Sound Blaster X-Fi Audio Coming to Notebooks

Yeah, but you are perhaps ignoring is the non-gamer type of user (like me).
Who doesn't care about games, nor about a 1-5 FPS improvement, nor about EAX acceleration, nor about an extra 5% load on one of the cores of the CPU.

We just care about good music quality.

If the XFi has that, I'll take it.

If not, then I won't. It's as simple as that.

Edit: Note also that the card is marketed as "extreme audio' -- so it is not aimed at gaming. Granted, it's a marketing lie to say it's an XFi when the DSP is actually a much poorer one -- but I don't really care about that. I know it, ok, that doesn't mean too much. My question is only: is the sound quality good?

 

Is there any news of a possible US release date?

I just need a card I can plug a 5.1 system into and get surround sound for DVDs etc. as I am getting an m1330 which doesn't even have an SPDIF output...

 

So do I. I don't care about gaming quality, but they are touting FPS improvement, which seems odd.

This is yet to be seen.

Not really anything intensive, but the idea is to move away on-board processing to a hardware processor so you can improve the overall system load. We'll see how it holds up soon in tests.

Me too.

It's already out. I am waiting for mine to arrive on Monday so I can write the review.

 

Ah cool, I'll be waiting for the review . And by the way from where have you ordered it? And how much it costed you. Because I might order one too.

 

Go Go Gautam. I look forward to your review.

You're the same Gautam from OCF right?

 

Hurry with the review dude

 

Gautum? Have you been able to review it yet? I'm refreshing this page almost at an hourly base

 

I second that, although on Saturday I'm leaving on holiday so I won't be buying anything for a month. But it'll be nice to know how the card behaves.

 

this is out already? how good does the music sound

 

you can buy it in US from "best buy business" or from two more site (I have to look it up, let me know if you cant find it)

Im using this card for 1.5 month and sound is much better than internal sound card.
I tested with "Studio Headphones Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO"cost= $200.
I Plug it first to "Creative sound card" then to "Internal card" sound much better with creative, and if you have laptop with Dual core CPUs you won’t notice any differences in performance.

 

Nice to hear some positive feedback, and also that the CPU cost is not significant.

Gautam, where's the review you've been promising?

 

It's on the front page today.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3847

 

I read in specs that thhe X-Fi express card has optical audio output without the breakout/surround speaker module. This means you can plug a 3.5mm mini-to- toslink cable into the audio out to get optical audio (toslink) to a surround sound reciever (right?).

In the review posted by Gautam it states " speaker dock. This is unfortunately a separate purchase – undoubtedly a disappointment for those who would like a true surround sound set-up out of the box. The speaker dock is mysteriously not available online or in stores, but will provide true 4.1/5.1/7.1 support."

and.. " The X-Fi features support for 2.0/2.1 speakers and headphones without need for additional equipment. "

I just want it made clear that as I understand it, the 3.5mm audio output jack can be used with a 3.5mm-to-toslink(optical audio) cable to any reciever that supports optical audio input, and in such a setup you can get 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound without the external speaker connection box. A toslink/optical audio input is included on most modern surround sound recievers.

"Interfaces: 3.5 mm / TOS Link � 1 x audio - SPDIF "

according to the single newegg review so far "The sound card only features an optical/headphone out port as your only means for connecting to speakers, so unless your sound system has optical in, you can't get true 5.1/7.1 surround sound until you buy the breakout box."



I have a surround sound receiver with optical input that I would like to plug the x-fi express card into for 5.1 and 7.1 surround. You can also buy cheap toslink to 3.5mm Female-Male adpaters that snap on to existing toslink(optical audio) cables by the way. And you can also get a toslink-to-coaxial audio converter for about $13 online if you system only has digital coax input.

If I am mistaken with the above info please let me know. This functionality didn't seem to be revealed in the review, nor brought up much when people talk about the lack of the speaker box limitation in this thread.

 

Yup that's right. However, I don't know how many Computer speaker systems have optical in. Many (especially older ones) use analog connectors, using 3 3,5mm stereoplugs.

 

If you are looking for a pc surround system with dts support and optical + digital coaxial audio inputs, I've read that the Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker system is pretty nice. It runs about $290 however, which puts it closer to the cost of mid/low range home theatre surround systems "in a box".

My old S4 MidiLand 8200 v2.0 (an old discountinued pc surround system) used to have a small cheapo reciever included with it which had a single optical in and a single coax audio input - but I fried that receiver unit plugging it in with a weird power adapter a long time ago.

