PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series

Comment: For $170, I was expecting to get a huge improvement over my Realtek onboard audio. To test it out, I had plugged in 2 systems; one with this card, and the other with an identical onboard chip, and hooked them both up to my Pioneer 5.1 system, both using optical out (encoded in DTS). I listened to music and played Call of Duty 4 for 30 minutes each, and only noticed a very small, almost not noticeable difference, in quality, but not "blown away" as the box puts it, by a long shot. What really bugged me the most was that there is no volume control for output through optical out; you're forced to control it from the A/V receiver, which is a pain for me, especially since my onboard used to do it no problem. I also hated the fact that plugging in headphones into the I/O panel on the front, didn't mute the optical output, so sound was outputting through both speakers and headphones, which is useless (and yes, it was set to mute the speakers with headphones in the Creative Console). Also, another huge problem is the output for optical is only 2 channels.

I really liked the idea of having the I/O panel for controls and analog in on the front of the system, so I really wanted to give this card a shot, but $170 is too much for little to no improvement in quality. I would have stuck with the card if it didn't have these issues, but these issues are all huge let-downs for me. However, I would still buy the card for those not using the optical output, because the Creative drivers do give you a lot of control over the configuration of the card, and the I/O Panel is very useful.

Comment: I received this with a broken data cable that runs from the card to the front control panel. Amazon sent a new unit since they could not just replace the broken cable. Once installed the front unit would not light up or respond to any input. I upgraded the software to win 7 and everything works perfectly now. If you have win 7 you MUST get the latest drivers from Creative Labs before this will work

Comment: Like all audio cards that have many capabilities, this one requires figuring out how to configure it to work. I use my 62" TV and home theater receiver as display and audio portal for my computer. I have full time DTS Surround coming out of my speakers and no problems thereafter. When I have some audio to play that can be played effectively in DTS, it's awesome! When not, it still sounds better than on-board audio, and I don't buy the cheap motherboards with crap on-board audio!

Now, my computer is about 4 yrs. old, so it does have some problems with the front panel, compatibility is the key, not morons with pre-fabbed junk bought on sale from Fry's! I run Windows 7 x64, and can't run virtual XP mode either, my motherboard can't support it. That did not stop me from running full-time DTS.
If you are using the optical out, you must have both the Optical and Speaker outputs configured, with optical as the default. If you 'test' the sound in the sound control panel, doing it on the optical does nothing, doing it on the speakers gives you output. By the way, I work on specialized medical equipment all the time that have devices that behave similarly. It's how the underlying programming and drivers are written for the operating system and motherboard that is most likely at fault. When something doesn't work on my computer, it's usually the motherboard that is incapable of supporting the device. To continue... then it's a simple matter of using the Creative Console Launcher to set up your sound how you want it, and done! Enjoy and don't bother reading the low ranked reviews. Morons need not apply.

Def: The term 'Moron' applies to those without the ability to persevere in finding and using available tools, abilities, or other attributes, and don't bother getting a feel for a type of product along with products in specific, and so, like multi-generational welfare families, have massive opinions about things they know nothing about and haven't tried to experience.

By the way, other cards from many manufacturers I have read reviews about have many similar problems, the failing is in the write-ups for the consumer, not in the ability of the equipment. Rank customer service and support low all you want, but if their product works and you just couldn't figure out how it works, then who's really at fault? Obviously the idiot that purchased an advanced device with AOL-like skills.

(By the way, for those that don't understand that last comment, it's the exact opposite of God-like)

Comment: I purchased this item in Dec 2009 and in Apr 2010 it quit working. It simpley died.
Until you experience the death of your soundblaster, you won't know that you can't contact them via telephone and you won't know the warranty unless you look it up on the web.

The company doesn'tcare about customer service, just your money. This thing was giving my computer system a hard time anyway (Windows 7 [64]) and I'm kind of glad it died; still a replacement would have been good so I could sell it and recoup as much as possible; so what happened with the 1 year warranty that is normal for most expensive products? When a warranty is only 90 days, it means don't buy it. That's why they don't advertise this in the manual that comes with the soundcard.

I had no choice but to submit a form on their website butI never received a work order number or RMA number or any tracking information letting me know they were working on my situation. Nothing, nada, zilch! To find a phone number, I had to do a search on the web and when I dialed it, it referred me back to their unfriendly website. Hence, I could not get an update on whether or not they received my email request. They basically don't want to have anything to do with the customer after the sale.

This is truly a worthless organization. I will never purchase anything from creativelabs--absolutely nothing.

Comment: I bought this card mainly to use it for running my game console (xbox 360) through my pc surround sound (Logitech z-5500). Come to find out after a day of messing around and a lot of searching and reading in the Creative forums, the optical in on this card doesn't even support 5.1. All is supports is 2 channel. WHAT USE IS OPTICAL WHEN IT ONLY SUPPORTS 2-CHANNEL STEREO!!

Thank goodness for Amazon's free returns. Now I can get a card that actually serves it's purpose.