Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

2009-11-12 01:42:34

I hope this is the right area to ask this and I hope someone has an answer for me... but since my specific X-Fi card doesn't have outputs for front-header (uses proprietary crap)... i can't use the front headers/plugs as of now.

here is my dilemma -- i MUCH prefer the audio of the Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, and hate the on-board for what I do... which is standard everyday music listening, etc. Using this PCI card, I have to keep switching the speakers and
headphones every time i want to use one or the other... and the back of the computer isn't really in an easily accessible spot.

i know there are easier solutions to this (get speakers w/ headphone output, get a splitter and cut off the speakers when you want headphones, etc..)

ultimately, all i want to do is pass the audio OUT to the Realtek front output... (or output in general).... basically use the Realtek as a pass-through... I just want it to carry the audio to its audio ports.

i'm imagining there is a way to do this in Windows 7.

Just FYI, the Soundblaster card has a "digital i/o" port, specs below -- it's a 3.5" jack -- the realtek has pretty much all inputs... coax/optical/3.5 mic and digital in.

now under Windows 7 (and maybe other OS's, i just know here) under every INPUT/Recording device there is  "Listen" tab that you can check "Listen on this port" and play output on -> and you can select any of the Output devices on the system.

my mind is blank right now... i know this has got to be so simple, but i just can't think of it right now... (starving.. tired).. should i select digital out as the default output device, then go digital out port on SB, in to Digital in on Realtek on-board, then show play output on Realtek, which will basically pass it through and the realtek will handle the switching between speakers on its Line-Out and front panel headphone jack?

sorry if i've confused you.. i've confused myself by overthinking it...... i just want to get untouched SB PCI card audio to go out both speakers and front headphone jack on realtek... i have fried my mind!

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #1 – 2009-11-12 02:53:53

If you're handy with a soldering iron, this guide might be of use: http://audigy2zshowto.blogspot.com/ (taken from this thread).

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #2 – 2009-11-12 04:54:51

i did find those guides... and unfortunately.... i am terrible at soldering.. and honestly i'm too afraid to try that for fear of frying my computer

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #3 – 2009-11-12 08:00:19

The idea of output from one card and input to another card that you want to listen to leads to a problem. I don't have 2 cards in my system just now to test this; But I think if you selected card 2 for output, then set card 1 to input you can't listen to card 1 because you can only select one output device at a time? Now using something like Foobar2000 you could get around that by setting it to output to card 2 and in Windows set card 1 to both input and output. Thats because Foobar2000 lets you set the output separately from the windows sound control, but things like Windows Media Player does not. I wouldn't try this though because card 1 will process the input from card 2 no matter what you do and not be a simple pass-through. Card 1 would have to decode the digital signal back to analog to present it to you at the front headphone jack.

There are several solutions that will work. The simplest would be to listen with headphones on the Realtek and speakers on the Creative Labs card. You could switch outputs in Foobar2000 or the Windows 7 sound control depending on how you wish to listen. Modern Realtek chips and drivers are very good lacking only hardware 3d acceleration (EAC 4-5) which is disabled in Vista and Windows 7 anyway (or emulated in software using Creative's Alchemy EAC emulation software). So they both should sound the same over headphones for music and movies unless one card is set to use Room Environments or other Digital Signal Processing effects (which normally are not used for everyday music listening). There is a Dolby Headphone DSP for Foobar2000 that works independently of the sound card, if you like that sort of thing. This would be the way I would try it. You could swap the headphones back and forth a few times first and see if you can hear a difference (remember to volume match first, otherwise the louder card will sound the better).

If you are completely set on using the Creative card for everything, you might find a boutique cable (3rd party) that will fit the unusual header on the card and enable you to plug in the headphone normally. If you had this issue, I'm sure a lot of others have too, so there might be a 3rd party solution out there for you.

If your speakers will accept SPDIF and your Creative card supports this, that would free the speaker/line-out for the headphones.

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #4 – 2009-11-12 12:01:10

Hi Chinch,

just to recap, you use your X-Fi for all daily purposes and want to add a possibilty to use the front panel of your onboard Realtek chip as an optional monitoring device, so you could easily use a headphone without having to reconnect anything, right ?

In that case, I would use the S/PDIF output of your X-Fi and connect it to the S/PDIF input of your Realtek.

As for configuring Win7, my guess would be to leave the X-Fi untouched, but setup the Realtek to "listen" on the S/PDIF port and "output" to headphone, but since I don't have Win7 on my systems, this is just a guess.

Also, it might be required to configure the X-Fi as preferred sound device in its system control panel, so that all application will use it by default.

HTH,
Maggi

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #5 – 2009-11-12 13:32:13

[Edit] Oh snap! I should have thought of this earlier. Get an extension cable for the speaker output (male2female mini-plug) and plug it into the Front L/R output of the X-Fi. Drag the other end around to the front of your computer and plug your Speaker wire into that. Now when you want to swap to headphones, just unplug the speakers from the Extension, and plug in the Headphones. Simple and easy. [/Edit]
---
Using SPDIF out from the Creative card to the SPDIF input on the Realtek.

In Windows 7 (and other windows) you can select only one default input and output device.

So you select the Creative X-Fi as your default SPDIF output device, all good except the analogue outputs on the Creative card are disabled when you selected SPDIF output in Windows 7. You can test this yourself by wiring both the SPDIF output and the Analogue output of the sound card to an external DAC/amp and swapping inputs on it while changing the default output in Windows sound control.

