Creative X-Fi

[chrisrod01]

Get the thing its awesome i have tested and seen it in QUAKECON and im a musician so sound always i mean always matter to me this thing is worth the 130 for the card or 200 for the drive bay version

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
well i bought it (XtremeMusic version) today from BB (I'll return it if it proves not great).....but I can tell you that the sounds in BF2 are ridiculously nice. Pretty impressive. Haven't done much with listening to music yet though as I have to clean my phones first

I'm hoping you are using etymotic phones. Otherwise that whole "clean my phones" comment makes me go ick.

Heh....they're canal phones yes.....but I (admittedly) probably have more ear-wax troubles than most people due to my job (underwater alot).

is there a restocking fee at BB? Hmm, wondering if i should just buy n try since i hate BB anyway

I checked about that first thing. No restocking fee on something like a sound card provided everything originally pakcaged is returned.

I wanted to buy the Audigy 2 value for $55 (on clearance) but no stores anywhere remotely in the area had it and I figured this card'll probably suit me just fine for the next several years. Hell, the Live! Value on my last computer served me well since....well since the Live! series first came out.

There are some very nice deals on A2 card in hot deals right now.

A2zs = $37 after rebate I think.

 

[sharkeeper]

Is there a PCMCIA version in the works?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: chrisrod01
Get the thing its awesome i have tested and seen it in QUAKECON and im a musician so sound always i mean always matter to me this thing is worth the 130 for the card or 200 for the drive bay version

Dude you're like a skipping record. IIRC, there was another thread about X-fi where the only thing you said was "I was at Quakecon, it was awesome! Best card evar! It accelerated my music by 100FPS and my games had bit-for-bit playback. It did my taxes, and walked my dog, blah blah blah"

We got the point after the first 400x. You ought to be getting paid by Creative for advertising. Do you hand out flyers on the street out of your own volition?

[edit] Sorry, I'm pissy this morning...

 

[jonmcguffin]

I'm anxiously awaiting more info to poor out on this card personally...

Though I think you guys squabling here over Creatives claim of helping out FPS in games versus what the card really will do is pointless. The truth of the matter is, Creative is really the ONLY sound card manufacture out there that gives a rats behind about games so I would think you all should be drooling over anything Creative does that could help in any way possible, even if the help is a little less than their "ideal" scenerio's. I've known more than enough gamers who will replace their video card for a 5% increase in speed, if the Sound Card can make it that much easier for the computer to do other tasks, than great. Why complain about it?

I've never been a big fan of Creative though because of all the bloatware associated with installing one of their cards on my machine. It seems to always take these guys 1-2 years before they get the solution right. As a matter of fact, right now would most likely be the absoulte bet time to buy an Audigy 2 ZS. The line has been around for awhile, so all the kinds have been worked out. For anybody looking for a solid computer audio solution, I don't know how you can beat that Audigy 2 ZS for $37! That's absurdly cheap.

My impressions on these new product line from Creative is somewhat mixed. I'll start with the negative...

#1) I think they've done a terrible job of positioning the cards. The "ExtremeMusic" edition is plagued with the same low quality AD/DA converters as every other version save the X-Fi Elite Pro. So, if you want the cleanest and purest sound available, you have to drop the $400 on the elite, that's absurd.

#2) I also don't like the fact that in order to get any reasonable in/out's on the card you need to step up to the $200 drive bay version which frankly sucks. Drive bay sound is an absolute joke. Personally, I have a cream/beige case and there is NO way Im putting a black drive may in it so that I can plug in cables to the front of my computer and have them sprawling all across the front of my computer. I feel for those who have doors!

#3) How can they come out with a new product and not support Dolby Digital encoding/decoding in hardware? How cutting edge could this card be without doing that?

Now the positives...

#1) Despite all the people wining and bitching about the new Crytalizer feature, truth be told anybody whom I've read that has heard this says it makes a positive impression on their listening experience. I'm tired of mediocre sound coming from my .mp3's and .wma's due to the compression methods used. If creative has developed a processor that's 10X faster than anything before and feels as though they can put it to good use to playback these files, that's great. I'm aslo VERY intrigued by the whole notion that you can encode .mp3 files using this technology from the beginning.

