Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio - sound card

1 out of 10 - Abysmal
Poor excuse for a sound card
I purchased this sound card as an upgrade to my onboard sound. I read many reviews which eluded to the ...
I purchased this sound card as an upgrade to my onboard sound. I read many reviews which eluded to the fact it was poor for gamers but appeared to be fine for audio only applications. After installing the card and setting it for the highest resolution, the sound was worse than my onboard sound. The sound was muddy, compressed and not as clean as the onboard sound. After loading the software and going to Creative's site to update the software my computer crashed. I attempted to get support but the option was an e-mail with a response in 24 hours. This was not the experience I had hoped for. Luckily I purchased it from Newegg who allowed me to return the card. Bottom line is look at other cards! Read more
by mochandler (see profile) - February 19, 2008

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 comment posted to this opinion

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
The Best card for non audio-philes
This is certainly a very good card. It delivers (very) deep bass, high trebles, and makes my mp3s sound only ...
This is certainly a very good card. It delivers (very) deep bass, high trebles, and makes my mp3s sound only slightly better than the original sound file. Their sound enhancer claims that it can restore mp3s to above studio quality. It certainly will enhance the mp3 to a level where it sounds almost like a cd, but you can only hear this if you have a home theater system linked to your pc. It certainly does not restore mp3s to above studio quality. But it does do a very nice job in reproducing sound. The only real gripe I have with is that it just doesn't deliver the kind of sound that it promises. If you work for Creative and you are reading this, then I suggest that you persuade the marketing people to at least listen to the card before they write it up as revolutionary. Still, though great buy. Read more
by tekgek (see profile) - November 19, 2007

1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

1 out of 10 - Abysmal
Devastation in a Box
I had problems with my Audigy 2 popping and crackling constantly, and wanted to replace it with a simple sound ...
I had problems with my Audigy 2 popping and crackling constantly, and wanted to replace it with a simple sound card to play music.

Nothing fancy required - the machine it was going into was just a file server running WinXP. And I do mean "was".

Installing the card and running the installer made the system unbootable except in safe mode. I had a utility check and clean the registry and removed all references to any sound card; nothing. A wide variety of services that you'd expect to be working in Safe Mode weren't, so I had no network connectivity. Using MSconfig, I turned off every service. That didn't help. Even the repair installation wouldn't start successfully.

To add insult to injury, Creative's "award winning" tech support was totally ineffective. After nearly 2 and a half months I gave up on them and bought a new OS drive, some additional RAM and a Turtle Beach sound card.

I think that will solve the problem. Read more
by heavy_cavalry_sgt (see profile) - June 6, 2008