CREATIVE XMOD ?

It claims the imposible. I would avoid it simply because of the lies told in its blurb.

I believe its basically an external "24 bit crystallizer" that the X-Fis have. I may be completely wrong though. The crystallizer can sound good on some songs and horrible on others. It basically makes drums/cymbals crash real loud.

I've been using the Xmod for several months and I am very staisfied with the improved sound quality I get from this device. If you want to learn more...Dapreview.net published a lengthy review of the Xmod just last week and were impressed with it's capabilities as well.

Does this Xmod provide much amplification? I have a pair of HD580 cans and use a Pa2v2 to get the most out of them. Would I be able to use the Xmod instead of the amp, or would I have to use both?

Ok, I had a few Best Buy gift cards burning a whole in my pocket so I decided to find out for myself. I haven't tried out all of my music, but so far after a few hours I am really enjoying this thing. I primarily listen to classical music, some of which is of dubious recording quality. The Xmod makes this type of music sound incredible. For some other music genre’s, the algorithm in this unit appears to be heavy on the low end, but I did not notice this in my symphony type music, only in some oldies that I had. For my music that was of excellent quality and that I encoded in a lossless format, it was hard to detect a difference in sound quality, but the 3D algorithm does seem to help in improving the soundstage. This may be a personal preference.

Where this thing seemed to really shine was in some MP3s that I had dubbed off of cassette tapes. I had dubbed these for a relative's funeral video that I had to create (a slide show thing set to music). I had these MP3s still on my laptop, and when I listened to them with this device it sounded incredible.

Anyway, to answer my own question that I had raised in this post, this thing is not much of an amplifier. To me it seems to be a D/A converter with some advanced soundstage algorithms. I still had to have my trusty headphone amp at the output of this to drive my cans.

My rig was this: An Apple Macbook with USB out to the Creative Xmod, the headphone out port to my PA2v2 amp, and this out to my Sennheiser HD580 headphones.

thanks for those impressions guru

i was wondering whether it could act as decent amp

altho it does sound pretty enticing to me (and my computers integrated sound)

Thanks for the mini-review. I've been wondering about the Xmod

I see Creative just released more Xgoodness. Will be interesting to see where else this goes.

You'd think engineers would want to run everything through the XMOD during the mastering process... I mean, c'mon, it's better than studio sound!

GuruSY...glad your enjoying the Xmod as I am! I would have to agree with you that the Xmod does not act as an amplifier, but more as an external sound card/D-A converter.

One correction to my prior post...the full length review of the Xmod is not at Dapreview.net, they only provided the link. The review actually resides at Epizenter.net

I thought there is a Line Out on Xmod, why using Headphone Out?

Yes! but Not the Impossible

Gang,

The Big F had the Xmod on sale, $20 off! Couldn't resist, picked one up. And a semi-boo to the nay-sayers. This sucker actually works, although not as well as advertised.

1st test: Mac Powerbook>itunes>mp3's>lineout>Shure E3c, with and without the Xmod. Winner: Xmod, but actually anything sounds better than my internal soundcard.

2nd test: PB>itunes>AIFF(ripped cd)>E3c vs. PB>itunes>MP3(of same cd) but with the Xmod. Winner: none, both had the same sonic character, so the ads weren't entirely false.

3rd test: PB>itunes>AIFF>E3c with Xmod vs. Sony D-303>same cd>E3c. Winner: You need to ask? The '303 slammed the Xmod.

Conclusion: the Xmod makes streaming audios and podcasts sound better, say mp3+ or cd-. Now if Jobs can cram one of these things into my ipod I'll be happy.

ronin

Hmm, they have a few demo rigs in the local HMV store. I'll try it out just to see if I can get my computer to sound better.