I just checked the Creative Stock Market price.. it seems it a down trend... that's very bad!! It seems Creative's bad action caused world wide hate towards the company. Poor Singapore one and only successful international company...

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Added on April 1, 2008, 11:16 pmomg! it's true... Creative is selling its headquarters building in S'pore for SGD$200million profit!

Source:

http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/VwA...pdf?openelement

http://info.sgx.com/webcoranncatth.nsf/VwA...pdf?openelement

This post has been edited by blessedvillain: Apr 1 2008, 11:16 PM

just upgraded my current soundcard from Xtreme Music -> Elite Pro

well...the first impression was rather disappointing as it doesn't produce THAT much of audio improvement. That was the first impression...

after shuffling through my music collection the whole night, I slowly pickup very subtle difference between the lowest X-Fi series Xtreme Music and the highest end Elite Pro. I'm on AegoM which is considered as the lower end hifi speakers, so it might not be able to reveal the full potential of Elite Pro, but it's still a damn good speakers to certain extend. Here's what I've noticed.
1. the bass is so much smoother now. it beats harder and ends with a much smoother feel. XtremeMusic bass...well it's rather dull.
2. The treble and bass tuning within Creative Audio Console has lesser impact on the audio output. Not sure whether this is a good thing or not, but after turning up treble and Bass to maximum, the music quality is still pretty acceptable. With XtremeMusic, the audio output changes very rapidly with each bass and treble setting, and with maximum treble it's just ear piercing and with maximum bass, music becomes blurry and lost all the music details.
3. I hardly need to tune the EQ settings with Elite Pro. Previously under XtremeMusic, I really need to spend time to fine tune the EQ to my liking.

Elite Pro still produces a very bright audio output, emphasizing a lot of "effects" from your music.

soldering and de-soldering is easy if you have the proper equipment + steady hands. Mis-solder will cause undesirable outcome or even short circuit. I'm still admiring those who do modification to their expensive soundcards... I quite used to do soldering with circuit boards but when it comes to expensive boards, i still have to think twice.

by the way, Elite Pro does sound and feel a bit deeper with fuller sound compared with Xtreme Music. AegoM is missing certain midrange frequencies, so i think the sound will be even richer and fuller with another pair of good speakers.

your mic sucks? lol

anyway...mmm...try to disable the X-fi features such as CMSS-3D.

This post has been edited by blessedvillain: Apr 10 2008, 03:52 PM

@coolkwc..

interesting test. Alright...i'll try to re-affirm your statement soon....I've downloaded RMAA but still havent mess around with it yet.

Alright...i did some testing with RMAA on Frequency Response using X-Fi Elite Pro

EQ settings - Flat



EQ Setting, 6db on 1kHz



EQ Setting, -6dB on 1kHz


@coolkwc
Maybe you could comment more on the above graphs. It seems that Elite Pro EQ settings and its Frequency responses do not differ much from other X-Fi series card

This post has been edited by blessedvillain: Apr 11 2008, 09:41 AM

guys,
I think i read somewhere that modded daniek_k xfi driver is not really tested properly. He doesn't even have the card to test it, he only modified and re-enable the features locked for vista from the coding.

can somebody confirm this?

brother...
pls do consider changing your speaker.... sigh~ sakit hati la, like you have Ferrari Engine,but put in Proton body....

let me guess...sonic gear?!

if you play games and watch movies, and occasional music....this card can be pair with most good >RM500 altec lansing, klipsch, edifier and logitech.

@arafat
i'm surprised you can measure the quality of the sound by percentage. If you say 50% improvement compared to ZS, then i must say that it's 10% improvement over Xtreme Platinum

This post has been edited by blessedvillain: Apr 15 2008, 02:01 AM

hahaha...Bliz! u r making me considering changing my aegom for 550THX... I miss listening to Evanescense, Smashing Pumpkins, Incubus...

NOw, most of the time, I'm listening to Indie folk songs and rock pop.... AegoM did change my music preference...lol

maybe not 550THX, i would rather prefer a 2.1 or 2.0 bookself speakers.. would 5.1 speakers sound good on music?

got a really interesting question to ask you guys...

is there any difference in audio quality output between XP xfi driver VS vista xfi driver using the same EQ, same settings?

I'm currently using Vista but somehow everytime i use back XP and listen to my songs, it did sound a bit different, XP output seems to be abit better. I'm not sure whether it's just me or the driver really got different effects on the output .

omg!... at least i'm not the only one who "felt" the difference...

I use winamp under both XP and Vista. I still do the EQ settings in Creative Audio Console as winamp EQ really too complicated for me. I'm on AegoM and XP does make the music output sounds better.

I'm now actually 95% vista and 5% XP. i use back XP when gaming and all other things with VIsta.

YEP! networking really does wonders on Vista. My bittorrent always running in full speed at 180kbps and it doesnt make my Vista lags. But in XP, at 180kbps, it slow the system to crawl at times.

It's really a pity cause i like vista quite alot compare to xp...

i'm just wondering... is it really THAT difficult to write drivers for Vista?? and why dun they write it so that it drives the hardware to its full potential>??? funny....

ya..i know...

glad that my question triggered so much response. I gonna miss Vista. I'm almost there with you, coolkwc, any audio degration will annoy me!! I can't believe I'm at this stage where i need to change OS just to get those little audio details back!!

it's not a matter of getting xfi at cheaper price, it's the hardware and software long term support that's important to me!

no point buying a Ferrari, if over the next 10years, there's no petrol to run it. same case here, ppl dun really upgrade their soundcard as often as graphics cards...good soundcard is a good soundcard, just pls dun cripple it purposely.

i think i came across ppl saying that audiotrak dun really update their drivers too....but at least their driver push the hardware to the fullest from the start...