I have the Steelseries 5h v2, I upgraded to them from the Falat1ty's. The sound quality is by far and away superior. The build quality is exceptional, I've had them since last November and have been to 1 I-Series with them, they are still in as-new standard. The cable is very well strong, with some form of material binding around the wire and it has survived being ran over by my chair several times. The cups are very comfortable on the ears and they don't start to ache after several hours gaming. I use them with the Creative Xtreme Gamer soundcard and am very happy, i have no intentions to replace either untill they bite the dust. On the whole, they have convinved me that i will stick with Steelseries in the future. Hope that helps.
Hey storm20200, I seem to remember my Medusa Pro 5.1s having discrete drivers in each cup (front, centre, rear and sub in each). This of course requires tiny drivers which = rubbish sound. It's wierd that the CPC mag and forums were always pro X-Fi, but Bit-Tech seems almost universally pro Xonar. The way I see it is: X-Fi adds lots of useful things for playing games (CMSS-3D, EAX5, etc) which the Xonars don't have, whereas the Xonars have superior DACs and support TrueHD, so are better for movies and music.
The additional features Creative cards offer are basically dead now. Oh, and let's not forget the horrific drivers Creative make (if they make... took years to make proper Vista drivers). I'd get a Xonar over an X-Fi any day. Oh, wait, I actually did!
I've recently switched to using a set of Razer Carcharias and love them to bits. Very comfortable with a good quality braided cable.
Doesn't matter the damage has been done, people either already hate them or are a new creative customer, hence most people's pro xonar views
It's more of the fact that the X-fi cards didn't really bring an amazing amount to the table. And for $90 at least a coax out.
anything besides gaming xonar is the superior card over creative, and though im a dedicated gamer, I listen to music while gaming, and the xonar can emulate the EAX or w/e thing that creative cards have. My friend has the creative x-fi titanium which I almost bought, and when I compared my headphones on my pc with his pc, music is better on mine, but directional sound for EAX games is better with his. Really think the xonar has more to offer as an all-round card.
Yeh the same I love my music, but I'm after some of these for that http://www.sightandsounduk.com/uploads/products/extras/large/br2av.jpg
