Page 3 - photos
Photography
Taken with a Sony DSC-V3 at 3072x2304, with too much coffee and failing sunlight, and resized for the web. This page contains a few photos, so give it a chance to load.
Overview
The board itself is a vast expanse of chips, resistors, and loads of capacitors. We can clearly see the seperation of digital and analog sections on the board.
You can see a clear division of analog on the left, and digital on the right.
The card table is an antique from Vienna.
Obligatory backside shot.
Analog
In fact, the X-Fi has parts that some DIY types have soldered onto their Audigy2 ZS's. I like the design. It uses 3 ST 4558CN op amps, which are high quality 2-channel amps, to drive the outputs.
Op-amps by CS Micro. High quality.
Those who build CMOY amps for fun (it's obsessive, let me tell you) will go towards the Burr-Brown 2227 op-amps instead. But, I have heard good things about the ST Micro chips and in listening tests, they do kick ass.
ST 33078, upper left, upside down, is a 4-channel op-amp which I think is for the Flexi-jack.
Digital
For the D/A chores, the X-Fi uses a Cirrus Logic CS4382 chip. This high performance, 8 channel D/A converter is used a lot in high-end DVD players and receivers. It does 8 channels in 24 bit and 192 kHz resolution with 114dB Dynamic Range.
Digital section of the card. Note the Samsung RAM. X-RAM says MT, for Micron.
8-channel, 24 bit, 192 kHz DAC for output.
The A/D (that is, recording) is handled by a Wolfson WM8775, a 24 bit, 96KHz DAC with a 4-channel mixer built in. There is no doubt that the X-Fi is capable of 24 bit recording now, unlike the first Audigy. If digitizing LP's is a project on your mind, give the X-Fi a look.
4 channel, 24 bit, 96 kHz ADC for recording.
That's Not a Joystick Port
I'll just say this once: the 9-pin joystick port is dead. Deal. Now, whether or not the X-Fi Xtreme Music can use previous breakout boxes from the Live! or Audigy line is a mystery.
That is not a joystick port.
The FlexiJack
The first time we saw this feature was in the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Basically it doubles or triples what a 1/8" mini-jack can do. In the X-Fi's case it's an input for microphone, a line-in, and digital I/O. It doesn't work with the digital DIN cable of the Live! or Audigy series cards, however.