My M-Audio Fast Track Pro is an Audio Interface, it has XLR inputs, MIDI In/Out and metric ton of knobs and buttons and it's completely incomparable to a Creative USB Device as they are very different things. The problem with calling them Audio Interfaces is that if you look up Audio Interface you get very very different things to what the Creative USB devices are. It's not a bad argument as a "USB Sound Card" usually has a mic in and hence has some sort of ADC in addition to the DAC(s), albeit usually not a very good one. Sadly Australia does not get the IR remote for some reason, which would be great when you're just outside arms reach and additional media controls even if the app is in the background.Ĭreatives Sound Blaster Z and E range of products are pretty decent, give them a look next time. I have not played around with the added features (surround, crystalliser, scout, etc) but assume they work as intended. Worth the upgrade if you don't have a spare PCIE slot for an add in card, and you also get a very good mic, and quick access to volume and mute via the push knob.
Speakers show the same trend, the sound feels much more of a rock eq versus the flatness of the X-Fi and muddyness of the onboard. Upper mid range notes are more notable, cymbals and snare hits are much more lively.
HD598s drive much louder and more solid with no fall off in the low end compared to both, and also sounds much cleaner compared to the onboard.
Comparing to the X-Fi Pro 5.1 (which is one of the best dac/opamp combos under $200 but suffers from having a weak preamp) and ALC1150 on my Z97N Gaming 5 motherboard (upgraded onboard gaming audio). My listening devices are a set of Creative Gigaworks T40 II and Sennheiser HD598 cans, with various FLAC, Spotify, and gaming. There is hardly any talk about USB sound cards these days because of all the jazz about DACs and stuff, but if you're after something simple that just works for PC and Mac, the Omni is a good contender.
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