What's Up With Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3?

I received my new P170SM today, which excites me to no end. My first laptop, let alone my first Clevo, and it's going great.

Apart from this audio software. I don't get it. I don't understand what it does. It just annoys me. I can't see how to change audio levels in it. It doesn't detect any of my hardware properly (Logitech headset & Yeti microphone), so in the software's "Playback Devices" I have to select "Follow Windows Default", and this seems to make the audio worse than it should be. The majority of system audio is lame, except for programs like Razer Comms which let me choose a specific playback device within the program, and the audio comes loud and clear through my headset.

Hope my train of thought/explanation wasn't too hard to follow there. Basically I want to know if I can get rid of or somehow improve this Sound Blaster X-Fi software so that it detects my external audio hardware.

Thanks!

 

There is no way to detect what is plugged into the 3.5mm jacks since there is no data connection.

If you are talking about USB devices then they all have their own built in sound software which means the built in audio has connection to it just like a desktop.

 

Yeah, if they're USB devices, they're completely separate from the sound card.

Are you on Win8 by chance? That will be the cause of all your issues.

 

Wrong

try again next time

X-Fi is just software by Creative that basically is an equalizer with some frilly options. You can safely remove it if you don't like it/it's not working for you.

Playback devices, you should have your standard analogue out (headphone jacks etc), a digital out, and an HDMI out.

Contrary to what the expert above me said, Windows 8 is not the cause of any of your issues.

 

Well for starters you probably don't have the actual Sound Blaster card installed, it's probably the default Realtek High Def Audio card, like me, I got a Metabox (Clevo chassis) p177sm and yes this software is annoying to say the least, I spent a good few hrs trying to get it to work via USB or HDMI and tweaked every setting known to man as I didn't have any setup or installation material that came with it, it was pre-installed and then realized it was because of this:

With USB connection, the sound card is not in the computer, but in the peripheral being attached: USB attached headsets and microphones have their own sound card.

With HDMI connection, the sound adapter is the one integrated into the graphics adapter (Intel/AMD/Nvidia).

In order to benefit from the Soundblaster X-Fi MB3 you need to either use analog audio connections, or optical audio out (S/PDIF) (if one is available).

Would have been nice if we were told this beforehand and or they didn't install it to run on start up, I ended up un-checking the option to run on start up and created a desktop shortcut for the software to run when I needed it, mainly for just gaming and wired headphones, forget bluetooth ones, they don't work because of it's limitations, all in all, the software really is just a glorified (and very limited) equalizer, I'm sure there's heaps of better, free, ones that will work connected via USB/HDMI? If so let us know

 

SB software is intended to be supplementary, but most people don't put it to use/don't have much need for it. The Realtek software gives you fair control over audio settings alone. I don't think you're alone in how you feel about it.

But keep in mind said posts about USB vs 3.5mm jack audio devices (USB devices use the USB bus to transmit audio data, while the jacks go through the Realtek─or in some systems, VIA─sound chip).

 

My built in audio on my P377SM-A takes a very sharp hit in max volume, something like 40 or 50%, if I don't use the SB software plus it appears to kill any bass response the small sub provides but yes, it does get pissed when I plug in a USB headset like my PS4 headset.

To be honest though, I've seen FAR worse from Creative Labs over the years.

 

Yeah, Creative is hit or miss. They've produced some great sound cards, though.

 

Yep I had an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro that I used to run my mixes from my decks to my computer using the direct RCA cables. Quality wasn't that far off from my buddy's maudio setup and was much cheaper. I miss that card.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

I use the recon usb sound card with wireless headphones (instant audio transmission) and I like it.