Sound Blaster X-Fi Audio Coming to Notebooks

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Creative X-Fi for notebooks!

Yes it is true, the world’s best sound card for desktop PC’s, the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi, is going to be available for notebooks. Here are some pictures of this sound card that may be an interesting accessory for mobile gamers or for real music lovers.

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The card itself uses the Express Card slot to plug-in to a notebook. At the back we can find ports named &quot;Optical Out&quot; and &quot;Optical In&quot;. I am not sure what these ports are utlized for exactly, but we will find out soon. For everyone that uses the Audigy 2 ZS and wants the Express Card version of it, meet the next generation!

Information on the Sound Blaster X-Fi experience can be found on Creative's site here.

 

I can't wait to get that. Always wanted to get the ZS card but thought its so old now and still costs so much over here £90 and can't help to think that surely the next-gen is just around the corner so I decided to wait and here it is!! Very good news for me.

 

Does this mean there will be a PCI Express version as well? Or is this using the USB part of ExpressCard?

 

I guess this means that Creative has sorted out the latency issues they were having with ExpressCard.

 

Pretty nifty. I am guessing the optical in and optical out will serve the same purpose as they do on the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS notebook sound card.

 

FINALLY! I am so excited. I will now be able to get a new notebook without sacrificing good sound....I knew this would come out, and glad the announcement has been made.

 

what kind of price are we looking at in the uk? your right about that sylonien about the price...jus hoping that its not over priced like the ps3 is in the uk! IM so ANTI-UK when it comes to prices

 

Neato, thanks for the post. Looks like I found the first accessory for my next notebook.

 

Cool ~ wonder if they'll have a trade in program for users with their previous pcmcia card version.

 

i wonder if it require a driver and if its compatible with vista...

 

too bad creative drivers SUCK!
maybe they'll work properly in vista by 2008....

 

Probably not...but we can always hope...

Yes, and Yes (to both questions). A driver is mandatory so that the hardware can interface with the software. It will most certainly be compatible with Vista.

 

Seems like it's gonna be massively expensive, though. Doubt I'll be able to afford one; I'll just put a Soundblaster on my desktop

 

"the world’s best sound card for desktop PC’s"

You have got to be kidding, right? Unless you are talking about gaming stuff, then this card is as mediocre as other Creative's offering. Best cards in the world will start around $700.00+ and reach far into the four-digit figures, such as RME HDSP, MOTU 828, and many other.

Creative cards are good for gamers who want hw-accelerated EAX (which is nothing to brag home to start with--when EAX was introduced A3D was far superior, but Creative did the MSFT approach to such problems; they simply bought out the competitor and killed the project in favor of EAX).

As far as what is "optical i/o" for, this is a digital connection for input and output. This allows you to connect two digital-I/O-capable devices without (theoretically) any signal quality loss between the two. That being said, this feature in and of itself means absolutely nothing as other factors determine its quality, such as highest possible sampling rate, bitrate (don't mix this one with mp3 bitrate which is something completely different) and perhaps most importantly A/D and D/A converter quality which also translates into signal-to-noise ratio.

Is this card cool? Maybe. It certainly should be useful for those who are stuck with expresscard-only-laptop (although duel systems is now apparently selling expresscard-to-pcmcia adaptor which includes cardbus support and runs for ~$100). But World's best soundcard? Not even by a longshot.

Best wishes,

Ico

 

Finally, an expresscard soundcard! Regardless of whether it's the world's best or not, it should beat laptop onboard sound by miles. I just hope it's not like $300 or something.

 

Wow, I cant wait for that to come out in stores. Anyone want to fathom a guess as to how much its gunna cost?

 

I hope that it is a good supported card with good drivers. It would be great if the price will be under 100$. Max. 120$. I also hope that it has a good processor in it to calculate sound itself.

Thanks for the complimants by the way.

-Notebook Solutions

 

big news , i don't think i will replace my audigy 2 zs unless they have some sort of step-up program though.

