Creative's X-Fi

[Jelvis]

Does anyone know when x-fi will be released. Infact has anyone had a 'preview' of the card and experienced any difference or is it all a gimmic. Just interested so I dont make the wrong decision of buying a new soundcard now when I could wait for xfi.

 

[[D]Ghod]

been watching out for it, there's a dodgey news page here: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/

be aware the timer is when they release news not the card

tho the days tend to go up rather than down on occasion

they previewed the card at e3 2005, gamespot wrote a bit about it here: http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-S...2-1999-16-25-x

got to admit it sounds rather chipper

 

[fishtankfish]

what are we thinking the price will be for this? 400? 500?

 

[[D]Ghod]

i'm just thinking 'credit card'

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jelvis Does anyone know when x-fi will be released. Infact has anyone had a 'preview' of the card and experienced any difference or is it all a gimmic. Just interested so I dont make the wrong decision of buying a new soundcard now when I could wait for xfi.

Yes, I do - and yes, I do. But, unfortunately, I'm still under nda. *sigh* Whether you'd make the wrong decision, if you bought another card now, depends on what you actually want your card to do, though - however, I'd recommend you to wait for X-Fi in any case, which won't be that much of a long wait anymore...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

P.S.: Credit card impact will be quite modest, btw.

 

[chrisfromalbany]

I had heard it still isn't true 24-bit and to hold off..

 

[lini]

cfa: Well, then you either need a better hearing aid or you'd better listen to somebody else...

Grinnings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[sethk]

This is meant to replace the current Audigy2 ZS (entire line, eventually) so I am pretty sure there should be at least a couple of cards in the < $200 range.
If you read the detailed specs on the Creative website and elsewhere, it is certainly capable of multi-input/multi-output 24 bit sound (I believe 8 channels @ 192khz, 16 @ 96khz) as far as the DSP / mixer goes. The DACs are still external and will depend on the card. In fact a major 'feature' of the card (questionable from an audiophile perspective) is the 'high quality' multi-channel / positional 24/192 upsampling feature "crystalizer" which has had some good previews from non-audiophile sites, but isn't something I'm that excited about. Also interesting is the ability to run the "base" clock at multiples of both 44.1 and 48, so it should be possible to completely avoid resampling in at least some modes, or to have 24/172.4 sound, which is technically superior to 24/192 for upsampled red-book (CD) audio. The question is whether the consumer Creative branded cards will provide this ability (there is an ASIO mode.)
Depending on the DACs used, this card should have impressive specs.
I'm really waiting for the E-Mu branded X-Fi cards, they should be very impressive indeed.

 

[Distroyed]

There's no reason Creative cant give us the answer to all our prayers soundcard now. The technology is there, and they know what we hate about their products and what we love. They're just stringing everyone along, making as many substandard products as possible to keep people upgrading every few years before they *have* to release the hear-all end-all soundcard. If I were a giant corporation, I know I'd be inclined to do so. I'm sure there will be something wrong with this soundcard that will keep audiophiles buying more.

 

[Asmo]

All they need is a card that will have a bit perfect quality digital output, and audiophiles will be happy to use them with external dacs. I would like the gaming options of their cards. I don't think they will ever have a high quality analog output card, no reason too, the market isn't there. Just give us a perfect digital transport.

 

[skeeder]

nothing quite beats the Envy24 chipset on Soundcards. With Gigabyte having the AV710 for $24.50 on www.newegg.com To me the X-Fi is just the newer gen from Creative trying to get out of the audigy stage.

 

[lini]

skeeder: In terms of price/performance, those priceworthy Envy24-based models are indeed hard to beat. However, if you're looking on the higher-priced Envy24 implementations (> 100 Euro/US$), I dare predict they'll have a very hard time, as soon as the X-Fi cards will hit the market - as the latter have just so much more to offer in terms of features and processing power. Creative has made a huge step with this new generation, not only leaving some major design flaws of the past behind, but also offering more quality and useful features for every type of useage, be it gaming, home theater, music listening or sound creation/manipulation. I'm already decided to buy one for my home theater pc...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[D-EJ915]

MaximumPC had it in their latest "dream machine"

The "x-fi" is 24 times more powerful than the audigy series...

heh, 128 simultaneous 3D sound sources...

now this is dumb, it models your inputted voice during games for what kind of environment you're in...so if you're in the bathroom, it'll sound like you are physically talking in there. If I were chatting w/gaming that'd make me really mad really fast. It also says that the voice will appear to come from the character on the screen...haha, sweet.

 

[Predator88]

In the recent pcworld mag there was an add saying xifi on the 21st. Just in case anyone was wondering.

 

[cadobhuk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishtankfish what are we thinking the price will be for this? 400? 500?

A card aimed at general gamers audience cant be that expansive..Audigy 4 was $270+ but thats cuz it had the stupid external break out box,if it was just pci card alone it would probably cost like $150 or less.The new card would stay under $200 I'm sure,or else there will be VERY few gamers to buy it.99% of gamers are not audiophiles,their age is around 20 yo and their income incomes from busing in the restaraunt,delivering pizza or something else like that..