So at this point everything is sent to the X-fi, sound is processed with whatever DSPs and 'enhancements' it is set to do, and then is dumped out the SPDIF port. Working so far!

Then the Realtek takes the SPDIF output from the X-fi and decodes using its digital-to-analogue converter, processes it with whatever DSPs and 'enhancements' it is set to do, and then it puts that sound onto its analogue outputs ignoring Window's default output device setting.. (Maybe so, Maybe no, test!) Then all the speakers including the headphones need to be plugged into the Realtek and it is controlling volume, number of speakers and the like for the headphones and speaker arrays.

(It would be easy enough for the OP to set up if they want to try, but I would just use the Realtek for headphones and the X-Fi for speakers, switching outputs in Windows 7 sound control at need. Most on-board sound solutions are able to drive headphones these days.. hmm, which Realtek chip is it?)

P.S. Kudos to Creative for the way they tier the products to increase profit. Front panel audio as a Luxury buy. Heinous!

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #6 – 2009-11-13 22:20:24

great ideas... thanks a lot...

btw, love the avatar picture kiit.

ok, unfortunately i'm still new to the whole SPDIF thing and digital this and that, haha... i have no home theatre (always lived in apartments, can't blast music or movies ever.. where's the point of life? haha)

so i think this is possible and you have all given me ideas, but i guess i need to do further research (or perhaps if you'd like to say a few words) about these things.

i understand there are two (at least?) types of spdif cables... coax and optical... optical i can always see by the glowing light  now on the creative, it says it has a digital in/out... for whatever that means. when i hear digital-in, i would think SPDIF, myself... but these are all 3.5mm jacks on the creative card.. so let me look up really quick.... lol sad that i have to look up the color coding for sound cards... but i've never had the use (unfortunately) of anything other than the green output! i think blue is line-in. red is mic of course. ok, there's a nice good description of this stuff on wikipedia-sound card haha.

so i see blue is ANALOG line-in. so it would have to be 3.5" out to analog in, or some sort of 3.5mm to SPDIF converter.. while i read up on this i'll just offer you this extra info about the Intel/Realtek.

BTW, it is "Intel HD audio", but it's really re-branded Realtek, cause they use the Realtek HD drivers, etc... but here is some of the specs it says from the motherboard about it:

Dolby Laboratories* selected Intel HD Audio to bring Dolby-quality surround sound technologies to the PC, as part of their recently announced PC Logo Program. The combination of these technologies marks an important milestone in delivering quality digital audio to consumers. Intel HD Audio is able to support all the Dolby technologies, including the latest Dolby Pro Logic* IIx, which makes it possible to enjoy older stereo content in 7.1 channel surround sound.

Intel HD Audio delivers significant improvements over previous generation integrated audio and sound cards. Intel HD Audio hardware is capable of delivering the support and sound quality for up to eight channels at 192 kHz/32-bit quality, while the AC'97 specification can only support six channels at 48 kHz/20-bit. In addition, Intel HD Audio is architected to prevent the occasional glitches or pops that other audio solutions can have by providing dedicated system bandwidth for critical audio functions.

Intel HD Audio also provides improvements that support better jack retasking. The computer can sense when a device is plugged into an audio jack, determine what kind of device it is, and change the port function if the device has been plugged into the wrong port. For example, if a microphone is plugged into a speaker jack, the computer will recognize the error and can change the jack to function as a microphone jack. This is an important step in getting audio to a point where it 'just works'-users won't need to worry about getting the right device plugged into the right audio jack.

Consumers also want the ability to play back two different audio tracks, such as a CD and a DVD simultaneously, which can't be done using current audio solutions. Intel HD Audio features multi-streaming capabilities that give users the ability to send two or more different audio streams to different locations at the same time, from the same PC.

gotta run right now... more later... but thanks for replies so far

sounds like the onboard is actually a better card... but for some reason the volume is so low! there's gotta be a setting somewhere but i have looked through every single property and setting and i can't get it any louder. plus, the main reason/DSP effect that i want is the X-Fi "Crystalizer" if you have heard of it..... without it, everything sounds so dull and muffled, even on nice equipment. If i could get this same thing in the new on-board, i'd be fine with it... but i can't seem to get it there. i'll do some more research and report back.

Soundblaster X-Fi card vs. Realtek HD on-board

Reply #7 – 2009-11-13 23:35:03

Cinch: Just get an extension cable for the X-Fi's speaker output and pull that around to the front of your case where you can easily swap the headphone cable with the cable that runs to your speaker system.

If you wish to pull the X-Fi and work with the Realtek (and yes it is nice).. look in the MIXER panel at the volume sliders for each channel and push them all the way to the loudest position then look in the Sound Effects section for Room Effects (try a few different ones) and the Equalizer (more treble and bass) to sound more like the... 'Crystalizer'. Goodluck with it either way. But I think since you are happy with Crystalizer sound just stick with it and do the cable dance. Simple, elegant and almost the same as having a front audio panel jack that works.


edit: for the S/PDIF to work you need a speaker system that has S/PDIF inputs. S/PDIF coax plugs will look like standard RCA jacks, and optical S/PDIF looks like a mostly square hole (with a cover over it, or a dummy plug in it). Either kind should be labeled or just look in the manual to find out which type you have. Your speakers and your sound card both have to have the same kind of plug for that.

And.. thanks for the love