback with its new "audiophile" card.
Creative is set to launch an audio card sporting "audiophile grade" components and the E-MU 20K2 audio processor (aka the "X-Fi chip") possibly this year. The announcement came back in January during CES 2010, deemed as the first discrete audio card and USB digital audio system to include THX TruStudio PC audio technology. Since then, the card has been kept under wraps, however Creative's comeback soundcard isn't exactly vaporware, as a sample card is currently making its rounds.
For this PCIe card, Creative has ditched the polka-dotted cover seen with the Titanium Fatal1ty card with a tinted, slick version branding the Creative and THX logos. The device doesn't really look like a sound card until your rotate it around to see the gold-plated connections on the back: microphone input, headphone output, RCA output Left and Right, and RCA input Left (or Optical In) and Right (or Optical Out).
On a PCB level, Creative is no longer using electrolytic Jamicon and OST capacitors, but rather has moved on to use surface mount device (SMD) capacitors. By taking this route, Creative uses very few through-hole solder joints (that's a good thing--the less solder, the better). A hands-on preview noted that the X-Fi Titanium HD also has well-defined areas for its audio paths, however the design indicates that Creative initially planned to power the card via a 4-Pin Molex, but eventually ditched the idea.
"The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD is powered by the second-generation Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor for PCI Express slots," Creative said back in January. "The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD combines captivating industrial design with audiophile grade Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) and components to produce a 122dB signal-to-noise ratio, the highest SNR ever produced by a Creative sound card. A replaceable Op-amp is also a distinguishing feature allowing users to customize audio output with coloration that is refined to their personal tastes."
Although the vanilla version of Creative's Sound Blaster Titanium HD is already on the market, the X-Fi version is slated to be priced at $99.99 USD, however no shipping date was specified. The pricing also seems a bit off, so stay tuned as Creative delivers official dates and pricing sometime soon.
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Until they iron out all the glitches in their bloatware drivers and give me full as-advertised functionality in Win7 x64 with my X-Fi Plat (ie:without the random occasional channel mapping swaps, or intermittent crackles/popping sounds in previous OSes), Creative can go fuck themselves.
I cant believe i need to run some hacked driver for the digital surround sound to work, it doesnt make sense, but I had to do that to finally get win7 to run with digital out and 5.1 its quite sad...
and why are there drivers so bloated, its a sound card for crying out-loud...
I'm surprised they're still in business. On-board audio has gotten so much better that there isn't really a big demand for discreet audio anymore except for audio recording and other big name companies like Lexicon make much better stuff than Creative.
I remember when a PC build always consisted of a 3COM LAN card, US Robotics Modem and a Sound Blaster sound card of some kind. Now, all 3 of those companies have almost disappeared. Not to mention the S3 or Trident video cards that I used.
Maybe creative could make a comeback and fix the shoddy drivers they've made the last 4 years.
I remember when a PC build always consisted of a 3COM LAN card, US Robotics Modem and a Sound Blaster sound card of some kind. Now, all 3 of those companies have almost disappeared. Not to mention the S3 or Trident video cards that I used.
You started to make me feel old, until I remember when I got my first sound card and Wolfenstein didn't have to use PC speaker!
I do wonder how it went so wrong for Creative, I still believe in discrete sound cards for FAR better audio than onboard, but with all the driver issues, I CBA!
The elimination of hardware acceleration through DirectSound starting in Vista didn't help their cause either. Unless the game uses OpenAL or their DirectX -> OpenAL translation driver (which doesn't work for all games anyway), you're not getting the benefit of having that much audio hardware.
What about DTS-HD and DD TrueHD support!?!
Anyone else remember those POS all-in-one sound card/modem/CD-ROM controller cards? Wow those were FUN to configure under DOS and Win 3.11
Shameless plug:
Daniel_K's drivers bring new life to current and older Creative cards. (I still have my SB Audigy one of my older gaming rigs & it works beautifully with these drivers) I highly recommend them if you haven't tried them already. You can find his drivers via his posts on Creative's forums. Username: daniel_k
Also, to completely uninstall Creative's bs drivers, I recommend a small utility called Nasty File Remover. Use it after you perform the normal uninstall & reboot.
Enjoy!!
I used to keep up with the latest Creative sound cards, but I haven't purchase one since I bought my old Audigy Platinum several years ago. The numerous connectors on the Live/Audigy Drive were useful for connecting external audio sources, headphones, or my MIDI keyboard. Now I just use the on-board Realtek's optical out with Dolby Digital Live and a USB MIDI adapter. Sure, I don't get EAX, but that doesn't bother me too much. EAX has been buggy since its inception anyway.
There is no such thing as optical in/out through an RCA jack. I assume that is supposed to be digital coax in/out.
I miss my GUS..... :-(
I'm surprised they're still in business. On-board audio has gotten so much better that there isn't really a big demand for discreet audio anymore except for audio recording and other big name companies like Lexicon make much better stuff than Creative.I remember when a PC build always consisted of a 3COM LAN card, US Robotics Modem and a Sound Blaster sound card of some kind. Now, all 3 of those companies have almost disappeared. Not to mention the S3 or Trident video cards that I used.
Amen brother. You just had to have the SB Pro or SB16 (granted, you're choice was pretty much limited to SB, SB Pro, SB16 or an Ad Lib card) to get the proper xwing/tie fighter/wolf3d/doom experience.