#2) The CMSS-3D feature looks pretty cool and though I never use headphones, it appears it'll help out a lot there. All I had to hear was that it did a better job of creating a 5.1 field than Dolby Pro Logic II to know that Creative obviously did their homework on this and that's going to be a plus for everybody.

#3) Truth is, this sound card is likely to produce sounds that are clearer than any sound card commercially available. It looks as though Creative has gone through a LOT of work to eliminate any noise in the audio stream all the way from 16-bit to 24-bit audio and I commend them for this.

Jon

 

[Gooberlx2]

Well, I've played around with listening to some music. Some really impressive stuff going on. Enabling the 24-bit really does make it sound quite nice. Pretty cool tweaking abilities with the CMSS-3D...personally I like the stereo surround over stereo Xpand...though I'm not sure how to explain the difference. I quite like it.

[edit]
I agree with the above poster that arguing over FPS is stupid. I bought the card because my Live! 24-bit was complete crap and the only other option was onboard sound (ADI SoundMax)...which was also complete crap. Now I have a much improved listening experience plus great sounding and accurate 3D surround positiong (seriously, it's unbelievable), plus whatever little acceleration I do get in games......plus VOIP works for the 1st time in Battlefield 2.

As far as the bloat goes...yeah Creative has always been bad about that, which is why I only install the necessary software. In this case thats: Drivers, Volume Panel, Console Launcher, Audio Console, Mode Switcher. I also have the THX setup (pretty nifty), speaker wizard, and diagnostics installed. I can't stand their bloated a$$ed MediaSource bull$h!t software, Karaoke, wave studio, etc, etc....

I could return this card, get my $130 back, and get the Audigy2 ZS for $37.....but you know what? I'm impressed enough to keep it. And it'll suffice well for a good long time I'm willing to bet....several years atleast.

So for the most part I'll be leaving it in "Entertainment" mode unless I launch a game, where I'll put it in the obvious "Game" mode. I won't touch the "Creative" mode until I buy some midi-DIN-to-midi(soundcard) connectors.

I have a friend, however, who would drool over this stuff (atleast the $400 EliteProXtremeAwesome Edition for the quality ADCs/DACs). He does some very serious music composing, Digital DJing, and editing.

Creative pisses me off too....but I'm more pissed at the fact that no one has really stepped up to the plate to try to challenge them in what they do in the consumer market (not pro market...obviously). Microsoft, for example, has all the power in the world to develop an EAX-like standard under their DirectX umbrella that other card makers could code to and accelerate on-chip....but they don't. Someone mentioned in another thread that Game developers don't give a hoot about sound for the most part. Well, I bet they would if the other 3rd party soundcard makers and, especially, the onboard sound makers could build chips meant to accelerate sound in DirectX...and then suddenly everyone has a computer with the ability to accelerate sound effects.

 

[Stangs55]

Well it seems the EVERY best buy in the Houston area has only the Platinum and Xtrememusic editions. (I think Best Buy is the only place to find them now).

Where the hell can I get a Fatal1ty FPS model or and Elite Pro?!?!

 

[T9D]

I'm going to go check out Best Buy in my area today. I've wanted one of these for a while. I hope they got em.

 

[jonmcguffin]

Thanks for the updates on this card Goober.... I've been anxiously awaiting to hear people's real life experiences with the card.

Just to clarify a little about what I was saying above... Though I think the Audigy 2 ZS is a far better "value" than the new line of X-Fi cards, I have no doubt the the X-Fi cards are worth what the cost.

I just wish they had come out with a version of the card that costs about $200 yet delivers everything in the Xtreme Music version + the onboard RAM, and the higher quality converters along with a small breakout box for I/O connection as opposed to the horrendous drivebay.

