new generation of processors and sound cards Xtreme Fidelity

What is Xtreme Fidelity?

On August 2, 2005, Creative held a conference in Germany, where the European press was shown a new generation of sound cards - SoundBlaster X-Fi.

Earlier, on May 13, 2005, Creative announced Xtreme Fidelity technology, abbreviated as X-Fi, and the sound processor of the same name.

If the new processor is more or less clear, then what is “Xtreme Fidelity technology”? According to the manufacturer, its essence is to provide 24-bit quality, sound clarity with at least 110 dB signal / noise and new CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) 3D sound technology in headphones and multi-channel speakers. According to Sim Wong Hu, founder and CEO of Creative "Xtreme Fidelity is the result of our vision for a new audio standard that can bring a dramatic improvement to MP3 playback, PC game gameplay and digital movies, thus laying the foundation for a whole new digital home entertainment platform".

Speaking of Xtreme Fidelity, the manufacturer focuses on two new technologies: 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D. As conceived by Creative, the technologies are designed to remaster, enhance and remix in real time existing conventional and compressed 16-bit stereo material to 24-bit quality, with multi-channel sound in speakers of any configuration, as well as headphones.

In order to enable the capabilities of the new standard, Creative creates the X-Fi processor under the motto "Xtreme Audio Needs An Xtreme Fidelity Processor!"("exceptional sound requires a top quality processor").

retrospective

Previous sound cards since Live! sample of 1998, were based on modifications of the EMU10K processor. This processor was developed mainly for use in synthesizers and modules manufactured by E-MU as a hardware MIDI synthesizer with a built-in effects processor. At a time when the main requirement for a sound card was the presence of hardware MIDI with the largest possible memory bank, wide possibilities and high-quality effects, the EMU10K was a progressive chip. However, at present, as everyone understands, it is morally obsolete. Despite the 32-bit sound processing, programmable high-quality professional effects, support for 8 digital I2S or SPDIF interfaces, the shortcomings (the main one being the rigid architecture) brought everything to naught.

Since the development of the EMU10K, the interests of sound card users have changed significantly. In fact, there was a division of the audience into three camps: 1) office and other users who are satisfied even with integrated sound; 2) gamers who are not particularly interested in quality, who do not mind good three-dimensional sound in games, as long as it does not come at the expense of performance; 3) music lovers and audiophiles who use a computer for a convenient music library, they need a card solely for high-quality music playback.

However, lovers of high-quality sound expressed distrust of Creative products, even despite the latest models high-quality I2S DACs Cirrus Logic. The main "horror story" destroying the image of Live/Audigy sound cards for many years was the presence of unswitchable mediocre hardware resampling (resampling) of all frequencies into a reference frequency of 48 kHz. In order to get high-quality playback of the 44.1 kHz format, in which most recordings exist, card users began to massively install DirectSound or ASIO software sample rate conversion plug-ins (SSRC software sample rate conversion) for popular Winamp and Foobar mp3 players.

SRC Audigy vs. SSRC Winamp

Starting with Audigy2, the developers introduced a P16V block into the chip, allowing the cards to directly play 96 and 192 kHz for DVD-Audio playback. But this mode turned out to be available only for these frequencies and only through the DirectSound interface. The effect processor operating at 48 kHz should have been disabled in this case. Otherwise, resampling comes into play again.

In the low-end below, Creative begins to catastrophically lose the sound card market due to the expansion of AC "97 and HDA codecs, forcibly installed on motherboards. This greatly reduces the incentive for users to spend money on a separate sound card. In addition, the advent of the Internet and file-sharing networks makes the computer a tool so that for high-quality listening to music, many prefer semi-professional cards based on Envy24, with a minimum of hardware capabilities, but with a choice of a fixed sampling rate, an honest 44.1 kHz digitally and a minimum of unnecessary bells and whistles.

Obviously Creative was needed new processor devoid of the shortcomings of the former. X-Fi has been in development for the last 5 years. Since the release of the first Audigy model, work has begun on a new generation of processors. Location of development Creative Advanced Technology Center, Silicon Valley, California.

X-Fi architecture

According to the manufacturer, the new Xtreme Fidelity processor has more than 51 million transistors and a performance of more than 10,000 MIPS (millions of instructions per second). X-Fi is also 24 times more powerful than its predecessor.

The heart of the processor is the DSP "Quartet", as there are 4 subprocessors working in parallel. The architecture is called TIMD (Thread Interleaved Multiple Data). To achieve parallelism, a processor architecture with very large instruction words is used ( Very Large Instruction Word, VLIW).

Such an instruction combines several ordinary instructions that are executed simultaneously (in parallel) by different functional blocks of the processor to increase its speed. The increase in performance is achieved due to the fact that the processor does not need to spend time organizing parallelism at the instruction level. The grouping of parallel executable operations is performed by the compiler.)

Each subprocessor has a 2xSIMD architecture. 2x comes from the fact that usually the subprocessor operates with two data streams - stereo data, complex numbers. By the way, both floating point and fixed point data types are used. The instruction set consists of 235 operation codes, and about 60 specialized commands often found in audio frequency processing algorithms, for example, complex multiplication of data from two streams, decimal logarithm, exponential.

The internal frequency of the processor is 400 MHz. Supports external timing for S/PDIF and I2S. The jitter value of the PLL (PLL) of the processor is given. The sound processing algorithms (reverb, equalizer, 3D sound propagation modeling effects) use 512 IIR filters ( IIR, infinite impulse response = IIR, infinite impulse response) second order. This will surprise no one modern means sound processing, but it should be noted that everything here works in real time for dozens of streams at the same time. The number of hardware filters, including 4 and 5 band parametric equalizers, bandpass, notch and other specific filters.

There are also rich mixing options - up to 4096 signals with hardware volume control and combining two sources. This can be used both to build a mixer that is flexibly configured in terms of signal routing, and is also used in games, since it requires adjusting the level of each applied effect.

For connection to digital and analog interfaces, the processor has 4 I2S input/output buses, providing 8 input and 8 output channels. In addition, there is a proprietary protocol for transmitting 8 channels over a single wire, resulting in 32 x 48 kHz, 16 x 96 kHz, 8 x 192 kHz channels. For internal needs and routing, there are 4096 audio and 4096 parametric channels.

SRC

Sample Rate Converters (SRC, Sample Rate Convertors) are activated in cases where the sample rate does not match the reference frequency of the current mode (otherwise the sample will play at the wrong speed and change the tone). 256 interpolators are used, with better quality than a typical 100th order polyphase FIR filter (FIR, finite impulse response = FIR, finite impulse response). The tone shift range is from 0 to 8.

How SRC X-Fi works

The picture illustrates how the SRC X-Fi converts 44.1kHz to 48kHz. First, the signal samples are doubled to 88.2 kHz. The polyphase FIR filter converts the signal up to 192 kHz with a factor equal to twice the ratio of 48/44.1. In the final stage, the frequency is reduced to 48 kHz. Such a scheme is more efficient in terms of computational costs and gives a better result, since aliasing due to non-multiple frequencies is not formed at the last stage.

When converting a standard tone of 997 Hz from 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz, the standard parameter responsible for the power of noise and distortion is THD + N equal to -136 dB, frequency jitter in the passband is ±0.00025 dB. Creative recommends checking these parameters with at least an AudioPrecision measuring station.

Given a headroom of 6 dB and 32 stages of processing cycle, THD+N can degrade to -124 dB, and the frequency response increases to ±0.01 dB. But the parameters of even the best DACs today in terms of noise and distortion are inferior to such indicators.

The quality of SRC X-Fi when converting 44.1-> 48 kHz

It should only be taken into account that the quality parameters in the frequency domain do not show the operation of filters in the time domain. But, given the positioning of cards primarily for games and movies, such conversion accuracy can be considered excellent. In past products, intermodulation distortion from SRC reached 0.1% in the high frequency region, while only a few users complained about the drop in quality.

There is a very important point that is not much advertised by the manufacturer - unlike the sound processors of the previous generation, in X-Fi you can turn off oversampling along with the rest of the DSP effects! In this case, of course, the unique possibility of simultaneously listening to several signals of different sampling rates is lost, followed by the imposition of all sorts of effects and enhancers. However, fans of the highest quality sound need this least of all.

SRC converters also work in DMA mode, allowing conversions to be made directly to the computer's RAM without the participation of the CPU. To avoid collisions when loaded PCI bus there is a custom cache.

X-Fi Capabilities

Data processing for human head and ear transfer functions (HRTF) and headphone sound calculation is based on several technologies. These are the developments of UCDavis, Aureal and Sensaura. Used patents for MacroFX, binaural 3D panning. The implementation uses 48-tap FIR (FIR) filters, processing up to 128 3D sound sources.

CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) technology upgraded to CMSS-3D. The manufacturer claims that the quality of the sound field is higher than that of Dolby Prologic II / IIx, and in headphones the spatiality and naturalness of timbres at high frequencies surpasses Dolby Headphone.

Unlike previous processor generations, effects are now supported for both 24/96 and 24/192 modes. For processing high-resolution signals, for example, 192 kHz, Quadrature Mirror Filter technology is used - splitting the signal into 4 frequency bands of 48 kHz each, which are processed separately, and the results are added. Thus, when processing 192 kHz, the calculation speed increases, compared with conventional methods.

The architecture of the chip allows switching between modes without rebooting, so that sound cards can maximize the use of resources.

ASIO 2.0 is supported with latency For WDM and OpenAL, drivers and hardware have been optimized to get the lowest latency, with higher sound quality.

Comparison

The table shows approximate performance ratios between different generations of Creative cards (according to the manufacturer).

	Prod. calculated MIPs	Total production MIPs	Int. channels	MIPS vs Live!	Number of effects	Number transistors
sound blaster Pro	≈1	3+	-	0.0001x	-	100K
AWE 32 (EMU8000)	67	200+	-	0.2x	-	500K
Live! (10k1)	335	1000+	16 (effects)	1x	1	2M
Audigy (10k2)	424	1250+	64 (effects)	4x	4	4.6M
XFi	10340	30000+	4096 (Total)	67x	8	51.1M

X-Fi has an architecture that is completely different from previous generations of Creative processors, as well as all other processors, including graphics. The concept is a programmable ring-based architecture. This gives flexibility in signal routing, allowing any of the 4096 audio channels to route the signal to any processor element - Tank, SRC, Mixer, DSP.

Thus, the new X-Fi architecture consists of the following major innovations:

• Architecture "Ring"
• New DSP "Quartet"
• Ultra high quality SRC
• Hardware acceleration Mixer, Tank Engine (effects), Filter Engine, DMA.
• Simultaneous development and interaction of hardware and software parts

A huge amount of information about the X-Fi processor can be found on a special site.

Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards

On August 8, 2005, Creative announced a new line of Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards based on the processor of the same name. Four card models will be released: Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro, Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro features a professional quality 116 dB S/N DAC plus an external interface module with 24-bit Crystalizer, X-Fi CMSS-3D, 3DMIDI and EAX control buttons. The card is equipped with 64 MB on-board X-RAM audio memory, as well as microphone and guitar preamps. Estimated cost US$399.99.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS is designed to meet the needs of the famous gamer Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. The card has 109 dB S/N, 64 MB on-board X-RAM. The kit comes with a switching unit for a 5" bay and an IR remote control. A PCI card with lower quality DACs. Cost US$279.99.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum. Same as Fatal1ty, but PCI card without onboard memory. US$199.99

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. The simplest payment option. Platinum without switching unit. US$129.99
By the way, even for this card there is a mention of the possibility of ordering an IR receiver on the USB bus and a remote control.

In this article, we will consider the most interesting model - Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro. A distinctive feature of the card is the maximum quality and performance, plus a huge external switching unit with a remote control.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

The card itself, labeled SB0550, has gold-plated connectors and a mysterious rectangular detail in the top corner of the board. In fact, it turned out that this is an LED with the inscription X-Fi, which lights up blue when turned on and will be clearly visible in translucent modder cases.

Elite Pro Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Card (SB0550)

Indeed, the phonogram is remastered with the help of a "widely known in narrow circles" mastering plug-in called "multi-band compressor". To be 100% sure that I was right, I compared the work of Crystalizer with three mastering multiband compressors: Waves LinMB, iZotope Ozone, Steinberg MultiBand Compressor. When these plug-ins are enabled, the character of the sound changes similarly to the inclusion of Crystalizer.

To be 200% sure, I tested the Crystalizer with our RMAA program and compared it with the results. Waves LinMB Linear Phase MultiBand compressor(with standard preset Low Level Enhancer- I inform for those who want to repeat the measurements). The tests were done with the default Crystalizer setting, in the middle position.

Pay attention to the equalization of the frequency response and large intermodulation distortion - according to the measurements, the nature of the impact of the plug-ins is similar. However, the situation is much better. This is due to the fact that the nature of the musical signal differs from the test one. According to psychoacoustics, an overload of less than 6 ms is not fixed by a person, and a high-quality compressor does not allow prolonged overload, quickly reducing the signal level, which is regulated by the attack time.

You can find an analogy for Crystalizer technology in the world of digital photography. Let's say a plug-in appears that converts JPEG, obtained by compression from some high-quality TIF, into 16-bit per color format, then tightens the levels (roughly speaking, increases brightness / contrast) and sharpness by 10-20% depending on the source. Ready! We get a new ingenious "48-bit Picturelizer", which makes JPEG better than the original TIF. Attention, the question is: in which case the quality will be better? That's right, only if the JPEG has a margin for such abuse, and the display device has problems rendering the lightest and darkest midtones of the original image.

In sound, the situation with MP3 and WAV is about the same, but there is a difference. In mastering studios, very expensive equipment is used that analyzes the source file not in real time, but with some running ahead or even in more than one pass, using not 24-bit, but 64-bit floating-point calculation accuracy. Further, the mastering compression parameters must be painstakingly adjusted individually for each recording on high-quality mid- and far-field control monitors. It is presumptuous to entrust a similar function to a real-time machine and talk about superiority over the studio result. At the final stage of mastering, the stage of formation of the psychoacoustic distribution of dithering noises (noise-shaping) takes place, which by ear turns a 16-bit recording into a 20-bit one, so that all that remains is to send the recording bit by bit to the input interface of the DACs. Any intervention in this process has a detrimental effect on the quality, and even from an MP3 recording it will not be possible to surpass the original phonogram, and multiband compression can distort the tonal balance beyond recognition and lead to a redistribution of signal energy, which will cause overload at high or low frequencies Oh.

Another thing is if we are talking about mediocre home acoustics with a limited dynamic range and a flawed frequency response, so even the most primitive tone control subjectively significantly increases the comfort of perception. In this case, additional band-pass compression of high and low frequencies makes it easier to perceive the soundtrack through these particular speakers, especially in combination with a moderately preloaded original soundtrack, with less aggressiveness (peak power to average value). In this case, the resulting distortion from processing will not exceed the distortion of the reproducing path.

This is how it worked in practice. On inexpensive active stereo speakers, some recordings subjectively sounded more legible, albeit with more aggression. On high-quality acoustics (studio monitors and mid-range Hi-Fi speakers), I easily found several MP3s, as well as original CDs, the quality of which was significantly worsened by Crystalizer, so that overload was heard, or the sound became overly aggressive, which led to rapid fatigue from listening.

During the measurements, it turned out that in addition to multiband signal compression, the level is raised by about 3 dB. So any quiet recordings will sound subjectively better even without compressor action.

Thus, the 24-bit Crystalizer will benefit the owners of inexpensive acoustics or budget headphones, which almost automatically means a lack of bass and treble, as well as problems with midrange detail. For owners of high-quality acoustics, the good news is that this technology is easily turned off.

The 24-bit Crystalizer technology has the right to life, but the presentation itself, with wishful thinking, is not at all encouraging. In reality, Crystalizer does not expand, but narrows the dynamic range, and 24 bits are really used, but only so that rounding error does not accumulate (this is normal practice, no modern DSP works at the same resolution as the original data).

СMSS-3D

CMSS-3D technology is designed to solve the main problem of the younger generation of users of multi-channel sound cards: "I have a 5.1 set of speakers. Everything is cool in movies, but only 2 front speakers play in MP3! And I want everything!!!"

As mentioned above, CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) technology has been upgraded to CMSS-3D. The developments and patents of IRCAM, UC Davis, Aureal, Sensaura and Creative's Advanced Technology Center are used.

CMSS-3D virtualizes the sound source of any channel to any device, thus providing:

• CMSS-3DHeadphone: surround sound in headphones;
• CMSS-3DVirtual: surround sound in stereo speakers;
• CMSS-3DSurround: converting stereo to multi-channel audio;
• CMSS-3D Interactive: 3D sound from multiple sources.

Testing was carried out with Sennheiser HD600 headphones. The problem of double imposition of virtualization effects was identified, with a deterioration in the effect of volume. The fact is that all musical recordings of recent years already contain, to one degree or another, an expansion of the stereo panorama, so the result may turn out to be unexpected.

At the same time, the demo file "The Rising of the Sun" from the CD "Essential Anuna", containing almost raw stereo, showed good results, and even superiority over DolbyHeadphones technology.

In addition to music, CMSS-3D technology can also be used in games. In this case, the game calculates 3D audio for 5.1 speakers, and CMSS-3DHeadphone converts multi-channel audio to surround sound in headphones.

XRAM

Unlike cards from decades past, the X-Fi's on-board memory is not used for MIDI samples, but for storing or caching sounds during game applications. There is a problem with a lack of RAM, so developers either reduce the bit depth of samples to 8 bits 11 kHz, which worsens the quality by an order of magnitude, or compresses them into lossy formats, MP3 or OGG, which leads to processor load when unpacking at the sample playback stage.

Thus, the introduction of on-board memory on a sound card allows: saving main memory, speeding up memory access, eliminating the need for real-time decompression, eliminating sample quality loss, increasing graphics performance and FPS.

To date, there is only one game with full support for X-RAM. It is not yet available to a wide audience UT2004 X-Fi Edition. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the results provided by Creative. As you can see, the introduction of X-RAM can increase performance by up to 20%, which is equivalent to upgrading the graphics accelerator, while also increasing the sound quality! Definitely a useful innovation.

UT2004 X-Fi Edition

Tests in RMAA 5.5

We can't resist publicly quoting Creative's manual for X-Fi testers.

"As mentioned, Creative designed the Sound Blaster X-Fi family with sound quality in mind first. To achieve this goal, we took testing very seriously. However, we recognize that not all journalists have access to Audio Precision", the industry standard for testing professional audio equipment. We see that many people use "RightMark Audio Analyzer" for audio quality tests due to its affordability and nice interface. However, due to the difference in methods between the two platforms, their results will be different. In the past, we've received some questions about these differences, so we want to show you the results and test methods we've compiled for both Audio Precision and RMAA, and we hope you find them useful."

Instructions from Creative for installing X-Fi cards for measuring in RMAA can be downloaded from the official website.

Audio Precision test results

		Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic/ Platinum/ Fatal1ty FPS	Remark
Digital Playback	frequency response	Lo –1dB Hi –1dB ≈ 45kHz	N.B. "Digital Playback" refers to the fact that only the quality of the line-out is tested using a digital source file. It is not a test of the digital outputs
	cross-talk	L-R: -105 dB RL: -105dB
	Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)	109 dB
		0.004 %
Line-IN / Line-OUT Record & Playback	frequency response	Lo –1dB ≈ ~17Hz Hi –1dB ≈ 42KHz	Output: 2Vrms
	cross-talk	L-R: -86dB R-L: -86dB
	Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)	98 dB
	Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N)	0.004%

		Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro	Remark
Digital Playback	frequency response	Lo –1dB Hi –1dB ≈ 46kHz	PCM: 24-bit/96kHz, 997Hz Output: 2Vrms N.B. "Digital Playback" refers to the fact that only the quality of the line-out is tested using a digital source file. It is not a test of the digital outputs.
	cross-talk	L-R: -112dB RL: -112dB
	Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)	116 dB
	Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N)	0.0008 %
Line-IN / Line-OUT Record & Playback	frequency response	Lo –1dB Hi –1dB ≈ 45 kHz	PCM: 24-bit/96kHz, 997Hz Input: 2Vrms Output: 2Vrms
	cross-talk	L-R: -106 dB R-L: -106dB
	Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)	112 dB
	Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N)	0.001%

RMAA 5.5 test results

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

	SB0550	SB0550	SB0550	SB0550
	+0.01, -0.07	+0.01, -0.07	+0.01, -0.07	+0.01, -0.07
Noise level, dB(A):	-94.8	-95.1	-113.0	-113.3
Dynamic range, dB(A):	94.7	95.1	112.8	112.5
THD, %:	0.0009	0.0009	0.0007	0.0007
IMD + Noise, %:	0.0051	0.0049	0.0010	0.0010
Stereo crosstalk, dB:	-95.1	-95.5	-102.7	-102.8

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS

test	SB0460	SB0460	SB0460	SB0460
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:	+0.02, -0.08	+0.01, -0.09	+0.01, -0.09	+0.02, -0.17
Noise level, dB(A):	-94.1	-94.5	-102.1	-102.2
Dynamic range, dB(A):	94.0	94.3	101.6	102.0
THD, %:	0.0009	0.0009	0.0008	0.0008
IMD + Noise, %:	0.0057	0.0054	0.0026	0.0025
Stereo crosstalk, dB:	-97.0	-94.5	-101.5	-98.6

Comparing RMAA loopback vs. AP loopback, I would like to note that the discrepancy is a few percent, due to the difference in counting algorithms. In the latest version 5.5, the maximum compliance with existing international standards was observed (at the same time, RMAA uses more accurate calculations than required by the standard). Given the kilodollar cost of Audio Precision and the free RMAA, we can fully recommend a program for checking the passport data declared by the manufacturer. The THD+N value should be taken from the detailed RMAA report.

