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Discussion on Article:
Creative Technology Unveils New Sound Blaster Audio Cards for PCs.

Started by: alpha0ne | Date 08/16/12 02:00:29 AM
Comments: 12 | Last Comment:  12/24/12 08:16:43 PM

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1. 
Why would anyone with half a brain buy ANYTHING from this POS company ????
2 2 [Posted by: alpha0ne  | Date: 08/16/12 02:00:29 AM]
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2. 
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1 6 [Posted by: tks  | Date: 08/16/12 05:51:39 AM]
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I haven't had a single issue with my X-Fi Platinum PCI card and I went through P965, P35, P55, Z68 motherboards with it and through both Windows XP and Windows 7 64-bit. Sounds spectacular. I can't wait for these cards as I might be tempted to upgrade to a PCIe sound card with Haswell + Z87 next year.
0 0 [Posted by: BestJinjo  | Date: 12/24/12 08:12:17 PM]
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3. 
If you are in need or want for better sound quality compared to the onboard solution then don't bother with Creative. Creative isn't like what it used to be back during it's golden days and there are plenty of economical as well higher end sound cards than what Creative has with much better drivers. Last but not least Creative tends to use cheap capacitors that cause a lot of crackle and pop on certain models.

Turtle Beach for the usb (laptops and portable sound) and HT Omega for high quality.
1 1 [Posted by: nforce4max  | Date: 08/16/12 10:59:48 AM]
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The opposite is true. Creative sound cards sound quality has improved and so did drivers. Starting with X-Fi they've been near the top of their game. People are jumping ship from Asus Xonar/Essence in droves and the Z is sounding much better. The Asus sound cards have worse drivers than even X-Fi cards.
0 0 [Posted by: BestJinjo  | Date: 12/24/12 08:13:59 PM]
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4. 
They are still around? They are one of those companies who used to be great but then they took one wrong turn after the other end then left behind.

I still have my Creative speakers, a great shame creative never made available spare parts so I can change the volume buttons that are almost dead. The whole speaker's system is fine, just the volume buttons I need.
0 0 [Posted by: nitro912gr  | Date: 08/16/12 02:53:35 PM]
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I highly doubt you chewed off most of the volume buttons (all you said was "volume buttons are almost dead" so I'm guessing here LOL) so what you're more probably experiencing is a faulty pre-amp. It could be anything from a cold solder joint (easily solvable), worn out volume capacitors (relatively easy to replace), blown pre-amp capacitors and/or transistors,... or worse case - a whole pre-amp needs replacing. Either case, you should be able to save your speakers without paying much for it at any semi-competent electronics repair workshops. Things wear out (shit happens LOL) even with a lot more expensive equipment t/c
1 0 [Posted by: MyK  | Date: 08/16/12 03:19:53 PM]
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sorry I wasn't specific, the problem seems to be in the volume adjusters, both for the main volume and the sub woofer, they are both on the same chip.

It is hard to describe it, but it is like that: when you set the volume it can be very low or suddenly (with just touching the adjuster) too loud and then you need to "play" a bit with the adjuster to find the sweet spot.
I tried to clean the adjusters with some electronics specific oil spray, it made them less sensitive but didn't solved the problem.

I asked in a local electronics repair shop and told me it doesn't worth the cost to fix that.

Thanks for the response
0 0 [Posted by: nitro912gr  | Date: 08/18/12 12:57:06 PM]
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That sounds like a cold solder joint on the volume capacitor (or it got loose by frequent use and abuse LOL). Quite frequent problem with amps actually, and you should be able to repair that yourself by opening up the affected area (might take some fiddling with screws and clip-ons) and re-soldering those joints that seem loose or cracked at the base. They would be right behind the volume knob on the other side of the PCB. All you'll need is a few soldering tools you can borrow at a friend or a DIY shop.
0 0 [Posted by: MyK  | Date: 08/25/12 05:31:43 AM]
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1 9 [Posted by: sanity  | Date: 08/16/12 04:24:45 PM]
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My X-Fi Platinum is 5 years old and I never paid a single dollar for Windows 7 support. I skipped Vista since it was junk to begin with. On Windows 7 64-bit, my PCI X-Fi Platinum sounds great. Every PC gamers I know who still uses onboard sound ends up going out and buying a dedicated sound card after listening to the X-Fi at my place. Not saying it's the best sound card in the world by any means, but it blows away every single onboard sound card from Realtek I've ever heard and I went through a ton of boards including nForce 2, P965, P35, P55, and Z68. I believe most of the problems with creative cards stem back before X-Fi.
0 0 [Posted by: BestJinjo  | Date: 12/24/12 08:16:43 PM]
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6. 
Still no DTS encoding? It's worthless for me.
0 0 [Posted by: r00lz  | Date: 08/17/12 04:08:24 AM]
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