RPGWiZaRD

Hey all I've been diehard kX Audio fan for like maybe 3 years now and thought I'd share some interesting info.

At first I thought it has to be something wrong with my ears, I've twice bought two pair of hifi headphones, first BeyerDynamic DT-770 Pro/80 ohms and then later on Audio Technica ATH-M50 which both cost around 150 EUR and are very praised among hifi community. Later on I've also bought a pair of AKG K 518 DJ which was supposed to be among the best sounding rather portable headphones at this price range and only slightly higher price than my trusty Sennheiser HD 212 Pro that costs like 42~50 EUR or so that I've used for perhaps 2 ~ 2½ years now. Everytime I tried the new headphones, I was baffled, they sounded pretty much the same as my cheaper Sennheiser HD 212 Pro headphones! With perhaps most noticable difference being bass response and very slight difference in soundstage.

Then I had to try with Realtek onboard sound just out of curiosity and what a difference I could hear between the headphones! The Sennheisers then sounded absolutely crap with the mids and highs severely lacking and the 150 EUR headphones sounded actually quite nice at least compared to the 212 Pro. Also there was this night and day difference between the AKG K 518 DJ and the Sennheiser HD 212 Pro when it came to the overall sound nature they are the total opposite of each other which I could also hear very clearly when plugging into the TV. The AKG K 518 DJ has a very dark (but clear and smooth) sounding mids and highs while Sennheiser has VERY bright and harsh sound nature and quite lacking mids. However with kX Audio drivers, both sound nearly the same, both have as close to perfection when it comes to clarity in mids and highs, it's really hard to notice any difference, on Realtek onboard I thought AKG K 518 DJ beat the hell out of the Sennheisers but with kX Audio drivers I'm favoring the Senns slightly due to better bass response (I'm a basshead) and it's also a lot more comfortable. Of course even comparing the 150 EUR headphones with Realtek onboard versus Sennheiser 43 EUR headphones with kX Audio drivers the kX Audio & cheap Sennheiser headphones combo sounded MUCH better despite when comparing Sennheiser headphones vs the 150 EUR headphones on Realtek onboard the difference was HUGE already.

What's best with kX Audio drivers are really the soundstage improvement. With proper configuration you can get some amazing surround sound, it beats even X-FI's surround implementation and the best thing is, it works everytime and everywhere, no need for 3DSS, EAX or whatever support Creative needs to add for some decent experience. When listening to music it's like being in the middle of the band playing and when you're gaming you can "spot" enemies based on what direction the sound comes from. Also one thing that's nice is the kX Audio's "10 band EQ", it's the best software equalizer bar none. I've tried lots of different software equalizers in the past with mixed results, some ruins the sound however you tweak them while some provided some minor gains in sound quality. However the kX Audio's "10 band EQ" is really magnificient at covering the weaknesses you might find in the frequency response range for cheaper headphones. I'm really satisfied with the kX Audio settings I'm using atm (BTW I recommend using Wave 4/5 for best quality in both XP and Win 7 but I think it may only work with stereo output but I haven't tried it with a 5.1 set so can't say), I doubt I can get any better sound quality than this, whatever sound card I'd buy. I've bought 2 backup cards, Audigy 1 and and Audigy 2 ZS in case my current Audigy 1 dies. Been using the card since 2001! Also got a backup Sennheiser HD212 Pro set, guess I'm getting a bit paranoid. lol

Anyway the kX Audio drivers are really awesome when 50€ headphones starts sounding like 150€ ones and thanks once again for fixing that >4GB RAM bug a while ago and adding Windows 7 support so I can use kX Audio drivers many years to come still! I cannot stress how often I feel bad for people that hasn't discovered kX Audio drivers and spend 150 EUR on a new soundcard and how doubtful they are if I mention kX Audio Driver + Audigy card combo today as a recommendation...

brainless_beginner

Wow! U seem to really like it to write so much that all above. But I agree, people who know kX Driver never say good bye to it.

BTW, 10 band EQ is actually a hardware (DSP) equalizer, but not software.

RPGWiZaRD

I sure do, even comparing Creative's drivers vs kX Audio on the Audigy card it's like comparing onboard sound vs some very good 3rd party sound card. Basicly I'm seeing it as a future "X-Fi 2" chip or perhaps better, can't ofc say how their next gen sound cards will turn out like but at least I like Audigy + kX Audio more than X-Fi + Creative's drivers. PaX or other modded drivers doesn't help much either it still sounds nearly the same as original ones as it's just a slight tweaks here and there.

Thanks for clearing that up about the equalizer, I suppose that's why it works so well.

OMA

Yeah, kX rocks! I specially like 10 Band EQ and the "Surrounder" (best virtual 5.1 I've ever heard). I hope development continues many years.

Why isn't this project being made open source?

peate

Eugene, the creator of the driver, has signed a non-disclosure agreement with Creative Labs which makes it impossible for him to share development with the general public. Yeah, it's too bad, imagine the possibilities.

OMA

I understand. Thanks for the info. Is this forever or does the agreement have any expiration date?

I don't get why Creative doesn't want parts of the kX code being known. The newer Creative cards don't use the 10k1/10k2 chips, anyway. Why hold the drivers for their older cards, which are no longer for sale?

Max M.

Well, strictly speaking, the Creative has almost nothing to do with kX's opensourcing. It is not their decision. The "NDA bla-bla" explanation is just a handy shortcut to keep away from complicated and sometimes frustrating "to be or not to be" discussions. See also OSX driver 1.1b1 released (BETA)
Besides, a lot of kX code is open source (For example all modules mentioned in this thread are).

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