This creative DDTS-100 decoder looked like a nice solution for analog surround systems in the past but they stopped making them apparently:
http://sg.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=136&product=9468

So with older stuff like klipsch promedia 5.1 pc surround system you would need to buy a separate receiver unit for optical input. Klipsch was going to release one specifically for that system at one point long ago but it was scrapped - and I believe the entire promedia series is discountinued also.

For my home setup in one usage scenario I'm planning on hooking up the toslink audio from the x-fi expresscard to my onkyo surround sound reciever's optical in, while plugging my laptop's hdmi output into my television for the video output. I know hdmi can carry audio too but my surround system doesn't have hdmi input.

I still might get the speaker box someday (price depending) so that I'll have more options if I want to play some content off my laptop at someone else's house though.

I already ordered my x-fi express card from buy.com so I should be able to post what I think of the unit hands on with my setup in a few days.

 

Gautam:

I don't quite understand this (the italic statements).

Could you elaborate a bit on why benefits on headphones are smaller than on external speakers? (I'm not talking about 5.1 or 7.1, I presume you didn't either) I would normally expect, if the bass (or smth else) is improved in the externals, it should also be improved in headphones.

 

Has anyone had any problems using this with Vista? I just got Logitech's Z-5300e 5.1 surround speakers and I plan on getting the x-fi card. Just wanted to make sure there aren't any (major) issues with Vista.

 

There is ...if you have Vista you can't enable EAX in games with X-fi express card, only in XP.

 

Gautam
you can add to your review
cons: no EAX in Vista

 

For me that's ok, I plan on using this mostly for music and movies (I don't usually play games, and when I do they're strategy games). My main concern is that I have a pair of Logitech USB speakers that pop constantly, but they work fine on my girlfriend's laptop (she has XP).

 

... yet. There is no eax driver support in vista yet.

Creative driver and software support for vista is very bad across the board at this point. I am dealing with it with my fatality card in my desktop too.

There are some hacked/pre-released drivers of some sort for x-fi in vista located here:

http://www.youp-pax.org/viewthread.php?tid=362&extra=page%3D1&filter=0&ascdesc=ASC

or main link here: http://www.youp-pax.org/index.php

They installed fine on my dekstop with my fatality card so maybe they will work on the x-fi express card too. My express card won't be here for a few days so I can't test it yet.

According to that forum: "EAX 2.0+ are definitely working with ALchemy. But hardware acceleration does not as it's a lack of Windows Vista."

Alchemy http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/ALchemy for XFi/Home.aspx

 

I tried ALchemy already and it doesn't work with x-fi express card.

Let me know if you find solution.

 

link
www.bestbuybusiness.com/bbfb/en/US/...etail&showAddButton=true&productID=BB10769517


then go to DETAILS you will see

Processor / Memory : Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity

Processor:X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity?

 

I didn't follow the details but be aware that the DSP on the XFi notebook is not the XFi DSP. See here for the desktop card discussion: http://jimmyauw.com/2007/01/16/x-fi-extreme-audio-audigy-se/

I am not sure which DSP exactly is on the notebook version but I would assume something low-end, as well.

 

E.B.E. - maybe the headphone speakers can't provide as high quality sound as external speakers?

 

Not necessarily, you can have very good quality headphones, or mediocre speakers.

But the feeling I got from Gautam's review was that there was some inherent limitation in the quality of sound in headphones, which had to do with the XFi itself and not with the quality of the headphones.

I am interested in this because I would mainly use this card for headphones music listening.

 

So no popping at all?

 

I won't be able to post my experience with the x-fi notebook express card for awhile longer. My buy.com order arrived in a medium sized shipping sleeve. I opened the sleeve to find a simple reflective anti-static sleeve inside. Opening that anti-static sleeve I was surprised to find an x-fi DESKTOP card inside.

So buy.com screwed up my order even though it was obvious on every order form and confirmation that it was a notebook card. They emailed me an RMA return label but it is going to take weeks to get my money refunded.

In the meantime I just ordered from Dell instead. It cost me an extra $15 overall (I went with 2-day shipping + dell applies local tax), but hopefully I will get the item I actually ordered.

