This is still a very relevant piece of hardware, I was concerned that this model is now a few years old, and not featured on Creative's web site, seeming to be replaced with Z series and Recon series cards.
I am so pleased with this card that I installed last night that I felt compelled to write a review.
I don't game, and it seems that the new cards are targeted (probably smartly) to the game crowd.
I also see a lot of headphone slanted reviews, and I almost never use headphones.
I do however really appreciate subtle differences in sound quality that others sometimes don't notice, for instance, I do hear "flat" and "tired" or "muddy" sounds from MP3 versus a non compressed format, I get irritated when the music I like on XM is more compressed than some other XM Channels, so I guess I might lean audiophile, but I often get lost trying to follow "real" audiophile discussions, and esoteric nuances are mostly not perceptible to me, so I would not place myself in that league. I guess I would be more like an enthusiast than an audiophile.
I will describe my hardware first:
Music is on a Synology DS212J NAS (network attached storage) device in .Flac format (lossless format vs. MP3 which is typically compressed format.)
Computer is a fairly modern (but not amazing) ASUS computer, AMD, X2 something, dual core chip, Windows 7 64 bit, 4GB of ram.
My network is wired, and has gigabit LAN ports and switch gear.
I connect from the computer to the audio Components via Toslink (fiber optic) which was included in the box with the sound card, and is different from the one you might already have, because the connector on one side of the cable isn't the standard doghouse shape, it actually pushes into the bottom RCA jack of the card, which concerned me, but is working just fine, and the SB1270 came with 2.
I use a Yamaha HTR-5860 Receiver as a pre-amp, it connects to a Carver M-1 amplifier for the main speakers, and a Carver AV-64 cathedral amplifier for center and rear.
I use Definitive BP-10's as main speakers, a Golden Ear Forcefield 4 subwoofer, and Definitive bookshelf and center. Both the definitive speakers and carver amp's are pretty old, say 15 years plus.
I use MediaMonkey as the front end, which is kind of like I-tunes, with additional customization options.
Like many others who have reviewed, I was using the onboard audio, via toslink (fiber optic) cable.
I decided to look for a soundcard when I noticed that making small changes to the equalizer, like increasing the bass frequencies for some older bass-light rock for instance, really got muddy and distorted very quickly. I assumed that this was just a bad equalizer in MediaMonkey, because I was using fiber optic (digital signal) which I thought would not be affected or distorted to any significant degree, and that is where I was very wrong.
I installed the Soundblaster Titanium, set the EQ flat in media monkey, and then used the software from Soundblaster, and it was so different. The EQ works like a champ, the EAX modes for Opera house, or Jazz Club are as good or better than the DSP modes from my Yamaha, and the Dolby live encoding feature provided drastic improvement to the geometry and separation of the music. It really adds a depth and a lively but warm tone.
I listened to some classical, and the imaging of the music was very noticeable, for instance, the piano was on my left, very clearly, I could hear the difference in position of the string instruments, and percussion so clearly.
Next I listened to Ke$ha and Britney Spears and Nelly and was very pleased with a noticeable improvement in clarity with the bass from the subwoofer, and the clarify option on the THX software was really noticeable here too.
Next I listened to Boston, AC/DC, and Joe Satriani, and Dire Straits. All excellent here as well.
No hiss, pop or hum was evident from the card at all.
If there is a weakness, I haven't found it. It is superior in every way to the on board card, and my music really is better than CD now, which I have looked forward to for a long time.
The only thing that I noticed that could be in the "worse" column is that when you switch from .flac or other lossless items, to watch a video on youtube, you will really notice how bad the youtube sound is, and you will probably want to listen to something else.
I hope this helps you make a decision, it was very definitely a good decision for me.
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