Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Internal Sound Card with THX - $135 shipped!

The hardocp reviews seemed to be unbiased to me, I actually was reading that a few days ago.. they gave this the gold [H] award so that was one good reason why I just picked one up :D
 
Just FYI, there is no way to switch between headphones and analog out (speakers) without physically disconnecting the headphones on the X-Fi Titanium HD. This might be an issue for people who keep their computer under a desk, etc. Creative doesn't like to advertise this fact but it's something that potential buyers should know BEFORE they purchase the card.
 
bmt22033 said:
Just FYI, there is no way to switch between headphones and analog out (speakers) without physically disconnecting the headphones on the X-Fi Titanium HD. This might be an issue for people who keep their computer under a desk, etc. Creative doesn't like to advertise this fact but it's something that potential buyers should know BEFORE they purchase the card.
Click to expand...

That doesn't seem to be a huge problem at all, why don't you just use an audio splitter for that?

Or better yet, just get a $1 radioshack audio extension cable if the X-Fi didn't come with one, and plug the headphones up on top of your desk, that way you can just unplug the headphones jack from the new extension cable up on your desk, and it will essentially disconnect the entire thing connecting your headphones to your computer.

Seems it would be very easy to fix your little problem :)
 
Dylan80 said:
Or better yet, just get a $1 radioshack audio extension cable if the X-Fi didn't come with one, and plug the headphones up on top of your desk, that way you can just unplug the headphones jack from the new extension cable up on your desk, and it will essentially disconnect the entire thing connecting your headphones to your computer.

Seems it would be very easy to fix your little problem :)
Click to expand...

I haven't personally tested that approach but my understanding based on reading the posts in this thread is that having something plugged into the headphone jack on the card automatically mutes the analog out for speakers. Several people, myself included, asked why they didn't implement some kind of software switching between the two outputs and a Creative rep responded saying that it was an intentional design decision. I was interested in the X-Fi HD but after reading the Creative forums, I decided to go with the Asus Essence STX.
 
thanks for the heads up OP. the $100 X-Fi Titanium (original, non HD) i bought last week from Best Buy is going back. i'll gladly pay $35 more for this card.
 
Ever since Vista and the changes Microsoft made to Windows, internal sound cards are less of a concern than they used to be.

IMO, unless you know that you positively need an internal sound card or love your EAX 5.1/7.1 setup for gaming, it's better to go with an outboard DAC. This is especially true if most of your time is spent wearing headphones. The sound quality is almost certainly superior in an outboard DAC and you don't have to worry about drivers.

All that aside, it's a pretty sweet sound card and the price is great.
 
I have always just used my onboard audio on my last few boards and I have actually been pleasantly surprised by them (as far as I can remember they were just using a realtek audio chipset). Currently I am using a evga 680i mobo, am I really going to notice a big difference going to a sound card? I am about to pull the trigger on a new SB mobo, just waiting for more options to be re-released.
 
everyone's ears are different, but i noticed a huge difference going from on-board Realtek to the X-Fi Titanium while gaming. most notably in Bad Company 2.
 
true or false? I have heard that having a sound card (like other addon cards to replace onboard features) makes your CPU more efficient because it frees up CPU cycles because the processing is happening on the card instead... anyone able to verify?
 
thebaest said:
I have always just used my onboard audio on my last few boards and I have actually been pleasantly surprised by them (as far as I can remember they were just using a realtek audio chipset). Currently I am using a evga 680i mobo, am I really going to notice a big difference going to a sound card? I am about to pull the trigger on a new SB mobo, just waiting for more options to be re-released.
Click to expand...

It depends what you're driving with it. If you have a decent pair of headphones, you will likely notice a difference, esp. for music. Gaming as well, depending on your onboard chipset. The quality of onboard has improved substantially however. And with the CPU horsepower available these days, CPU offloading is almost a non-issue. But, YMMV.

People raised valid points:
1. An external DAC is something you can definitely look at. The uDAC seems to be popular in this price range.
2. With the change with Vista/Win7 using openAL to enable EAX is more of a pain half the time.

Yeah, the issue with the plug being in would be be an inconvenience for me, I'd hate to have to go behind the computer half the time to switch outputs. For something at this price range, I'd want it to be easily configurable. The DAC on the Titanium is said to be pretty good, however.
Edit: I also saw this has swappable op-amps. Good to toy around with if you want to tweak the sound. This is probably a good cheaper alternative to the Xonar Essence.