Of the tests, only distortion graphs are of interest.

THD cards SB0550

IMD (DIN) cards SB0550

IMD (CCIF) from SB0550 frequency


IMD (CCIF) off frequency SB0460

Judging by the measurements, the problem with a lot of distortion is a thing of the past. The 44.1 kHz mode in X-Fi cards is no different from 48 kHz.

Hardware SRC quality test

It is interesting to compare the quality of the new hardware SRC X-Fi against the widespread real-time SSRC plug-in for the WinAmp MP3 player, which is of rather high quality and decently loads the CPU.

IMD (CCIF) vs. frequency

IMD (DIN)

Reference 16/44 - analysis of the initial data file generated by the test; shows the maximum achievable quality for 16-bit format.
X-Fi HW SRC OFF - Disabling hardware SRC in X-Fi is achieved by setting the reference mode to 44.1 kHz and the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option.
X-Fi HW SRC ON - enabling X-Fi hardware SRC is obtained by playing a 44.1 kHz file with the reference mode set to 48 kHz and disabling Enable Bit-Matched Playback.

WinAmp SSRC plug-in - playing a 44.1 kHz file in WinAmp with the SSRC plug-in installed, configured to convert to 48 kHz, while the card has a 48 kHz reference mode and the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option.

As we can see, the SRC of the map exceeds the SSRC of the plug-in, and there are no distortions visible in the diagram from its inclusion.

RightMark 3DSound

The diagram is deliberately built on a 100% scale to show that the difference, even by several times, is insignificant with a small number of buffers, and enabling EAX in 3D mode is practically free.

OpenAL API is ahead of DirectSound due to more direct access to hardware and optimization of the complete library CT_OAL.DLL (Creative OpenAL Driver, 5.12.1.1141) exclusively for X-Fi. The exception is the 2D mode. But, in this mode, OpenAL most likely will not be used, and the speed there is unprincipled. Most likely OpenAL 2D is 3D with fixed coordinates. The download is the same:

Games

As mentioned, Creative had the opportunity to test X-Fi on special version UT2004 with support for 128 voices. I can't help but give you the results:

• Realtek HD Audio: 7.1 Audio, EAX 2.0, 32 Voices
• Sound Blaster Live!: 5.1 Audio, EAX 2.0, 32 Voices
• Sound Blaster Audigy: 7.1 Audio. EAX 3.0, 32 & 64 Voices, CMSS-3D
• Sound Blaster X-Fi: 7.1 Audio, EAX 3.0, 32, 64 &128 Voices, X-Fi CMSS-3D, X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer

So, in UT2004 the difference between HDAudio and X-Fi reaches 17% at 32 voices, with the best sound quality and enabled CMSS-3D and 24-bit Crystalizer. Computer configuration is quite average: P4-3.4, 1 GB, GeForce 6600.

From real games, direct support for X-Fi is so far only in Battlefield2 (even in the demo version!), Implemented through OpenAL. If you have a card, you can select a separate item in the sound options Creative XFi, EAX and Ultra High sound settings. In this case, on-board memory is used to cache samples and speed up sound processing. I must say that the samples in this game are mostly of average quality, many of them are 22 kHz, plus they are compressed into OGG with a variable bitrate of 100 kbps. So with the X-Fi option selected and EAX activated, the sound deserves a "Very Good" rating, but not "Excellent" due to the disgusting quality of the samples. Much more interesting to listen to the sound in Doom3 with patch 1.3, including EAX4.

We took our measurements in Battlefield 2 with a hack mod. The system used was P4 3.4 GHz, 1 GB DDR400, ATI X800, graphics settings 800×600, Medium. The Creative X-Fi + EAX ON + Ultra High mode delivered 52 FPS, compared to the Hardware + EAX OFF + Medium mode which showed 55 FPS. Thus, the difference in performance between the modes with maximum and medium settings does not exceed 5%, for which we must say thanks to the fast and powerful processor of the card. And this is with such video settings, when the performance does not yet rest on the video card. In game resolutions, you can safely set the sound to the maximum.

According to the results of testing a real product, a new processor
Creative XFi an award is given website original design

To be continued…

Are you familiar with the word Auzen? I would venture to suggest that not, unless, of course, you follow absolutely all the news on computer topics. Nevertheless, this name is worth remembering for all lovers of high-quality sound on a personal computer.

Auzentech Inc. is a very young company specializing in sound cards. The company is not yet two years old - the first press release is dated February 2006 - however, it managed to announce the fifth product of its own design, and also start selling several interesting devices third party developers. The newcomer's flurry of activity commands respect, especially considering that Auzentech pays special attention to the sound quality of its latest products. They use some of the best converters manufactured by Asahi Kasei, replaceable operational amplifiers, solid capacitors, original board layout.

Auzentech's first three products were based on C-Media controllers, and the company, without too much modesty, calls itself the world's first manufacturer of sound cards with support for Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect technologies. I admit that Auzen was really the first, but such features appeared nevertheless thanks to the work of C-Media engineers and programmers, and therefore they are implemented on all cards with the corresponding chip. But in April of this year, the entire Internet was excited by another news: Auzen is preparing a new product on the Creative X-Fi audio processor! Until now, Creative Labs has not supplied its technologies to third-party manufacturers, so this fact itself was already akin to a revolution, but it seemed to the president of Auzentech that this was not enough and he set the engineers (as it is said on the site - leaders in the field of analog and digital sound) with the task of creating a product of audiophile quality, so that the happy owner of the card can not only taste the fruits of the latest Creative gaming technologies, but also enjoy high-quality music and even create their own, no less high-quality works.

Design

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1

Auzentech X-Meridian tested AK4396 digital-to-analog converters, solid-state electrolytic capacitors, combined digital inputs and outputs that allow connection of both coaxial (SPDIF) and optical (TOSLINK) cables using the included adapters. In addition, the map uses best models two-channel operational amplifiers and the highest quality digital-to-analog converter from Asahi Kasei - AK5394A, providing a dynamic range of 123 dB and distortion at -110 dB. The DAC parameters are also great (120dB and -100dB respectively), but it is worth noting that AKM has an even better AK4397, as well as a pin-compatible AK4395 with an improved digital filter, so the reasons for choosing the AK4396 for all four stereo outputs personally I'm not entirely clear. Moreover, the front exit is different from the other three.

Firstly, it provides for the possibility of replacing the operational amplifier with a slight movement of the hand (which we did not fail to use during the testing process) - the microcircuit is not soldered to the board, but installed in the "crib". Secondly, the output low-pass filter uses the new LM4562 operational amplifier, which instantly became famous for its excellent sound characteristics, while the equally famous OPA2134 is used for other channels. In addition, for equal wiring of all four channels, the height of the board was not enough, so the DAC and the front output filter were shifted a little further from the connector. Such a solution can increase the noise and interpenetration of channels.

The op amps are powered by two 8V regulators, the D/A converters seem to be unregulated.

From the table below of the main parameters of the operational amplifiers used on the Auzen Prelude, it follows that the National Semiconductor product outperforms the Burr Brown product in all respects, except for the setup time (Settling Time, the time the output voltage level stabilizes after the input voltage changes). However, this parameter is more important for the ADC input filter, where OPA2134 is used.

Returning to the question of the strange layout of the board: the digital-to-analog converter is located very far from the input connectors, almost on the opposite edge of the board.

The capacitance of the capacitors that smooth out the ripples of the reference voltages of the converter is chosen to be 470 μF, therefore, distortion at frequencies below 80 Hz will exceed the declared threshold of -110 dB.

It remains to be hoped that the filter op amps are used in an inverting connection, otherwise the distortion will be greater at high frequencies.

If we compare the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude with the top product of Creative Technology itself, then they will find a lot in common: exactly the same ADC, four stereo DACs and the same number of operational amplifiers, as well as two memory chips for X-RAM (Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro one of them is on the back of the board).

Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

Ignoring the more logical layout of the X-Fi Elite Pro board and a different number of connectors, the Creative card differs from the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 only in the element base: CS4398 digital-to-analog converters (120 dB dynamic range and -107 dB distortion) , New Japan Radio Corporation's NJM2114 op amps for the front output filter, NJM2068 for the rest of the outputs, and some unknown manufacturer's NE5532 op amp for the ADC filter.

As you can see from the table, the distortion of these op-amps is slightly higher than those used on the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, however, they were measured at a tenfold amplification, so a direct comparison with the products of National Semiconductor and Burr Brown cannot be made. For reference, the OPA2134's nameplate distortion also increases by a factor of 10 with this amplification. The line outputs of both cards do not have additional buffers, as a result of which the system's sound may depend on the quality of the interconnect cables used, and the possibility of connecting headphones directly to the line output of the cards is limited. The last remark applies to the Creative product to a much lesser extent, since the NJM2114 is capable of delivering many times more current to the load than the LM4562 or OPA2134.

The main difference between X-Fi Prelude 7.1 and X-Fi Elite Pro is the switching of inputs and outputs. Creative offers one port for digital, line and microphone inputs, which are switched by four electromagnetic relays, as well as three line outputs, two of which use Creative's custom four-pin 7.1 speaker connector. The board has an AUX input, to which you can connect a TV tuner or other similar device. The rest of the input and output is concentrated in the external unit, connected via a 25-pin cord one meter long.

The external module, which allows both horizontal and vertical installation, has a pair of digital inputs and outputs for coaxial and optical cables, MIDI input and output, an analog input with RCA connectors, two 6.35 mm jacks for a microphone, electric guitar and other musical instruments. devices, a digital output for connecting Creative acoustics and a headphone output with a 6.35 mm jack and a 3.5 mm adapter. The block also contains some card controls: analog output volume knob, input selection buttons, EAX, CMSS 3D and Crystalizer enable buttons.

Auzentech has a completely different philosophy. Directly on the card the buyer receives full set standard connectors: four line outputs, line, microphone and AUX inputs, digital input and output, and a very useful port that adds a second microphone input and allowing to connect sound connectors of the computer case.


Unlike the Auzen X-Meridian 7.1, where the headphone output is served by a TPA6111A2 two-channel inverting amplifier, in the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 it is connected directly to the front output filter op-amp via 47 uF capacitors. Switching inputs, apparently, is carried out using a solid state relay ADG412. The card was supposed to get more functionality with the help of the X-Tension DIN module, originally developed for Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 and providing additional input for a dynamic or electret microphone (the type is selected by a jumper), SPDIF and MIDI inputs/outputs, plus the connection of Creative multi-channel digital acoustics, but in practice only the MIDI interface and SPDIF output turned out to be compatible with it.

