What is so great about the new sound blaster X-Fi? 24-bit? etc.

[DJ-CHRIS]

People usually relate any change in sound as good too, so EQ tricks most people

 

[HAVOC]

People usually relate any change in sound as good too, so EQ tricks most people

EQ tricks most people? Like David Blaine? Or what?

What does that mean dude?

 

[EricB]

After listening to some X-Fi demos, Im pretty disappointed. You guys should check it out also.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/demo/

On the movie demo, It sounds like when you turn on the 3D mode all it does is that it turns up the volume a bit, when you leave it on off mode all you have to do is turn up the volume and it pretty much sound the same as when you turn on the 3D mode.

In gaming mode, with 3D off the footstep, gun shoot, and glass sounds loud and clear. With 3D on, it seems to Dull out the high freq. sound and reduce overall volume, It actually sounds alot worst with 3D mode on.

In music mode, with 24-bit mode on all it seems to do is adjust the mid-upper freq. a bit down and raise the higher and low freq. up a bit so it make some instruments stand out a bit more than others which can be adjusted easily with windows media player free equalizer. That is about it.

overall, after listen to these demos, I dont think it worth going out and spend a new hundred dollars for something like this, not a big improvement and downgrading gaming sound alot.

lets have you guys listen to the demos, and leave some comments!

an equilizer circuit. is It worth $500.00 No

 

[HAVOC]

an equilizer circuit. is It worth $500.00 No

Uh? ok. The whole sound card is an equalizer circuit. That's it. PCB board with one freakin' circuit on it.

Dude... READ THE FREAKIN' INFORMATION ON THE BLASTED WEBSITE!
HERE!!! http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/

I don't lose my cool too often but some of these boneheaded comments are really annoying.

I spent time typing out a logical, honest and true review of my thoughts and experiences with the "x-fi" card. Answering a question someone asked. Is it worth it. I believe after using it, reading about it and seeing what potential it has with future software that it is.

You guys are so against it? Why?

"Creative is good at marketing, EQ's trick people..." - DJ-CHRIS
"A $500 equalizer circuit?"-EricB

When you guys actually have first hand experience using, testing and documenting what a product can and can't do... If it's worth it or not... then your ideals will be valid. Until then... It's just plain Opinion.

 

[EricB]

Uh? ok. The whole sound card is an equalizer circuit. That's it. PCB board with one freakin' circuit on it.

Dude... READ THE FREAKIN' INFORMATION ON THE BLASTED WEBSITE!
HERE!!! http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/

I don't lose my cool too often but some of these boneheaded comments are really annoying.

I spent time typing out a logical, honest and true review of my thoughts and experiences with the "x-fi" card. Answering a question someone asked. Is it worth it. I believe after using it, reading about it and seeing what potential it has with future software that it is.

You guys are so against it? Why?

"Creative is good at marketing, EQ's trick people..." - DJ-CHRIS
"A $500 equalizer circuit?"-EricB

When you guys actually have first hand experience using, testing and documenting what a product can and can't do... If it's worth it or not... then your ideals will be valid. Until then... It's just plain Opinion.

watch this. DJ chris, now I know that me and you have had disagreements in the past about sound cards (they were valid arguments too) but... I bet you will agree with this


this guy obviously know nothing about audio.

there is no magic trick to make mp3 sound like cd audio. now you can equalize the mess out of something and get it to sound halfway decent, but that Sound Card would have to be a magician's sound card to make mp3 sound like the original cd.

I don't need to test the card. My advance knowledge of audio is good enough. only magic (not a sound card) can do what you think the X-fi soundcard is doing

Now research Audio before you say something to embarrass yourself. no sound card could ever replace that lost data used to compress that mp3.

Like I originally said, the X-fi is an really expensive EQ circuit. I can get a eq, with time delay and a expander compressor to do the exact same thing

You guys are so against it? Why?

