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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi External USB Surround 5.1 SB1090


benjio
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yea man I searched.. But found nothing clear cut.. Some have reported it completely working but have only tested 2.1 and nothing else. others say the volume control doesn't work but everything else is perfect. I want to hear from someone who actually owns it and thoroughly tested it. I have found nothing conclusive.

Are there any similar devices you would recommend? I would prefer an external USB device with 5.1 output and a quality line input.

Thanks!

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  • 5 months later...
Some have reported it completely working but have only tested 2.1 and nothing else. others say the volume control doesn't work but everything else is perfect. I want to hear from someone who actually owns it and thoroughly tested it.

 

It works perfect with Dell D820 laptop - both the volume control and nice surround sound effects.

I've been trying to make this thing work on aluminum macbook for half a year now. In fact - mac does recognize it in system preferences, however switching the audio output to it does not produce any sound.

As for my 5.1 surround sound system, it still works fine in 3.1 bypassing the sound card...

 

any ideas how to make this Creative SB work on my mac greatly appreciated! I guess it needs some driver or a hack..

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  • 2 months later...
Bump!

 

please i'm interested on this model too

 

i want a external Completely working and plugnPlay cheap USB external audio

 

if this is not good, any other suggestion??

 

i just picked up the creative x-fi USB 5.1

 

it's strange...you can only connect 3 channels, not 5. you can use the left/right splitter for your front speakers or rear ones, and then plug the center/sub in...the strange part, IS THAT YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT INTO THE HEADPHONE JACK....plugging it into the "input" jack does nothing.

you'll only get sound from using the LEFT/RIGHT splitter + the headphone jack input.

i tested this on leov4allv.4.1 (leopard 10.5.4).

 

you dont have to install any extra drivers, but it still kinda sucks that it only runs 3 channels, not 5.1.

 

unless someone cares to prove me wrong? can you make it run 5 channels?

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i played around with it more and got it to play a test sound (ie. static noise...at least that's what i hear) on all but my subwoofer... but for some reason, it only plays any music or system sounds out of my front left speaker...even though i can click each speaker and get them to emit a test sound using the operating system...

 

blah....

 

has anyone tried the vooodoHDA fixes?

i just picked up the creative x-fi USB 5.1

 

it's strange...you can only connect 3 channels, not 5. you can use the left/right splitter for your front speakers or rear ones, and then plug the center/sub in...the strange part, IS THAT YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT INTO THE HEADPHONE JACK....plugging it into the "input" jack does nothing.

you'll only get sound from using the LEFT/RIGHT splitter + the headphone jack input.

i tested this on leov4allv.4.1 (leopard 10.5.4).

 

you dont have to install any extra drivers, but it still kinda sucks that it only runs 3 channels, not 5.1.

 

unless someone cares to prove me wrong? can you make it run 5 channels?

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  • 1 month later...
i just picked up the creative x-fi USB 5.1

 

it's strange...you can only connect 3 channels, not 5. you can use the left/right splitter for your front speakers or rear ones, and then plug the center/sub in...the strange part, IS THAT YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT INTO THE HEADPHONE JACK....plugging it into the "input" jack does nothing.

you'll only get sound from using the LEFT/RIGHT splitter + the headphone jack input.

i tested this on leov4allv.4.1 (leopard 10.5.4).

 

you dont have to install any extra drivers, but it still kinda sucks that it only runs 3 channels, not 5.1.

 

unless someone cares to prove me wrong? can you make it run 5 channels?

 

your system is probably switched to 2.0 configuration. headphones out probably sends out the whole spectrum, thats why it works for subwoofer, but actually its wrong setup, your subwoofer needs dedicated output with dedicated frequencies.

