Xtrememusic vs XtremeGamer Options

[Eins7ein]

I'm looking at getting an x-fi card sometime after christmas. Problem is I've heard around here and other places that hte X-tremeGamer is a horrible card and the X-trememusic is the way to go when it comes to x-fi. I have two issues here: 1. I can't find the x-trememusic for sale anywhere. 2. The X-tremeGamer seems to be the only one that has a connector for the sound ports built into the front of my case. This is rather important as all of my gaming and music listening is done through a pair of seinheiser 161s so I don't use surround much at all unless the computer is connected to my entertainment center. Otherwise my case just sits on the floor unless I'm at a lan so the front ports are rather important. I don't want to use creatives crummy bay port thingy since my bays are important to me and I wouldn't use most of the junk on it anyway. Any help on this issue would be quite appreciated.

[Stoff]

I am sure X-Fi Xtreme Gamer is alright. I think you confuse this with X-Fi Xtreme Audio which is in fact inferior quality compared to the rest of the X-Fi range.
Guru3d is quite a decent website that I tend to trust and they even recommend Xtreme Gamer here: http://www.guru3d.com/article/pcbuyguide/473/

[Bleeble]

The low-profile XtremeGamer is TERRIBLE. In fact, it's worse than the XtremeAudio because it's just as horrible but you pay more for it. It doesn't have hardware effects processing or that rockin' X-Fi chip. Let's not forget about the poor choice of components on the card, and consequently the poor audio quality. Frankly, you're better off with onboard sound.

The full-sized XtremeGamer is fine, but it's some Fatality crap that you'll have to mortgage your house to buy. Just get the XtremeMusic on ebay. You can get it directly from Creative for maybe $65, or $50-55 shipped from other sellers.

[lost]

I think a lot of people talk about the card, but you need to remember, your speakers are just as important. You need a really good set of speakers to get the most of your card. I have so-so speakers and I went with the Audigy 2 ZS. I always pictured myself getting the X-Fi cards if I can afford something like the Logitech Z5500.

But I think the Xtreme Music is a little better from what I've read in the past when I was researching sound cards.

The full-sized XtremeGamer is fine, but it's some Fatality crap that you'll have to mortgage your house to buy. Just get the XtremeMusic on ebay. You can get it directly from Creative for maybe $65, or $50-55 shipped from other sellers.

If you can get it from Creative, I think you should. It will cost you $60+ on ebay on average.

This post has been edited by lost: Dec 19 2007, 11:22 AM

[Eins7ein]

I appreciate everyones replies but I still have the problem of not knowing whether i will be able to use my front panel sound if I get the Xtrememusic. Like i said before this is very important as I can't run my headphone cord to the back of my computer very well. As for the quality of my speakers I only have a crappy set of 2.1 speakers but my headphones are excellent quality and even with on board sound I can hear the difference between them and my 0ld Sonys. If anyone who actually has this card can answer this last little bit for me I can get the ball rolling in the right direction hopefully and spend some of the money I get for Christmas. Thanks again for your help so far.

[oldfett]

From what I understand about my xtrememusic you can't use the front audio ports. On Creative's site they say this is due to the sound card having digital connections and standard cases do not.

[Sagittaria]

I appreciate everyones replies but I still have the problem of not knowing whether i will be able to use my front panel sound if I get the Xtrememusic. Like i said before this is very important as I can't run my headphone cord to the back of my computer very well. As for the quality of my speakers I only have a crappy set of 2.1 speakers but my headphones are excellent quality and even with on board sound I can hear the difference between them and my 0ld Sonys. If anyone who actually has this card can answer this last little bit for me I can get the ball rolling in the right direction hopefully and spend some of the money I get for Christmas. Thanks again for your help so far.

Jack splitter on the main output and an extension for one output to the front of your desk.

One end to speakers, the other to extension.


Run to wherever you want.

[Eins7ein]

Then I guess I'll have to look inot another option because I can't go without my front audio connections and I am not going to use that piece of crap box that creative wants you to use. One of my friends bought a platinum edition and had broken the box by the end of the month, no thanks. Thank you for your help. Does any body know if it is possible to mod the xtremeGamer version like some have modded xtrememusics around here. what would I need to get component wise I already have a friend who is an electrical engineer who is willing to do the mod for me. Thanks again.

[Sagittaria]

Then I guess I'll have to look inot another option because I can't go without my front audio connections and I am not going to use that piece of crap box that creative wants you to use. One of my friends bought a platinum edition and had broken the box by the end of the month, no thanks. Thank you for your help. Does any body know if it is possible to mod the xtremeGamer version like some have modded xtrememusics around here. what would I need to get component wise I already have a friend who is an electrical engineer who is willing to do the mod for me. Thanks again.

See my above post regarding the front panel headphone output.

[Stoff]

The low-profile XtremeGamer is TERRIBLE. In fact, it's worse than the XtremeAudio because it's just as horrible but you pay more for it. It doesn't have hardware effects processing or that rockin' X-Fi chip. Let's not forget about the poor choice of components on the card, and consequently the poor audio quality. Frankly, you're better off with onboard sound.

As mentioned earlier there is nothing wrong with Xtreme Gamer. X-Fi Xtreme Gamer has hardware effects processing and does have the X-Fi chip. It is as good as Xtreme Music but has the standard front panel connector instead of that proprietary drive bay connector on the Xtreme Music. You confuse this card with Xtreme Audio. These are two very different cards - despite similar look.

Check out wikipedia or whatever.

Does any body know if it is possible to mod the xtremeGamer version like some have modded xtrememusics around here. what would I need to get component wise I already have a friend who is an electrical engineer who is willing to do the mod for me. Thanks again.

Try without mod and see if you like it. To appreciate mods you need very good speakers. Standard X-Fi components such as CS4382 DACs aint bad at all and you might find sound just right.

This post has been edited by Stoff: Dec 20 2007, 02:41 AM

[hardnrg]

The XtremeMusic mod @ Head-Fi makes the following changes:

* swaps out the power capacitor for a better quality and higher capacity capacitor (Rubycon Blackgate)
* swaps out the op-amp(s) for National Semiconductor LM4562
* shorts the output capacitors (speculation over whether these are decoupling or coupling caps, sounds better shorted anyway)

I haven't seen a mod that changes out the Cirrus Logic DAC (CS4382), it's used in decent hi-fi gear, so I don't think there's much reason to change it...

If you are driving headphones directly, the LM4562 is not really recommended, but there are alternative op-amps that would be suitable for headphones and sound better than the stock op-amps. The power capacitor mod takes a bit of a knack with a soldering iron, but would benefit the low frequencies for direct or amped connections. Shorting the output capacitors introduces a DC offset on the output signal which is fine for amped connections due to the amp decoupling stage, but it's not really recommended for direct (headphone) connections.

You can connect the front panel audio wires to the XtremeMusic J10 connector (top left if viewing the component side with the backplate to the left) by buying or making an adapter cable.

http://www.driverheaven.net/audio-general-...fi-pinouts.html
http://www.devhardware.com/forums/multimed...rs-15584-6.html
http://audigy2zshowto.blogspot.com/
http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xfifpmodbq5.jpg

there's a place that sells the cable ready-made, but you can look for that yourself using your Google powers

[Silverfox]

I can vouch for hardnrg's modding knowledge (see my sig). I use a little Dot MKIII to drive my Sennheiser HD595 headphones and coupled with the hotrodded X-Fi, it's fantastic.

To quote hardnrg, it is simply an "eargasm".