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10
stars
Amazing Sound. The best soundcard ever!!!
by pet1700
on
September 1, 2005
Pros: Crisp highs, clear deep lows, awesome EAX effects, outstanding surround sound, $129 board is all you need
Cons: No X-Ram, other models overpriced for the same core product.
Summary: I used my Asus P4C800-E integrated 5.1 digital soundcard and thought it had great sound. I waited for the X-fi and bought it at Best Buy the other day. ...
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Summary: I used my Asus P4C800-E integrated 5.1 digital soundcard and thought it had great sound. I waited for the X-fi and bought it at Best Buy the other day. Installation was a breeze. The software package is great. Then I played my MP3s, and let me tell you, the sound that came out of my speakers was unbelievable. I never thought my Logitech 5.1 speakers could sound so clear and crisp. All the instruments in the music were rendered precisely. This soundcard made me realize that my speakers are actually pretty good, and the sound quality was strictly related to the soundcard. The games, especially new titles, will play smoother, and sound awesome. The card has three modes including one for gaming, entertainment, and music creation.
Bottom Line:
If you love to listen to music, watch movies, and play games. The $129 x-fi card will blow you away. This will probably be one of the best investments you made for your pc.
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8 out
of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
This sound card is well worth the money
by cowens677
on
January 29, 2006
Pros: makes even your worst mp3's sound unreal
Cons: I had to wait three week for it to come in
Summary: I have had this card for a week and it has been the best upgrade to my computer yet. It makes my worst sounding mp3's sound great. I would ...
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Summary: I have had this card for a week and it has been the best upgrade to my computer yet. It makes my worst sounding mp3's sound great. I would recommend this card to anyone that like to listen to music. Installation is easy and creative had one driver update that I installed after I loaded everything. I have had no problems with there software and I am running XP media Ed. Believe the hype and buy it!!
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2 out
of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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10
stars
Best sound card I've ever heard
by paulrkerzner
on
October 8, 2005
Pros: The highest quality sound available
Cons: None in my opinion
Summary: Sound blaster has done it again, they made a better product than the Audigy (1&2) series.
I have this card hooked up to an Altec-Lansing GT-5051 speakers and ...
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Summary: Sound blaster has done it again, they made a better product than the Audigy (1&2) series.
I have this card hooked up to an Altec-Lansing GT-5051 speakers and its just amazing. So crisp, bass is nice and smooth.
I am extremely saisfied with this card and would highly recommened it to any PC user.
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2 out
of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
Best upgrade decision I've made
by kevdogia
on
December 1, 2006
Pros: Incredible improvement in sound quality
Cons: Drivers and software add on to Windows startup
Summary: I consider myself an audio enthusiast and bit the dust and upgraded from my Audigy 2 to the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music when I noticed my local Best Buy clearing ...
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Summary: I consider myself an audio enthusiast and bit the dust and upgraded from my Audigy 2 to the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music when I noticed my local Best Buy clearing those out and replacing them with the cheaper (and inferior) X-Fi Xtreme AUDIO card.
After disabling all the audio enhancments (CMSS-3D, SVM, Crystallizer) all I can say is WOW! On pristine source material, CD's, lossless audio, DVD-A I noticed a HUGE improvement in sound over the Audigy 2 with my Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultras. The sound is much fuller, the bass has better definition and midrange has better detail. My computer system now sounds that much closer to my reference JBL/Yamaha/Denon home theater setup.
To be fair, the audio enhancement may improve sound on less than ideal audio sources and computer speakers but they only served to muddy or disorient the sound on my setup.
Highly recommended. HUGE improvement over the Audigy 2 (which in itself killed integrated audio) Would be nice if the drivers/software took up a smaller footprint in Windows XP but just a minor quibble. Snap these up while you still can.
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1 out
of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
Excellent product. Best ever? Probably.
by BruthamanQ
on
February 4, 2006
Pros: Ease of installation. Dynamite easy to use software package.
Cons: Price. But, actually, it's not too bad. SuperRip function is useless(for the average user).
Summary: Bought mine from BestBuy. $140.00 with tax. Lower prices online, but with shipping and having to wait, basically the same. The soundcard is connected to my AV receiver, connected ...
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Summary: Bought mine from BestBuy. $140.00 with tax. Lower prices online, but with shipping and having to wait, basically the same. The soundcard is connected to my AV receiver, connected to a 6.1 JBL outfit of speakers. These are not computer speakers. So the price of the card was nominal compared to my investment for the speakers. And worth it.
Simple to install. PC cover off. Slide card in. PC cover on. Software was an easy, albeit large(380 MB), install as well.
Software is excellent. It was what actually drew me to this product. Obviously, the product was going to perform well and that wasn't my concern. But making the product easy and a joy to use, now that's the key. One panel, very easy to use, organize, find & play all my music files, regardless of origin or type. I really love it.
Performance: A lot of talk going around that this product makes your low quality MP3s sound like CD quality. Well, uh, close, but not quite. That is not to say the sound is not excellent, because it is. Far better than the "digital" music channels on my cable box. But, it's not fair to compare a CD quality file to an MP3 file. I'll give you an example.
