Trying out the kx drivers on my Audigy...

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Lyquist

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I am trying out the KX drivers on my Audigy. I am doing this because occasionally my machine would lock while playing music and just squeal from the speakers. I hope that this can fix my problems. The most recent drivers from Creative are from 2003.

Lyquist
 
Well, tell us how they are. I, for one, would like to know how they compare to the "official" drivers.
 
I just hope that they remove my hard lock problem. It doesn't happen very often (about twice a week). It is a pain though.

Lyquist
 
The only oddity that I noticed with the KX drivers was that I had to change which port I plugged my speakers into...other than that I like the new drivers. At least they aren't from 2003.

Lyquist
 
The reason they do this is because the DAC (iirc) is superior on the rear channel to the front.
 
it's not an oddity. The site explains why. Apparently Creative used some so-so DACs for the front speakers/amps. They used some higher quality DACs for the rear speakers. The kX people swap the signal in order to get a higher quality sound.

edit: beaten by a few minutes.
 
Mister X said:
That only applies to the live cards. ;)
Click to expand...

I have an Audigy and I had to swap the ports...so I don't think it is exclusive to the Live.

Lyquist
 
if i use the kx drivers i'll actually have better sound?
i have an audigy 1
 
It'll be subtle, but noticeable, depending on what you are listening to. I noticed an improvement in MP3's and DVD but not so much gaming. Keep in mind that kX doesn't support hardware acceleration so any type of hardware gaming is out the window. This may or may not affect you.

kX also gets kudos for a very well designed driver and installation package. Very easy to install and uninstall. The only gripe I have against them is the graphics on their icons are a little too "cute" for my taste, but to each his own.

Because of the ease of install / uninstall it's very simple to try the kX stuff and see what you think.

disclaimer: because I was unable to do an A/B test on the two drivers, everything said here is subjective. That said, the difference was there, but would probably be hard to pick out on a blind test. Hardware used was a SBLive! on a P42.53.

 
Lyquist said:
I have an Audigy and I had to swap the ports...so I don't think it is exclusive to the Live.

Lyquist
Click to expand...

How about you understand what I meant before you stick your foot in your mouth? :p
The rear channels on Live cards were serviced by a slightly better DAC.... all of the Audigy series cards have used a single multichannel DAC so the whole point about better sound from the rear channels does not apply to those cards. ;)
 
Mister X said:
How about you understand what I meant before you stick your foot in your mouth? :p
The rear channels on Live cards were serviced by a slightly better DAC.... all of the Audigy series cards have used a single multichannel DAC so the whole point about better sound from the rear channels does not apply to those cards. ;)
Click to expand...
aww man i was hoping this was true
i wanted to try some stuff to make my audigy sound better
besides using kx drivers anything else i can do?
 
get a mediaplayer that supports resampling and set it to resample to 48khz. if you don't than the audigy will resample that audio for you (whether you like it not) and it will do a crappy job.

foobar 2000 will resample and with some additional plug-ins you can get winamp to resample too.
 
ok i set foobar to resample at 48k
it still shows the mp3s running at 41.1k is that normal?
 
like Mister X said, it's telling you about the file. the mp3 file is sampled at 44.1khz and foobar will be resampling that to 48khz and sending it off to the soundcard.
 
Is anybody using the KX drivers? So far they are working out fine for me. I haven't had a system crash since using them, but time will tell.

Lyquist
 
I've been using them for about 6 months now.. they work great. the kx dsp screen is awesome because you can re-route the path the sound takes, so you can basically capture/record or output anything you want to wherever you want.
 
I've been using kX drivers for over a year now on my Audigy 1. I haven't ever considered going back to Creative's drivers; not because of audio quality, but simply because of relability and bloat. I never liked the way creative tried to stuff a whole bunch of extra software down my throat with their drivers, and I've never had crashes due to kX drivers. Though I must say I perceived slightly better quality when switching to kX drivers, it was quite possibly just that: perceived and not real.

Conversely, setting up things like microphone input and miscellaneous audio settings aren't as simple with kX drivers. Its worth taking the time to learn, because kX drivers are easier to work with, even though more complicated due to being targeted at musicians. All the settings you need are right there in the mixer window. Besides, they have very good step-by-step guides on their site to get you through the most common ails.

Summary: I have had nothing but reliability from the kX Drivers. It gets my vote.
 
yeah... i already installed it. been to their forums and done some reading.
 
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