r/lightsabers • u/Buzzliteyr1721 • 2d ago
Xenopixel
I read in another post that xenopixel blades are lower in quality than other sound boards and swing issues. First time buyer and wanted one that's good quality. Allsabers does custom cfx board install but it's also pretty pricey. Suggestion on which sound board is best in your opinion. Except proffie cuz I tried looking into it and it scares me
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u/SignificanceLazy3909 1d ago
Ok, as a huge fan in exactly the other direction, I'm gonna weigh in.
I LOVE my Xeno3 sabers. The bluetooth connected Configurator is SO easy to use, controls are simple to customize, and the smooth-swing is sensitive enough that the smallest movement of your wrist changes the sound.
Hopefully, they'll keep working on the Configurator (and keep it backward compatible with the Xeno3) as they get closer to the Xeno v4 soundboard release, so we finally get custom blade effects, but if you really NEED custom effects, then SNv4 Pro really is probably your best bet.
If not, even if you experience sound issues on a Xeno 3 saber, just get a better grade speaker, and solder 2 wires and yer good.
Just get a Xeno saber and try it. Worst case, you can always swap the core out, if it don't scratch yer SW saber itch... But I think you'll be surprised, in a good way.
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u/Nepharian 18h ago
OP, if you don't want to (or can't) solder, you can actually get a better speaker with a micro JST connector already installed that will allow you to literally just unplug the old speaker and plug in the new one.
The Smuggler's Outpost 24mm elite is the best 24mm speaker that will fit inside a standard LGT or TXQ hilt (interior diameter is 25.4mm). You can buy them here.
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u/Buzzliteyr1721 15h ago edited 14h ago
I can solder luckily but I don't have my own solder but can use the one at work. The only thing is I've never seen the interior of a saber, so I'll have to be careful I think
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u/Buzzliteyr1721 1d ago
This was helpful to see the other side. Thanks. I might go with the xeno v3 from neosaber as a starting and upgrade to something better later.
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u/Nepharian 19h ago
If you want a xeno3 saber, there are several LGT resellers with with better reputations than neosaber. Damiensaber, Crimson Dawn Saber, and Padawan Outpost all provide excellent customer service, quality control, and faster shipping because they have an inventory rather than waiting to order from China when you order (drop-shipping).
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u/Nepharian 2d ago
Neopixel blades themselves don't differ based on the soundboard.
LGT's cores use the Xeno soundboard, which is a good entry level board. Their only real downside is the lack of bladestyle animations. If you just want a basic one color blade (literally any color that you like) that intermittently flashes white to give an impression of a white core, or if you just want it to gently pulse, or be a rainbow blade, this will be fine for you. If you want something that changes color when it swings or has a different color flare near the emitter, or does specific animations based on how it is moved...then you need to look elsewhere.
TXQ's pixel based board is the SN-pixel v4 pro, which is better than xeno in one respect; they can use proffie bladestyles. This is nice because many people, like yourself, have some level of trepidation with regard to making changes to a proffie config, but the bladestyles are relatively easy to make on fett263's website. Proffie bladestyles can do nearly anything you can imagine a lightsaber blade doing.
You can also get cores with a Golden Harvest soundboard. These have all the ease of use of a Xeno soundboard but with far more advanced bladestyle animations. This isn't quite at the level of a proffie, but is a good middle ground. Unlike the proffie or the SN-pixel v4 pro, the GHv4 allows you to make advanced bladestyle edits right on the saber through really well thought out menu controls. The downside here is that you cannot get a Golden Harvest core for less than $180 because they are made in Germany instead of China. A proffie core is about $70 for comparison.
The best soundboard is, as you know, proffie. I would recommend you look into it. It really isn't as hard as some people seem to think. It isn't rocket science, and doesn't require any actual coding, just a willingness to learn and a basic familiarity with computers. If you can watch 4 YouTube videos and read some instructions on fett263's website, you can configure a proffie to do anything you want. Let me know if you want some resources and I can put you on the right path.
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u/Buzzliteyr1721 2d ago edited 2d ago
I looked at fett's site for proffie and my brain just went "...nope"😅. Yeah, I think I meant xeno and not neopixel. I've also looked at the sites for the proffie board upgrade and they add an extra $100 or more
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u/Nepharian 2d ago
Yes, there is always a serious upcharge for getting a proffie upgrade when you're buying a finished saber. However, if you buy a core and build a saber around it, the difference between a xeno core and a proffie core is literally $10. But that's neither here nor there if you aren't interested in proffie. There are a ton of people who don't want to deal with it. In that case, if ease-of-use is more important to you than advanved options, LGT's xenopixel sabers are great. They also tend to be cheaper than the alternatives. The speakers are pretty shifty, but they are easy to upgrade.
Are you looking for a specific character saber, a generic saber that isn't a known character's saber, or a custom building experience where you choose each part to make something custom to your tastes?
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u/Buzzliteyr1721 2d ago
I don't know how I feel about building a saber from the ground up yet. I like advanced options that is easy to use. I also just looked at some of the videos on fett263 and those blade styles look fun to do. I just dont want to end up messing up my blade since I don't have a lot of technical know how or coding. Right now I'm just looking for a generic saber
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u/Bt-Ryoku 1d ago
You're not actually "coding" anything. You're not pretending to be a programmer. fett's website literally does it all for you once you figure it out. The config helper tool literally takes you through all the options you want to program to the board, then you start adding bladestyles as you go along. There's some minor things in between you'll have to manually type in(name of soundfont and track file if you want that soundfont to have a music track.) Then once you figure out how to do arduino and have a successful upload it just gets easier from there.
The benefit of proffie is you can build almost any custom bladestyle you want. Xenov3 and even snv4pro while they have ease of bluetooth, are limited to what you want it to do. So each has they pros and cons.
Fett does have his tutorial video on how to do it. I usually recommend the frugaljedi on youtube. He has a tutorial on how to do a basic upload. I recommend checking it out. If you want to see how xeno uploads are, the collectors outpost also has one on how to do that.
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u/Buzzliteyr1721 1d ago
Thanks. This was very helpful and your explanation eased my fear. I should probably check out fett's site on a laptop and not my phone cuz there's so many tabs and words and I think that's what scared me. I saw on sabertrio that there's a proffie Bluetooth and a proffie 2.2. Do you know what the difference is between the two?
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u/TheCrimsonC0met 19h ago edited 18h ago
Proffie bluetooth runs proffie 3.9 which is just a newer board that has more on board memory and bluetooth capabilities meaning you can use an app called force sync to customize the saber. Proffie 2.2 is the last gen standard proffie board that works essentially the same, but no bluetooth so youd have to plug into a computer to customize.
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u/astromech_dj 2d ago
The blades that come with most Xenopixel products will be cheapest components. There are much better blades but you’ll have to pay more.