That is known weakness, there is other major disadvantages on Elite Pro involving sound quality. Even though it have superior DAC, but the opamp supply is directly feed from +12V rail of PC without any regulation (the SB046X have 5V regulator), and there is only crap capacitor that filters it

Normal coax uses RCA like jack, and AFAIK you can use internal Dolby decoder on the card and through SPDIF

Some have problem with leakage but some hae no proble. YMMV

about the Dolby/DTS, the Entertainment mode suppose will output DTS/Dolby bit stream through digital but a lot of complain from X-FI users in Creative forum said that the digital out only can output 2.1 PCM....but i think you need suitable player to playback the movie and bypass the DTS/Dolby into SPDIF...

Creative using a lot of crap capacitor such as Jamicon, wincap and G-Luxon which are well known bad cap and will drift out of spec with the time...thats why a lot of X-Fi user start to mod their cards capacitor to the better one, i'm the one who did it, Najmods and UNDERGROUND did it too...

EDIT: the thread now become X-FI modding thread again

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 02:47 AM

Meaning the sound quality+performance will get worse over time? Omg that's bad...

And sry for being newbie, but wat's PCM 2.1?

And if I use internal decoder and pass the signal to my amp through coaxial cable, then = no surround sound (Dolby/DTS) right? Shouldn't it be I straight pass the signal to external decoder (my amp)?

This post has been edited by Pepperboy: Jun 15 2008, 02:51 AM

yap, the sound quality will getting worse over time...not late for you to know this cruel reality now...

PCM2.1 just stereo, nothing special....i think for Dolby surround and DTS should be no problem



in Entertainment mode, choose bit stream out of Dolby Digital/DTS to 'on'(external decoder)....intenal decoder will decode the DTS/Dolby by the card itself and output to analog...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 02:56 AM

In X-Fi card already comes with Dolby surround and DTS decoder?
What type connection you use?

I'm using Edifier R51, and connected with the cable provided (surround,subwoofer,center).
You mention SPDIF and Digital output. This is the best connection for the best quality?

Where I can find someone who offer mod service. You do?

sure got...i'm using analog output...

yap, SPDIF and Digital output provided the best sound quality if you have a good external decoder...

do by yourself, lol..

If modding is so easy, then, there would not be only 3 of you in this thread

Hm..need external decoder. So, If I play like Bluray movie or DTS / Dolby movies, I need external decoder, although X-Fi already has built in decoder.

only three of us in this thread but hundred of them in Head-Fi forum...modding is challenging

to output DTS/Dolby through Digital out, you need to use the decoder software such as AC3 filter in K-Lite codec to pass through the SPDIF, because Creative X-Fi can't encode the DTS/Dolby bit stream for digital out in real time...

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 03:34 AM

Yea, that's why I ask for the masters.
I already have AC3 filter. ATM, I consider myself satisfied with the sound quality. Not sure If I heard yours.
My X-Fi XtremeMusic already cost RM400 when I first bought it.
Off course, afraid of modding.

Actually my card just half modded, so the SQ not much different from stock, will mod the opamps and swap remaining caps soon...

i bought my XtremeMusic by 2nd hand, thats why i dare to mod it...

Half modded also a mod. Need steady hand
Have you updated your driver with the beta driver. What's your opinion.
Mine didnt bring any good at all. Even make it worst.
Heh. Sorry lor.. Can not discuss modding only. Dont know much.

What u mean bro? Worse sound quality with the betas?

And coolkwc, I'm confused...
Do u mean decoding or encoding? Let's say I play a normal DVD movie (with Dolby/DTS) through my PC and output to my home theater... that means I need to use AC3 filter (or will it automatically activate if I have it installed?)? Also, the SPDIF pass-through option in the Creative Console launcher must be enabled?


This post has been edited by Pepperboy: Jun 15 2008, 10:23 AM

---

Added on June 15, 2008, 11:11 amwell, i rolled back to official driver adi, becasuse the beta can't let the PC resume from standby...

the benefit of the drivere depends on the application used...some will said it is good because it make their application better and some will said thats suck because worst than before, so just stick with the driver version that most suited you, as easy as that..

driver won't affect sound quality, no need to worry about...newest driver might fixed the old drivers bugs and might introduce problem to some applications as well...

DTS/Dolby is a lossy compressed sound stream, and Creative X-FI SFDIF digital out only can output maximum 2 channel uncompress PCM(stereo)....in order to playback multichannel DTS/Dolby through SPDIF Digital to your external decoder(amplifier), you must use the software that can support SPDIF pass-through such as Power DVD and AC3 filter(K-lite codec)(most filter you need to enable it manually), and yes, SPDIF pass-through option in the Creative Console launcher must be enabled...the software will let the precompressed DTS/Dolby Digital in the DVD pass-through digital output into your amplifier to decode into discrete channel.....

without any external third party software/player, your card will only output 2 channel PCM even your movie is DTS/Dolby sound and you enable the SPDIF pass-through in Creative Console.

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 15 2008, 11:16 AM

Yes, the driver doesnt affect the SQ.
As for me, the Beta driver cause a problem, that I cant play game in Game mode, as this will cause the game to crash. Have to play in Entertainment mode.
Althought, in details, it supposed to fix it, but somehow not successful.
I did uninstall, use driver cleaner. Reinstall, no luck.
It is beta driver, so I understand.

I can play movies with sound in 5 speakers, but the rear speaker is slow.

yay.. DTS & DD hardware decoding are back in action!
questions still haunting me until now... why it took creative so long to enable them back?

the reason from Creative was they request license from Dolby/DTS...

but the user explanation was Creative intentionally cripple the function in Vista to boost their new product sales..

This post has been edited by coolkwc: Jun 16 2008, 10:31 AM

I guess that reason might be true/not... but the DD/DTS license is dedicated to SC itself but not specifically under OS like vista.... am i correct?
if i'm correct.. why they need request license again?

from webby.. x-fi xm can be hardmodded into fatality. Is it true?

This post has been edited by campsol2k: Jun 16 2008, 02:16 PM

Its possible, but not practical. If you can remove the 2MB RAM and replace it with 64MB plus update its firmware, then you can

mod the opamp and caps far more reasonable than mod the RAM that won't bring any benefit until today....

Hmm...I puzzled with my opamp purchases.... But I found a new opamp . I named it super secret opamp . Its nothing that I ever mentioned before, I just found it