Sound Blaster X-Fi: First Impressions

[Gospel]

Hi all,

I just got my X-Fi Platinum sound card. Below are my first

impressions of this card. First, let me explain where I am

coming. from. I am visually impaired so I do have extremely

good hearing. I'm a little more than a casual music

listener. I have 4,500+ songs in iTunes. My tastes are

mostly gospel music and oldies with some modern stuff though like some

new age and nature themes as well as limited select of current

music. I enjoy DVDs, audiobooks, and watch TV via the

computer. So, my experience is only with the X-Fi's Entertainment

mode. I also have a set of Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1

speakers.

Installing the X-Fi hardware was very easy. However, installing

the software seems to take forever! Instead of a smoothly moving

progress bar, it jumps after each section of the install process.

This makes one think the installer may be stuck. The Audigy2

Drive that fits in a CD bay looks identical to the X-Fi Drive except

the X-Fi does not have a firewire connector. It is probably

possible to use the Audigy 2 Drive with the X-Fi Extreme Music model to

make it into an X-Fi Platinum. But, no guarrentee it will

work. I am NOT going to try it and take a chance of damaging the

X-Fi card. The X-Fi ribbon cable does fit the Audigy 2 Drive

though.

So far, I think the X-Fi does sound much better than the previous

Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. It seems a little more full and smoother. This mixer controls and various other control

panels are now integrated into one window with a toolbar to select the desired

panel. In each panel you have to click on a [back] button to get back to the toolbar.

The 24bit Cryistalizer seems to help make sounds crisper and less muted

at times. So, for now, I am going to leave this feature on.

The X-Fi has two CMSS-3D modes: Stereo Xpand and Stereo Surround.

Both seem to be good at making good use of the center speaker for

centered sounds In Xpand mode it puts echos/reverb in the back

speakers like you are in a large room. You can control the amount of

the effect in the rear speakers. The Surround mode, of couse,

copies the front speaker sound to the rear speakers. Again, you

can control the volume of the the sound int he rear speakers via the

CMSS-3D control panel. Personally, I prefer to be surround by

music. However, CMSS does not seem to affect the Aux-In

input. I have a WinTV tuner atached to it and the center speaker

Is just a blend of what is playing on the side speakers. The same

is true for the Line-In.

The Sound Volume Monitor automatically levels out the sound volume of

what is playing to keep it at an even level when enabled.

Personally, I like this. But, if you are a classical music

listener than you probably want to turn off this feature so you can

hear the high and lows volume-wise. I'll be leaving this feature

on. It is nice for TV watching becasue some of the cable

stations like the SciFi Channel have less volume than the netowrks like

ABC and CBS. Now, I don't need to adjust the volume when

switching between these channels.

Initially, the only annoyance is that I can not unmute both the Line-In

on the back and the internal Aux card inputs at the same time.

Unlike the Augigy 2 which had 4 internal card inputs (TADS, CD Audio,

Aux, and CD Digital), the X-Fi has only one Aux connector. The

card does have a long internal connector for an optoin digital

break-out adaptor for SPIF-In and SPIF-out. Back to the two

inputs. I have a WinTV card connected to the internal Aux

connector. I have my internal 5.25 Plusdeck 2 cassette deck

player attached to the rear Line-In jack. Please, no snide

comments ont he cassette deck. Like I said, I like audiobooks.

The Plusdeck 2 has a reaf slot connector for the inputs and

outputs. Fortunately, the Plusdeck and Intervideo WinDVR software

both unmute the desired input when each respective app is

started. Normally, I won't be running both apps at the same time

anyways. But, the WinTV Radio app does not unmute the Aux input

so after running the Plusdeck software I will need to select Aux int he

X-Fi mixer. Clicking on [Mute] button in the radio app doesn't

mute/unmute the Aux input.

I am not commenting in the MediaSource software because I don't use

it. I use iTunes for music/audiobooks, WinDVD for movies, and

Windows Media Player for MIDI and WAV files.

Overall, I quite pleased with the X-Fi and am glad I got it.

Well, that is my first impression. I haven't seen a lot of the

details above in any reviews of the X-Fi. I hope this helps

ohters. Please feel free to ask any questions about the X-Fi

card. I'll try to help and I hope the other X-Fi owners will

chime in.

Enjoy life!

Steven

[Gospel]

OK, it has been a week since I installed the X-Fi card. Am I

still satisfied with this card? Definitely YES! As I

mentioned, there are some minior annoyances. 1) The XOR

relationship of Line-In and Auxilary muted/unmuted state. 2) I

have to turn off CMSS-3D when watcing DVD movies. Still, I have

not regrets getting the X-Fi card.

Enjoy life!

Steven

[cmay119]

I also own the X-Fi Platinum, and all I have to say is my PM 5.1Ultras

have never sounded this good. Beyond the annoyance of not being able to

get my S/PDIF Coaxial input to actually playback audio it's the best

sound card I have ever owned (this is coming from a Prodigy 7.1LT which

I still think sounds fantastic). That's all I have to say about it.

[sullysnet]

thanks for the review, I was confused about CMSS until I read your review and searched Creatives site. With my old Audigy I selected 5.1 for sound and it would play 4.1 for music then then watching a movie it would switch to 5.1... weird this one doesn't do that.

At first I would have to say I didn't feel the card was worth the money and was about to return it. I know it was a much cleaner and tighter sound but was lacking the volume and dynamics of my Audigy 1 card..... weird I was saying. Then I realized that the surround speakers where not even on. I am use to this mode and feel that I like to be surrounded by my music on the PC.

After messing with the CMSS setting I'm getting more of what I want

still testing ........

[TheEAR]

Creative's XFi lineup is a worthy one. I have two XFi and they do a great job in games and for music.