If anyone tries out the youp-pax driver and software with this card I'd like to know what you think. When mine arrives I plan on installing them as I have on my desktop.

http://www.youp-pax.org/viewthread.php?tid=362&extra=page=1&filter=0&ascdesc=ASC

 

I just got corresponded with Creative regarding the issue you have. There are two versions of this card for sale online but only one is the actual notebook card! Here's my correspondence:

nquiry Type: Product information
Product Purchased:
Detailed Description of Inquiry:

I want to get the X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook sound card. I would also like the docking module to go with it. I've been searching around for the best deal and I find that some websites are actually selling two models of the card. The first model 30SB082000000 costs around $50 and the second model 70SB071000000 costs around $75. None of the sites provide very much information on either model, just the generic specs that are listed everywhere. What is the difference between models?




Dear J,

Did you see the cards on buy.com? If so, they have the $50.00 card miss labeled, and we have tried to get them to change it. The cheaper card is actually a PCI-Express card, and is not for notebooks. The $75.00 card is the one that you would need for the notebook. Please contact us if you need any further assistance.
Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this email.
Best Regards ,
Allen N.
Direct Sales
Creative Labs Americas

 

Yes unfortunately it is labeled as the notebook expresscard. The only difference in the information is the buy.com part number and the price. This is what I ordered from them and it is how it showed up in my order and my confirmation email:

204851744
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook Sound Card - X-Fi -
ExpressCard/54 - 24bit - Sound Board - Plug-in Card

They did provide me with a return shipping label at least, but I was hoping to have the card this weekend to mess with (and I'm impatient). I also paid a bit extra on shipping some toslink cables from a different vendor because I figured the card would be here this weekend.

I now ordered from dell so should get the card sometime in the coming week. From dell with the 15% off notebook accessories going on at the moment the card is $58.65 + shipping +taxes, so I would avoid buy.com altogether if you can.

 

the optical ports are used for exactly what they say they are used for, an optical connection to speakers or a home theatre system using the much much better digital optical connection.

many quality 5.1 systems include optical connections, as do Apple laptops. great news for owners of systems like Z-5500 etc.

 

So are you saying that I would need to purchase some sort of digital to analog converter to use this with a klipsch promedia ultra 5.1 system? I'm pretty sure the klipsch doesnt have an optical in connector.

I couldnt just hook the klipsch system to the speaker docking module?..or could I?

 

Yes, but that's not included, so you need to buy that as well. You can try to find it online or order int directly from creative

 

Thats good. Im planning on buying a Dell 1520/vostro and the klipsch system at the same time. I currently have neither, so I'm just trying to make sure the 2 are compatible, figure out which card will link them the best, and figure out how im gonna set it all up in my dorm room (moving in in 3 weeks!).

I need to go confirm that the 1520/vostro has a 54 pcexpress slot now..

 

I have had the klipsch promedia 5.1 system for a long time. It sounds great, but it uses analog 3.5mm 'headphone' style pins instead of any digital inputs.

If I were you (not having purchased a surround system for your pc yet) I would look around at some other computer surround system reviews. There are better than the klipsch out now, and possibly with digital inputs which some of the logitech setups have I think.

There are also some good home theatre surround systems you can get for $400 or less that would have a lot more functionality than a pc speaker system. I have an onkyo surround system that wasn't too expensive.

If you had a digital input on your computer/home theater surround system you wouldn't need to get the creative speaker box, just a cheap 3.5mm to toslink(optical audio) cable for an all digital audio connection.

 

I got my x-fi express card in today. I won't be able to test it on my surround system until sometime tomorrow, and I won't really have a lot of free time at home for a few days unfortunately.

First impressions are good. The software installed painlessly on my vista machine. I did however get a blue screen the first time I tried to hotplug it before I installed the drivers. This was while vista tried to auto detect and install drivers for it. Everything worked fine after I rebooted and installed the creative software (minus mediaplay which I skipped). The control software seems cool, and the card sounds good with the provided headphones. The crystallizer seems to help also.

I am looking forward to testing it with my home audio equipment though. I have a nice set of headphones, and a 7.1 home theater surround system with an optical input that I want to test it out on.

Aside from how nice it sounds its great just having my audio outputs on the side of my laptop instead of the front audio ports on the laptop's integrated audio. This was a major annoyance when I had my laptop on it's stand since the stand has a ridge on it to keep the laptop from sliding off which covered the integrated audio's front connectors.

 

Finally got around to hooking the x-fi expresscard up to my surround sound receiver's optical input using a spdif to toslink cable. I'm not having any luck so far though.

If I use my laptop's front spdif audio output and enable it as default, the integrated audio works fine that way. However I bought the x-fi in order to use it's side port and superior audio instead, and can't seem to get it working.

