First Impressions

As I took a look at the card, first impression was that I was surprised at how big it was. While not quite the size of a modern day video cards, it is a bit bigger then my SBLive! 5.1. Also I was a bit disappointed that Creative did away with the joystick port, and added the 26 pin connector for the breakout box on the Elite Pro model. Maybe there is an adapter or something which I will have to look in to, because I used the multimedia port for my Gravis Grip Gamepad for a few different games. Also I needed a splitter for the center output jack for my RCA connection which runs to my stereo shelf system and my headphones at the same time. A minor issue, as most users will be using the pc speaker analog connections or just headphones. Another fact of importance to note is that this card is the first and only to support EAX 5.0.

After first install I did a few things before putting the card to use. First off, I updated to the latest drivers from Creative's support section. I then set up my speaker configuration, I mainly use just my HD485s, or my Audio 110s, so I set up the card for headphones. Then, I proceeded on with a few tweaks on the cards software itself; enabling the 24-bit crystalizer, turning on CMSS-3D for the headphones, making sure I was in Entertainment mode, tweaking the equalizer, and finally I was ready to get started. Take note, there is a wealth of options and configuration settings for the various modes and overall for this card, and I have not come close to touching on half of them.

The Sound

One of the new features of this series from Creative is the alternate modes console and option. The card and software feature three modes: Entertainment, Gaming, and Audio Creation. Each mode has its own console  with various settings tweaks, some being unique to a specific mode.

My first thoughts were along the lines of “this can’t really make that much difference”. I was definitely mistaken. While I don’t create much music, I switch a lot between Entertainment and Gaming mode. The Entertainment mode dynamically improves the sound of mp3’s, movies, and other media audio. The Gaming mode provides better positional audio in comparison. How noticeable is it you might ask? Often after a movie or an mp3 session I get the notion to play some Source or Battlefield 2. After a few moments of playing I realize I forgot to switch modes to Gaming mode, and quickly alt-tab out to change the settings because the sound quality for each mode is that different; attuned for its respective purpose. I definitely recommend making use of these various modes; I even put the Mode Switcher shortcut in my quicklaunch bar in Windows XP for easy use.

The next big feature is the 24-bit Crystallizer. When reading previews of this card, the 24-bit Crystallizer was going to change the way MP3’s, CD/DVD and in-game audio was heard. The crystallizer, while not revolutionary, does a solid job of enhancing audio. It’s hard to explain, but it kind of gives more of a kick to the music. It is similar to the DFX audio enhancer you can find for Windows Media Player and Winamp, but on a whole, far more impressive sound than the DFX offers. In fact I no longer use DFX with winamp, and just use the crystalizer. The great thing about this feature is that it can even enrich older low quality 128kbit MP3's and the like by minimizing pops and clicks and by enhancing various aspects of the audio to bring out sounds lesser hardware wouldn't let us hear. The crystalizer also offers a resampling feature which will rebuild sections of the audio file that fall to the wayside during compression and ripping to lossy formats.