Output from PC

[Ad-Rok]

Glad to hear it. The VIA drivers can be a bit tricky (read: buggy), so let me know if you run into any problems. I've had the notion for a while now of creating a "Best Bang for Your Buck" website with links to all sorts of products. You can bet the 710 and Ascends (and probably your Panny) would be among the first on the list...

You read my mind. I posted something here to this effect, hoping that my HTPC and home theater "recipe" might help others along the way. I need to put this up on a web page or something, but for now:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post7215348

If you guys want to follow my efforts to get bit-perfect audio using Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, it's here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post7200938

Best,
Adam

[pappekak]

Adam - have you tried MythTV along with MS MCE 2005? I've been thinking about building a HTPC but haven't decided with route to go. My biggest concern is being able to rip VHS and DVDs I already own to a hard drive. I think I read that MCE prevents a person from ripping DVDs.

[Siba]

I used that exact motherboard (A7N8X Deluxe) in my HTPC before I upgraded late last year. The sound quality is very good, and you have the Dolby Digital encoding feature already. I wish I could have used SoundStorm in my current setup, but I upgraded to an Intel box. I had an extra Audigy 2 lying around, so that's where it went. It was not my first choice, but it does the job.

I have the Creative X-Fi Platinum sound card in my main PC, and I can honestly say the quality is greatly improved over the Audigy 2. Worth every penny. If you game with headphones at all, I would strongly suggest buying the X-Fi immediately! I have never heard better 3D positioning through headphones than with this card. I used to game exclusively with a 5.1 Klipsch ProMedia system, using expensive Sennheiser HD-595 headphones only for music. I hated losing the 5.1 experience when gaming. Once I got this card things have changed, and I now game almost exclusively with headphones! Keeps the wife happier and the volume where I like it .. I feel more immersed in the game with headphones and the X-Fi card than I do with a dedicated 5.1 setup.

Sorry if you are still confused. Only you can decide what fits your situation the best. If money is an issue, I would use the nForce2 sound for now and get the X-Fi with your next upgrade. By then it will be cheaper and you can still have great sound now.

You can't go wrong with the X-Fi either. It doesn't have Dolby Digital Live, but if you are running stereo it won't matter.

BTW, you have already made the best decision with the 170SE's .. they are great speakers!

Sorry to raise the issue again, but I was considering getting the X-Fi and I've come across a few issues, namely having to do with the way the X-Fi is marketed. After doing some research into the topic, I came across this thread:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardw...udigy2&start=0

Basically, the "Crystalizer" is just an EQ setting...but it introduces a ton of intermodulation distortion that is apparently much more percievable on high-end speakers (read: CBM-170SEs) than it is on low end pc speakers. It also does upsampling to 48khz from 44.1khz.

From http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1877552,00.asp
We see that the X-Fi "Can restore badly recorded or compressed content." (Pros section of review)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in all the reviews I've read of the X-Fi, none of them have mentioned actually testing this "restoration" feature. To me this seems like low-down, dirty marketing. It honestly sounds like the Creative marketing team read

Crystalizer - improves sound [on low end speakers]
Upsampling - fills in sound [from 44.1khz to 48khz]

And created something along the lines of "improves sound of music by filling in bits left out in the recording process"

Can anyone comment on this?

It has made me reluctant to even touch an X-Fi, because if you take out the Crystalizer and Upsampling....the only new feature left over Audigy2 is the extra level of EAX support.

swank, can you comment on how much improved the CMSS in X-Fi is over the Audigy2's?
The Audigy2 also has CMSS...albeit less settings. It still has excellent positional audio in games though, and I've used it to great effect in CS while using headphones. Did you ever use the CMSS feature of the Audigy2's? If so, is it really that much better in an X-Fi?

Also, would I benefit any from the 48khz sampling rate with my 170SEs?

[Asliang]

Did you ever use the CMSS feature of the Audigy2's? If so, is it really that much better in an X-Fi?

The touted improvements in CMSS are to headphone effects. However, these are still purely software effects, so it's not as if without a little programming knowledge/low level hacking that your Audigy 2 could do the same thing.

Also, would I benefit any from the 48khz sampling rate with my 170SEs?

You mean by 48KHz resampling? It introduces some artifacts, as upsampling is generally meant to remove the high frequency noise of the digital filter at 22.05KHz (from a 44.1KHz sample rate). If you upsample, generally the correct way is to sample at multiples of the original rate--aka 88.2 (and push the digital filter out according to 44.1KHz, so-called "inaudible" territory. At 48KHz, there is some added noise as whatever algorithm makes some assumptions about the wave form to fill the missing points. The benefit would be if you like the artifacts that come about from it. But if you don't like the effect, then it's not a benefit anymore.

[Siba]

The touted improvements in CMSS are to headphone effects. However, these are still purely software effects, so it's not as if without a little programming knowledge/low level hacking that your Audigy 2 could do the same thing.



You mean by 48KHz resampling? It introduces some artifacts, as upsampling is generally meant to remove the high frequency noise of the digital filter at 22.05KHz (from a 44.1KHz sample rate). If you upsample, generally the correct way is to sample at multiples of the original rate--aka 88.2 (and push the digital filter out according to 44.1KHz, so-called "inaudible" territory. At 48KHz, there is some added noise as whatever algorithm makes some assumptions about the wave form to fill the missing points. The benefit would be if you like the artifacts that come about from it. But if you don't like the effect, then it's not a benefit anymore.

Thank you for your very detailed explanation. It was helpful and I now feel more knowledgeable about the subject