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Why settle for basic, built-in sound? Your music and movies deserve Xtreme Fidelity. Add the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card to your PC and turn your downloaded music into your own personal concert. Plus watch DVDs or downloaded videos with full cinematic surround sound.
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BUYER BEWARE, SB1040 / 70SB104000000 – NOT AN X-FI CHISET CARD, DECEPTIVE MARKETING,
Nice sound, optical in and out, cheap, BUT, as I later found out AFTER purchase, as I saw no disclaimer nor information indicating otherwise on any vendor sites nor the Creative Labs site, this is NOT a true X-FI chipset card, a cheap knock off branded as an X-FI.
It is my opinion this borders on deceptive marketing practices as an X-FI is an X-FI, and this is NOT an X-FI chipset card..
NOT AN X-FI CHIPSET CARD, BUYER BEWARE OF CREATIVE LABS
Creative Labs admitted to me this card is not an X-FI chipset card, and that it so-called “emulates” X-FI via software.
Yeah right, and if that is the case, a Ford Escort can “emulate” a LTD Crown Vic also…
SHAME ON YOU CREATIVE LABS.
My last purchae was an Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro which was not cheap, and I fully expected more only to be VERY disappointed that I got a cheap knockoff of an X-FI card that was misrepresented.
Does anyone else feel as if they have been misrepresented by this card not having an X-FI chipset on it while being marketed/represented as an X-FI product line offering?
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|Not what I had hoped for,
I ordered this sound card for its digital output toslink and claimed compatibility with windows vista. However, this card did not live up to my expectations at all. I had wanted to hook up the sound card to play through my audio receiver and 7.1 speaker setup in the living room. What they fail to tell you, except in the fine print, is that the digital SPDIF outputs only output Dolby 5.1 sound when you are playing DVDs. Otherwise, if you are playing MP3’s or other music files, it only outputs in stereo (and poor quality stereo at that). I then tried to go analog and connect the various output jacks to my receiver’s inputs. The sound quality was awful.
So I sent the card back.
This is in stark contrast to the old Soundblaster Extigy which I purchased years ago. It was able to output surround sould (including CMSS) through the digital connection to my receiver and sounded great. The problem is that I had to upgrade to Vista and Creative abandoned the Extigy, deeming it “End of Life”. I have since been unable to find a sound card which can provide its feature set for Vista.
Needless to say, I did not purchase another Soundblaster. I went with an alternative sound card with Dolby Digital Live output. It is still not as good as the Extigy because it doesn’t provide CMSS, but it’ll do for now.
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|Terrific sound and excellent value,
I purchased the PCI-e version of this card about a month ago when the built-in audio circuitry on my motherboard quit working. Sure wish I had done this sooner! Even though I had high-end sound on a top-of-the-line motherboard, the Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio Card was better – by several orders of magnitude. It was easy to install and configure. It did take some time, after loading its software, to download updates from the Internet. But, that will happen with any card. Frankly, I was happy it did it automatically as I hate hunting for drivers. Anyway, it has some nice config software although you may find, as I did, that it works just fine out of the box. I run a relatively inexpensive set of computer speakers with combined subwoofer — nothing fancy — and the sound is amazing. Much better than before. I now use this PC as a Windows Media Center PC, watching and recording TV, movies, pictures — you name it — in the Family Room. This card really rounds out the experience. I paid around $50 for the card on Amazon. I consider it a great value. There’s a reason why Creative Labs is still cranking out these boards even though motherboard manufacturers build audio in: the sound is BETTER! Upgrade from your motherboard card and hear the difference!
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