SojIrOu Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 Alright here it is. The Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic This box is solid and thick cardboard. I wonder why Creative spends so much on just a box? Anyway it does feel nice. Flip up the front cover and what do you get? Velcro? Honestly i thought i was just a simple flappy thing. Nice packaging touch again. Open up the box and this is what you get. 1 X-Fi, 1 X-Fi sticker to show off, 1 Installtion Envelope and 1 sticker for labelling (looks kind of cheap on the nice gold plated X-Fi so i just dumped it). X-Fi sticker. Its a thick piece of glossy rubber/plastic and has a protective sticker too. :laugh: Inside the installtion envelope is a quick start guide, installation cd and AOL cd? (hmm i wonder who can use it here) Anyway on to the main event. The X-Fi chip close up. Its supposed to be shiny but i couldn't capture that with my crappy camera. Hmm forgot to take one of the ports but its real standard. Just 1 flexijack (mic/line in/digital), 1 Front output, 1 Rear+side right output, 1 Center+Subwoofer+side left output and 1 midi port. Next post will encompass the cool freebie I got, installation problem and X-Fi audition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddcrap Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 Love the pictures.. but how does it sound? EDIT: Just saw the reserved reply's. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 1, 2005 Author Share Posted September 1, 2005 (edited) damn i took too long. so now i have to post again. to any mod : delete those "reserved posts" Alright before i go to the main part of the review here's the freebie i got from Creative. I think it was supposed to come with the X-Fi elite pro, fatality and platinum version only but ah well they gave it to me so i'm not complaining. Not sure how much it costs but its about $50-$70. HN-700 sound cancelling headphones Inside the box Laid out Headphones folded up It sounds really flat and crappy without the sound cancellation on but once i turn it on it gives a decent sound. The bass is not as powerful as my in-ears (MDR-EX71 & 81) but its there. The clarity is ok but not quite good enough by my below audiophile standards. Ah well it's free so who's to complain. :laugh: Ok now back to the real review. :) I'm gonna cover general music for now because i don't have the time to play games or movies. I might do a review with headphones now that i have a pair. :laugh: Problems When i installed the thing the com wouldn't boot up so i was thinking, "maybe the thing isn't seated fully" so i re-seated it but to no avail. Then without a sound card my graphics card start to screw up on me. ATI Catalyst kept on saying it could not control the card and it had to use software rendering. By then i was pretty bummed so i put in back in and presto it worked. Next came another problem. While installing the installer kept quitting with some error about the DEMO32 and quicktime. So for those with Quicktime 7 Preview 3 you have to uninstall it first then install the drivers. Once that's done then you install Quicktime again. Audtion This test was done on an Acoustic Energy Aego2 (low end audiophile speakers) and a Creative Inspire T7700 (cheap 7.1 surround). CMSS CMSS-3D Stereo Xpand mode makes the rear and side speakers softer to make the listener feel like they're "surrounded" with some effects applied (to emphasize the singer's voice) to the sound making it lose clarity. CMSS-3D Stereo Surround mode (i prefer this much more) mixes the stereo sound to all channels and with a little bit of sound effects (some volume or front/rear fading). For example in one song the guitar totally disappears from the front to the back and in some songs the front gets softer while playing. 24-bit Crystallizer With my rock songs (hide, X-Japan, some Linkin Park, Static X, Rammstein, Rob Zombie) the crystallizer enhances the bass drum considerably so you might want to use 25-40% of it. But bass in rock songs is good :D . The voice becomes too hollow and empty for my liking. Guitars sound ok but those with lots of distortion sound terrible. For pop (or jpop like Ayumi, BoA, Hikki, Hitomi, Do As Infinity, T.M. Revolution, Siam Shade, L`arc en ciel, anime songs) it sounds much better. The crystallizer does it job well here. The singer's voice becomes much clearer and most of the song in general. Also, hidden details are revealed just like the rock songs. Again the same problem persists as with rock songs. The bass gets real loud and overwhelms the rest of the instruments/vocals but that depends on the song. Finally classical/instrumental (don't have too many to listen to. London Symphony Orchestra Star Wars theme :laugh: and Taku Iwasaki) sound sharper generally and adds lots of presence because of the added bass and clarity. The bass doesn't become as bad as pop/rock songs so you can use 50% of the Crystallizer. As the general in the South Park movie said