 

please use this guide http://guides.macrumors.com/Configuring_5....put_in_Mac_OS_X and please report back

 

if you can, try the "line in" too (for example, connect your ipod/cd player whatever) and try to record. test for "mic in" would be nice too (you dont need microphone, just plug in headphones into the "mic in" it works the same). most importantly is to test if it works

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  • 2 months later...
i just picked up the creative x-fi USB 5.1

 

it's strange...you can only connect 3 channels, not 5. you can use the left/right splitter for your front speakers or rear ones, and then plug the center/sub in...the strange part, IS THAT YOU HAVE TO PLUG IT INTO THE HEADPHONE JACK....plugging it into the "input" jack does nothing.

you'll only get sound from using the LEFT/RIGHT splitter + the headphone jack input.

i tested this on leov4allv.4.1 (leopard 10.5.4).

 

you dont have to install any extra drivers, but it still kinda sucks that it only runs 3 channels, not 5.1.

 

unless someone cares to prove me wrong? can you make it run 5 channels?

You ever notice how your headphones have only one jack and yet produce two separate sounds to form stereo? Reason being the jack has two bands on it which pick up left and right channels and send them to each earbud. The three jacks on your 5.1 speakers work the same way: they correspond to Front-Left & Front-Right, Rear-Left & Rear-Right (or "Surround Left" & "Surround Right"), and Center & LFE (Low Frequency Effects - your subwoofer, basically).

 

As you may have noticed, there are actually six channels in 5.1 surround - the bass effects channel is designated .1 because it takes one-tenth of the bandwidth of the other channels. So yeah, you are getting true 5.1 from your x-fi. Does it work okay? I'm looking at getting one because I have some Logitech X530 speakers and I want to get true surround out of my C2D 2.4 Macbook Pro. Anyone got any better suggestions?

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  • 9 months later...
does not work, perhaps someday but not today...

 

*cough* search *cough*... or at least browse the first few pages of this forum

 

 

How misleading!

 

Ignore that comment - I can confirm that on 10.6.5 I can run it through my Z-5500 via optical cable and get DTS surround. On vlc choose DTS audio (encoded) and the Z-5500 will pick this up and do the decoding.

 

I will try the analog outputs later but at the very least you can have 5.1 surround via optical and have your receiver decode the audio.

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  • 2 weeks later...
How misleading!

 

Ignore that comment - I can confirm that on 10.6.5 I can run it through my Z-5500 via optical cable and get DTS surround. On vlc choose DTS audio (encoded) and the Z-5500 will pick this up and do the decoding.

 

I will try the analog outputs later but at the very least you can have 5.1 surround via optical and have your receiver decode the audio.

 

So VLC fully suports DTS passthrough with this sound card? Any drivers/kext installed, or does it work just out of the box?

Can you choose the optical out as the default output for all programs and system sounds? Do iTunes and other software work without problems?

Just want to be sure before buying this card.

 

//EDIT: Do you have the SB1090 or SB1095 model?

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  • 4 weeks later...
So VLC fully suports DTS passthrough with this sound card? Any drivers/kext installed, or does it work just out of the box?

Can you choose the optical out as the default output for all programs and system sounds? Do iTunes and other software work without problems?

Just want to be sure before buying this card.

 

//EDIT: Do you have the SB1090 or SB1095 model?

 

I just bought the SB1095 model and it works perfectly.

I couldn't get the TOS-link of my ASUS P7P55D mboard to work, just cracky stereo output.

As that really spoils my movies i decided to buy this one.

I disabled my onboard soundcard, removed VoodooHDA, rebooted, plugged in the SB1095 and rebooted again, selected the optical out in the sounds settings, started Plex and it worked, iTunes also worked. Tried DTS etc. Worked perfectly. VLC also fully supports DTS passthrough.

 

Please note that the volume/speaker button in the top bar stays grayed out and you can't use any volume buttons, neither in mac osx nor on the device itself, as it just passes the audio through the TOS link to the receiver. Volume needs to be regulated there.

 

B X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro:

 

Productcode: 0x30df

Fabrikantcode: 0x041e (Creative Labs)

Versie: 1.00

Serienummer: 00000030

Snelheid: Maximaal 12 Mb/sec

Fabrikant: Creative Technology Ltd

Locatiecode: 0x1d160000

Beschikbare stroom (mA): 500

Vereiste stroom (mA): 400

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