Looking for better sound on your Audigy 2 or Live! sound card? Well, there is a method I stumbled upod that gives a much lower noise floor and increased deatil.
How: On most Audigy 2 cards and all Sound Blaster Live!'s, the front audio anologue outputs use the AC97 chip for a DAC and line-level amplifier. However, the Rear audio outputs use a I2S chip, which has a much lower THD, higher SNR, and better chanel seperation.
So, it seems like it would be better to use the rear outputs on your card. How do you go about getting the front and rear signal switched?
Go to KX Project. The KX projec t is a 3rd party drivers project for Creative Lab's and E-Emu sound cards. The driver is freely available, and high quality. Uninstall your Creative drivers, and then download and install the KX drivers. Now, open up KX Mixer. Click the Speaker Setup icon.
Now, go to the bottom of the popup and choose the preset "4.0, Rear=Front". Close that window. On the main screen, make sure that the "Swap Font and Rear" button on checked.
The last step is to go to your sound card, and plug the cable for your front (only in 2.1) speakers into the jack for your rear output. The outputs should be switched now, so the front audio data is processed by the higher quality rear chip.
This little mod is great on 2.0 or 2.1 speakers, but if you have a more advanced speaker setup, I reccomend just using creatives's drivers, or leaving the KX drivers at stock 5.1. Please note that the X-Fi cards use I2S across the board, and this mod will not effect them.
Good luck, and let me know how it work for you.
-Chipp
How: On most Audigy 2 cards and all Sound Blaster Live!'s, the front audio anologue outputs use the AC97 chip for a DAC and line-level amplifier. However, the Rear audio outputs use a I2S chip, which has a much lower THD, higher SNR, and better chanel seperation.
So, it seems like it would be better to use the rear outputs on your card. How do you go about getting the front and rear signal switched?
Go to KX Project. The KX projec t is a 3rd party drivers project for Creative Lab's and E-Emu sound cards. The driver is freely available, and high quality. Uninstall your Creative drivers, and then download and install the KX drivers. Now, open up KX Mixer. Click the Speaker Setup icon.
Now, go to the bottom of the popup and choose the preset "4.0, Rear=Front". Close that window. On the main screen, make sure that the "Swap Font and Rear" button on checked.
The last step is to go to your sound card, and plug the cable for your front (only in 2.1) speakers into the jack for your rear output. The outputs should be switched now, so the front audio data is processed by the higher quality rear chip.
This little mod is great on 2.0 or 2.1 speakers, but if you have a more advanced speaker setup, I reccomend just using creatives's drivers, or leaving the KX drivers at stock 5.1. Please note that the X-Fi cards use I2S across the board, and this mod will not effect them.
Good luck, and let me know how it work for you.
-Chipp
morpheus
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faith
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Chipp's Audio List
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| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.4ghz P8600 | Dell | Quadro FX770M | 2x2gb DDR2 800 |
| Hard Drive | Optical Drive | OS | Monitor |
| 160gb 7200 RPM | HP DVD 1170 | Windows 7 / Ubuntu 10.04 | Dell P2210H 22" 1080p |
| Keyboard | Mouse | ||
| Backlit Laptop Keyboard | Logitec G5 | ||
| View all | |||
|
morpheus
(16 items) |
faith
(13 items) |
Chipp's Audio List
(4 items) |
| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.4ghz P8600 | Dell | Quadro FX770M | 2x2gb DDR2 800 |
| Hard Drive | Optical Drive | OS | Monitor |
| 160gb 7200 RPM | HP DVD 1170 | Windows 7 / Ubuntu 10.04 | Dell P2210H 22" 1080p |
| Keyboard | Mouse | ||
| Backlit Laptop Keyboard | Logitec G5 | ||
| View all | |||