to Chef, "I don't listen to hip hop". Well not much anyway. So I can't do a test for that. There was some distortion in some of the music just now but it seems to be gone. So be wary. Next up games and headphone test. :) Edited September 1, 2005 by SojIrOu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 1, 2005 Author Share Posted September 1, 2005 ok now on to the headphone part of this review. oh yeah can a mod edit the bold and italicised part to spell "audition" instead of "audtion". Music What can i say. Do not turn on the CMSS-3D for music period. Under headphone mode the sound becomes muddy and distorted especially the low end. The crystallizer works fine in headphone mode but you have to turn it on pretty high (40%-100%) to hear any difference. However if you're using in-ear phones its easily noticeable. Other than that sound is pretty good. Gaming Just great my graphics card is crapping out on me. I'm getting artifacts and stuff all over. I couldn't get much gaming done but from my 5 minutes of testing the CMSS-3D i can tell it does work. you can actually hear things from different angles even though its a 2 channel headphone. But i'm not too sure how well it works cause of my limited time. Movies Played Pearl Harbour and it sounded fantastic on my headphones & in-ear phones. I can't play it on my speakers right now but i assume it'll sound even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starcom826 Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 Hmm it seems like theres a lot of problems to work out with that card with drivers and such... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 1, 2005 Author Share Posted September 1, 2005 (edited) I think for the most part the problems lied with my haste in installing the card. I must have knocked the graphics card or something. But after removing the card and reinstalling the drivers its fine again :D. The only problem that most people will face is the Quicktime 7 Preview 3 conflict with the Demo32 installer. Anyway I forgot to mention this but i discovered that if you use Game Mode the CMSS-3D doesn't fade or have any effects when using stereo surround. For those who like pure sound and don't want your sound to "move" use that mode. My guess is that since it's Game Mode the audio doesn't get touched as much as Entertainment Mode. I just did a real gaming test and it does work very well. In CS:Source i tried turning my back on my teammates while they were firing and walking and i could hear that they were behind me. So CMSS-3D + Headphones + Gaming/Movies = good. But music sounds horrible no matter in game mode or entertainment mode. Edited September 1, 2005 by SojIrOu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Joa Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 I love my x-fi card too :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fog Dogg Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Woah, nice review man. Can't wait 'till mine comes :D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Nice, I might get one in a few months maybe, after I hear more reviews and maybe when I can find it a bit cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oojaxxoo Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 i got these right after i got my logitech z-5500s in from that dell deal...and it sounds MUCH better than my old audigy 1 sound card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Is there a place for SPDIF on this card, something like on the Audigy 2 ZS, for times when I want to use that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrix XII Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 There are two higher end versions that have that :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahfunaki Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 (edited) Is there a place for SPDIF on this card, something like on the Audigy 2 ZS, for times when I want to use that? 586468733[/snapback] you have to get the platinum for the spdif, just like with the audigy 2 zs... I'm thinking about getting rid of my audigy 2 zs to get the x-fi platinum... we shall see... Edited September 2, 2005 by ahfunaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrix XII Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 or the x-fi fatal1ty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrald Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 I am running the Xtreme Music X-Fi on a pair of Klipsch Promedia 2.1's and I think it sounds so much better than my Audigy2. MP3's are crisper, clearer, and fuller. DVD's are amazing, and Battlefield 2 on high sound settings gave me shell shock after a few minutes of play. This card is definatly worth the upgrade money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 (edited) hmm here's the card in its full glory. For those who don't know the X-Fi XtremeMusic and Platinum come with a 16mb X-Ram Samsung chip but the fatality and elite pro come