# Creative X-Fi Review **URL:** \ **Category:** random\ **Created:** [March 29, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745 "2006-03-29T17:49:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/1 "2006-03-29T17:49:42Z")
[http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/soundblaster\_xfi/index.shtml](http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/soundblaster_xfi/index.shtml) This is one of the best product reviews I have ever read! Unlike some of the other reviews for the X-Fi, Techspot compares what makes it different from previous generation of Audigy cards along with a detailed look at the new features šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![wizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wizard](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/wizard)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/2 "2006-03-29T18:28:54Z")
Iā€™ve had the Xtreme Music one for a while now (paired up with the Logitech Z-5500ā€™s) and I love it. :love: Thanks for sharing though. :thumb2: ---
**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/3 "2006-03-29T19:32:48Z")
I am considering getting a X-FI, but I would probably need to update my speaker set also if I really want to see any benefits. My current Audigy 2NX (External USB) is good, but the limited USB bandwidth and CPU overhead certainly donā€™t help for FPS games. ---
**Author:** ![Mik3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mik3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Mik3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/4 "2006-03-30T00:49:47Z")
Hey Kirupa! I have the X-Fi Platinum and I HIGHLY recommend it. Itā€™s amazing. Everything sounds amazingly clear, all frequencies come out very nicely and timed perfectly. (Absolutely no bass delay at all. This is something you donā€™t even realize until you listen to the actual card and find out that the whole time you had been listening to the music differently than how it was supposed to sound. šŸ˜‰ ) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Wheeler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@Jeff\_Wheeler](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Jeff_Wheeler)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/5 "2006-03-30T00:54:01Z")
Ha. Clever. :thumb: [whisper]I have no idea about sound-cards. Or really any hardware.[/whisper] ---
**Author:** ![Mik3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mik3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Mik3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/6 "2006-03-30T01:06:42Z")
[COLOR=ā€œGrayā€]Thatā€™s cause you got a beautiful sound card in your MacBook Pro you lucky dodohead. :D[/COLOR] ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Wheeler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@Jeff\_Wheeler](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Jeff_Wheeler)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/7 "2006-03-30T01:29:14Z")
[whisper]I did?[/whisper] ---
**Author:** ![wizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wizard](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/wizard)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/8 "2006-03-30T02:25:52Z")
> [@nokrev](#): > > [whisper]I did?[/whisper] [whisper]I donā€™t think so.[/whisper] ---
**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/9 "2006-03-30T04:02:30Z")
Iā€™m not a know-it-all for soundcards either. Whatā€™s the difference? Why get a $100+ soundcard? The one in my motherboard seems fine. What does a good soundcard support? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Wheeler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@Jeff\_Wheeler](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Jeff_Wheeler)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/10 "2006-03-30T04:03:35Z")
Yesā€¦ please explain! Iā€™m sure itā€™s got more to do than just with audio quality (that sentence suckedā€¦), but I donā€™t know what else there isā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:17am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/11 "2006-03-30T04:17:01Z")
^^^. Iā€™m not a gamer (which a lot of soundcard reviews tend to focus on), and donā€™t know a single thing they are talking about in that review. What are all the benchmarks of soundcards? More specifically for music playback? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![kirupa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/kirupa/32/11616_2.png) [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/12 "2006-03-30T04:42:48Z")
Good soundcards reduce the amount of sound data your main CPU processes. For the most part, you also get better sound quality (better signal to noise stuff, etc.). The X-Fiā€™s also provide built-in encoding for Dolby Digital and other popular movie formats. If you donā€™t play games or watch movies on your comp, the sound card does not matter that much. Whether the extra $100+ is good for music is entirely up to how much of a music fanatic you are. Finally, you might even be better off with better quality speakers instead of a sound card investment. :mu: ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Wheeler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@Jeff\_Wheeler](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Jeff_Wheeler)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/13 "2006-03-30T04:44:44Z")
Ah, thanks. I guess I wonā€™t be needing one. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Mik3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mik3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Mik3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/14 "2006-03-30T04:45:32Z")
This card does a good job at outputting a very wide range of sounds, from very high to very low and it does this clearly and at very, very precise timing. Benchmarks for soundcards will be complex and hard to understand. What I would recommend is simply trying to listen to one. ---
**Author:** ![wizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wizard](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/wizard)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/15 "2006-03-30T04:52:12Z")
I donā€™t do any gaming on my PC, either; which is why I went with the cheapest X-Fi. I got it for music (since I got rid of my stereo) - I donā€™t want to upgrade soundcards (imo the least important add-on) for at least four or five years. And I also wanted one that would compliment my PC speaker system. And I wonā€™t be satisfied with on-board audio! Ever! :pirate3: As far as the benchmarks go, I couldnā€™t tell you what most of them mean - All I know is that I can optomize my soundcardā€™s settings to make my speakers go boom. :trout: Plus, the volume panel kinda matches my speakerā€™s ā€œcontrol center.ā€ :beam: eh? eh? For me, that was reson enoughā€¦ ā€¦ kidding of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mik3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mik3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Mik3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/16 "2006-03-30T04:56:23Z")
Haha, I got the Platinum one because I wanted MIDI operations. šŸ™‚ X-Fi is wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/17 "2006-03-30T06:20:06Z")
Ah so no sound card for me then. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BoonDock](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/boondock/32/1188_2.png) [@BoonDock](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/BoonDock)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/18 "2006-03-30T17:15:25Z")
Yeah when I build my new comp. come November this year or soā€¦Iā€™ll get an X-Fi Iā€™ve been looking into them for some time now. :thumb: ---
**Author:** ![Mik3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mik3](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Mik3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/creative-x-fi-review/183745/19 "2006-03-30T23:37:32Z")
> [@kirupa](#): > > Good soundcards reduce the amount of sound data your main CPU processes. For the most part, you also get better sound quality (better signal to noise stuff, etc.). The X-Fiā€™s also provide built-in encoding for Dolby Digital and other popular movie formats. > > If you donā€™t play games or watch movies on your comp, the sound card does not matter that much. Whether the extra $100+ is good for music is entirely up to how much of a music fanatic you are. Finally, you might even be better off with better quality speakers instead of a sound card investment. > > :mu: Oh yeah, thatā€™s true. I should mention that I listen to music almost constantly, it plays when I sleep and the moment I get home. My favorite part of the X-Fi is the 24bit Crystallizer. šŸ˜ƒ