Dj Chris. tell him what soundcards that I like.

fellas, save your money by encoding to 320 kbps AAC and use a regular soundcard

 

[Jamil]

Maxim Liadov reviewed the X-Fi card and wrote a detailed article describing it. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Both parts 1 and 2 go into a lot of detail of the crystalizer, and part 2 has feedback from Creative Labs about it. It's good information about its claims and what it actually does.

 

[EricB]

Let take what some bias people (they have an interest in selling the product so they will say anything) have wrote

Creative's 24-Bit Crystalizer is best understood as a signal-dependent, dynamic EQ.The source of its intelligence is an analysis front end that continuously calculates dynamically-normalized, separate low-frequency and high-frequency energy flux signals, based on nonlinear processing of the input audio streams.These two flux signals are used to apply proportionally-weighted, transient, low-frequency and high-frequency boosts to the input audio.

The careful design of the front-end analysis and the proportional response of the dynamic EQ are both critical to allowing audio signals to be perceptibly altered without introducing objectionable processing-induced artifacts. There is also an additional static component to the EQ, which contributes to the overall perceptual effect.

It is difficult to determine from the limited description in your article precisely what testing you attempted to perform. In one test, it appears that you ran a standard sine wave through our 24-bit Crystalizer process and compared it to Waves LinMB. This is fundamentally flawed in that the content provided (a test tone) does not trigger the majority of the enhancement process. Basically there are no dynamics or transients to enhance, and the only enhancement you see (which your test highlighted) is the static increase in low and high frequency response.

Taken as a whole, the 24-bit Crystalizer processing has the effect of selectively enhancing transients, independent of their absolute level, while leaving the bulk of the audio (i.e., the mid range of the spectrum) unaltered. This is significantly different from what would result from a multiband compressor (which would literally compress the dynamic range) and also from what would happen with a multiband expander (whose effect would still be signal-level dependent in a way that the 24-bit Crystalizer is not).

In the end, the extent to which the 24-bit Crystalizer achieves its goal (of partially compensating for the limited 16-bit dynamic range of CD audio) is a matter of subjective assessment.

It is certainly possible to find sound examples and/or listeners for which the results are not satisfying. For this reason we implemented this technology in a flexible way.We allow users who listen to very high-quality content to reduce or even to turn off the enhancement should they so desire. Meanwhile, others who listen to lower-quality content, or to specific types of music that 24-bit Crystalizer works well with, can increase the level of enhancement.

Creative's experience to date is that actual listener response has been overwhelmingly positive in the general user market.

This does not mean that the 24-bit Crystalizer can literally transform the bits in a CD (or, even more challenging, MP3) audio stream into those that would be found on a corresponding DVD-Audio recording (and we have not made any such claim).However, it does -- in our view -- validate our claim that we perceptibly "improve" legacy audio through the application of innovative and well-motivated, proprietary signal processing. This is the basis of our claim that 24-bit Crystalizer (when combined with our X-Fi CMSS-3D technology) can make MP3 music sound better than CD.

now once you decipher past the bias, what does it say.

that's it's an eq circuit.

I have a lexicon cp-2 (1200.00) to listen to my music through. now lexicon make some of the world best signal processors (way better than creative), but they will never claim to make magic though their work, even though the resulting sound of their product will have you think they did work magic

that's what creative is trying to do. Make you think that they have worked magic. they are taking advantage of most people's ignorance of audio to make unrealistic claims. it seems to be working

 

[HAVOC]

watch this. DJ chris, now I know that me and you have had disagreements in the past about sound cards (they were valid arguments too) but... I bet you will agree with this


this guy obviously know nothing about audio.

there is no magic trick to make mp3 sound like cd audio. now you can equalize the mess out of something and get it to sound halfway decent, but that Sound Card would have to be a magician's sound card to make mp3 sound like the original cd.

I don't need to test the card. My advance knowledge of audio is good enough. only magic (not a sound card) can do what you think the X-fi soundcard is doing

Now research Audio before you say something to embarrass yourself. no sound card could ever replace that lost data used to compress that mp3.