 

sounds good...hope they sell at something reasonable 100-120max

 

You guys do realize that the Vista sound drivers suck because *Microsoft* removed *all* support for hardware accelerated sound from Vista, right?

If you're going to complain, go complain to Microsoft for *removing* a feature from the new OS that they spent 5 years developing.

Yup, DirectSound and the 3D hardware acceleration that many games used through it is not supported in Vista - it's been replaced by the XACT software sound system used on the XBox 360. Anyone familiar with the sound issues in Supreme Commander knows what a POS XACT is.

The only way to do hardware accelerated sound in Vista is with OpenAL, which not many games used until now...

Good explanation of the issues here = http://pc.ign.com/articles/759/759538p1.html. I call bull**** on the "sound causes Windows to crash" issue, though - I have NEVER had a sound driver crash Windows (well, once, but that was a hardware issue with the PCI controller on a KT266 chipset board) in all the time I have been using XP.
Yay for MS using their monopoly power to put another company out of business/destroy the usefulness of their products.

 

I don't get that connector? Is that that Express thing? Don't get how it looks when plugged in...? Or is that a standard PCMCIA?

 

You mean the connector for the external thing? It just plugs into the middle of the x-fi device, its an adapter for 5.1/7.1 speaker/headphone systems. Basically the only reason you should buy this kind of sound card in the first place

They did, where'd you find this? I believe you i just want to read it.

Just like they tried to stop OpenGL from being used as well I believe. Its really kind of weak that they are allowed to do this, government should step in =/

 

http://pc.ign.com/articles/759/759538p1.html

 

Would I be able to connect your console sound system to this and output it to me 5.1 speakers, like a pssthrough?

 

Probably not. I would guess in the low$ 100 USD range.

Remember that we aren't talking audiophile quality anything. This unit just improves the sound when compared to onboard sound. Don't expect anything remarkable or stunning.

Yes, it's an EC 54 card, I guess. It will definitely consume the entirety of the Expresscard slot. It is not PCMCIA. The Audigy Soundblaster 2ZS is the PCMCIA card which is currently out.

No, you won't be able to. It defeats the whole point of the ExpressCard interface, or any interfacing with the notebook at all. If you want to connect your console sound system to 5.1/7.1 speakers, there are existing alternatives out there for you.

 

A Definite buy for me if its under $100 max $120.

So would this Card be better than the Audigy 2 ZS one?

 

X-Fi > Audigy

 

I would expect the price to be at least 100$ for sure because of how expensive those express cards devices are, and the x-fi itself for desktop costs at 100$ minimum.

Having a x-fi desktop here I don't see much better sound when using a regular cheap headphone. sound quality is only superb when combine with a good quality set of speakers or headphone. Something like bose headphone or a THX certified speakers...weee!

But expect some power drain using this card

 

When is Creative releasing some official information about this card? There is nothing on there website or what-so-ever!

 

Yeah, you are right. Nothing on the Creative site at all. Not even a press release.

I am really excited about this release (because it means I can finally think about getting a new notebook that has ExpressCard). I did a bit of google work, and there really isn't any word on release. Hopefully end of this year?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/24/creatives-sound-blaster-x-fi-gets-expresscard-makeover/

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6604

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp#19

The last one ironically links back to this page....

 

It's ridiculous that there is no official report from Creative! I E-mailed the guys from the online shop and technical support about 2 months ago, because I wanted to buy the Audigy 2 notebook and did not want a new card to come out in the near future. Both parties replied negatively, and 'suddenly' the X-fi ExpressCard slot version shows up...

At the moment I do have the Audigy 2 notebook.

 

It is an honour to see DailyTech and Engadget linking to Notebookreview for this. Now it is time to wait for Creative

 

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripher...treme-audio-notebook-from-creative-258899.php

Late may it should be available for about $100! Still, nothing from Creative...

 

Here's a link I found buried in that article:

http://translate.google.com/transla...me.asp?pid=12740&langpair=ja|en&hl=en&ie=UTF8

(From Creative's Japanese web site).

