Creative Launches Super X-Fi Amp

d8lock said:
I'm using it with an old receiver that lacks hdmi inputs, but has 8 channel analog. When it dies I will go the hdmi route.
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They're cheap enough if all you want is 7.1 PCM.

If you want more than that... prepare to pay :D.
 
KazeoHin said:
This isn't true. Humans only have two ears. We differentiate the angle of the sound beyond left and right by our brains decoding the attenuation and reverb of the sound after it interacts with our ears. If a set of purely stereo headphones were to modify the sound to provide the same audio modification the shape of our ears provide, there would be no discernible difference between them and a true multi-speaker set.
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So true.. virtual surround sound headphones are superior in every way to true surround multidriver gimmick cheapie headsets like razer and Asus.

On another note the sheer audio ineptitude is thick in this thread. Like extremely inept commentary.
 
Tiberian said:
I learned to adopt one basic truth about audio playback: if there's some circuitry in the path that alters what the original data contains, that means it's coloring the sound and I'm not interested in colored sound, ever. I've never been a fan of EQ circuits and I never use them. I don't fuck around with bass and treble adjustments, I never use them.

I hate any and all types of audio processing - recently I purchased a ThinkPad W541 workstation laptop and was quite pissed to discover they made it with that stupid dumbass useless "Dolby Audio" BS and I hate it with a fucking passion. It cannot be disable effectively - well, it can be disabled as in I click some software button and voila, the Dolby processing is not part of the path but the problem with that is that the audio signal itself drops almost 24 dB in power meaning even if I max out the audio volume controls it's still too damned quiet.

Of course, if I enable the Dolby processing BLAM, it's like a fucking explosion in terms of the sheer volume compared to it being disabled vs enabled, at any level of volume. The audio leveling thing that's part of the Dolby processing just maxes out the volume even if I set the main volume slider for the entire system to 10%, it's insanely loud and colored and tainted and I fucking despise it.

I wish companies would stop forcing stupid useless BS on end users. It's one reason why I sold that laptop for a nice profit relatively fast and went back to an older Dell Latitude that still has plain old audio output without any BS processing as all hardware should.

MANUFACTURERS: STOP DOING STUPID SHIT, YOU IDIOTS.
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Um wow... umm.. I'm not sure how to approach this mess
 
MrDeaf said:
Stop preordering products you don't even know are good or not.
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They got a best of CES show award from AVSForum.

https://www.avsforum.com/best-ces-2018-creative-super-x-fi-headphone-technology/

That’s good enough for me to pre-order at this price point. I was already somewhat in the market for a soundcard/amplifier upgrade, so that helps too.

I spend more time at avsforum than here. Much like if Kyle really loved some new piece of tech I’ve learned I can trust that sentiment, Mark Henninger from AVSForum review staff usually calls it as it is and he’s heard and reviewed LOTs of gear over the years.

Also the pre-order is just a reservation. It’s free to reserve. They will send an email out when they are ready to actually take payment.
 
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I’ve met Mark Henninger at a couple AVSforum g2gs. He’s a realist in the audio spectrum, making and owning DIY subwoofers and speakers, and is unafraid to promote potentially unpopular ideas like that inexpensive, competently designed, pro audio speakers are often better in real world use than high end, expensive, botique audiophile statement speakers with fancy cabinet work.

Any rate I asked Mark today how he would compare the Creative product to the $2000 Smyth Realizer A16 and this was his reply:

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/378-...dphone-technology.html#/topics/2949928?page=3


“Archaea, it is indeed intended to be a "Smyth Realizer Light" or whatever. I heard game clips and it was insanely effective. INSANE. Hope that helps.”
 
AlphaAtlas said:
Creative says they dumped about $100 million in R&D
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JunXaos said:
The whole website looks like an April fool joke.

“FRIGGING MIND-BLOWING” “MAGICAL!”
“IT JUST FLOORS YOU” “IT SOUNDED GLORIOUS”
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I'm starting to wonder how much of Creative's '$100m R&D budget' went to bribing influencers.
 
I've never been a fan of head phones because they were never comfortable for extended listening sessions. I always preferred a descent set of stereo speaker and a descent receiver.
It seems that most self described audiophiles prefer headphones now a days.
 
There are some salty motherf***ers in this thread. I will fully admit Creative has had some bad drivers in the past. However people are claiming predatory business practices, monopolistic behavior. All kinds of stuff. If you were speaking about Intel or Nvidia, hell even AMD, I would have an easier time understanding.

When did creative become this evil giant that worked to keep the "common man down"?
 
ChoGGi said:
When they screwed over Aureal and AdLib, and bought out Ensoniq and 3Dlabs probably.
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two sides to the "creative sucks" coin
User perspective is 1 side - they stop making new drivers for new operating systems for older cards that still work perfectly.
Vendor perspective side 2 - Creative is expected to support their oldest cards indefinitely because sound technology doesn't advance as fast as GPUs, or peripheral hardware? What other hardware company has to work under that model? Forever supporting old legacy devices that if you ever sunset them you cause an uproar in your customer base. I watched a video with Creative devs saying people get mad their 20 year old sound cards have been sunset from a driver perspective and go on the forums spouting hate.



Then there is the creative mis-advertising things for YEARS when it came to 5.1 DD live and the card's capabilities. Also their bloatware drivers - 300 MB drivers at a time when most drivers were a couple MBs and most people used very slow internet connections.

I'm no long time fan of creative - but if this thing is firing on all cylinders - it'll be really neat tech.
 
