Firstly, contratz!

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:DiVoom recommends placing the subwoofer on the floor (where it is at the moment), but this hinders my leg room under the table, so I might end up sticking this on the table (and use it to boost the height of my monitor, instead of wooden thing I have now).

Bass frequencies tend to be pretty much non directional so in theory you can stick it anywhere where you can hear it and get the same effect. You might find that the bass is overwhelming though having it so close to you. Try it out. It might work for you for all I know.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:I did somewhat imagine that better speakers generally had optical connections, but this didn't (maybe only for 5.1 and above speakers?).  I have been getting interference with my old speakers (ie would hear some random noise when the HDD span up) - despite the analog connections for these speakers, I haven't heard any interference, though I haven't been using them for that long anyway.

If they'd had an optical connection you'd have wasted your $37 on the X-Fi. The optical out from a cheap-donkey motherboard is exactly the same as the optical out on a $300 card. When you buy an expensive sound card you're paying for the D/A converters and all the analog circuitry that goes after. If you use a digital output then you're bypassing all of that. The signal stays digital meaning it doesn't have a chance to be marred by analog noise and distortion.

As for the interference this is where your $37 comes into play. If you look at your old onboard sound its nestled in amongst all the other gubbins on the motherboard that make the computer go. Being a cheap sound chip it probably doesn't have any power supply filtering or conditioning either. Now look at your shiny new card. Not only that but it probably uses higher quality low noise op amps. If you're still have noise issues make sure that the wires carrying audio do not run parallel to any other data or power lines. Audio can run parallel to audio but not anything else. If the wires do need to cross try and keep them at right angles.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can't seem to tell any difference between the EAX effects, even with the dB slider all the way on both sides.
CMSS-3D seems to be aimed at upsampling stereo to multi-channel speakers, so probably does nothing for me.
Can't seem to tell the difference with the Crystalizer either, though I haven't really tried listening to it that much.

My old PCI Sound Blaster had that problem with EAX as well. I can't remember what I did to fix it but it took me a while. Crystaliser just annoyed me. From what I coul work out it took the highest frequencies of what was being output, doubling the frequency then mixing it back in. It sort of works with really low bitrate stuff but with high bitrate stuff it just adds distortion.

There wee are. You caught my eye when you said in the title about audio stuff and now I've completely unecessarily emptied my head into a post.

Enjoy!