Jon

 

[LED]

Here's my favotite read @ THG:
>If you look at all the possible connections, you'll see that while Creative has stayed with consumer-type hookups - there's no symmetrical input - it offers a complete range, with microphone, line, and phono, plus the added possibility of connecting a musical instrument with a simple standard cable. So it's a design that can meet the needs of all amateurs.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

#1) I think they've done a terrible job of positioning the cards. The "ExtremeMusic" edition is plagued with the same low quality AD/DA converters as every other version save the X-Fi Elite Pro. So, if you want the cleanest and purest sound available, you have to drop the $400 on the elite, that's absurd.

The DACs and ADCs on even the bog-standard X-Fi cards are (at least on paper, I havn't heard one yet) better than pretty much anything on the market - it's simply not justifiable to call them low quality.

The Extreme Music edition is simply for extra connectivity compared with the basic version - It's targeted at people doing basic home recording and/or some MIDI work.

This said, I am surprised that they don't offer basic cards with the 64Mb of RAM on - most gamers won't use the majority of features on the drive-bay interface.

On the down-side, I've only just got my Audigy to the point when I can do everything I want without any Creative Bloatware (TM) installed and I <wish> Creative would make a basic driver set available for download...

 

[Acanthus]

another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

 

[Czar]

fiftyfsckingonemillion!!!

 

[T9D]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

Not true

I got it a bit ago and I'm quite surprised at how nice the console is. Very easy to use and not buggy at all. And I never had a problem with my audigy I just installed drivers only with that and it worked and sounded great. I was leary about installing all the extras with this but you really need to so you get all the optiions you'd really want to use.

So far I'm VERY pleased with everything about this card. I'm still putting it through it's paces though. mp3's sounds amazing. Every instrument is so clear and defined and has it's own depth and place on the soundstage. I'm using some really nice headphones right now. Can't really blast my speakers right now.

 

[Googer]

ExtremeTech has an article too....

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1850389,00.asp

 

[Oyeve]

Why is everyone so up in arms about this product and Creative Labs? No one is making you buy their products. At least they come out with new products every once in a while even tho they dont have to as they have no immediate competition. And the fact that they have multiple versions on each version of card means they are giving customers options. They, imo, have been doing a great job for over 15 years. They arent bullying PC makers into using their cards or sound technology. They could have easily stayed with the SB Live! 5.1 and never came out with another sound card again as basically everyone seems to think they havent done anything "worthwhile" since that card. I, for one, am very interested in their new card and will most likely get one of the less costlier versions.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

It was NVIDIA.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: tk109

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

Not true

I got it a bit ago and I'm quite surprised at how nice the console is. Very easy to use and not buggy at all. And I never had a problem with my audigy I just installed drivers only with that and it worked and sounded great. I was leary about installing all the extras with this but you really need to so you get all the optiions you'd really want to use.

So far I'm VERY pleased with everything about this card. I'm still putting it through it's paces though. mp3's sounds amazing. Every instrument is so clear and defined and has it's own depth and place on the soundstage. I'm using some really nice headphones right now. Can't really blast my speakers right now.

excactly my point, you *HAVE TO* install their friggin 12 control panels because they cant seem to code it all into one.

What does integrated sound cost nowadays? $3?

So the $200 X-fi has a ~2-10% performance advantage, massive drivers, clumsy control panels, and slightly increased sound quality. All for a low low 3000% price increase.

Worth it, totally worth it. Especially with glaringly obvious missing features for the kind of person that would WANT to spend this kind of money on sound (Dolby).

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

It was NVIDIA.

nvidia certainly had a chance, but they never made an add in board, and didnt force the mobo makers hands for quality control either.

the Abit NF7 had very very good sound, off the charts for integrated. It also had clean drivers, very few bugs, and DD.

They had the right product, they pushed it wrong. Heres hoping they take a 2nd swing at the sound market.

 

[T9D]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: tk109

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

Not true

I got it a bit ago and I'm quite surprised at how nice the console is. Very easy to use and not buggy at all. And I never had a problem with my audigy I just installed drivers only with that and it worked and sounded great. I was leary about installing all the extras with this but you really need to so you get all the optiions you'd really want to use.