Installation

In a large and beautifully designed box, there is a lot of empty space - primarily because the package bundle, frankly, is scarce. The box contains a good optical cable three meters long, a pair of transparent adapters for it, instructions in many languages ​​and a CD. No additional software is supplied with the card; only a driver for all operating systems of the Windows family is recorded on the disk.

By and large, Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 differs from Creative X-Fi Elite Pro only in digital-to-analog converters and input switching, so it uses minimally modified Creative drivers. The installer is greatly simplified: Flash animations are removed, there are no optional programs, no unnecessary questions are asked, so the process is quite fast and smooth. In addition to demonstrating the license agreement, it is proposed to select only the initial operation mode of the card and the number of connected speakers.

Already at the installation stage, you can see the difference in the positioning of the product. Creative's development installer offered a different order of card modes: Game, Entertainment, Audio Creation.

To review the card, Auzentech provided a beta driver dated November 11, which at the time of testing was not yet available on the official website. The driver is not digitally signed, but did not cause serious complaints either in Windows XP or in Windows Vista 64-bit.

At the end of the installer, no reboot is required and no annoying prompts to register are issued, the Auzentech Audio Console icon appears in the control panel, and a shortcut for Applications Volume Panel, which is automatically added to autorun ("Startup").

Unfortunately, there is no additional software in the kit, including such useful products as THX Setup Console and Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player. The latter, being installed from the Creative disk, also works with the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, but the THX console of this sound card does not see at all.

The Volume Panel call icon, which appeared in the system tray, is very convenient: on the left mouse click, the volume control window pops up, which also allows you to launch any of the installed applications Creative, and right button you can quickly change some basic settings. The application takes up no more than 9 MB of RAM.

The rest of the settings are concentrated in the Audio Console, familiar from SoundBlaster Live!, Audigy and X-Fi sound cards. The only noticeable difference is related to Dolby processing: instead of the Decoder tab, where the built-in decoder of the Dolby Digital and DTS multichannel stream was configured, a section appeared with completely opposite content.

The Auzen X-Fi Prelude can on-the-fly encode all output audio (for example, multi-channel audio in games) into Dolby Digital format, eliminating the need for the user to run bundles of interconnect cables around the apartment. What will happen to a signal already encoded in this format (for example, with an audio track DVD disc), one can only guess - there are no more decoder settings. The card will not support effects such as Dolby Pro Logic IIX, Dolby Virtual Speaker and Dolby Headphone, because they are replaced by CMSS-3D technology, and DTS CONNECT is promised to be implemented in early 2008. However, I have no doubt that all these technologies will simultaneously appear on Creative Technology cards.

Double-clicking on the Volume Panel icon launches the so-called console - an application that provides convenient control of the volume and other card functions. For each of three modes work is very different.

In entertainment mode, the console is stylized as a home system, with a volume control for a good half of the application window and inconvenient tone controls. The second half is occupied by an imitation of a multifunctional display with an indication of the current parameters and buttons for calling up the following settings: acoustic configuration, reverb effects, CMSS-3D, 24-bit Crystalizer, automatic adjustment volume, graphic equalizer, mixer, Dolby encoder, digital output frequency. Clicking on any of them removes a row of buttons from the screen, which is why you have to press the “Main display” button that appears below each time to go to any other section of the settings.

Given the slowness of the display metamorphosis, using such a program is not very convenient, but the biggest drawback is different. For cards from the Creative X-Fi family, the bass redirection and cutoff frequency settings are controlled in both the speaker configuration section and the THX settings panel. The latter is not licensed by Auzentech, and for some reason there is no corresponding button in the console under Windows XP, while in Windows Vista the Bass Boost button is in its rightful place.

In game mode, the Bass Boost function in the console has been preserved under Windows XP, but otherwise the set of functions is almost the same as in Entertainment mode.

The drivers implement saving the configuration of acoustics for each of three possible map modes. For three speaker configurations, the CMSS-3D state is remembered, and the set volume level is remembered separately for speakers and headphones and does not change when switching card modes. Unfortunately, this feature of the driver is not taken into account in the console of the music production mode.

The volume control on the monstrous panel, which fits entirely on the screen only at a resolution of at least 1024x768, remains indifferent to the change in volume caused by the transition from headphones to speakers or vice versa. In addition, the console does not respond to a change in the reference frequency of the clock generator, performed by the Settings button in its lower left corner. The actual set frequency will be displayed only after closing and reopening the application.

All sounds played through Windows will be set to the base sample rate set in the Settings window, and automatic frequency switching is implemented for ASIO. When Dolby Digital Live is enabled, the clock is set to 48kHz, and any attempt to change it results in blue screens of death, so be careful. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the 192 kHz sampling frequency is not supported by the card at all, even in Entertainment mode with stereo speakers, the sound is output at 96 kHz.

The list of recording sources is shown in the picture below. For digital sources, it is possible to turn on the bit accuracy of the recording, after which the option to select the format of the saved file disappears. If you then switch to any other signal source, then this item remains invisible. For some reason, the signal level for all inputs is set to zero by default, and adding it does not always work correctly. If you find that silence is being recorded in one of the channels, simply move the control to zero, and then set the desired level again.

Unlike Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, which has several additional line inputs via an external module, on Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 all analog inputs are combined with the Analog mix item, in the additional settings of which you can turn off the signal from Aux and Mic inputs. In Entertainment and Game modes, this is done from the console itself, while in Audio Creation you will have to use the Windows mixer tools. It also allows you to adjust the volume for each of the eight available playback channels.

The set volume difference between channels will be respected when changing the overall volume level (Master Volume). By the way, the maximum volume of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 line outputs is more than twice the generally accepted level of 2 V RMS and, according to the manufacturer, is 5 V. The standard volume is achieved when the Master Volume control is set to 85%.

I can't help but mention a small incident. At one point, after removing the card from the system unit for taking pictures, the console suddenly changed: separate "inputs" Line-In, Mic, AUX appeared, and the Bit-Matched checkbox began to be displayed for all recording sources, however, the operation of the card did not violated.

Audio Creation mode allows you to completely disable the processing of audio output by applications. To do this, activate the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option in the window that appears after clicking the Settings button, or on the corresponding tab of the audio console.

In my opinion, the disappearance of the equalizer, "crystallizer" and SVM is more than offset by an increase in the quality of music playback.

measurements

Objective testing of the card before listening allows not only to check the compliance of the card with the declared technical characteristics, but also to identify possible pitfalls, such as additional signal processing in the driver or various problems in the analog path. For these purposes, we used software package RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0.6 Pro, which outputs a set of test signals to the specified audio device, and then analyzes the recorded result. The basic principles of working with the program are set out in the official manual.

The measurements were carried out on maximum frequency sampling while recording in order to observe the widest possible spectrum. To test the analog part of sound cards, one of the line outputs was connected to the line input of the same or another (during the tests, we tried both options) card with an extremely short cable with mini-jack connectors. Full test reports can be accessed by clicking on the result summary tables. The measurements were carried out on a stand with the following configuration:

maternal Gigabyte board GA-K8NS Ultra-939
AMD Opteron 165 processor
RAM Corsair XMS-3200XL
Video card ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
HDD Hitachi T7K250
Power Supply Rosewill Turbo Series RT550-135-BK (550W)

Since sound cards are powered by the motherboard, the results of testing their analog path depend on the quality of other components in the system unit. For example, the lack of power stabilizers for operational amplifiers on the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro led to the fact that the measured signal-to-noise ratio even depends on which PCI slot the card is installed in, and only the connection of the power connector of the external unit to the cable from which it is powered also HDD, causes even more significant deterioration of this parameter. In this regard, the final measurements, the results of which are given below, were performed with the external unit turned off.

To obtain the most objective results, it is necessary to disable any possible signal processing in the driver, such as tone settings and software volume controls, special effects and format conversion. For cards based on the X-Fi audio processor, this is possible only in Audio Creation mode, provided that the "Bit-matched playback" option is enabled and the reference frequency of the card matches the sample rate of the reproduced signal. By choosing "Wave" as the recording source, you can make sure that the original (Reference) and the signals transmitted via DirectSound are completely identical. The MME interface (in the terminology of most programs this is "Wave output") does little processing, most likely adding uncorrelated noise (dithering).

Checking the absence of signal processing by the driver

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Auzen X-Fi Prelude

The measured level of distortion is also alarming. Compare with Creative X-Fi Elite Pro results.

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Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

More than 10 dB of benefit in all respects is suggestive. These measurements were carried out on the cards' own line inputs, and their quality has not yet been confirmed by anything. In addition, RightMark Audio Analyzer displays in the summary the average result for both channels of the card, while in Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 they differ very much, as can be seen from the spectrogram of non-linear distortions:

Auzen X-Fi Prelude

The left channel is clearly not all right, the level of the second, third and fourth harmonics is 10 dB higher than in the right. To identify the source of the problem, the signal from the Auzen X-Fi Prelude was recorded to the line input of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, which got along with the Auzen product only after long shamanic dances.

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For some reason, perhaps due to the formation of "ground loops", in such measurements the signal-to-noise ratio often deteriorates, however, the situation with the non-linear distortions of the Auzen X-Fi returned to normal - which means that the increased level of distortion was due to the fault of the Auzen X-Fi line input. Fi Prelude. Unfortunately, the true nature of the distortion of its output will now have to be examined through the palisade of noise.

Auzen X-Fi Prelude (write to Creative card)

We can state a very low level of the third harmonic and the complete absence of higher order harmonics. The Creative X-Fi Elite Pro formally still surpasses the Auzen X-Fi Prelude in terms of non-linear distortion, but the fifth and seventh harmonics are clearly visible in the spectrum, which, according to some studies, have an extremely negative effect on the sound:

Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

It makes no sense to compare the number of intermodulation distortions due to the too large difference in the noise level, it remains only to note that the fears about the large interpenetration of channels were justified - at frequencies above 1 kHz, Creative X-Fi Elite Pro is better in this indicator by as much as 15 dB.

Using the ASIO interface or channel duplication in the Audio Creation mode console, we can route audio to any of the card's four analog outputs. By the way, during ASIO operation, a strange tone at 12 kHz is visible on all measurements, the origin of which is a mystery to me.

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Auzen X-Fi Prelude

The Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card did not show a significant difference between the outputs, but the front output is still slightly better in all respects, except for channel interpenetration. These are the results that could be expected based on the topology and element base of the map. On the contrary, the rear outputs of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro are significantly worse than the front outputs in terms of distortion.

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Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

In conclusion, I cannot fail to mention a strange fact. Some time later, perhaps after listening to the card with headphones without an external amplifier, the level of low-frequency noise increased in the right channel of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 front output:

Auzen X-Fi Prelude

It turned out that the LM4562 operational amplifier behaved this way, replacing which with any other normalizes the situation. True, I could not notice this noise by ear, subjectively the sound of the card has not changed.

Listening

To compare the sound of sound cards of such a high level on acoustic systems, you need a very high quality audio path and an acoustically prepared room that we didn't have, so we used high quality Grado SR325i and Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones and a C.E.C. HD53R-80 and Monster Standard Interlink 200 interconnect cable.

