My X-Fi does run trouble free, too I don't understand what all the fuzz is about But I have to agree that the applikations could be less bloated

But you can't really say the software isn't bloated because it sure as h*** is. Not that ATI is anyway better with they're .net-based Catalyst Control Center... whats up with slow mixer and configurationpanels that load slow even on the fastest of dual-core systems with raptor disks? Who has requested this?

Bloated? Yeah. Other than that I have no trouble and everything sounds fantastic. I don't get what all the whining is about.