I certainly hope not. While this sound card does support Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and the speakers may not, I still don't see why there would be a degradation in basic sound quality.

Here-- http://dmzweb4.europe.creative.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=907,E=0000000000143653315,K=8522,Sxi=1,Answer19463=obj(19463):obj(19475) you can find solutions to Poor Quality Sound.

I am hoping someone can help me with this rather annoying issue. With my newly acquired Dell XPS 400, I opted for the SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card while opting NOT to purchase speakers from Dell. I just saw no reason for it since I already have speakers (ones that actually have physical volume controls and a headphone jack!). I don't know if that may be playing a role, but the audio does not sound as good as it did on my previous PC. Windows Media Player is actually my program of choice for playing MP3's and music sounded great on my old PC, the songs had just enough bass and everything. I had been an avid user of MusicMatch Jukebox for years, but one random day, I started hearing echos in my music and moved on to WMP. In any event, the audio just doesn't sound as good. I hear echos, even some crackling with certain sounds when they get loud. It's tough to put into words, but there is no excuse for why things should actually sound WORSE than before. I thought maybe if I made some adjustments in the X-Fi console, I could toy around with it and make it sound better, but there has been no change. Am I doing something wrong? Is there something else I should be looking to adjust? Bear in mind, the sound on my PC works and all, we're just talking about a quality control issue here (I hope). I appreciate any feedback you guys can provide. Jason

With this old man trying to remember his Electronics, I am thinking that problem may be related to what is called "Impedance Matching" ? The Impedance of the speakers(4 ohms or 8 ohms, etc.) must match the Impedance of the card.

That's really frustrating! I think I would contact Dell support and see what they have to say. I wouldn't expect your speakers to be the cause of the problem. If you don't get any help, request that they either fix it or replace the unit. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

"I hear echos, even some crackling with certain sounds when they get loud." I can't see that being caused by an impedance mismatch. I would suspect an audio card problem. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!