The amplifier works in class A, has a low coefficient of non-linear distortion (according to the manufacturer, it is 0.009%, our measurements at a level of 2 V at the output showed a value of 0.019%) and easily copes with both low-resistance Grado (32 Ohm) and high-resistance Beyerdynamic (250 ohms). But the line outputs of sound cards with headphones work worse: the interpenetration of channels increases significantly, the frequency response changes at low and high frequencies, intermodulation distortions increase significantly. Thus, comparing sound cards when headphones are connected directly to the line-out is completely wrong - each of them will react to such a load in its own way.

Comparing the sound of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude with the C.E.C. and without, we can note the deterioration of the dynamics, as well as the clarity and size of the scene. The lower the load resistance, the more obvious the advantage of the amplifier became, including in terms of volume - the signal level at the output of the card drops significantly when a low-resistance load is connected and "walks" due to the impedance unevenness in frequency. It seems that some of the electrolytic capacitors near the output filters are installed in the signal circuit, because the same headphones connected to the FP_Audio output (which, as mentioned at the beginning of the review, is connected to the operational amplifier through a 47 uF capacitor), sound noticeably louder. Subjectively, the OPA2134 loses a little less detail in detail, so if you still have to use headphones without an amplifier, try connecting them not to the front output and output the sound to the desired channels using ASIO.

With C.E.C. the card demonstrated just a fantastic sound! When I heard this for the first time, I couldn't believe my ears - well-known things sounded so unusual. Scorpions - Holiday, Gary Moore - Always There For You, Too Much Rope by Roger Waters (I've been using these compositions for a long time to quickly assess sound quality) suddenly blossomed, sparkled with new details, struck with naturalness. I listened to my entire collection of test recordings, and in each I found nuances that had either not been noticed at all before, or were perceived differently. Interestingly, every nuance that sounded differently left no doubt that this was the right sound, and none of the "home-gaming" sound cards I've heard before was able to reproduce it with such naturalness and softness.

Auzen X-Fi Prelude creates an incredibly believable stage, filling it with the deepest bass and natural reverbs, positioning the instruments with the utmost precision. The sound of each of them reproduces the smallest details, which, coupled with a delightfully clear transmission of volume and distance, gives an unforgettable effect of presence. In reviews of the sound qualities of the LM4562 operational amplifier, it has been said more than once about total absence sound coloration, but I still did not expect such cosmic transparency. There are no barriers between the listener and the music, on high-quality live recordings it seems that you actually looked into the room where the concert is taking place.

The sound from the other line outputs served by the OPA2134 op-amp is also very good. The scene and detail at the mids is close to the LM4562, but there is no such amazingly voluminous bass, the high frequencies sound a little different. And yet, even this sound seems to me preferable to the sound of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro. The latter, in no way inferior in detail, has a bright, but somehow lifeless sound. On the other hand, the Creative card does a much better job with headphones connected directly to the line-out.

Taking the opportunity to change the op-amp without soldering, I decided to find out what is the reason for such an interesting sound of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude, for which I listened to it with two models of Texas Instruments op-amps that I had in stock. The OPA2132P sounded similar to the rear OPA2134, although I found it to be slightly worse at high frequencies, but closer to the LM4562 in terms of bass depth. But with the NE5532, the card sounded no better than many others - flat, bright, less detailed.

Without activating the Bit-Matched Playback option or switching to Entertainment mode, the sound remains clear, but loses its clarity and volume. Activating the Crystalizer effect gives a slight change in frequencies, but almost completely kills the scene, in my opinion, this advertised technology is relevant only in game mode, where the sound of the music deteriorates very much. Even with the EAX, CMSS-3D, SVM and Crystalizer effects turned off, it is unpleasant to listen to music, it is not dynamic and dull, and when CMSS-3D Headphones is activated, it is completely unbearable.

The gaming capabilities of the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, as expected, do not differ from Creative cards with the X-Fi audio processor, so I see no reason to talk about them in detail. I will only note that for HRTF processing it is necessary to use CMSS-3D, but, in my opinion, the quality of Creative's three-dimensional sound is greatly exaggerated. In the "2 / 2.1 Speakers" mode, the sound when the main character turns turns out to be ragged, with sharp volume transitions from channel to channel (interruptions can also be heard in the speaker test, where a helicopter circles around the player is simulated), and in headphone mode, the sounds are unnaturally muffled, transmitted incorrectly distance, the timbre is strongly distorted. The helicopter demo sounds great, but I couldn't hear the same positioning in games. What's more, the new blockbuster Crysis is much better to play with "2/2.1" than with "Headphones".

Summary

Auzentech has released a very interesting product that combines wide gaming features with great sounding music. Probably today it is the most "musical" sound source for a computer, but a number of flaws significantly limit its use. For example, the lack of speaker placement forces the use of similar receiver functions, making the quality of the analog outputs meaningless. The meaning of having a headphone output without a built-in amplifier is also incomprehensible to me. Finally, the card is not suitable for recording music due to the small number of inputs, the lack of a regular MIDI interface, and problems with the quality of digitization. So the circle of buyers who will be delighted with the acquisition narrows down to music lovers who prefer to listen to music from a computer.

Let's summarize the pros and cons of Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1

Advantages:

excellent sound on all analog outputs;
the ability to output multi-channel audio to a digital output;
the ability to connect both coaxial and optical digital cables;
the ability to connect the audio connectors of the case;
hardware support for EAX 5, DirectSound 3D and OpenAL;
Great optical cable included.

Flaws:

lack of sound adjustment in accordance with the placement of the speakers;
lack of bass management functions in Entertainment mode under Windows XP;
inability to play 192 kHz DVD-Audio;
many flaws in the console of the Audio Creation mode;
no buffer for headphone output;
sloppy implementation of the analog-to-digital converter.

P.S. On October 15, 2007, the second revision of the map went into mass production, perhaps some corrections have already been made to it.

Instructions for setting the maximum sound quality on a Creative X-Fi sound card.

2015-08-18T08:43

2015-0408-18T08:43

Audiophile's Software

Note: The information in this article is relevant for the Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card with PCI interface (as well as similar XtremeMusic, Fatality, etc.) and Windows operating systems from Vista to 10. The settings are focused on sound playback using a sound card connected to the output. cards. When using interfaces/devices/drivers/programs other than those specified in this article, the setup may not lead to the desired result.

Copyright (C) 2015, Taras Kovrijenko

Full or partial copying of the text is allowed.

1. Introduction

Note: since I would not like to repeat myself, and also so that you do not miss something important, I strongly advise you to read this article from beginning to end.

The first thing I want to say is that the sound card is worth the money. Given its capabilities (which many probably don't know about), $100 is a very reasonable price. Besides, other manufacturers simply don't have analogues of this card (in terms of multimedia capabilities).

2. Preparing for installation

It means that we have, as they say, "out of the box". This is actually the sound card itself, a pack of manuals and other waste paper, well, two disks: one for Windows XP, the second - for Windows Vista. "And what about Windows 7 and 8 users?" - you ask. "Take these two discs and carefully put them in the trash can" - I will answer. Well, at least put the waste paper back into the box and throw it away in the closet. Simply because he won't need anything from that disk. Of course, you can install software from these disks, but the fact is that, for example, drivers will have to be installed for XP, and software for Windows Vista. In this case, you will have to go for a number of tricks (like compatibility modes, etc.). And it's not a fact that in the end it will all work properly. Well, in addition, a lot of unnecessary garbage is installed from the disk.

Therefore, we will go the other way, downloading in one package latest versions software, already sharpened for new operating systems - say thanks to Daniel Kawakami.

3. Installing drivers and utilities

So, how everything should look initially:

Moreover, in the Start->Programs folder (and in Add/Remove Programs) there should not be anything related to Creative. If this is not the case for you, run Add / Remove Programs and clean it. After removing all the software from Creative, unpack the Support Pack, go to the \Audio\Drivers\SBXF subfolder and run the Setup.exe file. After selecting everything, as in the screenshot, click ok:

Having got rid of the Creative software and received a device without drivers in the manager, we reboot again (just in case).

And now we proceed directly to the installation. It is advisable to install the following components from the X-Fi Support Pack:

• Audio Drivers - latest sound card drivers;
• Audio Control Panel - provides basic sound card settings;
• Console Launcher - control center for sound card capabilities;
• Speaker Setup Console (THX) - a utility for calibrating 3D effects according to the position of the listener relative to sound sources;
• Volume Panel - a handy utility that starts automatically and allows you to adjust the volume directly in the tray and run other utilities from there;
• ALchemy is a utility that restores hardware environment effects in Windows Vista+.

We respond positively to the proposal to restart.

If everything went well, after starting the OS, a silver icon with a volume knob will appear in the tray, and in the start you will see a group of Creative programs:

And, of course, the system should already make some sounds at startup (if they are enabled).

4. Windows Mixer Setup

As I said, Microsoft, starting with Windows Vista, has greatly complicated the sound subsystem. At the same time, not only the functionality expanded, but also some “pitfalls” appeared.

Well, let's try to get around these stones.

Go to Windows Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Sound. This window will appear:

Disable SPDIF via the context menu (because this device in some cases can cause switching of the sound card reference frequency, which is undesirable), in the same way make our device (Creative SB X-Fi Speakers) the default device (if it is not is). Then double click on the device. Now check that the settings on the tabs match the screenshots:

5. Sound card modes

In order to maximize the use of X-Fi DSP resources for a wide variety of tasks, there are three modes:

• Audio Creation Mode - audio creation, and in our case - playback. Since only in this mode is available an accurate sound output without unnecessary conversions.


• Entertainment Mode - the mode is mainly designed for playback of multi-channel audio (including tracks for video films) with the imposition of various effects, channel conversion, etc.


• Game Mode - the name of the mode speaks for itself. Only here you get access to the latest developments in Creative 3D sound for an unsurpassed presence in today's games.

It is convenient to switch modes through the context menu of the Volume Panel:

The settings window (Console Launcher) appears when you double-click on the Volume Panel icon in the tray.

5.1 Audio Creation Mode and Music Playback

So, let's turn off everything superfluous:

Now a few words about setting up the foobar2000 player. Due to the unreliability of other interfaces (they really sometimes turn out to be not quite adequate), it is recommended to output sound through ASIO. Fortunately, this card has a fully functional ASIO 2.0 driver. All you need to do is install the foo_out_asio plugin (you can download it from the foobar2000 + plugins page), add an ASIO device in the plugin settings, and select it in the output settings. Pay attention to channel markings (useful for multi-channel systems).

Now you can enjoy pure sound, not spoiled by any "improvers" and other nonsense.