I only see options for stereo sound output or headphone in the settings, and even those aren't working. In my audio playback panel in windows vista I have the following listed: my integrated audio speakers, my integrated audio SPDIF, SB xtreme audio notebook speakers(not plugged in), SB xtreme audio notebook speakers (working), and Digital Output Device (SPDIF) SB extreme audio notebook (working).

I assumed the last entry would do the trick if I set it as default but no luck so far. I'm going to mess with it a bit more to see if I can get sound on my receiver.

 

has anyone been able to use the optical out with a spdif to toslink cable to a surround recevier's optical input?

 

At first I thought that perhaps the spdif-out/optical out NOT showing up in the "jacks" section of the ENTERTAINMENT MODE panel might be due to something lacking in the vista drivers, but now I have a bad feeling that this card isn't going to function as an optical out to optical input. I hope all the 5.1 and 7.1 functionality isn't reserved for the analog speaker dock only. That would really suck. There would be no good reason for that.
My laptop came with a spdif out on the front of it which works with spdif to toslink(optical audio) cable with no problem. I would prefer to use the creative card in the same fashion. If the creative express card can't do that simple task its a piece of junk. I hope that doesn't end up being the case.

I'll keep trying to mess with it but any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Isn't S/PDIF diabled in vista? I know there were some issues with it.

 

I had the exact same experience, but I only paid 34.99 total (ordered while still backordered and got the google checkout discount) from buy.com so I thought I got the deal of the century only to find out they sent me that X-Fi Desktop card. I sent it back and tried to get them to send me the Notebook card for the same price but I'm still waiting to hear back from them, I highly doubt they'll comply but it's worth a try. In the mean time, I just ordered it from Dell. My Dell 1420 notebook built-in soundcard seems to have some audio problems (skipping & slight distortion) so I'm hoping this X-Fi card will solve that issue while taking a little load off the cpu. I also hate how the headphone jack on the 1420 are right in the front so I have the speaker cable wrapping all the way around the laptop. It's worth the $65 just to move the audio output to the side of the laptop and have glitch free sound even if the performance is just mediocre.

To use the "crystallizer" do you have to use Creatives media player or will that also work with iTunes and other media players. I find it hard to believe software can improve the sound of compressed audio files (mp3/aac) but if it can, I'm all for it.

 

The crystalizer is an overall effect like EAX effects or using an equalizer (or like surround modes on a surround sound system like "hall, cathedral, etc").
So the crystalizer effect should work on anything played. I was enabling/disabling it while I listened to an mp3 on winamp when I tested it out.

My schedule has been busier than normal so I haven't had as much time as I'd have liked to play with the sound card since I got it. When the spdif optical output wouldn't work last night that really stalled out my testing of it too.

Spdif output is a known bug in vista? Did you mean spdif output is a problem in vista patricular to the x-fi expresscard's drivers so far? I hope that is the case and some update down the line will fix it. As it is now I can't even find the notebook card in the support section of creative's site, and creative auto update doesnt work in vista. I guess I have to suffer that for being an early adopter.
Fyi I use spdif optical output from my desktop fata1ity sound card's 5.25" bay in vista without any problems. I have also used the spdif optical output on the front of my laptop with its integrated audio (C-media sound) without any problems (other than the jack location and lack of creative labs enhanced sound of course).

The only other thing I can think of is maybe trying the youp-pax.org drivers. which I am using on my desktop's fatality card. However the expresscard's software seems very specific to it unlike desktop cards so it might be risky to install anything other than drivers, or the youp-pax drivers at all.

Thanks again for info.

 

Oh. I know I've read something about microsoft diabling S/PDIF output in some cases, but I can't remembere where. It was months and months ago, anyways.

 

This is a copy of my post from the creative forums which covers much of what I already said in this thread, with a few details added:
------------------------------------------

I have the x-fi notebook express card which I am using in an hp notebook with windows vista. I can not get the optical output to work. I have a 3.5mm mini to toslink (optical audio) cable.

In the creative console launcher and creative audio console I see no surround sound options. I only have 2.1 speaker and headphones as available output options.

In the sound panel in windows control panel, in addition to "Speakers - SB Xtreme Audio Notebook- Working" there is a "Digital Output Device (SPDIF) SB Xtreme Audio Notebook(Vista) -Working" listed. When I set the SPDIF listing to default and run an audio application I can see the volume level bar next to that listing in the sound options going up and down with the music but no sound is output over the toslink(optical audio) cable to my surround sound receiver.