I ripped a music file using the SuperRip function (which seems to be nothing more than WMA lossless with some tweaking) and ripped the same file using the highest quality MP3 encoding the Creative software provided. SuperRip 164MB file 5475kbps. MP3 12MB file 320kbps.
I did this with 10 more songs from various CDs. I then had my friend play the SuperRip and the MP3 of the same song in varied sequences. Without watching what he was doing, I was able to correctly identify which file was which 100% of the time. However, when all 22 files were placed in a playlist and played at random, I was not able to consistenly identify whether the recording was the higher quality version or not. Truthfully, I was really just guessing.
I could not justify using 164MB of space on my hard drive for one song ... not when I can easily fit an entire CD (and more) in high quality MP3 format into the same space. So for me, the SuperRip function is very useless.
Overall, I love the product. Not quite CD quality, but fantastic fidelity out of a compressed music file and pretty hard to tell the difference. 9.5 out of 10 in my opinion.
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1 out
of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9
stars
audiophile quality
by zelmo
on
December 10, 2005
Pros: multi mode operation
Cons: they are spendy
Summary: Having used creative cards since the mid 80s I have always wanted sound that was as good as my music system could do, creative has finnally satisfied the audiophile in ...
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Summary: Having used creative cards since the mid 80s I have always wanted sound that was as good as my music system could do, creative has finnally satisfied the audiophile in me.
with 3 modes entertainment, games ans music creation with 24 bit crystalizer the recordings made from my lp collection is so good at 44.1k samplng that i am redoing the 1500 recordins don previously and then attack the other 2700 lp's in my collection
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1 out
of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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10
stars
Best Ever Sound Card At Decent Price
by croach
on
October 20, 2005
Pros: Excellent Sound Quality, Easy-To-Use Features, Easy To Install
Cons: NONE AT ALL - SERIOUSLY
Summary: The Best Sound Card available to the public.
Why would anyone still buy the Audigy Series when you can gey another card from the same brand that is 100x better....
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Summary: The Best Sound Card available to the public.
Why would anyone still buy the Audigy Series when you can gey another card from the same brand that is 100x better.
Updated
Very Much worth the $130 I spent for it the week it came out. One minor problem that i was a able to fix (once in a blue moon on strtup audio would be of poor quality but a restart would fix it, Creative relesaed a driver update and i have NO problems anymore). I would recommend ripping audio with Windows Media Player in WMA Lossless format, it is smaller than SuperRip files and bascily=quality. I have a Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX Certified Sound Sytem = Excellent Combination. As the available versions have changed since it came out I would recommend getting the Cheapest X-Fi card that IS THX Certified.
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1 out
of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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2
stars
Vista drivers
by mario50
on
March 30, 2007
Pros: no pos comments
Cons: does not works full with window vista
Summary: I got the sound bloaster X-FI extreme music ,i connected to it the spaekers X-530 logithech , sound card in windows vista have not thge software and the 5.1 works ...
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Summary: I got the sound bloaster X-FI extreme music ,i connected to it the spaekers X-530 logithech , sound card in windows vista have not thge software and the 5.1 works just as 2.1 consumer spend lot of maney fow having in the computer one rotten board.
Contacting Creative support is time waisted they do not know any think, the only help they give you advise to try to set up from control panel and insure the customer that the working software will be avaliable soon, but window vista is out since jenuary why creative did not prepare the drivers for it??and why Creative did not informd th custom that wants use windows vista?/
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10
stars
Superior product
by Toscane
on
January 12, 2007
Pros: Best possible sound from a PC
Cons: Not enough inputs
Summary: If you listen to a lot of music stored on your PC, this card is a must. Whether you use all, some or none of the many special features this ...
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Summary: If you listen to a lot of music stored on your PC, this card is a must. Whether you use all, some or none of the many special features this card's software offers, the quality and fidelity of the sound is second to none and well worth the price of the card. BUT, there is no substitute for high bit rate. A 128 kps will NOT sound as good as 320 kps
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7
stars
Good card...once the kinks are worked out
by L0G1c
on
September 6, 2006
Pros: excellent sound, 24-bit crystallizer is neat, good value for money
Cons: lots of useless software, mode selector gets annoying after a day, known compatibilty issues
Summary: Now that I have the card working properly (which took a few frustrating hours and lots of scouring message forums) I can say I'm quite happy with it. I ...
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Summary: Now that I have the card working properly (which took a few frustrating hours and lots of scouring message forums) I can say I'm quite happy with it. I wasn't experiencing the crackling/popping most people complain about, but a "stuttering" when playing songs in iTunes. I first tried changing PCI slots, then updating drivers (including the beta), re-arranging my RAM, uninstalling bundled software...I tried everything. It was updating my BIOS that finally solved the problem. I'm running an Asus P4B533 mobo, P4 2.4 (@ 2.75GHz), Radeon 9600XT, 2Gb ram, 2 Seagate Barracudas, cheap 500w psu.
Hope this review helped out.
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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