Another nice little thing is that the ASIO driver automatically switches the reference frequency of the sound card in accordance with the sample rate of the audio being played. For example, if you first played a track with a frequency of 44.1 kHz, and then you start a track with a frequency of 96 kHz, the reference frequency will switch, accompanied by a characteristic sound. Some people don't like it, however, this feature is a significant advantage, because only if the frequency of the material and the reference frequency of the card match, bit-by-bit playback is possible. In addition, now you most likely will not need a resampler.

But here it is necessary to make a remark - sometimes there are tracks with a sampling frequency different from those supported by the ASIO driver (I remind you: these are 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz). For such cases, you can add a DSP SoX Resampler mod to the chain (which can be downloaded on the same foobar2000 + plugins page). It will resample all frequencies that are not included in the list of supported ones (we specify them in the resampler settings) up to the specified frequency - in order to minimize quality losses, we will specify 96 kHz just in case:

5.2 Entertainment mode - watching movies

In this mode, some interesting features of the X-Fi signal processor open up to us.

Do you want to enjoy 5.1 sound of your favorite movie, but don't have multi-channel acoustics? No problem! After all, a person has only two ears, which means that with the help of two sound emitters it is possible to recreate absolutely any virtual source at any point around the listener, so much so that it will be indistinguishable from the real one!

Using special processing algorithms, the X-Fi chip converts multi-channel audio to 2.0 for acoustics or headphones (note that the algorithms for creating the surround effect in headphones and speakers are very different).

And now - about how we take advantage of these opportunities. First of all, let's start the Console Launcher:

Let's take a look at the main sections one by one.

In this section, you need to select the configuration of your speaker system, or headphones. Pressing the THX button opens the speaker calibration window. We are interested in the Speaker Position tab. The fact is that when using a two-channel speaker system (which most users have), the position of the listener relative to the sound emitters is far from always the same (worse, sometimes it is unstable, but nothing can be done about it). In order for the ambience algorithms to work, they need correct data about the position of the listener. In this case, you must specify the distance to each sound emitter and the angle of rotation relative to the central axis. If it is not clear, I will explain: I mean the angle between the two lines:

• a line connecting the listener's head to a point directly in front of his face.
• line between his head and sound emitter

The angle is counted clockwise (when viewed from above), the parameter value can take negative values.

So, if you want a 3D effect - take a ruler in your hands and go ahead - measure;)

On this tab, you can enable the effect of the environment - an amphitheater, a concert hall, etc. In case it is selected None, the Enable EAX Effects checkbox does not affect anything, but just in case, leave this option enabled.

This option is responsible for turn on x-fi CMSS 3D - an algorithm designed to improve the effect of the environment and the positioning accuracy of virtual sources. This function will be useful when playing multi-channel audio on 2.0 acoustics or headphones, or vice versa - for the so-called upmix - decomposing sound into several channels (for example, playing stereo recordings on a 5.1 system). If you turn it on when playing, say, stereo material through headphones, it will be of little use - except that some effect of virtual sound sources will be created directly in front of the listener, which, for example, does not sound very pleasant to my ears. But in any case, the choice is yours.

The famous (thanks to the eloquent marketers from Creative) X-Fi Crystalizer - sometimes it can give expressiveness to the sound, but at the same time it inevitably introduces a significant portion of distortion. Fans of "honest sound" of course not recommended. Although, by ear, it sounds very interesting when the slider is moved to the minimum - distortion in this case is almost imperceptible, but the effect is quite good.

Smart Volume Management - to some extent - the same Advanced Limiter in foobar2000, but with a larger pre-buffer. Since the DSP output is inevitably converted to a fixed-point format, care must be taken to prevent clipping, which is what the Creative programmers did. Seeing the excess of the permissible volume in a fragment of the audio stream, SVM underestimates its volume. The main drawback is compression (the volume balance between audio fragments changes significantly). Although, dynamic range compression is the second purpose of SVM. If, for example, you want to watch a movie at low volume at night (so as not to disturb anyone), but when the volume is lowered, quiet sounds cease to be heard - this is where the compressor will help. It will boost the volume of the quiet parts, bringing them to about the same level as the rest - and you can adjust the overall volume to the level you need.

But if there is no need for the above, I would advise you to turn on the effects (and play multi-channel sound incl.) - set the volume (Master Volume) not to the maximum, but to about 50% - usually this is enough to avoid distortion.

Here we see a conventional 10-band equalizer with an additional level control. If not needed, turn it off.

And this is the sound card mixer. Here you can enable playback from the line input, microphone, etc. Unnecessary sources are turned off (because the line input and microphone, for example, can make noise).

With a sound card - everything. As for the player, there are also some nuances here. First - the player should output the sound "AS IS". That is, all soft mixers must be disabled so that in the case of 5.1 tracks, for example, all 6 channels are directly transmitted to the sound card. For watching movies, I can recommend the MPC HomeCinema player and the ffdshow audio/video filters (included in the Sam CoDec Pack) . I would also like to write about their configuration in detail, but this will be later in another article. Below I will give the main points of setting up the sound output (the player and the ffdshow filter), and there - I hope you will understand:

5.3 Game mode - surround sound in games.

Without a doubt, Creative is the leader in 3D audio for gaming. It was Creative programmers who created a set of extensions for DirectSound3D, the so-called. EAX. You can read about this technology in the EAX FAQ article and Wikipedia.

The latest version of EAX at the moment is 5.0, but our card supports all versions up to and including the fifth one.

So let's get started with the setup. Some settings sections are the same as the Entertainment mode settings, so we won't go over them again.

This tab contains the main settings - speaker configuration (which must be set in accordance with the actual configuration of your speaker), SVM, EAX enable / control (meaning only environmental effects - reverbs, etc.). Mic Environment FX new feature, which allows you to apply effects to the microphone sound according to the environment in a 3D game.

Also, speaker placement calibration (THX) is extremely important in this mode. And I also advise you to pay attention to the Master Volume - in order to avoid distortion, it is advisable to keep this control in a position somewhere around 35-40%.

Of particular interest in this mode are the X-Fi CMSS-3D settings. When this feature is enabled (which is highly recommended for greatly improving the 3D effect in games), two new extensions introduced in EAX 5.0 become available:

• MacroFX- the effect significantly increases the realism of sound sources located in the immediate vicinity of the ear.


• Elevation Filter- the effect significantly improves the positioning of sources along the vertical axis (above/below the listener).

Parameter value On means to force the effect on for all sound sources (for which the effect is intended). By clicking on the Test button, you can run a small test of the effects of the environment.

Well, we are done with setting up the sound card. All that's left is the software setup. As I already wrote, unfortunately in Windows 7 programs do not have direct access to the hardware resources of the sound card through the DirectSound3D API. The only API that has access to hardware 3D sound is OpenAL. So, without hesitation, Creative set about developing the Alchemy utility that converts DirectSound/EAX calls to OpenAL. I will now tell you about its setup.

So, if you followed exactly all the instructions from the beginning of the article, you should already have Creative ALchemy 1.43.06 beta installed. It was not for nothing that I chose this particular version, because in some incomprehensible way the latest release version does not quite honestly perform its functions - it is obvious that EAX with its use is software, plus the MacroFX and Elevation Filter effects do not work.

So on the left we see a list installed games which are determined automatically. By moving the game to the right list, we automatically enable Alchemy functionality for it.

You can also add games manually. Let's take advantage of this opportunity. Install the RightMark 3DSound program and add the address of the folder with the executable file of the RightMark 3DSound Positioning Accuracy test utility (RightMark3DSound.exe) to the Creative Alchemy list:

Move the added program to the right list. Now the program can be launched.

The screenshot shows how you can recreate the sound source located behind the barrier, behind, to the right of the listener.

This program is a great opportunity to try out MacroFX and Elevation filter technologies. Turning these effects on and off, first try to bring the sound source in the program closer to the listener's ear, and then move it up and down along the vertical axis - you will feel the difference!

And do not be confused by the fact that the program does not include EAX 5.0 - most of the effects of this version are automatically applied to all sound sources, regardless of the version of EAX supported by the program / game.

Games are configured according to the same principle - the main thing is to add the address of the folder with the game executable file to Alchemy. If the game has the appropriate settings, they must enable EAX support. If there is no such option, there is an alternative: enable multichannel sound in the game. In this case, it will be converted to stereo by the sound card and you will get excellent sound positioning.

If you want to fully experience all the effects of EAX 5.0, I can recommend the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat. This game uses the OpenAL sound engine, which gives it direct access to all EAX effects (no need to use Alchemy) - You just need to enable EAX support in the game settings and select the SB X-Fi Audio device.

6. Epilogue

That's all I wanted to say about setting up the X-Fi XtremeGamer. I hope the information in this article was useful for you and now you can unlock the full potential of your sound card. Happy listening!

Any more or less big-budget game presents certain requirements to the player's technique - so that the processor is more powerful, the monitor is larger, the acoustics are of better quality. A decent sound card is also vital. Embedded in motherboards sound codecs, of course, fulfill their task, but you should not expect much from them.

With sound cards as separate boards, everything is dull. FROM EAX 5.0 only series cards work XFi from Creative, the rest is available only outdated specification EAX 2.0. As you can see, there are no or almost no alternatives to Creative products.

For some time now, the sound card market has entered ASUS. Not so long ago, she introduced a sound card Xonar DX- with new PCIe x1 interface, better components and support for all EAX effects. With all this, the novelty is not more expensive X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.

We have thoroughly tested Xonar DX and compared it to . It costs significantly more than the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, but only due to the presence of an external unit with connectors and a remote control in the package, so everything is fair.

Glossary

Frequency range- the frequency band that the source can reproduce. A person hears sounds with a frequency of 20 to 22,000 Hz. Sampling- the process of converting an analog signal into a digital one. Sampling frequency- a parameter showing how many times a second a sound wave is read. The higher the sampling rate, the wider the range of frequencies that can be recorded. For accurate sound pickup up to 22 kHz frequency sampling should be 44.1 kHz. DAC- digital-to-analogue converter, necessary to output sound to the speakers. ADC- analog-to-digital converter , required for recording. Signal to noise ratio- ratio of useful signal power to noise level. The higher this value, the less noise will be at the output. Beat in sound- the step with which you can take the values ​​of the sound wave. With a 16-bit processor, a wave can be divided into 65536 segments, with 24 bits - into 16,777,216.

Round 1: inside view

By 2005, Creative had lost the budget sound card market to built-in codecs. I had to come to terms with this, as a result, the company switched to more expensive solutions. As a result of such a change in course, the X-Fi (Xtreme Fidelity) chip saw the light, in terms of power it surpassed Audigy 24 times.

X-Fi has huge possibilities: four cores work with sound at once, they calculate streams in parallel; the number of effects and ways to process the audio stream is more than enough; while the power of the processor allows you to do all this in real time. Creative is especially proud of the X-Fi architecture - before the sound was passed through a rigidly defined chain of effects, with the advent of technology Audio Ring it is sent to the bus, to which only the required modules are connected. This approach not only offloads the processor, but also allows you to get rid of unnecessary effects.

