should i get the SOUND BLASTER XFI XTREME AUDIO for my notebook?

would you guys suggest getting this for my w2p as i am a media freak.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=16642

its the sound blaster x-fi xtreme audio
i do plan to be hooking my lap up to my fairly powerful 5.1/7.1 system

it currently has a Dolby® Certified Home Theater Audio system

 

yes, it's great
for win XP that is
their drivers suck though, and still aren't good in vista

 

Is it really that great? There is no information as to whether it supports EAX, which would be important for those gaming in XP. It could be just like it's desktop counterpart: A rebadged Audigy SE doing most functions in software mode.

 

so is it that much better than the dolby **** that comes stock with my w2p ?

 

That it is. If you don't really care about EAX, and just want your music and movies to sound great (relative to the onboard audio), definitely get it.

I know I will.

 

If your 5.1/7.1 system has an optical (aka TOSLINK) input, then all you have to do is buy a mini-TOSLINK to TOSLINK cable (or adapter) where you would put the cable in your headphones jack and hook it up to your receiver's optical input.

Most laptops today use headphone jacks that are both electrical (for using with regular headphones) and optical (for sending out optical, digital signals) called S/PDIF which stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format. If you peer into your headphones jack with mini-TOSLINK enabled, you can see the red light being emitted from it.

EDIT: Note that you would have to enable TOSLINK (and/or digital audio output) on your laptop for this to work. This varies from laptop to laptop.

The G1S has built-in Intel High Definition Audio ( http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/hdaudio.htm) and that supports up to Dolby Logic IIx which is Dolby's latest hardware specifications and supports 7.1.

Info on S/PDIF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

And in simple words: the SoundBlaster is a waste of money.

 

Is this thing even out in the US yet?

 

No, you absolutely should not. Like Brainonska511 said unless the laptop version is radically different to the PC one the Xtreme Audio isn't a proper X-Fi, it doesn't have the proper X-Fi DSP chip and the hardware is basically a rebranded Audigy SE with drivers that perform some limited X-Fi functionality in software. The sound quality of the desktop ones is pretty poor and they have at least the same (if note worse) CPU overheads than onboard audio.

 

I have never had any experience with the X-Fi, or Soundblaster ZS.

But I do know the following. The Creative Audigy 1 that I have on my desktop blows away in sound quality anything else that I have heard. It's not like I have been in studios or am acquainted with audio professionals, so that isn't saying much. But I am 99% sure that the X-Fi would improve on the sound quality of the integrated card tremendously. I don't care it takes 0.5% or 1.5% of the CPU; I don't care it doesn't have EAX, I'm not a gamer and if I play games the sound quality is not so important. I don't care it's not a "proper X-fi" whatever that would be.

I only care that I will hear my music sound as well as it does on my desktop. And for that, I am willing to pay EUR100; I wouldn't consider it a waste of money. If there are better options, please, by all means, let me know about them, I'm not into charity business. But it has to be internal, I have enough stuff hanging from USB ports as it is, and it has to have at least the sound quality of the Creative.

 

i second E.B.E's post. i need a badass internal soundcard. i dont need it for gaming, i want it for music and media for my home entertainment system.

my w2p has hdmi out... so in this case (out to my receiver and to my 5.1/7.1) would a better soundcard help ?

 

i heard a lot of rave reviews about the xfi notebook coming out, and have been dying for a soundcard improvement for the express slot since i first heard the card was coming out. actually have one in the mail coming from dell...so we shall see what kind of improvements there are. i will be using my sennheiser hd580s and klipsch speakers to test...we shall see!

 

i guess i'd not considered it could be a software implementation of the x-fi stuff
if that's the case, then it's disgraceful and i'll boycott creative stuff for the rest of my life

 

Like I said, software or not software implementation of X-Fi, is there any other internal high-quality sound alternative for Express-slot laptops? I am aware of none. That's the problem. If there were 5 or 10 we could pick and choose, but since only creative is making something like this (and even they took a year and something to make it after Express slot notebooks started dominating the market), we're kind of stuck with it.

 

Well the other question is, even if it is an express-slot card, besides convenience, can we positively say that it will be an advantage over PC-slot sound cards like the Audigy Z or USB cards?

 

I don't know. All I can say to this is that if my notebook had a PCMCIA slot, I would've bought the Audigy ZS a long time ago.

 

If it is the same chipset as the desktop version, then regardless of clever drivers the sound quality is almost certainly going to be lower than that of the Audigy 2 ZS. EBE is right though, the only other expresscard solution that shows up on froogle is huge, is targeted as musicians, and costs ~ $2500

The only thing is, my old desktop Audigy SE had worse sound quality (the bass was crap) than the onboard sound of my brother's motherboard. It was a high end desktop board and I don't know how high end laptop audio compares with high end integrated audio on desktops, but I wouldn't bet that this card will be an improvement on all laptop audio until some comprehensive reviews start popping up.

 

my w2p has hdmi out... so in this case (out to my receiver and to my 5.1/7.1) would a better soundcard help ?