Like I originally said, the X-fi is an really expensive EQ circuit. I can get a eq, with time delay and a expander compressor to do the exact same thing



Dj Chris. tell him what soundcards that I like.

fellas, save your money by encoding to 320 kbps AAC and use a regular soundcard

Allow me to tell you where you can stick your advanced "knowledge" of audio...

I said, "It makes low quality MP3's sound like CD-AUDIO" Keywords..."SOUNDS LIKE" I didn't say, "It takes MP3's and MAKES them CD-AUDIO." Did I? No I don't beleive I did...

We are talking about "DESKTOP AUDIO SOUNDCARDS". For PC's... There's no need to have ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE IN AUDIO TECHNOLOGY to know what audio sounds good to my freakin' human ears. You also don't need ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE IN AUDIO TECHNOLOGY to read a list of features that a soundcard supports or gives you, then decide if those features are features that suite your needs.

You two "you know whom you are" self proclaimed experts in the field of "ungodly audio" need to realize that you might be .05% of this worlds, "audio experts" that need your own "acceptable" bran ds or equipment. That's great for you. But, the rest of us whom don't fall into your "elite audiophile" group are just looking for something that sounds good and is something we can use and afford.

"DJ-CHRIS" tell him what soundcards i like."

I really don't care what you like. Buy up all the EMU or M-AUDIO cards you want. The high-end ones are extremely expensive. I'm not going to sit here and say, "They aren't worth it man..." Because they are for certain people. Like you "Elite Audiophiles". And that's great...

"This guy knows nothing about AUDIO."

What do I need to know for a PC that is used to play videogames, play MP3's and watch DVD's? I need to have an advanced audio knowledge and a master degree in music theory? Dude, give me a break. Save your pompous "I know more then you" high school attitude for someone else.

I really hope a MOD locks this thread soon...

 

[EricB]

Allow me to tell you where you can stick your advanced "knowledge" of audio...

We are talking about "DESKTOP AUDIO SOUNDCARDS". For PC's... There's no need to have ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE IN AUDIO TECHNOLOGY to know what audio sounds good to my freakin' human ears. You also don't need ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE IN AUDIO TECHNOLOGY to read a list of features that a soundcard supports or gives you, then decide if those features are features that suite your needs.

You two "you know whom you are" self proclaimed experts in the field of "ungodly audio" need to realize that you might be .05% of this worlds, "audio experts" that need your own "acceptable" bran ds or equipment. That's great for you. But, the rest of us whom don't fall into your "elite audiophile" group are just looking for something that sounds good and is something we can use and afford.

"DJ-CHRIS" tell him what soundcards i like."

I really don't care what you like. Buy up all the EMU pr MAUDIO cards you want. The high-end ones are extremely expensive. I'm not going to sit here and say, "They aren't worth it man..." Because they are for certain people. Like you "Elite Audiophiles". And that's great...

"This guy knows nothing about AUDIO."

What do I need to know for a PC that is used to play videogames, play MP3's and watch DVD's? I need to have an advanced audio knowledge and a master degree in music theory? Dude, give me a break. Save your pompus "I know more then you" high school attitude for someone else.

I really hope a MOD locks this thread soon...

OK I just wanted you to hear from a third party. I like Creative Soundblaster's card. that what me and dj chris were arguing about.
he know audio. there's no need to get mad. I just learn years ago to not to believe everything that you read


you were the one to insinuate that I didn't know what I was talking about when I said the the X-fi card was an expensive eq circuit that costs 500 bucks. you can damn near get the sound (even better sound) for free with software

 

[HAVOC]

you can damn near get the sound (even better sound) for free with software

And I'm sure that software is free? Right?

Dude, I'm not going to continue this flame war about AUDIO. I posted in my original thread that I have x-fi, I like it, I even listed some of the features that I liked. I even said, "I didn't think it was the best card out there."

You, started with your, "Advanced Audio Knowledge" jargon and your this guy doesn't know anything about audio slander.

I'm done with this thread.