So far I'm VERY pleased with everything about this card. I'm still putting it through it's paces though. mp3's sounds amazing. Every instrument is so clear and defined and has it's own depth and place on the soundstage. I'm using some really nice headphones right now. Can't really blast my speakers right now.

excactly my point, you *HAVE TO* install their friggin 12 control panels because they cant seem to code it all into one.

What does integrated sound cost nowadays? $3?

So the $200 X-fi has a ~2-10% performance advantage, massive drivers, clumsy control panels, and slightly increased sound quality. All for a low low 3000% price increase.

Worth it, totally worth it. Especially with glaringly obvious missing features for the kind of person that would WANT to spend this kind of money on sound (Dolby).

If you have no hands on experience with this why are you voicing such anger? It's very easy to use and athetically pleasing to look at to boot. None of the control panels have to be open at any time for the options to work either. I play music on winamp and close the console for the x-fi. All the settings stay set. Very easy simple and sounds amazing. Well worth the money. Look dont buy it and let us who have the money be happy with our new product. I'm enjoying all my songs over again like they were new.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: tk109

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: tk109

Originally posted by: Acanthus
another 200MB driver, bug ridden, resampling, hype machine from creative :thumbsup:

they really, really, need a competitor.

Not true

I got it a bit ago and I'm quite surprised at how nice the console is. Very easy to use and not buggy at all. And I never had a problem with my audigy I just installed drivers only with that and it worked and sounded great. I was leary about installing all the extras with this but you really need to so you get all the optiions you'd really want to use.

So far I'm VERY pleased with everything about this card. I'm still putting it through it's paces though. mp3's sounds amazing. Every instrument is so clear and defined and has it's own depth and place on the soundstage. I'm using some really nice headphones right now. Can't really blast my speakers right now.

excactly my point, you *HAVE TO* install their friggin 12 control panels because they cant seem to code it all into one.

What does integrated sound cost nowadays? $3?

So the $200 X-fi has a ~2-10% performance advantage, massive drivers, clumsy control panels, and slightly increased sound quality. All for a low low 3000% price increase.

Worth it, totally worth it. Especially with glaringly obvious missing features for the kind of person that would WANT to spend this kind of money on sound (Dolby).

If you have no hands on experience with this why are you voicing such anger? It's very easy to use and athetically pleasing to look at to boot. None of the control panels have to be open at any time for the options to work either. I play music on winamp and close the console for the x-fi. All the settings stay set. Very easy simple and sounds amazing. Well worth the money. Look dont buy it and let us who have the money be happy with our new product. I'm enjoying all my songs over again like they were new.

Because ive been burned by creatives trash 3 times before, everyone who talks the product up (like you) just bought into the hype and *THINK* it sounds better because they boost the treble and bass..

Unless you have a $1000 stereo system, it doesnt sound better, and if you do, it doesnt sound as good as it should.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Well, I see everyone's loving the X-Fi.

 

[biostud]

Their software team should be beaten to pulp. Apperently they've never heard about "Keep It Simple, Stupid", or maybe their bling-bling software helps them justify bying their cards compared to onboard.........

you can only wonder why they didn't include a DD live encoder, but my guess is that it will be included when they need to sell X-Fi 2. Personally I have no use for it, as my reciever doesn't have a DD decoder, but still.

So I don't know if I'm going to invest in this, most likely I will fall for the hype, when I go for my ultimate gameing rig

 

[alcoholbob]

THG posted CPU utilization graphs of the Xi-Fi and said something vague like "don't expect much FPS gain compared to Audigy 2".

They "forgot" to list the graph of CPU utilization of the Audigy 2...most likely because the Audigy 2 has much lower CPU utilization than the XiFi, by a factor of 2 or more. Sad isn't it?

 

[Skiguy411]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
THG posted CPU utilization graphs of the Xi-Fi and said something vague like "don't expect much FPS gain compared to Audigy 2".

They "forgot" to list the graph of CPU utilization of the Audigy 2...most likely because the Audigy 2 has much lower CPU utilization than the XiFi, by a factor of 2 or more. Sad isn't it?

What? Jumping to conclusions?