These days, I've been steering people towards the Xonar DG for basic 2.1/Headphone usage if they absolutely need a sound card. Good bargain AR. But, I also detest Creative as a company, horrid drivers, customer service and their fiasco with Daniel K. and I've owned almost every Creative card since the AWE64 days !
 
Last edited:
thebaest said:
true or false? I have heard that having a sound card (like other addon cards to replace onboard features) makes your CPU more efficient because it frees up CPU cycles because the processing is happening on the card instead... anyone able to verify?
Click to expand...

it used to matter, however:

CPUs today are insanely powerful vs the old P3 and P4 CPUs of the past
Most audio from console ports are done internally via software (CPU), so a soundcard won't be able to do much :(
 
I would be all over this but I need the coaxial RCA SPDIF output. Why the hell creative decided to axe this for it's current lineup and only offer optical is beyond me ~ I ended up with a forte which is a standby favorite though.
 
I've given this shit company way too much of my money in the past, i would never buy another Creative product again. My X-fi sits in a box where it belongs.
Overpriced garbage hardware along with uncooked, unsupported garbage software.

Meanwhile charging customers for added driver support for things like DTS and DD shows what kind of people we're dealing with here, I cannot fathom how these guys had the monopoly they've had in the sound card arena.

I am currently using the onboard thru my video card and while its not perfect i do get true 5.1 surround pc gaming via hdmi and i don't have to pay extra for it.

Ty AMD, Ty Nvidia.

Creative, worst company ever.

Just say no.
 
I apologize, i didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Thx to the OP for posting this for those who are interested.
 
fociz said:
I've given this shit company way too much of my money in the past, i would never buy another Creative product again. My X-fi sits in a box where it belongs.
Overpriced garbage hardware along with uncooked, unsupported garbage software.

Meanwhile charging customers for added driver support for things like DTS and DD shows what kind of people we're dealing with here, I cannot fathom how these guys had the monopoly they've had in the sound card arena.

I am currently using the onboard thru my video card and while its not perfect i do get true 5.1 surround pc gaming via hdmi and i don't have to pay extra for it.

Ty AMD, Ty Nvidia.

Creative, worst company ever.

Just say no.
Click to expand...
Neither AMD or nVidia include a DAC on their GPU... so unless if you have a decent reciever with HDMI input, it wouldn't really matter :p

Of course, I never liked creative over their drivers (different issue for me), and by the time they finally came around to updating them, I had already went mITX and gotten a uDAC2...
 
i don't know, but i'm willing to spend $35 to find out. in [H]'s review Earl Keim compared it to the Titanium Fatality Pro which is essentially the X-Fi Titanium with Xram. here's his impression comparing the two:
Earl Keim said:
When comparing the Titanium HD to Creative's last high end consumer card, the X-FI Titanium Fatality Professional, there is simply no contest. The Titanium HD sounded better in every listening test we performed. Simply put, the sheer audio fidelity blew the older Titanium Fatality away. We used the Titanium Fatality for two years, but after installing the Titanium HD, there is no going back, ever. The only thing we miss about the Titanium Fatality is that is has 7.1 analog as well as optical outputs. The Titanium HD only has two analog outputs and optical in and out.
Click to expand...
 
Porter_ said:
i don't know, but i'm willing to spend $35 to find out. in [H]'s review Earl Keim compared it to the Titanium Fatality Pro which is essentially the X-Fi Titanium with Xram. here's his impression comparing the two:
Click to expand...

lmk how that works out i also have non hd version and can't decide if i want this or not
 
I have a 35 pair of speakers, and a 40 pair of headphones, I feel this would be overkill for my setup.
 
I need something that I can set to have full-time reverb in sound environment settings like my Audigy 2 did since I use headphones and it doesn't sound right without it, and the old EAX console is not supported past XP, can this do that?
 
Synful Serenity said:
I need something that I can set to have full-time reverb in sound environment settings like my Audigy 2 did since I use headphones and it doesn't sound right without it, and the old EAX console is not supported past XP, can this do that?
Click to expand...

you might have better luck asking this question here as there are many X-Fi Titanium owners posting in that thread.
 
