Page 11 - Do you hear what I hear?

Listening Test 1

For most users who use external speakers, or the simple soundbar under your monitor, the X-Audio aint going to buy you much. If youre using headphones, like the precision Grado SR-125s, then youll get a whole lot. Foobar2K v0.9.5 with the ASIO and KS output modules. Kernel Streaming was used wherever possible.  The music selection is very pop/rock lopsided, but nicely mixed with MP3 and WAV files.

The default settings of the X-Audio enable the CMSS3D, which took about 20 minutes to find and disable. Uh, right. CMSS3D isnt bad, but if youre doing subjective listening tests, it is good to get the X-Audio as pure as possible. CMSS3D dumps a lot of bass and scoops the midrange, giving a rather distant and muddy sound.

The first test song, Money off of Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd easily overloaded the CMSS3D processing when the saxophone enters. Some may enjoy this kind of processing, but I am not one of them. When disabling as much extras as I could, I let the song play. The X-Audio has a dark and liquid sound to it, but then again, the song is also mixed on the dark side. I notice that the top end, the ride and crash cymbals, are a little quiet compared to the onboard Intel HD audio (SigmaTel of some kind), where the sound is crisper and a little harsher. The reference LynxONE shows why its a reference board, the channel separation is extreme, and the high end is very crisp and detailed. The X-Audio sounds thick and tubby in comparison. The X-Meridian continues its interesting low-level resolution thingpicking out reverb decay, string squeak, that sort of thingbetter than all but the Lynx.

I note a bit of fullness in the upper bass, giving a slight muddy sound with Digital Man from Rushs Signals LP, and in this case the MFSL gold disc remaster, encoded to 320kbps VBR MP3. It does remind me of the good old days of living at home with my brothers and blasting Rush on the stereo. Overall its still big and full, which could be the sonic signature of the X-Audio. Comparing directly against a LynxONE, a professional sound card, confirms the X-Audios bass heavy sound. Despite that extra bass oomph, little details, like Geddy Lees string pop, are almost lost on the X-Audio. The X-Meridian, while much more treble happy than the Lynx ONE, sounds less extended and less detailed in the treble region than the X-Audio. Im shocked, I tell you, shocked!

If the X-Meridian is hyper-detailed and bright, the X-Prelude is detailed but refined and shy, and the regular X-Fi is dark and delicious, then the X-Audio is big but dim.

Truly inspired by the X-Audio's box cover art, it's The Scorpions Hes a Woman - Shes a Man, taken from the Best of compilation, but it's really from the Taken by Force EP.  The song was mastered with a thicker 70s sound than more recent songs, and you can hear the 50Hz amp hum in the introduction.  Later we hear the X-Audio struggle a little to give the top end the sheen with the cymbals that other sound cards can provide.  But, the sound is astonishingly quite like what youd get with an outboard amplifier and big speakers. Again, the X-Audio is a little softer with cymbals at the top end compared to the Intel onboard sound card, the X-Meridian, or the Lynx.

Jimi Hendrixs Purple Haze, the X-Audio has a great sense of snap or punch. This means the ouput can swing some good voltage with little deformation of the wave. Well see how RMAA informs us, but I think the results will be excellent. The X-Audio does provide a nice sense of volume and space, which means it will also measure quite well in terms of stereo separation. The X-Audio has a pretty good bass kick, deep and full, but still snappy. It also has very good separation of the layers, especially with another song, Little Miss Lover, where the backing vocals are brought out nicely. You can also hear him snap his fingers when he says, Hey! at the chick hes trying to pick up. Speaking of snap, the X-Meridian actually has the best snap out of the bunch.

On Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, a 24 bit/96 KHz WAV (recorded with a true X-Fi, no less), off the LP of the same name, we hear the X-Audios main strength in timbre and presentation of space. It also has quite a bit of bass response that, while not dwarfing, is deeper than the Intel integrated job. Among other drawbacks of using a professional sound card, like a volume control, the Lynx ONE refused to play this file at full sampling speed, because it can only do 24-bit at 48 KHz.

In a surprise addition, Ive included Track 24, from the Japanese For Busy People book. While not necessarily full-range or particularly taxing for any audio card, per se, there are a lot of ssssssibilance passages, and the recording is extremely clear. Even the integrated Intel/SigmaTel does pretty darn well. However, the Lynx ONE presents a pretty pure voice, and the three narrators are very clearly distinct. Oddly, the X-Meridian had just a few sibilances that werent quite as clear as the Lynx. The only difference about the X-Audio here is its slightly chesty sound, and it doesnt have quite the clarity of the Lynx. Oh, and the bus for Shibuya leaves at 8:07. That much, I am sure.

There are a few reports that Creative and Vista are not a good combination, especially with playing CD's and downloading at the same time.  I can say, after some confidence, I experienced no such thing with Vista.  Let's look at the visual media:

The CD was an unknown composition for 6 classical guitars, entitled 666.  We then proceeded to download the 1.7GB Bioshock demo, as well as two copies of the 748MB Office XP disc off of a network share.  Oh, and then we installed Paint.net.  No, nothing to report.  Small glitch as the UAC asked for permission.  I did note that as tasks were piled on, tasks were a little sluggish, but the CD playback was untouched.  Well, it's hard to debate that one could even tell with modern music anyway.

The X-Audio has its merits in some very good sound. We note that it has a somewhat chesty sound, and can create a very nice soundstage.  While it might not be apparent at first, but compared to an integrated sound card (like our Intel/SigmaTel), the X-Audio is much, much better. It wont beat you over the head with greatness, like the X-Prelude or X-Meridian, or the almighty, the LynxONE, but the X-Audio isnt very far behind them.  I'd venture the X-Audio is about 95% of what you'd get of an X-Meridian in terms of sound.  The X-Meridian has some encoding features that the X-Audio does not have, but the X-Audio does deliver some good sound and for the price, very good value.