Hardware Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Tianium HD Review

aside from my previous question(s) anyone know where I can find 7.1 music?

 

Hi everyone! i've downloaded the samples from linn website, from mp3 320 to studiomaster, listened to them very carefully, and the diference is not earth staggering,... is very subtle and only discernible between the mp3 and the highest quality versions...
I've a X-fi fataly pro (all the crystalizer crap turned off, no eq), connected to a cambridge audio azur 650A and a pair of B&W 684 floor-standings.
would my sound improve if i buy a xonar essence stx?

 

Why havent we come out with like an 8.2 standard? I feel this would be the ideal setup for surround sound effects especially if movies and what not was setup for it.

so you would have;

Front Left, Front Center, Front Right
Side Left, Side Right
Rear Left, Rear Center, Rear Right
and then one sub below the front center and a rear sub below the rear center.

 

The sound waves from bass frequencies are so large that the direction it comes from isn't an issue, it tends to fill the room anyway.

Imo the front center speaker is superfluous anyway, it's only there to make voices sound clearer in cinemas, in a lot of setups it sounds better coming from the front left and right. Correctly positioned stereo speakers are capable of creating sounds that sound like they are coming from the center anyway.

Plus think of the wiring and how you'd explain the need for it to your other half. 5.1 is often tricky enough to get set up right.

 

actually or at least for myself and a few other people that we have had this discussion feel that you can do positional sound even with bass for rear and front explosions unless you have it to close to a wall or corner then yes you cant make heads or tails of it as its muffled and you get a boomy bass. and I can certainly hear a difference between my center and left and right fronts, good example is in saving private ryan they are down in a fox hole and you hear them talking in the center channel since thats where the camera is positioned and the left and right speakers has artillery fire.

 

oh as for the misses if I had a misses she would be into what Im into or at least being a movie buff, if she wasnt ya it wouldnt work out lol.

 

If the sub is positioned properly so that you can't tell where the bass is coming from when you close your eyes, then all the positional signals will come form the surround and the bass will just fill in the low end. The positional audio will be just as effective. On the other hand the sub frequencies that you don't hear might be more effective if you could feel an explosion from behind.

I see our point with private ryan but generally all the main dialogue comes from the center unless specifically told otherwise, I guess i'm getting used to the center channel but I still say that if it was well mixed you could still get the same effect from correctly positioned stereo speakers.

 

yeah nothing should get between true love, whether it's for positional audio or that of a good woman (/man/animal/mineral/vegetable - just to be sure of being politically correct)

 

ya I just think that it would be cool that when someone say in a game throws a grenade and it explodes behind you that you feel it behind you. but I do see what your saying about filling the room, thats how I have it right now. I basically put the sub right where I would be sitting and played a repeat boom sound and walked around the room until it felt and sounded the best and then moved the sub to that part of the room which in term gave great bass from where I sat.

 

You could have a 7.2 system, like what you described but without the center rear speaker.

You'd need a 5.1 system for the front and sides and a matching 2.1 system for the rear.

 

well I have an actual 7.1 system made from Creative (no longer in production) which actually in terms of the rarity of 7.1 computer based speaker systems were the best and still sound amazing.

(used an additional 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable to give true 7.1 versus Creatives 3 to 4 cable that simulates 7.1)