Re:Marketing BS on the sample rate (Score 1)

Actually they do market that their S/N ratio is a lot higher than before. "According to Creative Labs this is not just a development of the seven-year-old EMU 10K chips which have powered everything from the SoundBlaster Live to the Audigy 2 ZS, but a completely new design. X-fi or Xtreme Fidelity when spelled out in full not only supports 24-bit/96 KHz sampling, but it has a minimum 110dB SNR. Which is a step up from the typical 95 and 100dB SNR figures offered by Intel's HD audio." You can turn off the Crystalizer, which some review sites recommend. It's the extra processing, input/out features, standards support, etc. then which should be focused on, as much fun as it is to poke holes in the meaningless PR. :) But then again I just use my SoundStorm to output dolby digital optically to my amp. And as soon as I can upgrade that to a Tripath chip I'll be a lot happier.