Xfi-Titanium mistake (HD vs Champion)

[Antha]

I mis-ordered my sound card while I had a relative in America, ending up with a Titanium Xfi-champion (the gamer card with a front bay) when I had thought at the time it was just another Titanium HD but with a front bay.

I can't return them, the best I can do is try to sell them then buy a Titanium HD at UK prices (best reliable vendor price is £110/$178 minus shipping). However, truthfully, I don't know if I'd need the HD.

I intend to use them for driving a pair of Sennheiser SP 25-1-II's (which are 70 ohms) or if those aren't plugged in a Corsair SP2500 2.1 speaker system.
I play games and listen to mostly rock, orchestral and some pop music on my PC. What I'm referring to as rock is quite light; songs by bands like The Automatic (UK), Boy Kill Boy, Breaking Benjamin etc. I also watch films & anime, but as shown above I don't use a 5.1 configuration.

My question is whether given the cost and my uses, would I be best off selling the (unopened) Xfi-Titanium champion and purchasing a HD, or would the champion suit my needs/not output noticeably worse sound for my uses?

Thanks for your time!

 

[fastwing76]

I mis-ordered my sound card while I had a relative in America, ending up with a Titanium Xfi-champion (the gamer card with a front bay) when I had thought at the time it was just another Titanium HD but with a front bay.

I can't return them, the best I can do is try to sell them then buy a Titanium HD at UK prices (best reliable vendor price is £110/$178 minus shipping). However, truthfully, I don't know if I'd need the HD.

I intend to use them for driving a pair of Sennheiser SP 25-1-II's (which are 70 ohms) or if those aren't plugged in a Corsair SP2500 2.1 speaker system.
I play games and listen to mostly rock, orchestral and some pop music on my PC. What I'm referring to as rock is quite light; songs by bands like The Automatic (UK), Boy Kill Boy, Breaking Benjamin etc. I also watch films & anime, but as shown above I don't use a 5.1 configuration.

My question is whether given the cost and my uses, would I be best off selling the (unopened) Xfi-Titanium champion and purchasing a HD, or would the champion suit my needs/not output noticeably worse sound for my uses?

Thanks for your time!

hey there.
first of all sorry for what happened to you regarding the mis-ordering!. I currently own creative titanium HD and recon3D pcie, and based on your usage and the fact that you don`t even use 5.1 analogue I would suggest you sell the champion and go with the titanium HD or better yet wait for the new asus xonar phoebus to come and out and see if it fits your need and see how it performs comparing to the titanium HD. I am recommending all these based on the following.
1- anything with fatility brand on it is overpriced and you won`t need the front panel anyway.
2- if you use your pc for gaming, watching stuff and music then your best bet is the titanium HD.
3- specs wise the titanium HD seems the right fit for your and your setup giving the fact that it can driver headphones up to 330omp give or take, ( I own a denon ah-d5000, pretty low impedance with an amp and I gotta tell ya there isn`t a HUGE different with or without an amp, so I am certain that your headphones will sound just great on the titanium HD.
4- you will be able to use the RCA out for your speakers.
5- you will be saving money anyway since the titanium HD is cheaper than the champion if you order it from amazon. (I guess )
6- if your patient sell the champion and wait for the new phoebus to see the sun light and read some reviews, but if you can`t wait just get the titanium HD.

I hope I helped you with this, if the champion is an easy sell for your sell it immediatly if not its still a good card but you don`t want to live with any regrets and wondering how the quality would be on other sound cards.

edit: I just checked the specs on the titanium champion and I couldn`t find anything related to headphones impedance, so if your planning on keeping the champion get schiit asgard amplifier or something similar so your headphones would sound their best,( I don`t think you will need an amp if your buying the titnanium HD, but its recommended)

 

[Antha]

Hey fastwing, thanks for the reply.

I'd thought the HD was better suited to me- especially as I use 2.1 and at most digitally reproduce 5.1 in games, but I wanted another opinion.

You say the champion is easy to shift. I've not resold any electonic goods before (truthfully electronics in terms of components are something I personally always steer clear of second-hand), do you have any tips on shifting the champion without too much loss so I can get a HD?

The champion is still in America at the moment, but once it's brought over here I won't be able to buy a HD at American prices. Before I looked into it in greater depth, I'd figured the champion was a better model of the same card (because of the shared branding, the fact it had a front bay and was more expensive). The reason I can't return it is I didn't find out it wasn't what I thought it was until after the return period ended; amazon's automated system said no.

Well, I said I'd have to sell and buy at UK prices, but the more accurate story is I can sell at American resale value and buy at American prices before my relative's next trip, or sell at UK resale value and buy at UK prices after the trip because the delivery was late and it arrived after they got on the plane back to the UK.

I've since found out the front bay doesn't really matter myself, as it makes no difference to your headphones versus plugging into the front of the motherboard since those jacks are linked to the card too.

What you've said seems to confirm that the champion wouldn't amp my headphones anyway, though I feel a DAC would probably be enough considering the SP-25's aren't high impedance.

Can I ask, what's the RCA out? Or rather, what difference does it make to my speakers?