I'd also like to point out that my notebook computer has its own 3.5mm spdif output with its integrated Conexant HD audio. This spdif out works fine in vista, so this is NOT a limitation of vista - its is a problem with creative - the fact that there are no surround or optical out options showing up in the creative console launcher and creative audio console should make that obvious. I would like to note that at one point I even disabled all of my integrated audio just in case, and the x-fi notebook card still would not supply audio over the optical output. I also reinstalled the x-fi notebook express drivers forcing the install application to run as administrator in case there were install hurdles it might overcome. I've also run the console applications as administrator (still no luck).

When I set the x-fi notebook card to headphone output it supplies sound to my headphones just fine. However I primarily bought the x-fi extreme notebook express card for the optical audio output to my surround sound receiver so I am very disappointed. I wanted my optical port to be on the side of the laptop with the expresscard instead of the front middle where my laptop's integrated 3.5mm spdif output is located - which gets covered when I put the laptop on either of my laptop stands, and is generally just a bad location for a wire.

The superior sound is nice but I don't want to be limited to headphones or have to buy the creative breakout box instead of being able to use a single optical audio cable.

I hope this is a driver issue that will be resolved in the not-too-distant future, otherwise I have wasted my money.

 

Any updates on this issue, if the xfi optical actually works then it seems it would be the best option to output sound to my z-5500s...

 

In the creative forums someone reported that the optical output works for them when they set the creative spdif output as the default in windows control panel sound options.
I have still had no luck with it and I've spent time trying a number of things in an attempt at getting it to work. I'm a computer savvy person too.

Here is a link to my post on the creative forum that I titled "x-fi notebook+vista=no optical out"

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=pcmciasb&message.id=3167&jump=true#M3167

 

I just thought I'd post some further research. I checked into the Entertainment Mode flash demo on creative's site here:
http://www.creative.com/products/soundblaster/howto/?c=2&t=1
I know the notebook card isn't the same as the desktop cards entertainment mode but I did find several things 'missing' whether intentionally or not:

The entertainment mode console on my x-fi expresscard installation is missing the dolby digital,dts, and the digital I/O icons and the panels that launch from those icons. These missing panels are where you set the card to external or internal decoder, dolby pro logic, dolby digital, etc.
The speakers panel in the entertainment mode console is missing any speaker settings other than 2.1 speakers and headphone. There is also no thx setup option.
These are all standard options on the desktop cards even when using digital output (toslink/optical audio cable). I use them on my desktop computer's x-fi fatality for example. For some reason these menus don't exist on my x-fi notebook expresscard's installation.

 

It looks like we all have the same problems, in way or another...

I was looking for sound cards for my laptop (Sony Vaio C1Z/B), but the I haven't find ExpressCard34 sound cards, only found CardBus and ExpressCard54.


Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook, it is a ExpressCard54, and as we can see in the image bellow it is 20 mm larger than ExpressCard34 but the connectors are the same, is possible to exist any type of extension so I can connect this Sound Card externally?

 

I think I'm going to shelve the x-fi express and get the turtle beach usb sound device called "audio advantage srm". It looks like it will do everything I want out of the box, has drivers for everything except vista64 so far(I run 32). It also includes 3.5mm mini-to-toslink adapters, and includes a 3x 3.5mm breakout adapter for analog audio 5.1/7.1.

 

Me too. I mean I've already given up the XFi option, and went for the Turtle Beach Amigo. Does exactly what I need (improve headphones output quality), protrudes as much in volume outside the notebook body as the XFi, and is much cheaper (with shipping to Europe it was 60 USD).

XFi seems to me too much of a rip-off to be worth buying. In other words, the price-to-useful-features ratio is way too high.

In fact I had wanted much earlier to go for this device, but Turtle Beach doesn;t ship to Europe. Now I had the possibility to buy it since I have a friend on a visit to US.

Edit (just to post some initial experience with this card although a bit offtopic):
Nice sound. On "flat" equalized however my old ASUS M6BNe's integrated sounds better. With the help of the equalizer I get better bass, but I think some color/artifacts (don't know the proper terms) are inserted by this card somewhere in the mediums/highs. I can hear something funny going on there.

I'll use it for my V6J where it does indeed improve on the integrated audio. Nothing spectacular though. Then again, I don't expect XFi to have been too spectacular, either.