By my experience, there is not much difference in digital region. It just transfer digital data, that is, one and zeros. I've played with digital cable once, a normal composite cable (yellow TV cable), 75ohm coax cable, and even direct wire coax wire without any RCA termination. For most, better use longer cable to avoid reflection reaching at the same time as the signal (at least 1.5m long, this is what I've been told). The best is using no RCA at all, some say to reduce jitter and I can hear slightly clearer spectrum, less blurry. Or do impedence matching (same as direct wire), but that requires some equipment to measure it and do it, plus finding 75ohm BNC jack is hard to match 75ohm coax cable. But its only noticeable only if you have a very quiet room (2-4am in the morning) and very good hearing

So the conclusion is don't worry about it. Your hearing limitation is a lot greater than the equipment limitation

Do you actually use digital out to external DAC? If you just use the analog out on the card of course there will be no difference at all

You get extra feature if the card has it, like if you use X-Fi you get EAX too with digital out.

I don't think equalizer can be used with digital out. You using a good speaker (at least what you plan to buy is good) why bother with equalizer? Equalizer is evil, ruins the speaker sound signature

This post has been edited by Najmods: Jun 27 2008, 09:52 AM

Hell no, I been using 2.1 (normally 2.0) with my XtremeMusic. In fact, I don't need more than that

X-Fi series is mainly targeted for music, your question is funny, any souncard can serve for listening to music

Look at Creative site comparing how normal and X-Fi soundcard sounds in games, in EAX games that is

This thread is dead again *sigh*

Where are all the X-Fi user? Since no one want to talk, so back with the modding

I tested a film polyester 10uF on coupling caps (the caps is freaking huge!, I got it from Yulong PCM58DAC ), it sounds flat and the high is not as sharp as the electrolytics (more listenable at high volume). On some song it reveals more background vocals and detail, spooky. Gonna test it further

Rofl I wonder what kind of opamp you wanted to buy? I suggest you either get AD8599 or AD8066

I measured DC offset, the same valued electrolytic gave 5mV while this film only gave mere 0.2-0.5mV

EDIT: Hmm, I totally bypass the entire circuit after the coupling caps direct to RCA out. Clean as hell. Maybe that circuit is needed if you use opamp I guess

I post some pic after Friday prayers

This post has been edited by Najmods: Jul 4 2008, 12:48 PM

As promised here's the picture. Yes its sloppy but as long as it makes beautiful music I don't complain Oh and I shielded the card with antistatic bag too (not pictured), it does minimizes tiny hiss and buzz

Bah I don't care. I've tested it before, its not that much. Anyway the OS-CON's and Rubycon Blackgate arrive today. I gonna solder them now

Alright the mod is done. All I can say is Changed almost all the capacitor important for supply with Sanyo OS-CON and of course the coupling caps with 47uF Rubycon NX HQ. Hell, I never imagined it sounds this good, it really makes the card alive with music. The detail is spooky, the clarity is amazing. Everything is precise, I can't imagine anything better than this

Nope, that is just aluminium RAMsink colored to look like copper from my old 6600LE

I don't like to waste stuff. I usually keeps them for recycling purpose, it may have a use sooner or later

After a few hours with the card, I must say I very impressed with the BG NX HQ capacitor.

The accuracy is excellent, imaging no longer blurry everything is spot on and instruments have its own separate layer clearly 'visible' even on bloated music. The bass is even better, if before my subwoofer is like out of tune with my speaker kicking out loose sounding bass, now it sings beautifully with it with powerful and precise boom. The vocal is a bit forward, makes an illusion that it sings right in front of me, the resonant quality (whatever that is called) is like it sings on live performance.

This small capacitor really makes my head turn, best upgrade so far The guy that gives me the caps say that it will sound better if the BG NX is paralled but I only have a couple of those excellent NX

You can get it from Farnell or RS Malaysia. Panasonic FM is a good replacement, but if you have money, Sanyo OS-CON is a better choice

If you live in Klang Valley, you can pay when it been send to you (cash on delivery) (this is through RS Malaysia). For Farnell, you can use Maybank2U IIRC

This post has been edited by Najmods: Jul 9 2008, 01:18 AM

No, both are the same with minor layout difference, if there is any difference at all

Welcome to the weird and wonderful naming marketing gimmick, All three is the same, the card itself is identical, same DAC, same caps.

So asking which is better, all three is the same, unless you need extras like drive bay, remote etc. But all of them sounds the same

X-Fi can decode Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES internally (for movies, maybe games too). But it seems like on some card its rather limited, not all can decode both, and some can't even decode anything

Of course, its a pure marketing gimmick, they simply can't just put the discarded information back, that is why it sounded poor, especially on mp3 that is lower than 128kbps (to some extent, 192kbps)

I've tested it, it makes the high and the low better, but it sounds bloated, the high is too sharp while the bass is loose. I don't like it. I suggest you use Audio Creation mode, and enable Bit Matched playback and use ASIO (if you use foobar or Winamp)

Bit match works for anything, while WMP don't support ASIO

Bit match didn't alter the sound in any way, hence the name bit perfect, every bit of data is exactly the same (no equalizer, sample rate conversion etc.)

When I tested Crystallizer, I use 50%