[swatx]

maybe they are in awe that creative actualy got it right this time!?

 

[K271 Guy]

not bad,but for "real" glitter graphics watch my tutorial!

 

[YW_Slayer]

Or maybe no-one really cares, and those who have it are enjoying it?

How many X-Fis have you heard, BTW?

 

[sanne]

I think the general consensus is that if you are a gamer and want decent SQ from your music as well, this card will do the job nicely. Of course it's not going to satisfy most of us audiophiles here on headfi, but that's not it's intended market (at least not the cheaper ones). It doesn't seem to me as if the EMU 0404/1212 cards are going to be knocked off anytime soon.

 

[skiguy411]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orubasarot What did Creative get right? A flood of sellout reviews by self proclaimed audiophiles who's idea of sound quality is a smiley face EQ curve and virtual surround sound on headphones with two drivers? This card does nothing to justify it's price. You're paying for gimmicks, 3D MIDI? A 24bit crystalizer that multiplies arbitrary numbers by 256 and adds effects? Super Rip? "The X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D features allow you to "SuperRip" CDs into Xtreme Fidelity quality so you can now enjoy permanently enhanced music instead of low-quality MP3 files!" ... uhhh

Ah yes, the typical Audiophile elitiest. Bashing a product that they haven't even heard. You automatically assume because its marketed, it must be crap. Now is the X-fi crap? It could be, but I haven't heard it so I will reserve my judgment until then.

 

[K271 Guy]

This is amazing! Wonderful to see and hear Afghan students, and find out how the project is going. So heartwarming to see that you are making such a positive impact. You are right: this makes the world so much smaller, and understandable. Well done!

 

[Soundstorm]

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...tive-x-fi.html

The truth about Crystalizer has been exposed.

Quote:

In practice, it took me less than a minute to figure out what Crystalizer really was. This technology is similar to what we have seen in Intel with its HDA, in the bundled Intel Audio Studio. Indeed, a record is remastered by a well-known mastering plug-in called "multiband compressor". Just to make sure I was 100% correct, I compared Crystalizer with three mastering multiband compressors: Waves LinMB, iZotope Ozone, Steinberg MultiBand Compressor. These plugins changed the audio character similar to Crystalizer.

Quote:

Our measurements showed that besides the multiband compression, the signal level is raised approximately by 3 dB. So that any quiet records would seem subjectively better even without the compressor.

Ahhh, the old trick, "LOUDER is BETTER".

Quote:

24-bit Crystalizer technology has a right to life, but the way this technology is announced with a portion of wishful thinking is disappointing. In reality, Crystalizer does not expand, but narrows down the dynamic range. It really uses 24 bits, but this is done only to avoid the rounding error accumulation (it's normal practice, no modern DSP works in the same resolution as the original data).

Marketing lies and hype exposed as fraud. Will we see a new class action lawsuit in the future? Time will tell.

These are the people that sold the Audigy and claimed it was "24bit 96KHz" on the boxes.

 

[halcyon]

Somehow I'm not so surprised

Then again, many people consider dynamically compressed music to be "more dynamic" (in their own words), so I guess we got just what we deserve

All in all, not a bad card (sans the silly screen-sized drivers and marketing lies), but the prices need be slashed into half.

 

[net_dos]

What the heck is floppy power used for?

 

[Jodiuh]

Yeah, I'm not usin the floppy connector and nothing in the printed material led me to believe I needed it...

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orubasarot I don't see a reason to purchase this card at all, it's terribly overpriced. If you want an accurate response, you go with the 0404. If you want gaming environment effects and 5.1 you go for cards that cost a fraction of X-Fi's price. I also can't believe the crystalizer hasn't been laughed out of Head-Fi yet.

I agree 100%, I don't think it can be laughed out until it is taken seriously in the first place, which it hasn't. Nobody who is interested in serious audio would consider this soundcard, or their previous audigy line of cards.

It looks like it has some cool new features for gamers, which is their core market, I see nothing wrong with adding more 'features' to their soundcards, but honestly, at the price they are charging, its not worth it.

 

[YW_Slayer]

Come on, it's just a sound card (like a lot of others) which is backed by marketing (admittedly more than others).

"Worthwhile features" to some of you are totally worthless to a lot of us. And vice versa. You don't even expect it to be an "audiophile" card, so why come into this thread and razz on a product that some people have spent their money on? Some of you remind me of "comic book guy" from The Simpsons.

----

On another note, it's not out in Hong Kong yet. And Geforce 6800GT prices STILL haven't dropped! Ridiculous.

 

[sanne]

well they are charging $400 for their top of the line card, which is certainly marketed towards the audiophile crowd.

 

[YW_Slayer]

Only to some extent, but some people here are complaining about the $130 one too. It's just a basic card that's really aimed at gamers, not audiophiles. The top-end one I see as more of a versatile home audio card - if I bought it I wouldn't need my guitar amp anymore or something, right?

 

[Stangs55]

I just got off the phone w/Creative and they've said that they are not taking orders on any of the 4 X-Fi cards right now (even though the Xtrememusic and Platinum can be found at any Best Buy ). When asked about when they would actually be available to order or at retail locations, he told me "I think the beginning of September."

/sigh