Alas, there was a fly in the ointment: X-Fi series sound cards use outdated chips for outputting and capturing sound, nothing has changed since the Audigy. DAC (digital-to-analog converter) is responsible for sound output Cirrus Logic CS4382, which can work with class 5.1 acoustics, but is limited by a low sampling rate (96 kHz) when using multi-channel audio, and the signal-to-noise ratio is too low. The same goes for the ADC (analogue-to-digital converter). To ensure high quality recordings Wolfson WM8775SEDS too low scores. Like it or not, today the X-Fi line does not look so attractive.

ASUS Xonar DX is another matter. There is no revolutionary processor in this board, a solid chip from C-Media, and the chip Oxygen HD CMI8788 it cannot boast of anything special - its sound passes through a classic rigid chain of effects, delays in real-time processing are relatively high. But high-quality ADCs and DACs are attached to all this. Two chips are responsible for sound output at once: two-channel Cirrus Logic CS4398 and six-channel Cirrus Logic CS4362A. Together they can work with eight-channel acoustics and are head and shoulders above the solutions from Creative in terms of quality. Worth recording Cirrus Logic CS5361, which, compared to Wolfson, has a much wider range and significantly less noise.

The X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition board looks solid: black textolite and a glowing red logo will look good in a transparent case. The card is assembled to the conscience, the main processor is closed by a radiator. There are enough connectors on the card: there is an AUX In input for a TV tuner and an additional 4-pin power supply (the card works without it), in the center there is a connector for managing the power of the computer, for turning it on from the remote control, in addition, there are two outputs for connection of external panels from X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Elite Pro, but there are no standard audio connectors on the case. The I/O panel includes a game port, three speaker outputs, and one Flexi Jack that combines a digital output as well as a microphone input. The card is connected via the PCI interface.

The Xonar DX is very different from the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition. The board is half lower than the competitor, it connects via PCIe x1 interface and is compatible with low-profile cases (a special bracket is included in the package). Minus - chips are located on both sides of the board, which is to be expected, given the limited space. The Xonar DX has a slightly larger number of connectors: there is AUX In, S/PDIF In and an output to the front panel, on the I/O panel there are four outputs for acoustics and a Flexi Jack.

The disadvantage of both cards is that the cable connectors are located too close, it will be difficult to connect expensive wires with thick insulation. In addition, the equipment of the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Xonar DX is equally poor: only disks with drivers and instructions. ASUS only added the low-profile bar we mentioned and the S/PDIF adapter.

Table 1

ASUS Xonar DX Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition CPU ASUS AV100 XFi DAC Cirrus Logic CS4398 (24bit/192kHz/116dB), Cirrus Logic CS4362A (24bit/192kHz/112dB) Cirrus Logic CS4382 (24bit/192kHz/192kHz, 96kHz multichannel/114dB) ADC Cirrus Logic CS5361 (24bit/192kHz/114dB) Wolfson WM8775SEDS (24bit/96kHz/102dB) Number of channels 7.1 in analog and digital modes 5.1 analog, 7.1 S/PDIF Tire PCIE 1.0 PCI Outputs 4 x 3.5 mm jacks (front / side / center-subwoofer / rear), 3.5 Flexi Jack (microphone, S / PDIF), AUX-IN, S / PDIF, front panel output Game Port, 3x 3.5mm Jack (Front/Center-Sub/Rear), 3.5mm 3.5 Flexi Jack (Mic, S/PDIF), AUX-IN, 2x Expansion Panel Outs, Power Management

Round 2: endless possibilities

Connecting X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition starts with installing drivers and an impressive set of software. It is nowhere easier to make settings, the programs are all understandable and moderately convenient. It is enough to select the operating mode of the card (games, recording, entertainment), after which the necessary functional modules are connected.

During the installation process, so many different programs that a separate article could be dedicated to them. Let's talk about the most important ones. The card will be managed through Creative Console. The usual mixer and equalizer are available, but there are also much more interesting tabs - for example, 24-bit Crystallizer and CMSS-3D.

Let's start with the first one. The X-Fi processor is designed to work with 24-bit audio. This is all good, but in practice nobody needs it, because music is written using a 16-bit stream. To justify itself, Creative just came up with the 24-bit Crystallizer technology, which artificially expands and enhances the frequency range, the level is set as a percentage. The idea is not new, many sound editors can do this. One way or another, after such processing, the bass is enhanced, the highs become sharper, and the middle is denser. When listening to music, at first it seems that the sound really improves and becomes more assertive, but a little later you notice that the sound is smeared. The bass turns into a hooting mess, only the loudest tones stand out from the tops, the voice fades into the background against the background of the music.

The second technology proved to be more viable. CMSS-3D is an algorithm that allows you to get surround sound from a regular stereo track. When you turn it on, familiar songs are transformed, there is a complete feeling that you are in the very center of what is happening: either a guitar will sound somewhere behind, or a drummer will play on the side. Another plus of CMSS-3D is the ability to turn headphones into 7.1 acoustics.

Software ASUS Xonar DX pleases with its simplicity.

A few words about cinema: technology Dolby and DTS fully supported only under Windows XP. There everything works at the iron level and does not load the processor. But the drivers for Windows Vista will appear only at the end of the summer (developers are somehow not particularly in a hurry). Creative also offers its own music player, media file organizer and even a karaoke function.

ASUS does not have such a variety of technologies and software, but maybe it's for the best. All settings are collected in one window, where you will also have to choose the operating mode of the card - music, movies, games. ASUS did not reinvent the wheel and took advantage of the developments Dolby Laboratories, the recognized leader in the field of sound. I would especially like to highlight the algorithm for obtaining surround sound: if CMSS-3D from Creative impresses, then the work of Xonar DX, coupled with Dolby ProLogic literally knocks the tower down. At the first acquaintance with this technology, there is a strong desire to listen to the entire music collection. The technology has performed just as well. Dolby Headphone, she easily tucked Creative X-Fi into her belt. And here's why: if CMSS-3D overloads the headphones with low frequencies, then ASUS produces a light, airy sound.

Another trump card of Xonar DX is that the board perfectly knows how to position the sound and skillfully move it away. In terms of sound quality, the card from ASUS turned out to be cleaner than the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition, this is especially noticeable when multichannel acoustics are connected - honest 192 kHz make themselves felt, and there is much less noise. The newcomer is inferior only in terms of output signal power, it is difficult to shake headphones with a resistance of 64 ohms, an amplifier is needed.

Round 3: how does it work?

Putting both cards into gaming mode adds EAX settings, voice control, Creative disables 24-bit Crystallizer and EQ, and Xonar DX activates the DirectSound 3d GX 2.0(about it a little later).

Before the tests, let's explain why Creative has long been considered the only manufacturer of sound cards aimed at gamers. The sound in the games remained in the background for a long time: the steps of the characters sounded the same both on the grass and on the pavement, no changes were felt when moving from one room to another, the distance to the character could only be judged by the picture on the monitor. Technologies like Microsoft DirectSound and Aureal 3D supported only the reverb effect and a very small number of sound sources.

To spur interest in their cards, Creative developed the EAX technology. It allowed not only to change the sound depending on the conditions in the game, but also to calculate the distance to the sources. EAX support first appeared in 1999 in the cards of the series Sound Blaster Live!- then the technology made it possible to process up to 32 sources, was able to independently process effects, thereby significantly unloading CPU. To the exit XFi technology upgraded to version 5.0. Powerful processor taught how to work with 128 sound sources, take into account the surface of the floor, walls, ceiling, smoothly change the sound when moving from one location to another, handle obstacles encountered, and for complete happiness they added an impressive number of new effects.

One problem arose on the way to the popularization of EAX - one card is not enough to support the technology, games need to be sharpened according to EAX, and these are additional costs. In the past three years, a little over twenty EAX 5.0-compatible games have appeared - not many at all. But Creative was not upset by this, they are still sure that it is impossible to play without EAX. There is some truth in this, but EAX is not a panacea, in the same Call of Duty 4 did without this technology, while the sound is still great. And then Windows Vista came out, in which they got rid of hardware sound support completely, it can only be implemented through a software interface OpenAL. This move by Microsoft significantly undermined Creative's position in the market.

In general, Creative's policy regarding EAX is quite strict, the company, in principle, does not license older versions of the standard to third-party hardware developers. There is no trial, and ASUS went the other way: it's clear that the processor from C-Media is not powerful enough to process EAX 5.0 instructions, but the computer's central processor does an excellent job with this task. And here they are absolutely right - modern CPUs are quite powerful, there are two, three and even four cores that are just waiting to be loaded with something. The scheme of EAX support is as follows: as soon as we start the game, DirectSound 3D GX2.0 intercepts EAX commands, sending them to the CPU for processing, after which the calculated sound goes to the card and acoustics. O full support Nobody says EAX 5.0, but work with 128 sound sources and basic effects are guaranteed. The solution is not the most transparent, but it works.

Round 4: final battle

To test sound in games, we assembled a computer based on Core 2 Duo E6300 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz, installed two 512 MB memory bars and limited themselves to a video card GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB. The shock line of games was Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 4 and bioshock. The main thing that we were interested in was how well the Xonar DX would work with EAX and whether there would be a noticeable difference compared to the X-Fi. In order not to miss anything important, the sound of each passage of the level was recorded and compared.

First in line was BioShock. The game supports EAX 5.0 and features a variety of environments with complex environments. The first launch took place on the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition card. To heighten the effect, we first went through the level without EAX support, after which we turned it on. The difference amazed us. The sound changes radically. If without EAX everything goes in a general flow, then when processing is turned on, transitions from one surface to another are perfectly traced, the volume of rooms is felt - for example, steps in large rooms sound louder than in small ones. In rooms with carpets, the sounds seem to drown, while in empty rooms, on the contrary, they increase. You can clearly hear whether the enemy is in the same room as you or not, the distance to the sound source is easily determined. But the CMSS-3D technology clearly fails - it is impossible to understand where the source is in headphones.

Moving on to Xonar DX. First of all, we checked the settings, EAX remained available. sound from ASUS cards turned out to be completely different. While the competitor from the camp of Creative crushes bass, Xonar DX clearly highlights every echo. I was especially pleased with the Dolby Headphone technology - it clearly outperforms CMSS-3D. Now about EAX effects: there is a difference by ear. Xonar DX works with some lag, the passage of sound through the wall is not so clearly heard, the transitions from one room to another are sharper, the miscalculation of the splash of water is slightly different. Overall impression: you can't say that the sound of the Xonar DX is worse, it's just different.

Unreal Tournament 3 interacts with EAX much more intensively than BioShock. The results of both cards in it turned out to be approximately the same. In large spaces, when playing with headphones, the Xonar DX took the lead - thanks to more competent positioning.