Tiberian said:
I learned to adopt one basic truth about audio playback: if there's some circuitry in the path that alters what the original data contains, that means it's coloring the sound and I'm not interested in colored sound, ever.
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Problem is, every electromechanical transducer I know of has non-linearity in its transfer function. So your speakers are coloring the sound.
But with the right electronic circuitry, you can pre-compensate using the inverse of the transducer's transfer function, and linearize the output of the speaker.
Would you object to that?
 
Went ahead and reserved. There is no financial commitment to it.

And look, I'm not happy about Creative's behavior in the past either, but I'm no longer salty about it. Ultimately, it was Microsoft who killed any innovation in the realm of hardware PC audio with Windows Vista, and everyone has had to develop workarounds ever since.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
They're cheap enough if all you want is 7.1 PCM.

If you want more than that... prepare to pay :D.
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More than that? Really? Like how many? Do studios even bother to mix everything properly? Please elaborate
 
dgz said:
More than that? Really? Like how many? Do studios even bother to mix everything properly? Please elaborate
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Think Atmos/DTS:X with sound mapping. I don't know when that'll get properly translated to PC games.
 
$100M on R&D... How is creative Labs still in business?

Their gear has just been snake oil since onboard soundcards actually stopped sucking.

Also, "surround" headphones are bunk. We hear audio in stereo, and quality stereo headphones can provide superior positional audio than every "surround" headphone set out there.

It's just gimmick after gimmick with creative. Maybe if they fixed driver issues that have been outstanding for more than 4 years, then they would be on my radar.

Instead they spend... $100M on garbage R&D...
 
Reserved as well. I loved my Aureal 3d back in the day, and even wore the free t-shirt that came with it. Hopefully a little of the magic will return for a modest financial commitment.
 
Yawn. More headphone crap. Wake me when they make a successor to the X-Fi Elite Pro. I guess I'm one of the few that actually used it for gaming, music creation, and listening.
 
reaper12 said:
I am sure he meant Humans only have two ears, not the strict definition of what stereo is.
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Regardless, just because we have two ears doesn't mean direct stereo forced into our ear canals is sufficient for us to determine position and distance of where the audio is coming from. We compensate for it by implicitly understanding general direction of which side the audio is coming from. Surround simulation software makes it better, but it is still too generalized. I think as VR becomes more ubiquitous that technology like this will become more important to create that immersion factor.
 
Armenius said:
Regardless, just because we have two ears doesn't mean direct stereo forced into our ear canals is sufficient for us to determine position and distance of where the audio is coming from.
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He never said that either. He just said that 5.1 headphones are gimmicks.
 
reaper12 said:
He never said that either. He just said that 5.1 headphones are gimmicks.
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He could have been more specific- which is why I didn't chime in at the time.

Because 5.1 (etc.) headphones are gimmicks, but surround headphones- when taken as stereo headphones with HRTF surround processing- are not, and are the golden standard. That processing can come from software or hardware anywhere in the chain of course.
 
The very article you cite states the following, which supports my position:

"
consumer home entertainment products designed to reproduce surround sound from stereo (two-speaker) headphones use HRTFs
"

As one of the examples of equipment using the very same method you cite.

illram said:
No.
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Armenius said:
And look, I'm not happy about Creative's behavior in the past either, but I'm no longer salty about it. Ultimately, it was Microsoft who killed any innovation in the realm of hardware PC audio with Windows Vista, and everyone has had to develop workarounds ever since.
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I'd have to find the source, but Microsoft stated they killed it because they were sick of blue screens appearing due to faulty soundcard drivers. So basically, you can bring the blame back around to Creative again. If they had rock solid drivers, there's a chance that never would have happened.
 
After a limited launch in Singapore, Creative's "Super X-Fi" headphone amplifier is finally coming to the US. Orders open at 12AM on November 1, and Creative says the amp will cost $165, including shipping and handling. As they said back in September, Creative thinks the new amplifier will be a revolution in 3D audio tech, and an ever increasing number of reviewers are coming away from demos with very positive impressions. Whether the actual product is as good as Creative's demo remains to be seen, but we'll find out soon enough. Thanks to mjz_5 for the tip.

We are proud to share that over 99% of folks who bought the SXFI AMP are very satisfied! This is way beyond my wildest dreams. Honestly, I would have been ecstatic if we had achieved anything close to 80%. For this we would like to say a big thank you to all our customers for their support. This is what the team has worked so hard for. To make your headphone experience sound as good as the real thing," said Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative Technology, and creator of Super X-Fi. "For the remaining less than 1%, I'm not giving up on winning them over. From the recent interactions in Singapore, we now understand their needs better. We believe we can scale Super X-Fi technology to suit them, while maintaining the magic."
 
Armenius said:
I didn't get a notification despite putting my name on the list...
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same here. I thought we were going to be e-mailed and get a bonus headphone set for signing up earlier like we did. Absent the bonus gift - are you still going to "pre-order".
 
SixFootDuo said:
I'm glad my personality and mind are not built that way. I would hate to think that I would get so mad to the point I would miss out on new exciting tech.
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Of course not, I bet you're also enjoying that shiny new 9900K and 2080TI provided to you by the top names in anticompetitive business practices.
 
Archaea said:
same here. I thought we were going to be e-mailed and get a bonus headphone set for signing up earlier like we did. Absent the bonus gift - are you still going to "pre-order".
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Probably not if I don't see an e-mail by tomorrow.
 
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