Does Creative make a "Good" 5.1 speaker system that works with this card? Optical in on bass?
 
I bit. I will give a mini review when it arrives next week. I'm seriously sick of on board.

I will pair this with a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 set.
 
I bit too. And I just got a new in-box Titanium Champion from Ebay a month ago for $140. I would have bought this then if the deal was available at that time. Guess the Champion is going back on Ebay...
 
I want this card. But my 3yr old Asus XONAR DX is just holding up too well. Creative CMSS beats Dolby Headphone. But DH is doing well for my AD700s. I'll hold out for the next generation.

Amazon has no tax and free shipping without a Prime account. Bestbuy has tax.
 
I love my Asus Xonar Essence STX. I regularly switch between speakers and headphones and it is awesome that I can do it through the software. Drivers are small as well compared to the 100+ mb bloated creative ones that they never update.
 
I would not put a creative product in my system again if they sent me this card for free. Their drivers are terrible! They always get good reviews when their products come out but soon you are having to use modded drivers for various reasons. Thank the heavens for people like DanielK and U-Pax-my X-fi would be a paperweight now were it not for their drivers.
 
Last edited:
jzodda said:
I would not put a creative product in my system again if they sent me this card for free. Their drivers are terrible! They always get good reviews when their products come out but soon you are having to use modded drivers for various reasons. Thank the heavens for people like DanielK and U-Pax-my X-fi would be a paperweight now were it not for their drivers.
Click to expand...

Irrelevant. This card was designed for Win7, having fixed their problems from the early Vista era.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Irrelevant. This card was designed for Win7, having fixed their problems from the early Vista era.
Click to expand...

You may think its Irrelevant but many of us don't forget the past so easily. I do not want to hijack this thread so this will be the last comment in it but a person in the review thread for this card said it best:

I'm really sorry to have to say this, but this review is possibly the worst one done by Hcp
The reviewer completely forgot history here, and even more sadly, Creative hopes all of you have as well!

I will never forget the driver debakle when vista came out, an d the legal threats Creative made to a driver kidder that found how to make most of the cards features work again, as it turned out that creatives drivers were not so crippled after all, as creatives plan was to make us all buy a new card with these features enabled.

I have never paid anything to creative since, and it would take a miracle, not a re-release of a 5 year old card with a new amplifier and a couple of different capacitors to make me give creative my money again.

There used to be 3 reasons why anybody purchased a creative card. One was hardware acceleration that made a difference to fps. Two, amazing effects that were not available with any other card. Three, sound quality.
From what I see here, we are still left with a software only card, with no acceleration possible, and sound effects that everybody else's card can do just as well. And lastly, the total bloated nature of the drivers that are useless without all the software apps.
Click to expand...
 
jzodda said:
You may think its Irrelevant but many of us don't forget the past so easily. I do not want to hijack this thread so this will be the last comment in it but a person in the review thread for this card said it best:
Click to expand...

It's irrelevant in regards to this particular card, not to the perception of Creative as a whole.

It's a shame how Creative handled things 4-5 years ago, no doubt. This card, however, is new and so are the drivers. From every pro review and user review I've read, none complain about driver incompatibility.

If there are issues, I will send my card back for refund. If not, then let's hope the trend continues.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
It's irrelevant in regards to this particular card, not to the perception of Creative as a whole.

It's a shame how Creative handled things 4-5 years ago, no doubt. This card, however, is new and so are the drivers. From every pro review and user review I've read, none complain about driver incompatibility.

If there are issues, I will send my card back for refund. If not, then let's hope the trend continues.
Click to expand...

Well I wish you luck with it. Hopefully this represents a change for the better for creative. I would not be able to consider this card anyway because it has analog 2.1 and I want to be able to use the 5.1 analog to my receiver.
 
Creative=fail.

Sorry i don't easily forget and i could give two shits how good their drivers are for this new card, like we should be rejoicing that these douche bags wrote a driver that actually works for a newly released product?..

It's more than the product, its about having pride, integrity and giving a shit about their customer which Creative has never done.

Not getting a dime from me.

New video card+receiver with a DAC via HDMI=better than anything Creative's overpriced, non-supported, steamy turd in a box could ever provide.

That's simply my opinion, no offense to anyone who keeps supporting these assholes, i just refuse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top