Is Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic support S750?

[asd]

Today I bought my Gigaworks S750 for my PC, but after I installed it, I noticed that the Rear Left speaker not working well, while the other Six speakers working just fine, I can hear them through sound testing, but I can only hear the Rear Left one if I set the master volume to MAX!! and it still produce a very little sound.

Then I took it back to the retailer, they told me that my XtremeMusic is "NOT" a real 7.1 sound card, so I need to use the "5.1 up-mix to 7.1" feature in order to make them works right, or you need to buy a high-end card like X-fi Pro or etc...

Is it true? or is that guy telling lies to me?
please give some advise, thanks!

[SLippe]

Let me guess, Best Buy? Sounds like faulty speakers. I couldn't find anything on Google about your problem, so. Did you check all your connections? Check for latest drivers?

[crainger]

Yeah sounds like faulty speakers. The XtremeMusic is a full 7.1 card. Even if it wasn't then you'd have low or no sound on both rear speakers rather than just one being quiet.

[Bman212121]

Did you try swapping the rear speakers to see if it is that speaker or maybe the the channel itself is bad? Like Slippe said check all of your connections as it is most likely just a loose connection somewhere. Another thing you can try is just purposely plug the front channel into the rear channel and see if both rear channels are all of the sudden louder.

I haven't really dealt with a 7.1 setup, but I do know on a 5.1 that depending upon the content and what settings you have, the front speakers and the center will be loud, but the rear speakers don't have much to output so they are really quiet. I have to switch the mode on my speakers to get the back ones to do something, or in the case of playing mp3's you have to set the X-Fi CMSS 3D to the middle in order to get surround sound since the source is only 2 channels.

Then I took it back to the retailer, they told me that my XtremeMusic is "NOT" a real 7.1 sound card, so I need to use the "5.1 up-mix to 7.1" feature in order to make them works right, or you need to buy a high-end card like X-fi Pro or etc...

This is obviously not true because the difference between a 5.1 setup and a 7.1 setup is that you add 2 speakers in the middle. If it had anything to do with this then your left and right middle speakers should be the ones that aren't working and not the rear.

[asd]

Thanks for the reply, what I have done so far is, first, there are six speakers working just fine, same volume, only the rear left one produce only a little sound, I call it "RL", so I try to plug the Middle Left one into the "RL" one, now, the RL speaker works fine but the Middle Left one produce only a little sound, even through I can make them working just fine by selecting the "5.1 up-mix to 7.1" option, but this is not right since my card is a 7.1 sound card so why do I need to EMU it into 7.1? I need you guys advise, thanks.

EDIT: The driver I am using is up-to-date and I am sure that it is the newest one.

[Q]

I think it might be a driver issue.

I had this EXACT same problem for a while (I have an ExtremeMusic as well). It turned out to be a corrupt driver install. I had to wipe my machine to fix it.

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by asd

Thanks for the reply, what I have done so far is, first, there are six speakers working just fine, same volume, only the rear left one produce only a little sound, I call it "RL", so I try to plug the Middle Left one into the "RL" one, now, the RL speaker works fine but the Middle Left one produce only a little sound, even through I can make them working just fine by selecting the "5.1 up-mix to 7.1" option, but this is not right since my card is a 7.1 sound card so why do I need to EMU it into 7.1? I need you guys advise, thanks.

EDIT: The driver I am using is up-to-date and I am sure that it is the newest one.

It is most likely a bad speaker then because if you switched it with another one and the problem follows the same speaker, that speaker is the bad one.

As for the upmixing option you have to understand what it does. Even though you have a 7.1 card your source maybe not be 7.1 channels. Most DVD's are only 5.1 audio, which means if your card is set normally it will not output audio to the middle speakers because there is nothing from the source audio (From the DVD disc) to output. In order to get sound on those speakers, your sound card has to make it's own audio by taking sounds from other channels and mixing it together to create another channel. Most of the things that you will be listening to will need to be expanded so sound comes out of all speakers.

Let's say you have an mp3 file, it normally is only 2 channels of sound. With all of the options to virtual surround turned off sound will only come out of the front left and front right speakers. (Also assuming your speakers are set correctly) With the X-Fi card you'll need to use the CMSS 3D option to take the audio from those two channels and make up the other 5.1 channels and give the impression that you have 7.1 audio.

[asd]

Originally Posted by Bman212121

It is most likely a bad speaker then because if you switched it with another one and the problem follows the same speaker, that speaker is the bad one.

Yes, I know that, and I mean the sound testing inside the Creative contorl panel, there you can select what speaker system you have, for me I choose the 7.1 one and let it test them one by one, I can hear all the others without any problem, only the rear left one produce only a little sound.

So I guess I will bring it back and tell the retailer that this speaker is bad and need to replace another for me.

[crainger]

If they make a fuss, make them prove they all work. Should be a difficult task for them to find a suitable 7.1 source. ::

[asd]

Originally Posted by crainger

If they make a fuss, make them prove they all work. Should be a difficult task for them to find a suitable 7.1 source. ::

I already contact them and they will come to my home to check about it, I guess this is really the speakers's problem, not my sound card.

[crainger]

That's nice of them. Better bake them some cookies.