I had to wrestle with tradition to finally drop putting a sound card in my wife's computer. The onboard audio does just fine. I have a fata1ity plat in my rig (its about 3 years old now). While I really do like the optical in/out and the other features of the front panel, the crappy drivers pushed me over to foregoing a sound card in my wife's machine and just using the onboard. The onboard really has come a long way since that crappy onboard yamaha opl3 that was on my 266 Dell P2 (the last prebuilt desktop I've ever owned). I had been wondering if dropping my pci platinum and going to a pci-x would solve some of the sound loop problems I get in things like L4D2, but based on the comments here it sounds like creative is still sucking in the driver dept. Much to my annoyance, I do have a bit of brand loyalty - that SB Pro from years back really was a phenomenal change to my gaming experience and there's a bit of nostalgia there, I also like my Zen Vision which actually does work pretty slick with the SB utilities and card.
Bring back the WaveBlaster header!!!
I have a DB50XG that kills Roland's shitty GS soundset.
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Never Again creative, never again.
(Snap/crackle/pop no not cereal just my sound card.)
Sorry SB. You have not sold me anything since the Audigy 2 days. Onboard is mainstream and I am now using my Video adapter with built in sound and HDMI into my Audio reciever. Where is your HDMI support?
My last Creative card was a first gen SB Live! that made tons of horrid noises, used every IRQ it could, ate memory and CPU, and pretty much failed to generate a more compelling experience than the first enthusiast onboard sound options.
Creative died a long time ago, they just haven't realized it yet.
I will stick with the Auzentech X-Fi Forte, thanks.
I miss my GUS..... :-(
I had a GUS too. The original one was probably the best because of the hardware mixer.
Windows 95 killed the GUS when Gravis decided not to make DirectSound-compatible drivers (probably due to the fact that DS expects to do software mixing, when the GUS wanted to do all that work with it's superior audio processor). The follow-ups (GUS PnP, GUS Max, etc.) were crap, and they didn't do justice to the demo scene.
GUS Rulez!!!1!!1
2nd Reality FTW
You started to make me feel old, until I remember when I got my first sound card and Wolfenstein didn't have to use PC speaker!I do wonder how it went so wrong for Creative, I still believe in discrete sound cards for FAR better audio than onboard, but with all the driver issues, I CBA!
Too make you feel even a little older .... Shortly before the first SB and Tandy became more than just showroom exemplars there was also an Cowox (I think) "card", that you could make at home and plug it into the centronix interface in the back of the PC box (usually used by printers) to get "better" sound than from PC speaker.
If I remember correctly even some Sierra games supported it.
I love my X-Fi Fatality card. Second best upgrade I've ever made to my PC (first being my 24" monitor - after 6-7 years with it, now I want a 30" haha). There is a HUGE noticeable difference between it and the motherboards on-board audio. I'll never go back. Once you hear some songs with the X-Fi Crystalizer on, you will be hooked. I have my 360 going through the card. The Crystalizer even makes Guitar Hero sound better, haha. I'm using Win7 64-bit as well. No problems. Only complaint is with Microsoft getting rid of the WAV volume control in Win7. Might have been taken out in Vista, but I've never used it.
i do own asus d2x, and i don't regret spending a "bit" of money for it. i can hear the difference when gaming with onboard or with asus. and i still believe that if you'r gamer the sound card makes a difference. i will never ever will be using onboard sound card
"moved on to use surface mount device (SMD) capacitors"
This is a bad move! To solder lead free surface mount components, the PCB is put into a oven for at least 5 minutes and heated to at least 250 C degrees (the liquid point of lead free solder)
...What is in a capacitor... Water! Professional products use through-hole capacitors, not surface mount!
I still have a ticket open with creative because of their drivers causing my mic to totally stop working when I have more than 4gb of ram in my system. Every time I reply to their email I get a reply telling me to install the newest driver... as if I havent done that from the last email. Each email is from a different person so its not like anyone over there in india or wherever is taking ownership of my issue or anything.
I had a GUS too. The original one was probably the best because of the hardware mixer.Windows 95 killed the GUS when Gravis decided not to make DirectSound-compatible drivers (probably due to the fact that DS expects to do software mixing, when the GUS wanted to do all that work with it's superior audio processor). The follow-ups (GUS PnP, GUS Max, etc.) were crap, and they didn't do justice to the demo scene.
Completely agree, I go through my demo archive every few years, good stuff.
Too make you feel even a little older .... Shortly before the first SB and Tandy became more than just showroom exemplars there was also an Cowox (I think) "card", that you could make at home and plug it into the centronix interface in the back of the PC box (usually used by printers) to get "better" sound than from PC speaker.If I remember correctly even some Sierra games supported it.
Covox, had one of their voice recognition devices, used it on MicroProse flight simulators like F19, F15, etc.
I miss my GUS..... :-(
From what I understand TiMidity++ produces similar results from midi files. At least Wikipedia says it's "a software MIDI synthesizer which can use GUS patches." I've never had a GUS, but TiMidity++ sounds far better than the regular midi synth in Windows and Quicktime.
Neat, but I'd be more interested in a new E-MU 1212M audio interface from Creative that has 64MB of X-Ram on it I could see having built in Ram cache being useful for a DAW card.
most of the motherboard come with 5.1/7.1 , do we really need an extra card for the sound? ~
If you really like sound, then the upgrade is worth it from on-board to a dedicated card! I run a $4000au sound system, and there is a huge difference between on board sound and the x-fi extreme music I run. I run it to upscale 2ch sources into DTS, and it does a really, really good job. I have also tested out the Asus Xonar D2X (for that comment earlier about optical not going through the coaxial, that's what the D2X car does, its 2 connections in 1) and it did sound better, but not enough to be worth forking out the cash for the upgrade. I do use the Daniel K x-fi support pack 2.0 drivers though. I haven't had any problems. Creatives own drivers are horrible though. And they tend to treat people like crap. If the new cards come out cheap, I guess it would be their way of saying sorry.