We left Call of Duty 4 for dessert: there is no EAX support, so both opponents fought on equal terms. The sound in the game often loses momentum and is replete with high frequencies. With bass boost and 24-bit Crystallizer, the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition delivers a tight, lively sound that's much more like what you'd hear in a movie theater. The Xonar DX simply did not have the necessary filters to improve the sound, moreover, Dolby Headphone, the main trump card of this card, refused to work in the game.

Let's draw a line

ASUS turned out to be an excellent card, not only is it not inferior to Creative products in terms of sound, but often even surpasses it. When working with music or films, high-quality technologies from Dolby are used, which easily outdo all the achievements of Creative. But the most important thing is that Xonar DX really knows how to work with EAX 5.0. Not as polished as Creative's own cards, but in the heat of battle, you'll hardly notice the difference.

The Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty has a processor that the Xonar DX has yet to grow and grow. But everything else has become hopelessly outdated in three years. What recently looked impressive is now becoming history. Old ADC/DAC lose Xonar DX in all respects.

Creative has a lot of software, but it is often useless and unstable. For all the time of the tests, we received one full Windows rally and several blue screens. In addition, X-Fi boards do not have an output to a standard soundbar on the case, there is only support for expensive branded expansion panels.

Much more difficult is the case with the record. Creative has advanced software and full ASIO support. The X-Fi processor provides low latency real-time audio processing, and external panels with a large number of connectors make it easy to connect microphones and musical instruments. You can work with several channels at once - record both voice and instrument at the same time. But the restriction in the form of 96 kHz interferes. Xonar DX allows you to make better recordings, but you can forget about working with sound in real time.

Each sound card has its pros and cons. If you already have an X-Fi series card installed, then you should change it to Xonar DX only if you decide to buy high-quality acoustics. But if until now you have managed with built-in sound and you do not need to record music, then the Xonar DX will be an excellent choice.

Two in one

After installing a separate sound card, the built-in codec on system board won't go anywhere. It can be turned off, but is it worth the rush? There are several ways to use two cards at the same time. You can output different audio streams to different cards. For example, you are watching a movie, the sound goes through a discrete card. At the same time, someone wants to listen to music with headphones, then in winamp the sound output is set to the built-in codec, and everyone is happy. Another option is to use the main card to output sound from the game, and the second one to communicate via TeamSpeak through the headset. Convenient and practical.

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook is the only sound card with ExpressCard interface. Let's see how good it is compared to the integrated sound.

It's no secret that integrated sound cards are usually not of outstanding quality. Unfortunately, this is true not only for desktop computers, but also for laptops. In particular, in my personal Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 laptop, the headphone output is very noisy. In low-impedance and sensitive headphones (for example, such as the Creative EP630 and Philips SHE9500 we have already reviewed), interference caused by hard work disk and graphics adapter.

At the same time, I quite often use a laptop to listen to music through headphones, and this situation, of course, did not suit me. Unlike desktops, where you can install any sound card from dozens of existing models, laptops have limited expansion options. Therefore, when choosing a sound card for use with laptop computer have to focus primarily on external solutions with USB interface. However, they tend to be large in size, and many also require external power supply, which does not allow you to constantly carry them with you.

Some professional audio manufacturers - like Echo or EMU - make PCMCIA sound cards, but my laptop (like most modern laptops) only has an ExpressCard slot. This is what led to the purchase of the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sound card, which is the only sound card in the world designed to be installed in the ExpressCard slot. So, meet - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook.

Delivery set, appearance, interfaces

The card comes in a small box of traditional Creative design.

In addition to the sound card itself, the box contains a traditional set of waste paper in five languages, a terrible quality wired headset, a driver, and a very nice carrying case.

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook is almost completely hidden in the ExpessCard slot, only the “head” remains outside, on which there are three connectors: an output, an input and a connector for connecting the so-called Speaker Docking Module. This same module is required for analog connection of a sound card to 7.1 or 5.1 acoustics. It is not included in the delivery set, and the possibility of its acquisition in the territory of the CIS countries is questionable.

The card's stereo output is combined with a digital optical output, and the input (to which both a microphone and line sources can be connected) is combined with a digital optical input. Thus, the owner of a notebook X-Fi receives full set digital audio interfaces. In my opinion, when watching movies with a multi-channel audio track in Dolby Digital and DTS formats, it makes sense to output sound to an external receiver through the optical output. With this task Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook copes brilliantly.

Functions

Despite the name, the X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook does not include the Creative X-Fi chip (EMU20K1). First of all, this means that the card is not well suited for recreating the three-dimensional sound environment in computer games, but this is not important for a laptop, because mobile computers(even the most powerful ones) are not intended for games. More importantly, the X-Fi Xtreme Audio has higher quality digital-to-analog converters (DACs) than the built-in sound card. Creative does not say anything about the components used, but as far as I was able to understand while shoveling the Internet, the XFXA uses the CS4382A DAC from the highly respected company Crystal Semiconductor and the WM8775 ADC from Wolfson Microelectronics. If the DAC in terms of level is quite consistent with household Hi-Fi equipment, then the ADC is much inferior to it in quality (this theory will later be confirmed by measurements). The sound card supports two Creative technologies - CMSS-3D and X-Fi Crystalizer. The first of them makes the sound in the headphones pseudo-three-dimensional and is absolutely useless in real life. The second technology, in theory, is designed to significantly improve the quality of compressed audio (such as MP3), we will discuss it a little later.

Drivers & Software

The sound card was tested on a Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 laptop ( core processor 2 Duo T5250, 3 GB RAM, Intel GM965 chipset) running Windows systems Vista Ultimate. I want to note right away that the drivers supplied on the bundled disk are simply terrible. Firstly, they are very outdated, and secondly, the procedure for installing them takes no less than 1 hour and 15 minutes. I recommend that you do not even unpack this disk, but immediately download the new version of the drivers from the Creative website. The only note is that the version of PowerDVD recorded on the bundled disc is not installed separately. If you need it, you will first have to install all the bundled software, and then update the driver to the latest version. In general, Creative is not very willing to write drivers for their devices, new versions are usually released every six months or less.

Update as of 01/16/2009: after installing Windows Vista SP1, the sound card began to experience problems - for example, periodic "sticking" of the sound. As of January 2009, Creative has not yet released a driver version that is fully compatible with Vista SP1. In addition to the drivers themselves, you will need the Creative Console Launcher utility, since some sound card settings (for example, the analog input mode) can only be changed using it. Unlike other sound cards in the X-Fi family, the Xtreme Audio Notebook is limited to Entertainment Mode only. Game (Game Mode) and "creative" (Audio Creation Mode) modes are absent. The card does not support the ASIO interface and therefore cannot be used for professional audio work.

It is worth noting that X-Fi Xtreme Audio gets along well with the sound card integrated into the laptop, which allows you to perform various interesting tricks, for example, listen to different music together on one laptop.

measurements

It so happened that just at the time of writing this material, a professional external audio interface EMU 0202 briefly fell into my hands. I took this opportunity to conduct some measurements of the analog path of the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sound card using the well-known RightMark Audio Analyzer package.

Working mode: 16bit 44kHz

Noise level, dB(A)
Dynamic range dB(A)
THD, %
THD+Noise dB(A)
IMD + Noise, %
Stereo crosstalk, dB
IMD at 10 kHz, %
general performance		Excellent

As you can see, X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook shows excellent playback quality even in 16-bit 44 kHz mode, which is traditionally the most difficult for non-professional Creative sound cards. Let's check if the sound card suffers from forced oversampling at 48 kHz:

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook Line-Out

Working mode: 16bit 48kHz

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB
Noise level, dB(A)
Dynamic range dB(A)
THD, %
THD+Noise dB(A)
IMD + Noise, %
Stereo crosstalk, dB
IMD at 10 kHz, %
general performance		Excellent

Judging by the fact that the values ​​of intermodulation distortion have decreased by almost half, forced oversampling takes place. It is quite high quality, but in any case, when listening to music from a computer, it is better to use the SSRC plugin for your favorite player. Now let's check the quality in external loop mode by connecting the X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook's line output to its line input (16bit 48kHz):

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB
Noise level, dB(A)
Dynamic range dB(A)
THD, %
THD+Noise dB(A)
IMD + Noise, %
Stereo crosstalk, dB
IMD at 10 kHz, %
general performance		very good

As I expected, the input of the X-Fi Xtreme Audio is significantly inferior in quality to the output. And now the deadly number - measuring the quality of the Realtek HD Audio codec integrated into the laptop. Since the EMU 0202 was at my disposal for literally 20 minutes, I had to test the integrated audio using the X-Fi line input. Despite this, Realtek fully justified the hopes placed on it. :)

Realtek HD Audio Line Out

Working mode: 16bit 48kHz

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB
Noise level, dB(A)
Dynamic range dB(A)
THD, %
THD+Noise dB(A)
IMD + Noise, %
Stereo crosstalk, dB
IMD at 10 kHz, %
general performance

The advantage of X-Fi over integrated sound is obvious. At the same time, I would like to note the undoubted progress of the built-in audio cards: Realtek HD Audio is at least as good as Creative SB Live! ten years ago.

Sound quality (subjective listening)

Plugging the headphones into the audio output of the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sound card, I was pleasantly surprised by... the silence. No hissing, no buzzing, no "sounds of space" and other annoying noises - perfect! Compared to an integrated sound card, X-Fi delivers much cleaner and more detailed sound. Instrument timbres are transmitted more accurately. For example, when listening to Astor Piazzola's Five Tango Sensations by Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch Records, recorded in 1991), the strings became more like themselves. The increased resolution had a good effect on the sound of complex multi-layered rock compositions: on the Yes - Close To The Edge album, the instruments stopped falling into a mess.

Overall, the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sounds brighter and more detailed than the Philips CD604 desktop CD player (which uses two TDA1543A DACs connected in parallel). However, the Philips CD604 sound less dry, more exciting and emotional. It is worth noting the fact that when using headphones, Creative X-Fi provides a higher volume level than the integrated sound card.

Surprisingly useful XFi function Crystalizer. When it is turned on, the level of high and low frequencies is lifted, plus there is a significant compression of the dynamic range (the audio card artificially increases the volume quiet sounds). When listening to music, this only spoils the impression, but watching movies with a quiet soundtrack becomes much less tiring: you don’t have to listen hard all the time to make out the words of the characters. The effect is especially well manifested when using computer plastic speakers - "cheburashka".

In the dry matter

The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sound card has a lot of objective shortcomings, including the lack of a cable for connecting to multi-channel acoustics, poor driver support from the manufacturer, unsuitability for professional work with sound, low quality of the line-in and rather high cost (450 hryvnias or 90 dollars). In my opinion, almost all of these shortcomings are canceled out by the fact that the X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook is the only sound card in the world with an ExpressCard interface. At the same time, its analog output really provides very good quality sound. If you want great sound from your laptop but can't carry an external USB audio interface around with you, you simply have no other choice. Although, for my part, I have to say that if the headphone output in my laptop were less noisy, I would not even consider the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook as a purchase.