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Topic: Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express (Read 6474 times) previous topic - next topic
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Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Long time lurker first time poster...

Looking for information on this sound card.

I am planning on using it with a digital mixer for recording and playback.
I have heard that this does not use the same chip as the others in the x-fi series and that essentially it uses a rebranded legacy chipset. I have no problem with that necessarily. I have the following requirements and for the life of me I can't find any answers on Creative's site.

Requirements:
1. Recording of 24/44 through the optical input
2. Playback of computer audio out through the optical output
3. Low latency ASIO drivers
4. No resampling that previous Creative cards were known to do

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #1 –
I have only brief experience with this card, and I never tried recording with it, but as far as I remember:
- it doesn't have native ASIO support;
- I don't know what samplerates the card uses internally, but the digital out only supports 48 and 96 kHz.
Also, the analog part picked interference from the video card, at least in my PC.

This card is more or less an equivalent of Audigy SE and earlier Live! 24-bit, but the supplied software emulates the "Entertainment mode" of the X-Fi series. Unlike the "real" X-Fi cards, this one does not provide "Music creation mode", which is what you probably need.

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #3 –
Forgot to add:

Quote from: alexeysp on
...
- it doesn't have native ASIO support;

my X-Fi came with drivers that are labelled as "Creative ASIO"

Quote from: alexeysp on
- I don't know what samplerates the card uses internally, but the digital out only supports 48 and 96 kHz.

at least the drivers offer an option to make "bit matched" recording and playback

how could I verify what bit depth and frequency gets really put out ?

Maggi

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Maggi on
my X-Fi came with drivers that are labelled as "Creative ASIO"


Yes, the emu20k2-based X-Fi cards (gamer, elite pro and titanium series) come with ASIO and bit-matched output support. But not Xtreme Audio.

Quote
how could I verify what bit depth and frequency gets really put out ?


If you have a card with digital input (e.g. X-Fi titanium), you may try to record from digital loopback (connect digital out to the digital in) and compare the original and recorded files, after correcting the time shift.

If you simply want to ensure that it actually outputs at specified rate, you may connect the digital output to the receiver that has a feature of displaying the incoming stream format.

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Maggi on
Forgot to add:
how could I verify what bit depth and frequency gets really put out ?


If you have the card installed and running, then test it yourself using the freeware Audio Rightmark testing software.

If you google "Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express rightmark" you can check out the results of tests done by others.

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #6 –
Thanx a lot for your suggestions, Alexey and Arnold !

I'll look into it and see what comes out ...

Cheers,
Maggi

Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Express

Reply #7 –
Thanks for the responses!

It looks like the X-fi Audio Extreme isn't going to meet my needs.

Unfortunately neither will an Audiophile M-audio PCI card since according to the M-Audio forum peope are having a lot of problems with the Windows 7 drivers. Does anyone have  a recommendation for an inexpensive PCI/PCIe audio interface with S/PDIF or TosLink I/O and ASIO drivers that works with Win 7? Emu has a card but that's about the only one I can find. Any others?