x-fi questions

Soldato
Joined
11 Jan 2005
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Ago old question. xtreme music or fatality.?

Advantages for fatality, front bay/remote.

Remote would be handy. But, what does it control for it to be handy?
Does it allow for control of winamp or wmp?

Front bay - Digital in out, why when the card cant really do anything with digital anyway? [output games etc in 5.1 for instance?]

The ram... Many say its a fad yes. No games really use anything from it, and I havent seen anygames being made with it in mind for the future.. ?

Final question, if anyone can honestly say, is the difference from say onboard to x-fi honestly that great? From my old audigy2 to onboard [currently using onboard] I really could not tell much of a diff.

I'll defo get one soon, I've been waiting a year now to have the money spare so hey :) Just wanted a few questions answered :)

~Psy
 
Associate
Joined
7 Mar 2006
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546
Stereo digital output is pretty handy if you want to connect a DAC in the future. But you can do that on the Xtreme Music if you don't need the mic in at the same time (or use a USB mic): the digital output of the Xtreme Music is shared with the mic line. Most people probably won't take this step, but it is there if needed. The main advantage, as you've gathered is the additional connectivity. But the Platinum version provide the exact same benefit, without the 64MB X-RAM. Frankly speaking, I think the X-RAM is gimmicky. And I wouldn't pay more than £5 premium for the Fatal1ty version (by the time the game support it, we might already see a X-Fi 2).

Sound quality is definitely improved over the onboard sound, but I suppose it depends what you connect it to. You'll definitely notice it with mid-range headphones, and higher end multimedia speakers (or better). If you are using some cheap-ish headset, then I am less sure. Going from onboard to A2NX definitely made a difference to my friend's Beyerdynamic headphones for instance...
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
11 Jan 2005
Posts
9,961
Location
Birmingham
Well, atm my headset consists of sharp md33s (which I'd take as mid=high quality) and a crappy mic off a mate. Speakers are a set of z5500's. So I should hope to see a bit of a diff :D


Also looks like I'll be bagging a platinum :)

CHeers for help
 
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