Questions about X-Fi Xtrememusic

[Lyrids]

First off I just want to say that this thing sounds AWESOME. I was skeptical about the hype and was kind of worried that my speakers wouldn't be able to take full advantage of them (Logitech Z-5300's).

Anyway, on to my questions. I've read a bunch of reviews and understand that the X-Fi offers a plethora of options like the Crystalizer, CMSS, yada yada. What feature is good for what? For example, I've heard that the CMSS function is good for headphones users but is it good for anything else? Basically, what should I turn on and off when I watch a movie, listen to music and play a game.

Only problem (if you can call it that, I'm assuming I'm just doing something wrong) is that when I listen to music using iTunes I only get audio coming from the front left and right speakers. I have it set to 5.1 and when I pop in a DVD it plays through all five speakers. Anybody?

 

[strid3r]

Only problem (if you can call it that, I'm assuming I'm just doing something wrong) is that when I listen to music using iTunes I only get audio coming from the front left and right speakers. I have it set to 5.1 and when I pop in a DVD it plays through all five speakers. Anybody?

The DVD audio is encoded in 5.1, the music is not (it's stereo). You can use plug-ins and other algorithms to force it your other speakers. CMSS does this (at least on the Audigy series), and some media players (Foobar2k, Winamp) do this as well.

 

[Firecrotch]

like strid3r said, music is in stereo so in order to get it to play through all of the speakers you should just turn on CMS-3D, use stereo surround and turn it to 50%. that way all the speakers play music (that is if you want to hear music from all speakers) For games leave CMS-3D off.