Nyceis

 

I am almost certain that this P.O.S. does not have the EMU20K1 chip and therefore no EAX 5.0, No hardware acceleration for games just like the X-FI extreme audio!

Audigy 2 ZS notebook > X-Fi xtreme notebook.

As u can see on the website it doe not state EAX support anywhere either.

Was hoping to get a zs type card for my xpresscard laptop but this piece of junk is not better than my ONBOARD.

 

You know, you may be right. It says this:

"Optimum use: Music appreciation and movie appreciation"

What the heck? Who would buy this for music?

 

well guys before u buy creative card for vista.i strongly suggest you guys go to see the creative official forum.they are very poor in customer support.
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs?region=CLA&ws=http://sg.creative.com

 

Sticks out a bit more than I'd like, but I guess it can't be helped.

 

Me. And me. I'm not into games at all.

 

Guys before you buy any creative product. Just know this story: The case and the headphone plastic attachment snaped off my audigy 2 zs after only 3 months with it. And now they want a minimum of $45 to get it repaired. It doesnt even cost them that much to make it . Now just because i cant get the cheap plastic cover to go back on and the cheap plastic headphone connector to go into the metal prongs it is rendered completely useless.

I swore never to buy a creative product again (this happened 2 weeks ago), ill post pics of the problem if anyone wants to see.

Basically their warranty covers nothing and they want $45 (INITIALLY) not including the shipping and handling which I have to pay. To repair a card I bought for $90. All because i forgot to take my headphones out when standing up . This is how cheap the product is and I was so shocked when I found out warranty wouldnt cover it and how much I had to pay just for them to LOOK at it.

Keep this in mind when buying a creative product. And or dont buy a creative product and make me happy =/
Also the message they gave me when I asked for Vista drivers was "we dont support vista". Not only that there is no sound/hardware acceleration in Vista which will render this product useless. But they can fool you if you let them!

 

for $45 you can purchase a new one.

I would take it up with the Credit Card Company if your card has an extended warranty.

 

Creative's site seems to now show the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook card on it's website. But there is no mention of EAX support :/

 

Swear I read it somewhere that it does support EAX just not that HD audio stuff. I'm very annoyed that it won't fit my laptops express card slot. What are we suppose to do?!

 

External sound card like the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX?? Unless I hear something about the X-Fi having EAX support I'd go with the Audigy 2 NX.

Edit:
I've been reading dx10 doesn't support hardware EAX, only OpenAL, and (not sure how reliable the source is) it seems that Creative Labs is working on a driver. "The new driver will intercept DirectSound 3D calls and translate them into OpenAL on the fly, thus allowing the Creative X-Fi to work its magic. Therefore, all games that are coded with EAX support will continue to play with it enabled on Windows Vista."

 

Well according to Creative's website it does fully support Vista, not sure how. But thing is I don't really want the Audigy2 cause its old stuff now. I want the X-Fi Crystalizer feature - sounds cool, heard it before.

Minimum System Requirements

* Microsoft® Windows Vista™ or Windows XP (Service Pack 2, x64 or Media Center Edition)
* 1.66GHz Intel® Pentium® M, Intel CoreTM, AMD TurionTM or equivalent
* 256MB RAM (512MB for Windows Vista) <---
* 600MB of free hard disk space
* Available ExpressCard/54 slot
* CD/DVD-ROM drive

 

Just saw on Creative's site, that driver is actually the ALchemy 3d audio restoration software.

Quote from Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme site: The Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio is the ideal sound card for music and movies. For gaming, please consider the other Sound Blaster X-Fi products.
I'm guessing that there is no difference between the Desktop version and the Notebook version.

 

No THX and EAX support? So what is it better than a Audigy 2 ZS notebook??

 

Hey it's already out in Japan:
http://jp.store.creative.com/products/product.aspx?catid=1&pid=16642

 

That's about ~$100 USD for it.

 

But is it better or worse than a Audigy 2 ZS notebook which has EAX and THX? (nevermind the THX though, I'm more interested in real quality...)