Legit Reviews

Hi,

A question regarding soundcards and speakers: I am planning to buy a new one. At present I have a creative X-Fi Xtreme Music, and am not satisfied with it. My present speakers are the Altec Lansing FX-6021, which has quite a reputation amongst audiophiles.

My problems with X-Fi:

1. Poor bass representation: Too muddy and boomy. I prefer tight and well defined bass to rumbling and out-of-control earth shaking bass. Reason? I don't listen much to Rap/Hip-Hop or bass dependent genres, although I do listen to trance and dance music, where I love to hear a tight and punchy kick drum, not a bloated boom all over the place.

2. Mids and Highs are fatiguing to the ears: I don't know if it's the crystallizer, but indeed, the enhancements made to the mids and highs by this card is unbearable for more than a half hour or so. There's a fine line between sound that sounds high in fidelity, and sound that fatigues the ears. This one fatigues the ears....the 'chalk screeching on a board' frequencies are over present, and the 14000Hz professional gliss is missing.


What I'm looking for:

1. Pure and natural sound: Like sound produced by units in professional recording studios - Cards which are 100% neutral in acoustic treatment
and represent sound without any coloring or degradation. Sound as is, period. (M-Audio, Mackie, Lynx, are these the ones for such requirements?)

2. No bass booms, rumbles and bloats. But I don't mean that bass shouldn't be there. Of course it should be present, but it should not be exaggerated, rather crisp and tight.

3. Hi quality and non fatiguing Highs and Lows. This is crucially important. After all, I want to be able to listen to music all day long without ear
fatigue.

I'm willing to change both my soundcard and speakers, provided they fit the bill above (You can suggest both cards and speakers).

Please feel free to suggest me some makes, money no bar.

Thanks.

No experience with them, but these are some of the best as I was told.

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/

Other sound equipment ....
I used a Mackie VLZ mixing board,
2 1400 watt and 2 2800 watt Mackie amps, and 8 Electrovoice cabinets.
Nobody around here with a mobile setup could match my sound.
And I was using Sound Blaster Live cards at that time.

P.S. And chics digged it!

If the x-fi is setup properly, it shouldn't be messing with the bass much, I don't think you'll see much of a difference with a different sound card. Disabling the crystallizer and any DSP effects, setting all the speakers to full range, and disabling any bass redirection should do it.

I don't have any experience with those speakers, but with a quick glance at their product page, they look quite nice.

DL126 wrote:No experience with them, but these are some of the best as I was told.

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/

Other sound equipment ....
I used a Mackie VLZ mixing board,
2 1400 watt and 2 2800 watt Mackie amps, and 8 Electrovoice cabinets.
Nobody around here with a mobile setup could match my sound.
And I was using Sound Blaster Live cards at that time.

P.S. And chics digged it!

I have a friend who has the Layla and he swears by it!
He uses it for digitally recording bands in a studio he built in his basement.
He gets some excellent recordings, definitely CD quality!
His speakers are Polk powered by a Carver Amp, cant ask for much better!

I know there are different settings for quality on my X-Fi gamer.

Creative Audio Console > Mode Tab... there are entertainment, game and audio creation modes. Each makes a great difference in the sound. I use Game mode most of the time (for gaming, movies, music)... but with some sources, entertainment mode sounds better. Try playing around with the different modes and see if you find one to your liking.