Creative Introduces Sound Blaster X-Fi

[[D]Ghod]

apparently adds about 50ms of latency too

 

[sonance]

From what I can tell, at a minimum the Creation mode will support ASIO drivers that bypass any mixer / resampler (even with the cheapest $129 card.)
If you plan to use this with an external DAC, that's about all that's needed for bit-perfect playback. Of course, a $30 card can do that just as well, so it better do something else that's useful.
For those of you who play games, the one good thing about Creative cards is they have the least amount of impact on frame rate - I currently have 2 sound cards in both my PCs, one for games and system sounds (Aud 2) and one for music and dvd playback, maybe I will test one of these X-Fi cards out later on.
I wonder how good the DACs will be on various cards.

 

[]|[ GorE]

The prices are too high,IMO.Even if the Music Series card retails for around 80-90$,i dont know why one would want to pay that much if all the card offers is some CMSS-3D function and a slight fps gain.

it better support more features and stuff and have a good quality headphone out.And i do hope we will get to see some custom drivers to make use of all that processing power.

 

[james__bean]

You don't get bitperfect output with ASIO if the hardware is doing the resampling.

 

[thomase]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini Sorry, but no, it hasn't. Greetings from Hannover! Manfred / lini

So, when will it be lifted? Or is that fact covered by some kind of meta-NDA?

 

[necropimp]

where did some of the posts go? there are posts missing

and since i asked a question in one of those missing posts i have to ask it again

does anyone know if this x-ram feature is on anything but the top 2 models

 

[thomase]

Well, it says what is says, so the answer is no... until they come out with new packages.

Alternatively, if you don't wan't the I/O drive, but you do want X-RAM, maybe you can do a swap with cash to compensate or buy one of the top 2 models and sell off the I/O drive.

I agree they should have a 5th model that has X-RAM without the I/O drive.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomase I agree they should have a 5th model that has X-RAM without the I/O drive.

We suggested that too, when they were on press tour - but apparently they've decided against it for now. But what I'd like to see even more is the above with a more audiophile-oriented output stage and the remote control for some 179 Euro msrp. I think I'd buy one of those.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Actually, I'm not sure what's exactly covered by that nda - maybe I even sold my grandmother...

 

[thomase]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini We suggested that too, when they were on press tour - but apparently they've decided against it for now. But what I'd like to see even more is the above with a more audiophile-oriented output stage and the remote control for some 179 Euro msrp. I think I'd buy one of those. Greetings from Hannover! Manfred / lini P.S.: Actually, I'm not sure what's exactly covered by that nda - maybe I even sold my grandmother...

Will there be anything to prevent people from swapping XRAM and non-XRAM boards to get around this? Anything other than inconvenience of course...

 

[plyr]

I wonder if the higher model, the elite one, have some kind of amplification on the headfone, looking at the photo seems to be an 1/4 output for headfone...

 

[ken36]

Thanks for everyones opinion. I'm beginning to get this. I think.

 

[korben_dallas]

Instead of sharing an opinion, I'll just post some direct quotes from the Soundblaster website and let you decide for yourself.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products...audiocreation/

X-Fi's XtremeFidelity Engine provides a SRC so precise that even the highest quality DACs (rated at 118dB SNR) generate more noise! Delivering 100% transparent conversion at 135dB quality both up or down in resolution frees you from the constraints of having to be concerned about recording resolution versus final resolution! However X-Fi also delivers the flexibility to perform digital-matched recordings in all resolutions from 44.1kHz to 96kHz natively!


http://www.soundblaster.com/products...d-Benefits.asp

Sound Blaster X-Fi™ Elite Pro
Additional features for this product include:

* Easy connections to MI equipment, headphones and other audio devices with an External I/O Console
* Creative Professional DACs for even clearer playback quality


http://www.soundblaster.com/products...logy/xfiaudio/

With X-Fi Technology you decide how you want to use its immense processing power! When you want the most Xtreme gaming audio switch to 'Gaming Mode', when you want the most Xtreme music & movie audio entertainment switch to 'Entertainment Mode' and when you want the most Xtreme audio creation experience switch to 'Audio Creation Mode'.


http://www.soundblaster.com/products...nfo/eax5_3.asp

In previous versions of EAX®, developers could specify where, in a 360 degree space a particular sound should come from. The sound card would then map the sound to the correct position within the current speaker array. However, there was no way to specify a specific speaker, or combination of speakers that a sound should come from other than by using 3D positional coordinates.

With EAX® PurePath™, developers now have total control over exactly which speaker (or speakers) the sound should be played through. This is particularly useful, for instance, for controlling bass reproduction through the subwoofer for Low Frequency Enhancement.

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Excerpt from description:
Quote:

all your MP3 music and CD music can sound even better than the original studio recording.

I'm sold!

 

[Regus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jam_Master_J I'm sold!

In that case I have this formulae that can be yours for a mere $5000, it has to do with turning iron into gold using nothing but normal kitchen utensils

 

[deathBOB]

So unless I buy the really expensive one I get a crappy DAC? I am a big gamer so I will probably get one anyways...