Edit: Although they don't go below 30hz, I care more about having something that'll maximise the quality of my speaker system than headphones because the headphones are very easy to drive and the speaker system is used for when my friends are over- they don't often get used for games, which is where there might be really low bass from what little knowledge I have. /Edit

As for the new RoG card, I feel it doesn't offer anything extra I need. I know the HD covers my uses fine, and I'd prefer it to the Xonar essence and STX despite the whole headphones/speakers switching. The only new development that'd interest me to go beyond the HD's range is that chip recently produced that allows cards to output digital, because I like the design of some usb headsets and the superior mic on them, but their sound isn't too good.

This said, maybe the 'audiophile' Xonar cards are a better choice for me, given that I don't think many, if any, of the games I play make use of the Xfi architecture for sound. But I won't steer off to that topic; the point at hand is how to go about shifting the champion safely- assuming I'll notice the HD's superiority with my equipment and usage.

 

[fastwing76]

Hey fastwing, thanks for the reply.

I'd thought the HD was better suited to me- especially as I use 2.1 and at most digitally reproduce 5.1 in games, but I wanted another opinion.

You say the champion is easy to shift. I've not resold any electonic goods before (truthfully electronics in terms of components are something I personally always steer clear of second-hand), do you have any tips on shifting the champion without too much loss so I can get a HD?

The champion is still in America at the moment, but once it's brought over here I won't be able to buy a HD at American prices. Before I looked into it in greater depth, I'd figured the champion was a better model of the same card (because of the shared branding, the fact it had a front bay and was more expensive). The reason I can't return it is I didn't find out it wasn't what I thought it was until after the return period ended; amazon's automated system said no.

Well, I said I'd have to sell and buy at UK prices, but the more accurate story is I can sell at American resale value and buy at American prices before my relative's next trip, or sell at UK resale value and buy at UK prices after the trip because the delivery was late and it arrived after they got on the plane back to the UK.

I've since found out the front bay doesn't really matter myself, as it makes no difference to your headphones versus plugging into the front of the motherboard since those jacks are linked to the card too.

What you've said seems to confirm that the champion wouldn't amp my headphones anyway, though I feel a DAC would probably be enough considering the SP-25's aren't high impedance.

Can I ask, what's the RCA out? Or rather, what difference does it make to my speakers?

Edit: Although they don't go below 30hz, I care more about having something that'll maximise the quality of my speaker system than headphones because the headphones are very easy to drive and the speaker system is used for when my friends are over- they don't often get used for games, which is where there might be really low bass from what little knowledge I have. /Edit

As for the new RoG card, I feel it doesn't offer anything extra I need. I know the HD covers my uses fine, and I'd prefer it to the Xonar essence and STX despite the whole headphones/speakers switching. The only new development that'd interest me to go beyond the HD's range is that chip recently produced that allows cards to output digital, because I like the design of some usb headsets and the superior mic on them, but their sound isn't too good.

This said, maybe the 'audiophile' Xonar cards are a better choice for me, given that I don't think many, if any, of the games I play make use of the Xfi architecture for sound. But I won't steer off to that topic; the point at hand is how to go about shifting the champion safely- assuming I'll notice the HD's superiority with my equipment and usage.

first thing I will answer your question about RCA, RCA is the analogue R and L the red and white plugs you find in most stereo systems, assuming your speakers are connected through the R and L connections, you will find the same plugs in the front panel of the champion, red and whte those are the RCA, as for the return period being over, you can either try to contact amazon customer service via chat and explain to them your situation, giving that the item has not been opened yet so I am sure they will help you, the other option you have is to sell it on ebay cheaper than the retail value to guarntee the sale. I cannot think of any other way you can sell the sound card only if you know some of your buddies might show interest in it.

I would like to offer you apiece of information that might be of use to you in the future if you want to buy something from USA, there is a service called shop and ship offered by aramex shipping company, this service offer you an address in usa so you can buy stuff and sent it to this address and pay for the shipping charges which are cheap, once the package arrive at your place after 3 days.

if you have doubts about the titanium HD and you don`t game too much then you can simply switch for the xonar essense, its only weak point is the lack of EAX support in some games. so its also a good card, but I would recomment the titanium HD cuz I have it and I know what it can offer.

contact amazon live chat and I hope they will help you

 

[Antha]

Thanks for the suggestions fastwing, I've been in touch with amazon and they said they can refund me it at 80% of the price I paid for it. My only trouble is I could've sworn it cost more than they say it did (I can only see order total, not indidivudal item prices), and the refund is well below current prices, even second-hand on ebay (I guess because it's legacy tech? Or is analog 7.1 a niche?). All the cards on ebay have had offers, so I'm trying to get the sellers to tell me what the offers they've refused are, to see if I should try ebay.

Thanks for the service suggestion, but I'm not sure I follow: you say they provide a US address to have goods shipped to. Then what? Do they forward goods to me or are they to be collected?
The reason I'm trying to "make use" of my relative's visit is they can bring my products back to me without me having to pay tax to two countries then whatever extra asinine mark-up customs slap on.
My close relative was charged over a 140 pounds on a camera barely worth that price once sent over here to us for repairs (the story behind international repairs I do not know, maybe the camera was purchased here originally.)

For sure international shipping prices can suck, but the real cost on electronic goodsinternationally is import tax, VAT, and various duties.

 

[fastwing76]

amazon add tax fee on checkout and I don't think they would include it for refund