with a 64mb one. I was confused as to why there was a dimm above my X-Fi. As you can see on the top of the card there are 3 connectors. One for the External Connector (for the external I/O like the Elite Pro), one for AUX IN and one floppy power connector look alike. On the side there is a SPDIF I/O and the front panel connector. The floppy connector after some research is for the external connector that goes to the external I/O like the Elite Pro. Just when you thought this review is over i'm going to do some gaming and possibly squeeze a movie in with my freak show speaker system (2.1 + 5.1 from a 7.1 system) Edited September 2, 2005 by SojIrOu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted September 2, 2005 Global Moderator Share Posted September 2, 2005 I am running the Xtreme Music X-Fi on a pair of Klipsch Promedia 2.1's and I think it sounds so much better than my Audigy2. MP3's are crisper, clearer, and fuller. DVD's are amazing, and Battlefield 2 on high sound settings gave me shell shock after a few minutes of play. This card is definatly worth the upgrade money. 586468873[/snapback] thats exactly what i wanted to hear... i also have a pair of klipsch 2.1's and am about to upgrade to an X-Fi from my old old sblive! value :pinch: i cant wait i tell you what :happy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 Alright for gaming i couldn't notice much of a difference from my Audigy 2 ZS but its still good. As for DVDs with the crystallizer the sound is much sharper and the bass more pronounced so you get "bigger" sound. So all in all it works best in music, works good in movies and as for gaming it should unleash its full potential once games take advantage of the X-Ram and EAX 5 HD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted September 2, 2005 Global Moderator Share Posted September 2, 2005 do any games even take advantage of EAX 4 yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 Doom 3 has an EAX patch, Half Life 2 i'm sure has EAX, Battlefield 2, FEAR, Rome Total War, GTA:SA, CMR 05, Chronicles of Riddick, etc. i'm sure there are many more but we can't tell cause its not so prominent (they don't really put EAX4/EAX Advanced HD on the boxes). why don't you check it out EAX games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icecaveman Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Americas Army was one of the first games to use EAX 4, there are plenty now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 3, 2005 Author Share Posted September 3, 2005 Hmm just want to add some more stuff about the card after using it for a longer period of time. I think i'm really becoming addicted to the Crystallizer feature. It really improves music clarity. Right now i'm listening to it at 100% and lots of hidden details pop up from songs (in one song the cymbal disappears nearly completely without the Crystallizer). Although you can't possibly use 100% all the time because of some distortion (mostly from lower quality songs) and shrill sounds in certain songs. The high end may be slightly untolerable (in those cases lower Crystallizer effect to 50%) but who cares anyway. The sound is fantastic. :D Well that being said the Crystallizer isn't perfect. It may distort for certain songs that has lots of bass at 100%. I guess the best level to keep it at is 50% - 75%. Also I'd like to add that in my initial review the bass doesn't become all boomy and unpleasant (I prefer a rather neutral kind of sound) rather the thump becomes more solid so I said it was kind of overwhelming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason S. Global Moderator Posted September 3, 2005 Global Moderator Share Posted September 3, 2005 would you say the improvement is something genuine ... b/c all i can think of is creative just added like an equalizer preset to improve the sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koolslacker Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Thanks for the review. I need to get one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted September 3, 2005 Author Share Posted September 3, 2005 (edited) would you say the improvement is something genuine ... b/c all i can think of is creative just added like an equalizer preset to improve the sounds. 586474127[/snapback] hmm i'll go compare the winamp equalizer presets and the crystallizer right now edit: from what i can tell the equalizer (full bass and treble preset) in winamp makes the sound kind of artificial while the crystallizer (at 50% level) preserves the original sound of the music while enhancing the entire spectrum. Also the equalizer doesn't bring out the hidden details in songs nearly as well as the crystallizer hmm just realized i've been spelling crystallizer with two "L"s instead of one. ah well i can't help it i prefer two. Edited September 3, 2005 by SojIrOu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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