Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium not recommended
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:41 am
Long story short, I just broke a pair of very nice (for gaming) SteelSeries Siberia V2s thanks to the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium sound card.
To be more specific: after installing Creative Labs' "drivers" (46 MB is more than just drivers... Creative server gave me 40 kBps to dl all that with ) and extras, I ran the standard Windows 7 test to see if the card actually worked with Dolby DTS and Dolby Digital as claimed. All I got was dubstep-- I mean, error noises. Very LOUD error noises. The headphones were on at the time and while the whole experience was rather painful for me personally, it was apparently too painful for the headphones to bear, as their membrane(s) ruptured.
I've had the card for some time, but only now tested it because it's been behaving badly. It's been nothing but a pain in the bum this entire time; refuses to identify correctly, which means I couldn't install it with anything except Windows Update (a first), and Creative's audio console etc. did not work until a beta version came out about a year after purchase. The beta drivers from last December are the first Creative drivers that almost work with the card (the Autoupdate feature still failing to recognise the card). I'm sure the card is an okay piece of kit, but the Creative Labs software, in all its bloated .2 GB glory, is a nightmare.
So, I'm out some 90 euros for the card (which I will replace after this disaster) and 70 euros for the headset. 160 euros would have bought me an Asus Xonar Essence STX (which is a much nicer product AFAIK), so take heed.
Edit1: Got the replacement headset, sounds as good as new (obviously). Old set definitely busted.
To be more specific: after installing Creative Labs' "drivers" (46 MB is more than just drivers... Creative server gave me 40 kBps to dl all that with ) and extras, I ran the standard Windows 7 test to see if the card actually worked with Dolby DTS and Dolby Digital as claimed. All I got was dubstep-- I mean, error noises. Very LOUD error noises. The headphones were on at the time and while the whole experience was rather painful for me personally, it was apparently too painful for the headphones to bear, as their membrane(s) ruptured.
I've had the card for some time, but only now tested it because it's been behaving badly. It's been nothing but a pain in the bum this entire time; refuses to identify correctly, which means I couldn't install it with anything except Windows Update (a first), and Creative's audio console etc. did not work until a beta version came out about a year after purchase. The beta drivers from last December are the first Creative drivers that almost work with the card (the Autoupdate feature still failing to recognise the card). I'm sure the card is an okay piece of kit, but the Creative Labs software, in all its bloated .2 GB glory, is a nightmare.
So, I'm out some 90 euros for the card (which I will replace after this disaster) and 70 euros for the headset. 160 euros would have bought me an Asus Xonar Essence STX (which is a much nicer product AFAIK), so take heed.
Edit1: Got the replacement headset, sounds as good as new (obviously). Old set definitely busted.